The Sacredness of Trees
for 4-octave carillon (or 3-octave carillon)
’The Sacredness of Trees’ was commissioned by Nordic Music Days 2019 for Bodø Cathedral’s 4-octave carillon and the eminent Norwegian carillonneur Vegar Sandholt, to be performed on November 13, 2019 at the opening of the festival in Bodø, Norway. It was also performed each day of the festival (November 13-16), and was played simultaneously around the world, from 16 bell towers in Sweden, Denmark, usa, France, The Netherlands, Belgium and Australia!
The Bodø Cathedral carillon is a beautiful instrument, built in 2012 with 50 bells (a bit more than 4 octaves) which were cast at the Royal Eijsbouts bell foundry in Asten, the Netherlands, one of the oldest and most respected bell foundries in the world.
The commission from Nordic Music Days was based upon the festival theme of ’Truth’. Thinking about the bells themselves, the concept of Truth soon merged with my focus on the rich overtones of the bells. I came to think about the concept of overtones, and the fact that in English we some- times use the word ’overtone’ to denote something which is present or felt, without being stated. I started to think about the overtones of a bell – some very present, some barely audible – as that which expresses the bell’s true character. Maybe our outward presence in the world can be expressed
as our ’fundamental’, while our true, complex character is expressed by our own subtle, unique, felt-but-not-heard mix of natural harmonic and non-harmonic overtones? With these thoughts in mind, I built my new piece for Nordic Music Days upon the overtones of the deepest bell in the Bodø carillon. It is an exploration of the subtleties of inner truth (represen- ted by the complex overtones of the Bodø carillon), and the interaction
of that inner truth with the ’outer’ truth of the surrounding city and natural landscape.
For me, the natural world is an enormous source of truth, both in the un- folding of its natural laws and rhythms, and in its sheer natural beauty. But the truth of the natural world is not only beautiful: it also encompasses the destruction of our natural world, through (for example) the felling of old- growth forests. ’The Sacredness of Trees’ has become a call to respect and protect the world’s oldest forests, which are rapidly disappearing.
’The Sacredness of Trees’ was commissioned with support from Det norske komponistfondet (The Norwegian Composers’ Fund), and was nominated for the edvard-Prize in 2020.
Available for purchase from Norsk Musikforlag
