10 Pieces of Classical Music

Inspired by Trees
Updated on February 2, 2019

Frances Metcalfe first learnt to read music at the age of four and is a
retired peripatetic music teacher specialising in the violin.

Source

Way back in the Devonian period, between 416 and 358 million years ago,
the first trees emerged, dominated by Archeopteris.

After a flood in New York (a few hundred years ago), fossilised evidence of
ancient trees was discovered. Unfortunately, they were only the stumps
and it wasn't possible to work out how the tree would have looked. But, in
2004, another tree trunk and crown from the same area was able to offer
up more information on how it would have appeared. It was similar to a
large palm tree and probably reproduced by spreading spores.

It was the beginning of ecosystems as we know them. For the first time,
trees stored carbon, changing the soil composition and contributing to the
stability of the land. More importantly, the removal of carbon dioxide
allowed the emergence of a wide variety of creatures, and set the Earth on
the colonised pathway we are familiar with today.1

Ottorino Respighi 1879-1936

Photograph of Respighi in 1934. | Source

1 Respighi. The Pines of Rome

Divided into four movements Respighi's tone poem The Pines of Rome
depicts the Italian capital's distinguished umbrella pine trees at four
different settiings.

Respighi himself wrote detailed descriptions of each movement in order

that the elements he provided would be sensed by the performers.
The first visit is to The Pines of Villa Bogrhese. The orchestra bursts onto
the scene, full of boisterous children running about within the grounds
playing soldiers as trumpet clarions and military marches give the game
away.

Pines Near a Catacomb is predictably mysterious beginning with a dark,

almost earthy quality, gradually rising up as if emerging out of the network
of caves. The sedate tone almost mesmerises the listener and although this
is set in Rome, the eye is cast towards the Far East by the pentatonic
melody and crashes of gongs, before it recedes and descends back down
into the gloom of the catacombs.

After the of the caves a breath of fresh air is welcomed. At The Pines of the
Janiculum, the Janiculum being one of Rome's seven hills, the silvery
timbre of the strings illuminate the pines under moonlight. Respighi
controversially called for a recording of a nightingale to be played at the
end, at least in 1924 it had that effect2, but it joins in as a beautiful adjunct
to the movement.

From the first beat the heavy marching footsteps of the Roman army are a
constant as The Pines of the Appian Way throbs its way in splendour and
triumph. Unyielding and unceasing, the pine sentinels stand guard along
the route as the soldiers proudly enter Rome.
Johann Strauss II 1825-1899
Photograph taken in 1888 by August Eisenmenger. | Source

2 Johann Strauss II. Waltz: Tales of Vienna

Woods
It couldn't be more Viennese, this romp through the woods.

Rustic woodwind become charming birds. A ländler emphasises the rustic

character of the piece, a heavy three-beats-in-a-bar dance associated with
peasants. To complete the homespun feel Strauss brings the zither across
from the village to join the orchestra, playing solos in front of sophisticated
waltzers as they dance round a glitteringly chandeliered ballroom.

We even hear a series of shots as huntsmen take aim at some unfortunate

beast as Strauss waltzes his way amongst the trees on the outskirts of
Vienna.

The 500 acre Vienna Woods lie northwest of the Austrian capital and is a
UNESCO Biosphere reserve.

Guiseppe Verdi !813-1901

Photograph of Verdi in about 1866. | Source

3 Verdi Opera Giovanna d'Arco (Joan of Arc)

'Beneath an Oak She Appeared to Me'.
Most people, I believe, are aware of the remarkable story of the young
peasant girl Joan of Arc, who declared through visions that France should
attack the English at Orleans during the Hundred Years' War, with herself
at the helm. She dared to dress up in men's clothes (practically heretical at
the time, in the 1400s) and after being captured by the Burgundians who
had sided with the English, she was tried, found guilty and burned at the
stake.

In Verdi's version - the libretto provided by Temistocle Solera - the French

Charles VII declaims he has witnessed the Virgin Mary at an oak tree,
urging him to surrender his weapons.

The aria Sotto una quercia parvemi is unmistakable Verdi. Written for the
tenor voice, it begins with a dramatic declamation before moving forward
to melodious reflection supported by the violins, culminating with a small
cadenza showing off the tenor's fine vocal skills.

Franz Schubert 1797-1828

Watercolour of Schubert in 1825 | Source

4 Schubert. Winterreise: Der Lindenbaum

One of the greatest masters of the art of song, Schubert's Winterreise is at
the summit of all song cycles.

In all there are 24 songs, a melancholy travelogue of a spurned lover who is

trudging through snow to what is perhaps his death. The winter's journey
of the title is metaphorical as well as physical, a young man frozen out of
his former lover's heart.

