# Classical music about trees



## Fsharpmajor

Offhand, the only piece I can think of is Respighi's _Pines of Rome_, but surely there must be some others.

Can you think of any?


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## Aramis

No wonder that only few come to mind - describing diffrent trees with music is quite fetched idea. How about bread-suite describing diffrent kinds of it: wholemeal, white, granular, coarse breads and so on?

There are many poetic references to trees in vocal music, like in aria "the firs are sighing on the mountain peaks":


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## Art Rock

Dutilleux - L'arbre des songes, a violin concerto
Bax - The Tale the Pine Trees Knew


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## norman bates

sibelius - tapiola


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## Art Rock

In that vein:
Bax - November woods


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## Meaghan

Schubert - "Der Lindenbaum" from Winterreise

And, similarly:
Mahler - "Die zwei blauen Augen" from Songs of a Wayfarer


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## Huilunsoittaja

Glazunov's tone poem _The Forest_ is such a work. But it's no ordinary forest he is depicting...

"Dark is the forest at the time of night, when the trees are extravagant forms, and that time on time, mysterious sounds come from afar..."


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## notesetter

Sibelius - 5 Pieces for Piano, op. 75

When the Rowan Tree Flowers	
The Solitary Fir Tree 
The Aspen	
The Birch Tree 
The Spruce

Sibelius maintained that trees talked to him. If you've ever stood next to a willow in a stiff wind, I think that's what he meant.


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## Manxfeeder

I suppose Wagner's Forest Murmers from Siegfried is about trees or at least being around trees.


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## Air

First thing that comes to mind

Edward MacDowell - Woodland Sketches


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## TxllxT

Verdi - Macbeth, the scene with the walking forest.


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## Huilunsoittaja

The Trees have gone to war!!!


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## Chris

Classic comedy rather than classical music...


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## Guest

Dhomont, _Forêt profonde_


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## Chris

Perhaps there's something by Amy Beech :tiphat:

...someone had to say it


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## Argus

Stravinsky - Ebony Concerto & Dumbarton Oaks

David Tudor - Rainforest

As an aside I've got a question for the encyclopedic musical minds here at TC. I heard a piece of music years ago which was mostly made up of the sampled sounds of lumberjacks chopping wood with axes, handsaws and chainsaws, as well as a female singer vocalising vowel sounds as a melody on top. I remember watching it with an accompanying video of the lumberjacks in a rainforest too. Any ideas?


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## Schnowotski

Webern adored nature so he composed mainly poems which have a lot of description of nature - so trees are mentioned every now and then - but maybe only few can be said to be _about_ trees.

Kahl reckt der Baum from opus 3:





Maybe Eingang from opus 4:





Leichteste Bürden from second cantata:





Kleiner Flügel from first cantata:


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## joen_cph

Some more:

Geminiani: La Foret Enchantee
Lange-Müller: 7 Skovstykker / Forest Pieces f.Piano
D´indy: La Foret Enchantee
Roussel: 1.Symphony, Poeme de la Foret
Mahler: Waldmärchen, from Das Klagende Lied
Ciurlionis: In the Forest
Novak: Toman and the Wood Nymph
Schumann: Waldszenen
Liszt: Waldesrauschen
Raff: Im Walde-symphony
Vaughan-Williams: The Linden Tree
Bax: The Happy Forest
Villa-Lobos: Forest of the Amazon


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## GoneBaroque

Not strictly classical music perhaps but a classic recording. John McCormack sings a beautiful Irish folk song. When the music is this beautiful categories mean nothing.






Rob


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## Ukko

Sibelius' 2nd symphony is about trees, situated among trees, a northern forest in winter. I spent considerable time in such forests, and recognized the music first time I heard it. About the only things missing are the swish of the snowshoes and maybe the grunts of the porcupine as it rambles.


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## Guest

The New York group Composers Inside Electronics is presenting Tudor's Rainforest installation in Jay Fort on Governor's Island the entire month of July (including a performance on the 30th).

http://www.harvestworks.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=482:rainforest-v-composers-inside-electronics&catid=50:events-upcoming&Itemid=163


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## itywltmt

Johann Strauss' Tales of the Vienna Woods??


