Elderflora: Life & Death of a Tree

Details

Majel Connery full profile / vocals, synths, piano / 2 musicians

Other players: Majel Connery, Holly Mead

Full program notes

Elderflora is an oratorio on the life and death of a tree written by composer/performer Majel Connery. Narrated from the tree’s perspective, Elderflora invites us on a journey inside the mind of nature, experiencing the tree’s thoughts and feelings in vivid detail.

Elderflora blends old sounds with new technology, with snatches of madrigals and hymns blowing through electronic soundscapes like wind through leaves. Structured as a series of 10 musical portraits, each movement represents a significant moment in the life of the tree: birth by fire, the first taste of water, and nature’s most dangerous proposition: becoming a mother.

“I want us to see humanity in the world around us,” says Connery. “Music gives me the power to join what we know with what we don’t know: to combine the familiar with the strange. Because if trees have a voice — and I think they do — that voice won’t sound like us. They’re going to sound utterly out of this world.”

Historical context

Connery crosses the beauty of classical music with the power and dynamic range of modern technology.

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