Composers have long been inspired by nature. In Spring 2023, BCMG is presenting a series of concerts called BCMG in Bloom which includes music inspired by trees and forests. One of these concerts includes the world premiere of The Singing Tree by Christian Mason at Birmingham Town Hall in May 2023, originally planned to be performed in May 2021. 

This resource brings together ideas from all the composers involved in BCMG's TREE project, which ran alongside initial workshops of The Singing Tree, in primary schools in Birmingham and Bristol. In this resource are activities for:

• Listening to, mapping and recording sounds the sound of trees and woods
  
• Listening to and reflecting on music about trees and forests by other composers
• Creating words and poetry about trees
• Learning about and making wooden and paper instruments
• Creating visual art inspired by trees
• Composing music about trees and forests

You can navigate through the different pages of the resource using the orange bar above.

We are keen to encourage you and your class to visit woods and trees local to you and hope the activities in this resource will help your children to learn about trees, explore them through all their senses and be inspired by them to create art, music and poetry.

To create this resource, we visited The Lickeys located to the southwest of Birmingham and Sutton Park in north Birmingham with  Geoff Cole and Viv Astling from Birmingham Trees for Life. 

For a PRINTABLE version of this resource CLICK HERE.

First of all we go to The Lickeys with Geoff to learn:

1. How to identify a tree
2. The different parts of the tree
3. The life cycle of the tree 
4. The habitat trees provide

Here are some questions you might want to ask your class about the video: 

1. What names for the parts of a tree can you remember?
2. What names of trees can you remember?
3. What do you call a tree that keeps/doesn't keep its leaves in winter?
4. What is a pioneer species?
5. How are tree seeds dispersed?
6. How many different kinds of seed can you remember?
7. What part of the tree is living?
8. How do you work out how old a tree is?
9. What uses of trees are mentioned?
10. Why are fallen and chopped down logs left in the wood?
11. What animals make trees and logs their home?

The Singing Tree by composer Christian Mason is composed for 5 professional voices, a children's choir and instrumental ensemble. The libretto (words) were written by Paul Griffiths and are presented in the shape of a tree. You can download a copy of the poem HERE. 

On this page are a series of excerpts from an interview with Christian Mason using questions provided by children from the TREE project which took place in Birmingham and Bristol in the summer of 2021.

Talking with Christian about The Singing Tree:

Talking with Christian about music & becoming a composer:

Talking with Christian about composing:

Christian shares a special musical instrument:

Listening to and mapping sounds:

Below is a guided listening activity devised by composer Chloe Knibbs to help children listen to the sounds around them, to categorize them, to think how near or far they are and where they are coming from. The children will need blank paper and a pencil or pen and their ears!

Chloe suggests that you start by doing this activity in the classroom and then try it again outside near to some trees, maybe in your local park or in your forest school. 

'Notating' sounds with graphic scores:

In the next video, composer Kirsty Devaney goes for a walk in the woods with her dog to listen to the sounds of trees and shows us how we can 'write down' our sounds and recreate them using classroom instruments.

Questions:

1. How can your children use these sounds in their composing, either as audio recordings or through making the sounds with their voices, bodies and instruments?
2. How can the children be inspired to compose their own music inspired by trees?

The music that you and your class eventually compose could include audio recordings of the sounds of trees. 

This page, written by composer Duncan Chapman, is here to help you and your children to record sounds effectively. Duncan spends a lot of his time collecting interesting sounds especially from the natural world such as rain, bats, birds and bees. He then manipulates and plays with the sounds he has collected to create music. 

Here is Duncan talking about the best way to record sounds.  At the end, you get to hear music he has composed with his sounds:

You can use the free downloadable software Audacity to edit sounds and, if you wanted to, compose with you recorded sounds. You can find our guide to Audacity HERE. 

You could also use SAMPL, an iPad app which allows you to upload your own recorded sounds and then play them using a button interface.  Using SAMPL is another way you and your children could add recorded sound to your composition or improvise using your sounds. 

The TREE project was a collaboration with Sound and Music. Sounds collected by Duncan and music composed by the children form part of this downloadable resource HERE as part of Sound and Music's Minute of Listening project. 