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## Weston

Frank Bridge - There is a Willow Aslant a Brook

John Williams - Concerto for Bassoon and Orchestra, "The Five Sacred Trees"

John Dowland - The lowest trees have tops

Toru Takemitsu - Tree Line

Mozart - The Mariage of *Fig*aro

(something tells me I'd better stop there, if not earlier)


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## science

Chris said:


> Perhaps there's something by Amy Beech :tiphat:
> 
> ...someone had to say it





Weston said:


> Mozart - The Mariage of *Fig*aro


Puccini's Il Treetico?


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## Aksel

Grieg - Barnlige Sange, Op. 61 nr. 2 - Sang til Juletræet (Song to the Christmas Tree)
Sibelius - Jag är et Träd, Op. 57, no. 5 (I am a Tree)
Sibelius - The Wood Nymph, Op. 15 (not about a tree per se, but close (enough))
Sibelius - The Tempest, Op. 109 - The Oak Tree


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## HarpsichordConcerto

some guy said:


> Dhomont, _Forêt profonde_


For those curious, like me, could sample/listen to _Forêt profonde_ at amazon.

As for the music, what can I say but utter weird **** sounds. Track #9 even has human speech mixed in. WEIRD.

http://www.amazon.com/Foret-profonde-Francis-Dhomont/dp/B00000JN97


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## Sid James

Australian composer* Peter Sculthorpe *composed an orchestral work called _Kakadu_ (1988), named after the Kakadu rainforest in the North of our country. It's a very atmospheric piece, there is a section which gives me the image of coming to a clearing in the forest and seeing a pristine lake filled with hundreds of water-birds. He is quite a visual composer like that, imaging and imagining our unique landscapes. The late Stuart Challender recorded a great recording of this (now out of print, I believe) with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra which was on the ABC Classics label. It's not on youtube, but another work from that disc called _Earth Cry_, is. Another work in this environmental series is his_ Mangrove _- appropriately, the sounds here tend to be deep and low, mirroring the flatness of these landscapes.

BTW - I don't think* Beethoven's *_Kakadu Variations _are related to our rainforest???

In the world of Australian jazz, our legendary reeds player *Don Burrows *recorded three albums in about 1990, originally put out as a set, called the _Babinda Trilogy _- named after the Babinda rainforest in Queensland. A lot of the music on this set (now also out of print, I think) were original compositions by Mr Burrows, centred on the landscape of that area in particular. There is definitely a classical chamber-like feel to many of these, particularly the album which consists entirely of duos between Burrows and other members of his quintet. The track with his drummer called something like _The Living Ocean _could easily have been composed by someone like Takemitsu. Sadly, this is all a memory for me, I no longer have this set, but I do have a reissue of one of the albums of the set, the one he recorded with an orchestra, but that consists mainly of jazz standards (but I think an orchestral version of the song _Babinda_ is there, but I liked the duo version better, from memory).


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## HarpsichordConcerto

Sid James said:


> Australian composer* Peter Sculthorpe *composed an orchestral work called _Kakadu_ (1988), named after the Kakadu rainforest in the North of our country. It's a very atmospheric piece, there is a section which gives me the image of coming to a clearing in the forest and seeing a pristine lake filled with hundreds of water-birds. He is quite a visual composer like that, imaging and imagining our unique landscapes. The late Stuart Challender recorded a great recording of this (now out of print, I believe) with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra which was on the ABC Classics label. It's not on youtube, but another work from that disc called _Earth Cry_, is. Another work in this environmental series is his_ Mangrove _- appropriately, the sounds here tend to be deep and low, mirroring the flatness of these landscapes.


Good recommendation. Here is a clip for _Mangrove_ (1979). Interesting soundscapes. I like it.


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## Guest

HarpsichordConcerto said:


> For those curious, like me, could sample/listen to _Forêt profonde_ at amazon.
> 
> As for the music, what can I say but utter weird **** sounds. Track #9 even has human speech mixed in. WEIRD.
> 
> http://www.amazon.com/Foret-profonde-Francis-Dhomont/dp/B00000JN97


It's not so much that you must be living a very sheltered life; it's that you take such utter delight in _telling_ us what a sheltered life you live!

