Keepers of the House
COMPOSER’S NOTE:
All of us had something that got us through the pandemic. My go to was running, and with the addition of my brand new AirPods, I discovered the joy of listening to podcasts. I’ve always felt an affinity for trees and been fascinated with chemistry, so imagine my excitement when I heard scientist Suzanne Simard interviewed on Fresh Air. She made some crazy statements, statements I’ve always secretly wanted to be true, but I had no reason to back it up. She declared that trees are "social creatures" that “communicate with each other in cooperative ways that hold lessons for all humans”. I ordered her book “The Mother Tree” , post-haste, and devoured it. I ordered the audio version which Ms Simard reads herself, and ran with it. Professor Simard has been working 30 years in the forests of the Canadian northwest and she has proven beyond any doubt, that trees are not simply sources of timber, but that they are social, cooperative creatures connected through vast underground networks not that different from our internet. They communicate through chemicals identical to our own transmitters, signals moving by ions across fungal membranes like our synapses. She has proven that trees care for each other, recognize their own, send warnings of parasites and diseases, and give of themselves to protect others.
To me, this sounded like a roadmap to the best our human societies can be. To think that forests are built on relationships and communication and the giving and receiving of vital nutrients and information. The stronger they are, the more resilient the system. Not only are these discoveries astounding, but these giant forests are cleaning the air, replenishing oxygen in our atmosphere* and shielding us from hot temperatures. And they’ve been here for centuries, quietly doing what they do.
About this time, I received an exciting joint commission to write a new piece for wind ensemble. What an opportunity to express this new knowledge with a plethora of powerful horns, unlimited percussion, the beauty of winds! It was the perfect subject for my piece, and as I thought about it, I imagined all the human activities these trees have witnessed. Many living more than hundreds of years, and some living thousands, they have been the silent watchers, the guardians of our lives. That’s when I decided to call the piece “Keepers of the House.”
My goal is that this piece is a powerful and intimate meditation on nature, science, and relationship. That it brings to each of you a compelling and personal interconnection with nature and with each other. As I wrote, I saw battles on horseback, I saw trees used to build homes, I felt the ways trees nurture each other and how these inseparable bonds enable all our survival. I hope in some small way, this piece can bring a heightened awakening to our relationships with the plant world, and though that, broaden our own relationship to life here on earth.
*One large tree produces enough oxygen in one day for four humans to breathe.