Wood Wide Web (2022)
Duration:
7’27”
Instrumentation:
5 to unlimted number of: Oboe(s), Viola(s), Horn(s) in F, Bassoon(s), Double-bass(es)
Programme Note
In every forest that is not too damaged, trees are connected to each other through underground fungal networks, called mycorrhizal networks. Trees share water and nutrients through the networks, and also use them to communicate. They send distress signals about drought and disease, and other trees alter their behavior when they receive these messages.
To communicate through the network, trees send chemical, hormonal and slow-pulsing electrical signals, which scientists are just beginning to decipher. A voltage-based signaling system appears strikingly similar to animal nervous systems .
Trees also communicate through the air, using pheromones and other scent signals.
When a giraffe starts chewing acacia leaves, the tree notices the injury and emits a distress signal in the form of ethylene gas. Upon detecting this gas, neighboring acacias start pumping tannins into their leaves. In large enough quantities these compounds can sicken or even kill large herbivores. Giraffes are aware of this, however, having evolved with acacias, and this is why they browse into the wind, so the warning gas doesn’t reach the trees ahead of them. Giraffes know that the trees are talking to one another.
When a deer is biting a branch, the tree brings defending chemicals to make the leaves taste bad. When a human breaks the branch with his hands, the tree knows the difference, and brings in substances to heal the wound.
Trees can detect scents through their leaves (a sense of smell). They also have a sense of taste. Can they hear music?
The piece is an attempt to talk to trees, a plug into the Wood Wide Web through Sound.
The score written for allcomers orchestra, where instead of rehearsal time people need to workshop their sounds. The score has alternative parts (easier and harder), and can be played by minimum of 5 instruments (any instruments). Sound Festival commission.