TREE
This piece imitates the life of a tree. From the initial falling of the seed, planting itself firmly into the ground, to the small sapling it becomes as it sprightly inches its way higher and higher. As the sapling matures, its growth slows. Its movements slow. A large trunk does not make for a spry tree. Finally, the tree reaches higher one last time to be even an inch closer to the sun, until it is no longer able to move. From here, it continues to remain at its post and drops another seed, continuing the cycle.
c. 6’ 00”
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This piece imitates the life of a tree. From the initial falling of the seed, planting itself firmly into the ground, to the small sapling it becomes as it sprightly inches its way higher and higher. As the sapling matures, its growth slows. Its movements slow. A large trunk does not make for a spry tree. Finally, the tree reaches higher one last time to be even an inch closer to the sun, until it is no longer able to move. From here, it continues to remain at its post and drops another seed, continuing the cycle.
c. 6’ 00”
Scroll down for more information
This piece imitates the life of a tree. From the initial falling of the seed, planting itself firmly into the ground, to the small sapling it becomes as it sprightly inches its way higher and higher. As the sapling matures, its growth slows. Its movements slow. A large trunk does not make for a spry tree. Finally, the tree reaches higher one last time to be even an inch closer to the sun, until it is no longer able to move. From here, it continues to remain at its post and drops another seed, continuing the cycle.
c. 6’ 00”
Scroll down for more information
Composer Note:
My initial objective was to write a piece for solo flute which will represent the life of a tree. I decided to challenge myself by creating limitations on this composition in the form of the Fibonacci numbers. Simply defined, any number in the Fibonacci sequence is found by adding the previous two numbers in the sequence. Any Fibonacci number divided by the number that came before it will yield a fraction which represents—but is not exactly—the “golden ratio”. This sequence and this ratio are found in nature: from the petals of a flower, to the leaves of a tree, to the fruitlets of a pineapple. Using the Fibonacci numbers, I mapped this composition into sections and limited each section to a Fibonacci-born set of five pitches. With these constraints in place, I wrote a flute solo that represents the life of a tree, from birth to rebirth.
This flute solo was premiered on 5 April 2022 in the Capistrano Concert Hall at California State University, Sacramento, beautifully performed by Dr. Cathie Apple.