Horse chestnut
1 sound
Current age: Mature
Size at maturity: 25m
Species native to: South Eastern Europe
Tree identification number: 0HCQ
Composer name
Isaac Oliver Short
About the composer:
British composer Isaac Oliver Short is currently in the first year of his undergraduate composition studies at the Royal Academy of Music, studying with Gary Carpenter. He has had his music performed on BBC Radio 1, BBC Nottingham & BBC Bristol. He has a specific interest in the visual elements of music and often focuses his composition around piano and electronics, with over ten years-worth of experience with both.
About the tree:
A familiar sight in parks and gardens of Britain, the horse chestnut is loved for its flowers, stature and most importantly…Conkers! Sadly the bleeds on the trunk indicate the presence of disease, a problem compounded by a leaf mining insect lava which affects foliage from mid summer.
About the composition:
Horse Chestnut trees are often large, powerful trees with small teardrop shaped leaves and beautiful white flowers in the spring. I found myself in awe of the sheer number of individual elements that constitute this species and decided that the pieces should reflect this with a pointillistic approach. Each piece was created by working with small samples of piano and harp audio, then morphing them into larger textures. Variations in structure, instrumentation and pitch are made based on the size of the tree, shape of the trunk and placement within the surrounding trees (i.e. the effect of light on the perception of the tree).