Anyway, here's another person's take on this magnificent piece: "This piece I like quite a lot, because it's so full of beautiful icons. It's like being in a shop, and you find these beautiful little things, and you are so surprised that they are there. I find they work extremely well. I don't know why, somehow they are something, for example, that you would not expect in an acousmatic context- there are these little melodies, children's melodies, but it's so well put together, that it doesn't sound cheap. "

Of course, since that person also writes music that is "utter weird **** sounds," I suppose his comment is not surprising.


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## Argus

some guy said:


> Of course, since that person also writes music that is "utter weird **** sounds," I suppose his comment is not surprising.


I liked that. The end reminded me of part of Kraftwerk's Trans Europe Express for some reason.

I can hear a bit of a difference between that and the Dhomont (well from the fragments on Amazon at least). One is more ambient in nature, reminds me of Biosphere meets Kim Cascone or newer :zoviet*france:, and the other is more of a collage of Xenakis or Ferrari style soundscapes (again based only on the previews). Saying that both use similar effects and timbres. The end of that vid you posted sounds like track 7 on the Amazon sampler.


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## GoneBaroque

Hilltroll72 said:


> Sibelius' 2nd symphony is about trees, situated among trees, a northern forest in winter. I spent considerable time in such forests, and recognized the music first time I heard it. About the only things missing are the swish of the snowshoes and maybe the grunts of the porcupine as it rambles.


You could also enter with Sibelius the forests of Tapiola and meet the Woodland God Tapio.

Rob


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## HarpsichordConcerto

The piece by Brummer, _Speed_ (2006) was much, much better than the crap by Dhomont. _Speed_ reminded me of a science-fiction film score or to that effect. I imagined a spaceship flying precariously close to its doom, like towards a black hole or towards a sun about to explode. Quite dramatic sounding and arresting piece. I might even be able to guess why the piece might have been named _Speed_.


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## Ukko

Trees, HC, trees are the focus here.


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## superhorn

Don't forget the gorgeous Richard Strauss opera Daphne, based on Greek mythology, in which the wood nymph Daphne is turned into a tree by the God Bacchus in the end.
This is one of the most difficult scenes in all opera to stage, because Daphne has to literally turn into a tree in front of the audience gradually during her final monologue ! 
I believe there's a recent DVD of it , and by all means get the classic DG recording of the opera,live from Vienna, with the late Hilde Gueden as Daphne and the also late James King as Bacchus, conducted by the incomparable Straussian Karl Boehm, a close collaboratr and fiend of the composer. The music is some of the most radiant and atmospheric Strauss ever wrote. For a recentbut also excellent recording, try the Decca performance with Renne Fleming and Johan Botha conducted by Semyon Bychkov.


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## Ukko

GoneBaroque said:


> You could also enter with Sibelius the forests of Tapiola and meet the Woodland God Tapio.
> 
> Rob


The only god I felt traces of in the woods is The One God, in the guise of Gaia. Of course, it could have been Tapio - I'm not good at guises.


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## LordBlackudder

Sunlight Filtering Through the Trees - Go Shiina


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## hespdelk

I don't think anyone mentioned it already.. the aria "Ombra mai fu" from Handel's opera _Serse_. Serse sings to his most beloved tree..


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## Ukko

hespdelk said:


> I don't think anyone mentioned it already.. the aria "Ombra mai fu" from Handel's opera _Serse_. Serse sings to his most beloved tree..


The way Ferrier sings it, the 'tree' is a thin disguise.


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## Guest

HarpsichordConcerto said:


> The piece by Brummer, _Speed_ (2006) was much, much better than the crap by Dhomont. _Speed_ reminded me of a science-fiction film score or to that effect. I imagined a spaceship flying precariously close to its doom, like towards a black hole or towards a sun about to explode. Quite dramatic sounding and arresting piece. I might even be able to guess why the piece might have been named _Speed_.


This makes about as much sense as a person whose exposure to baroque music consists of _Four Seasons_ and _Sheep May Safely Graze_ making pompous pronouncements about the quality of Handel's operas (or comparing them to, say, Vivaldi's operas). Less sense, really, for the baroque idiom is by now totally familiar.

