Christian Mason: The Singing Tree

(2022/2023)

The Singing Tree is an environmental cantata setting a remarkable new text by Paul Griffiths for five vocal soloists, a children’s choir, and a large contemporary music ensemble of 25 players. Taking trees as an inspiration, the music reflects on the very different (extended) timescale that they represent–hundreds or thousands of years, compared to the mere decades that we humans can enjoy. This idea of longer time spans is manifested in the piece through recurrent quotations from the Machaut motet Puis qu’en oubli; music from another time, yet still with us. The piece also considers our ongoing exploitation of trees, despite our absolute dependence on them for oxygen, shade, balanced ecosystems, and also for the beauty and mystery that they bring to the world. Beautifully expressing our moral responsibility towards the natural world, the last words are: »they have done what they could for us, they have done more than they should for us, now what may we do for them«.

Christian Mason (*1984 in London), studied composition at the University of York and graduated from King’s College London with George Benjamin. He has held fellowships at Eton College, Villa Concordia, Civitella Ranieri and the SWR Experimental Studio in Freiburg. In 2012 he received the Mendelssohn Fellowship of the Royal Academy of Music London and was awarded a British Composer Award. In 2015, he received the Ernst von Siemens Musikstiftung Award.

»My work explores the intersection of colour and line, time and space, musician and listener. I am fascinated by the way that sound can embody time while also transforming our experience of time, and by the possibility that music offers us–through the rituals of performance and listening in which we participate–to leave behind our everyday selves, to delve deeper into the present moment, and enter into the realms of imagination.« Christian Mason

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Christian Mason: The Singing Tree

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