Stopping by at the lime tree, the piano's rapid figuration illustrate the
rustling leaves, but it can also be interpreted as a character in its own right,
the piano acting the part of the tree. The ooh-ooooooh call at the end of
these fast triplets is the tree calling - the young man admits in the song he
is drawn to it by the sound of the quivering canopy. The young man tells
how he carved his feelings for his former love into the bark of such a tree.

As the music turns moodier, the traveller rues how he stumbled on another
Lindenbaum in the pitch black cold of night, the wind blasting his face.
Schubert returns to the major key, the outcast can still hear the trembling
leaves several hours later, agonises over it, then it fades away. His hat has
blown away, but there is no going back, even to retrieve it.

Unter den Linden is a famous boulevard in Berlin flanked with linden

trees. At one end is the Brandenburg Gate, at the other the Berlin Palace,
destroyed in the 1950s but currently being rebuilt.

Unter den Linden is a famous boulevard in Berlin flanked with linden

trees. At one end is the Brandenburg Gate, at the other the Berlin Palace,
destroyed in the 1950s but currently being rebuilt.

Albert Roussel
Photograph of Roussel in 1913. | Source

5 Roussel. Promenade Sentimentale en Forêt

The second of Rustiques, the opening walk is a leisurely stroll among the
leaf litter, soft and cushiony, before looking skyward to observe the gentle
movement of leaves. As the walker penetrates deeper into the forest, the
music becomes denser, the sky less evident until reaching a clearing and a
bird calls. Familiar territory emerges and the walker moves on.

Hints of Debussy glint here, but Roussel's voice has a rich texture all of its
own, atmospheric and warm.

Around 30% of the Earth's land is covered by forest. Deforestation has

been of great concern in recent years since trees are vital for the stability of
the globe's climate.

Camille Saint-Saëns 1835-1921

Photograph of Saint-Saëns in 1880. | Source

6 Saint-Saëns. Cypres et Lauriers for Organ

and Orchestra
Like many composers, such as the great J S Bach, Saint-Saëns was an
organist, and wrote many compositions for the majestic instrument, the
most celebrated being his third symphony.

Cypres et Lauriers came about as a result of the First World War, written
hard on the heels of the end of hostilities in 1919 to mark the signing of the
Treaty of Versailles.3

Mourning the huge sacrifice of life the organ plays solo, full of angst a
weeping melody hued with the minor third drop heard throughout eastern
music - cypresses are famously found in hotter climes, reaching for the
skies.

The dirge gives way to proclamation. To watch Lauriers in the concert hall
is nothing short of dramatic, a fanfare from first two, then no less six
trumpets bolstering the idea that the catastrophic loss of life was all worth
it.

Laurels have a connotation with victory, hence the wreath of laurel

bestowed on Roman army generals following successful battles and worn
by various Caesars to reinforce the idea of power. Saint-Saëns is heavily
embracing the symbolism.4

A triumphal fugue hails, parts striding in one after another weaving a mesh
of solidity between allies, sweeping to an exultant conclusion worthy of
something the Russian authorities might have demanded - a mighty
musical mask of rejoicing, in an effort to convince those who came through
it that no matter what horrors have been endured, it's time to get out on
the streets, put up the bunting and celebrate.
Popular belief has it that Jesus's cross was made of the cypress tree. It's
often used for coffins and in ancient Greece, soldier's ashes were placed in
cypress wood urns.

Robert Schumann 1810-1856

Daguerrotype of Schumann c1850. | Source

7 Schumann. Waldszenen (Forest Scenes)

The nine piece suite for piano, Waldszenen, is one of Schumann's finest
piano works - in fact it could be argued that it is his writing for solo piano
which highlights Schumann's inner self and skill in composition.

Germans were fond of nature, conversely killing it off with their love of
hunting, two elements combined in Schumann's Waldszenen. Numbers
two and eight are dedicated to the activity of hunting, Jäger auf der Lauer
(Hunters on the Lookout) and Jaglied (Hunting Song). The first is a frantic
chase through the forest, the blasts of the hunting horn in evidence.
Jaglied, by contrast is a cheery frolic making merry in the woods hunters
are so fond of.

The scenes present different styles - the lyrically simple of Einsame

Blumen (Lonely Flower) to the denser, almost baroque writing of
Verrufene Stelle (Haunted Place), complete with the diminished chords
(chords made up of successive minor thirds) associated with ghostly
settings. Freundliche Landschaft (Friendly Landscape) ) is skittish while
Herbege (Wayside Inn) is solidly reliable, where a walker might find a
welcome bed for the night and a hearty meal.

Contrasting with the largely chordal music of Herbege and Abschied

(Farewell) is Vogel als Prophet (Bird as Prophet). Light as a feather that
might be tickling the piano keys, it flits about with all the gracefulness of a
tiny bird. Whispery and transparent there is a secretive air about the
winged prophet - now you see me, now you don't.