The internet is the great meeting place for amateur judges. (Good thing none of them has real courthouses! Dhomont: 30 years. Stockhausen: Life. Cage: Death penalty. Bruemmer: a fine and a warning.:lol


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## HarpsichordConcerto

some guy said:


> This makes about as much sense as a person whose exposure to baroque music consists of _Four Seasons_ and _Sheep May Safely Graze_ making pompous pronouncements about the quality of Handel's operas (or comparing them to, say, Vivaldi's operas). Less sense, really, for the baroque idiom is by now totally familiar.
> 
> The internet is the great meeting place for amateur judges. (Good thing none of them has real courthouses! Dhomont: 30 years. Stockhausen: Life. Cage: Death penalty. Bruemmer: a fine and a warning.:lol


As usual, member _some guy_ has a clear tendency to respond by making judgements about the individual listener (in this case, me and the reader can see many other examples of personal evaluation), whenever an opinion about an _avant-garde music _ gets a less than welcoming mention.


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## Guest

Only when people pass judgments they're not competent to pass, my dear HC.

It's the predominant pattern of internet forums, sadly.

It must be very aggravating to you to have me call you out when you make snide remarks. Gosh, some guy, why can't you just leave me alone to say whatever kneejerk reaction I want to music I don't like and don't even want to like? So annoying.


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## Ukko

HarpsichordConcerto said:


> As usual, member _some guy_ has a clear tendency to respond by making judgements about the individual listener (in this case, me and the reader can see many other examples of personal evaluation), whenever an opinion about an _avant-garde music _ gets a less than welcoming mention.


[Slightly paraphrased] 'No one is so blind as he who _will_ not see'. I think that is _some guy_'s real complaint. It's based on his ability/willingness to 'see' more than on your [apparent] inability.

Most modern 'serious' music has a different _modus operandi_ than 'the old stuff'. It _may_ still be intended to bend your mind, but not by utilizing the pathways Rachmaninoff used.

I mostly don't get the new stuff, but I am old and tired. Rachmaninoff is good enough for me.


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## HarpsichordConcerto

some guy said:


> Only when people pass judgments they're not competent to pass ...


Chill out. This is a public internet discussion forum. We often get bashings on Mozart's music here, which even I can live with. If one cannot tolerate it, then one normally evades the forum quietly. 

Anyway, back to trees. _The Cherry Tree_ performed by Anonymous 4 with Andrew Lawrence-King on Baroque harp.


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## superhorn

Oops. In Daphne, it's not Bacchus, but Apollo who turns Daphne into a tree.


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## Hector

John Williams has written many pieces inspired by trees:

Concerto for Bassoon and Orchestra "The Five Sacred Trees".

"Treesong", a work for Violin and Orchestra is basically Violin Concerto No. 2, inspired by a particular tree in Boston's Public Garden.

"Heartwood", written for Cello and Orchestra, a magnificent and underrated work, eclipsed by his Cello Concerto and the other "tree works".

Of the above works, Williams has said the very instrument, in this case three different instruments, are really trees and what we hear is the voice of these trees singing.

Also two more works, Horn Concerto was inspired by celtic poet Robert Graves' "The Battle of the Trees" and the very recent Harp Concerto is titled "On Willows and Birches" inspired by Psalm 137 and Robert Frost.

On a curious note, "Duel of the Fates" from the Star Wars movies is actually "The Battle of the Trees" translated into sanskrit.


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## samm

Francesco Geminiani "La Foresta incantata" "The Enchanted Forest"


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## Turangalîla

What an odd thread to resurrect! I will go with Dutilleux's _L'arbre des songes_.


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## SONNET CLV

Has anyone yet mentioned the "Maple Leaf Rag", an early ragtime composition for piano composed by Scott Joplin? Yeah, Scott Joplin -- the fellow who composed_ *Tree*monisha_.


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## PetrB

Argus said:


> Stravinsky - Ebony Concerto & Dumbarton Oaks


The Ebony Concerto refers only to the black wood finish of the Clarinet, the solo instrument of that concerto.

"Dumbarton Oaks" is the sub-title to _Concerto in E-flat,_ the Dumbarton Oaks being the name of the estate of the patron who commissioned the work, and where chamber concerts were held.

Neither is a reference to trees


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## PetrB

Joan Tower's first orchestral composition (1981) ~ _Sequoia_


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## ArtMusic

There is one piece by far that is one of the most popular ever. Pure and simple.

From Handel's opera Xerxes. The title translates from the Italian as "Never was a shade". It is sung by the main character, Xerxes I of Persia, admiring the shade of a plane tree.


