Purple leaved plum
1 sound
Current age: Mature
Size at maturity: 15m
Species native to: South Eastern Europe
Tree identification number: 0HXY
Composer name
Iason Maroulis
About the composer:
Iason Maroulis is a young Greek composer and trumpet player based in London. He is interested in the envelope of sound and in its manipulation through both acoustic and electronic means. He is trying to explore the ways that sound is produced in acoustic instruments and ways in which it can be organized in order to create sonorities and gestures, where an ensemble functions as one sound, whose members act as the different parts of this sound’s envelope.
Iason is currently an undergraduate Composition student at the Royal Academy of Music, studying with Rubens Askenar
About the tree:
Purple leaved trees contain a higher amount of anthocyanin, a pigment that causes the purple colouring and masks the green chlorophyll; a naturally occuring mutation that has been selected by mankind for its ornamental qualities.
About the composition:
The shape of this tree makes it look as it bows down from the weight of its branches and its uncommon leaves. This fairytale like image is what defined the timbre of the sound used in the music written for this tree. The piece follows the tree’s shape in terms of the frequencies used, starting in a low register and gradually going higher, only to move back done at the end. The complex texture represents the branches of the tree which get mixed up with each other and give to it a sense of fluidity.