Schumann, himself is in full flight during Waldszenen, revealing his

prowess as a keyboard composer.
One of the oldest surviving trees on Earth is in North Wales in the village
of Llangernyw. The yew tree in the churchyard of St Dygain's is estimated
to be between 4000 and 5000 years old.

Dmitri Shostakovich 1906-1975

Photograph of Shostakovich during a visit to Finland in 1958. | Source

8 Shostakovich. Cantata: Song of the Forests

Song of the Forests met with approval by the censorious Soviet authorities
who were quick to denounce composers for writing what they deemed was
inaccessible music for the masses.

After the end of World War II, the Russian steppes needed to be reforested
and Shostakovich's cantata - sometimes referred to as an oratorio - was
written to celebrate this undertaking using peoms by the Russion poet
laureate Yevgeny Dolmatovsky.5

It's written for traditional choir, boys' choir, solo tenor and bass plus a
large orchestra. It had, naturally to be on a grand scale commensurate with
the esteem in which the Soviet hierarchy held themselves.
From the opening pastoral style of When the War Ended you'd be hard
pressed to pin it down as Shostakovich. He affords himself only occasional
flashes of his real self throughout the whole work. The solo bass sings what
is in essence as lullaby,, lush strings and soothing chorus ministering to a
population still stinging from the ravages of war, giving it a large hug - it
will be alright in the end.

Bouncing into we will Clothe Our Homeland With Forests, Shostakovich is

urging sleeves to be rolled up to get on with the business of planning the
afforestation required on the denuded Steppes. The music pushes and
drives, urging the taking up, not now of arms, but of spades.

The music turns back on itself for the next section, Memories of the Past.
The people aren't able to simply sweep aside the mental trauma of the war.
This is more of the Shostokovich we know and love. Reminders of his fifth
symphony darken the atmosphere. Hardship and suffering is at the heart
of this movement.

So what better than to introduce the boys' choir at this juncture for the
next poem - The Pioneers Plant the Forests. Get the next generation
involved. Very folk-song like, the boy scouts lightly accompanied by
trumpets marching alongside and we are straight into the world of
Shostakovich's Festival Overture.

The People of Stalingrad are in a joyous fervent mood. Almost too happy,
there is the underlying element of a slapstick number from a musical,
something not to be taken too seriously - so forgive me if it's all surface
water, let's not swim out too deep and see what's really down in the depths.

Instead they look up. A Walk into the Future follows - the walk an amble
into the newly forested homeland, the bass prophesying a green and
pleasant land, good for the soul, the choir joining in to present the vision
as, to all intents and purposes, a hymn and on into the Gloria, albeit a
secular one.

The Glory takes its time, bringing all together for the common good, a
mixture of brassy affirmation and childlike naïvity. The tenor and bass take
the stage as leaders of the pack and fisinshes with a seld satisfied expanse
of well being.

Similar to the Saint-Saëns Cypres et Lauriers it ends with a fugue, a built in

crescendo, fortified musical strata towering to a self satisfied conclusion.

Franz Liszt 1811-1886

Photograph of Liszt c1869. | Source

9 Liszt. Forest Murmurs

Liszt found it difficult not to depart form the softly spoke murmuring of
the opening style. In the middle section the wind has definitely picked up
and is swaying the frees around before it all calms down and the leaves
once more return to their murmuring selves.

As with Schumann's Waldszenen, Forest Murmurs is the epitome of the

Romantic ideal, the natural world brought alive and interpreted through
another medium, song-like and to wonder at.
Edward McDowell 1860-1908
Portrait of Edward McDowell c1906. | Source

9 Edward McDowell. New England Idyls: To

an Old White Pine
Most famous for his To a Wild Rose, the American composer Edward
McDowell, was fond of nature and wrote several works honouring it.

A virtuoso pianist - he played for Lizst - many his compositions are for the
instrument, the New England Suite being one of them.

To an Old White Pine is the seventh of the ten in the set, dark and a little
sad, as if the tree is coming to the end of its days. Essentially it's a salon
piece, short and accessible to the competent amateur pianist, just the job
for evening entertainment at the turn of the twentieth century.

If you are a lover of trees, then you almost certainly like flowers. Why not
read my article by clicking on the link.

The white pine, 'pinus strobus', grows in Canada and Eastern America.
McDowell would have been familiar with it as it is the provincial emblem
for Maine and Michigan.

If you are interested in trees why not read more of my articles featuring the
natural world by clicking on the link:

Composers Inspired By Flowers

Composers Inspired By Insects

Composers Inspired By Rivers

Citations
1 Thoughtco.com

2 Hawaiin Symphony Orchestra programme notes

3 Gramaphone

4 Imakelma

5 Gerard McBurney, Boosey