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## PetrB

PetrB said:


> Joan Tower's first orchestral composition (1981) ~ _Sequoia_


... and if this includes vocal music, one of the many personages in Ravel's _L'enfant et les sortileges_ is a singing tree


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## techniquest

Shostakovich - Songs of the Forests


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## Radames

techniquest said:


> Shostakovich - Songs of the Forests


Yes - that's actually the first one that comes to my mind. 
I have this one.


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## quack

Andrzej Panufnik - Arbor Cosmica - 



Henry Purcell - Hail! Bright Caecilia!: Hark! Each Tree - 



Christian Sinding - Rustle of Spring - 



Toru Takemitsu - Rain Tree Sketch - 



Berthold Goldschmidt - Mediterranean Songs: Olive Trees - 



Leo Ornstein - Morning in the woods - 



Harrison Birtwistle - Tree of Strings, for string quartet
Vladimir Rebikov - In the Forest


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## MagneticGhost

^^^ Quack just beat me to Panufnik's Arbor Cosmica

No one has mentioned Dvorak's Cypresses yet.


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## Bruce

techniquest said:


> Shostakovich - Songs of the Forests


I was hoping someone would mention this. It's a lovely work.

I scanned this thread rather quickly, but didn't see Liszt's two Aux cyprès de la Villa d'Este in his Années de Pélerinage.

There's a short organ piece by Garth Edmundson called "Now Woods and Fields are Sleeping." (To be played in the wintertime, no doubt.) Not about specific trees, though.

Vaughan-Williams - Linden Lea is another possibility, though "linden" here refers to a geographical location, not a tree.


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## hpowders

Sibelius Tapiola, though his _bark_ seemed worse than his bite.


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## hpowders

Of course a lot of Hansel and Gretel by Humperdinck took place in a forest with appropriate music.

Also from Wagner's Siegfried, the Forest Bird scene with incredible music is magical!


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## rrudolph

I guess I have to be the one to point out that this is the *classical* music discussion section. If you wish to discuss poplar music there is a separate area for that.


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## HaydnBearstheClock

Classical music that has to do with trees - Haydn's Creation mentions fruit-laden trees and there is also mention of trees in The Seasons, Tchaikovsky's Nut Cracker Suite has a 'Forest Scene', I'm pretty sure Smetana's Má Vlast depicts Bohemian forests, Beethoven's Pastorale has to have something to do with trees as well .


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## Huilunsoittaja

Glazunov also wrote a tone poem called the Forest and he gave it a lurid program of his own design, worthy of the Russian macabre style. He begins it with this sentence: "Dark is the forest in the time of night, when trees take monstrous forms, and from time to time shrieks are heard from afar..."


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## KenOC

If it hasn't been mentioned (or even if it has) Dvorak's "Silent Woods," a very nice cello piece. Two versions, one with piano and the other with orchestra. Also Strauss, Tales from etc.


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## hpowders

Huilunsoittaja said:


> Glazunov also wrote a tone poem called the Forest and he gave it a lurid program of his own design, worthy of the Russian macabre style. He begins it with this sentence: "Dark is the forest in the time of night, when trees take monstrous forms, and from time to time shrieks are heard from afar..."


Sounds like my old neighborhood in Brooklyn.


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## KenOC

Another Dvorak: From the Bohemian Forest, piano 4-hands.

Takemitsu: Tree Line, Rain Tree Sketches


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## Huilunsoittaja

hpowders said:


> Sounds like my old neighborhood in Brooklyn.


The cuddly bears in the video's picture misrepresent the music for sure lol. You should be thinking of goblins, ghouls, ents, giants, nymphs, etc.


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## hpowders

Huilunsoittaja said:


> The cuddly bears in the video's picture misrepresent the music for sure lol. You should be thinking of goblins, ghouls, ents, giants, nymphs, etc.


In my old Brooklyn neighborhood, if there were no shrieks, the people must have died.


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## PetrB

MagneticGhost said:


> ^^^ Quack just beat me to Panufnik's Arbor Cosmica
> 
> No one has mentioned Dvorak's Cypresses yet.


or Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco's ~ _Cipressi_


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## starthrower

She sketches a tree while talking about her music.


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