Going on a recording expedition:

You and your class might decide to record the sounds of trees outside - maybe in a wood. This needs planning as often children will make recordings that don't quite live up to their expectations. Here are some suggestions for you and your class for how to try and get the best possible recordings so that you have some good quality materials with which to work.

Things for teachers to think about:

Recording can be a way of listening. You might not get perfect recorded sounds from your expedition but the act of going somewhere with the specific aim of recording is a way of encouraging children to listen to what is there.

• Have a practice recording session in the classroom before going out on a trip. This will ensure that people understand how to use the equipment as well as realise that they are likely to record every vocal sound that they make!
• It's better to walk to a location and then start recording of you are with a group than try and record as you go
• Remember that it takes as long to listen back to a sound as it does to record it!
• If you have the choice .wav files are much better than .mp3
• Make sure that you have a means of checking the recordings as you go, headphones are useful.
• If at all possible make recordings yourself alongside your students so that there is a 'safety net' set of sounds for those who might fail to record anything.

Things for children to think about:

• Try and make a series of short recordings rather than long ones. It's much easier to work with 10/20 second sound files than a long recording which requires lots of editing.
• Think snapshot photographs rather than movies
• Get close, most portable microphones work best when you are close to the source of the sound
• Try to listen with your ears rather than always following what you can see.
• Try exploring recording the same thing from different angles, sometimes moving from inside to outside works really well.

First some questions:

1. Can your children think of any musical instruments made from wood that you have in your school?
2. Can your children think of any musical instruments made from wood that they have seen or heard elsewhere?
3. Ask your children why they think wood is used to make musical instruments. 

In this video, musician Natalie Mason takes the children on a tour of musical instruments made from wood from around the world:

Questions to ask the children after watching the video:

1. How many instruments did the children see and hear?
2. Can the children remember any of the names of the instruments?
3. What countries or continents did the instruments come from?
4. Can they describe the different ways they were played - blowing, plucking, bowing, tapping....?
5. Do they have any words to describe the sounds they hear?

For more information about the instruments CLICK HERE.

Wood is not the only product we get from trees, we can also make cardboard and paper from wood pulp. In this video, composer Rob Jones shows the children how to make their own simple but flexible instrument out of paper. The instrument makes a wonderful sound that resembles the leaves of a tree rustling in the wind. It could be used to create textural sounds, or used rhythmically to create beats.

There are two opportunities in the video to pause and have a class discussion.Each child will need:

• Two pieces of A4 Paper
• A pair of scissors
• A small piece of sticky tape or glue stick

Have fun experimenting with the wonderful sounds of paper! You can send photos and videos of what your class come up with to Rob on Twitter via @Obski_Rob.

On the music page of this resource you will find a video of a piece of music called Paper Concerto by Tan Dun in which one of the performers uses a similar instrument. What other instrument did the children see and hear that was made from cardboard? Could the children find a something similar to add to your classes sound maker collection?

In The Singing Tree by Christian Mason the words (libretto) were written by Paul Griffiths. Paul chose to present his words in the shape of tree. The first word is TREE and then in the next sentence, which makes up the trunk, the first letter of each word spells the word tree.

Activity:

Use one of the videos on this page to help your pupils to come up with some words and sentences about trees. Then invite your pupils to make their own shape poetry in the form of a tree 'poetree'. You could do this in a number of ways:

• Each child makes their own 'poetree' shape poem
• Each child in the class contributes one sentence and they become the leaves or branches of a class tree
• Each child contributes a sentence or word (leaves), each small group provide a sentence (branch) and a sentence made up by the whole class becomes the trunk.

The tree as a busy city: in this video composer Richard Barnard invites us to think of the tree as a busy city:

Trees with all our senses: in this video composer Michael Betteridge invites us to explore an object or theme with all our senses. Michael uses a pen but you can do the same activity with trees. Click HERE for teacher notes and HERE for resource sheets.

Write it in a leaf: for those of you working with Lady Nade, here is another suggestion for  generating words about trees:

Resources: brown parcel/lining paper, pencils, pens, scissors, paint, cardboard, cardboard tubes/loo rolls, glue

The words by Paul Griffiths for The Singing Tree were presented in the shape of a tree. This activity shows you how to make a class poetree using the children's words, text and poetry to make a whole tree. 

Using Michael's activity from the Words page, invite each of the children to create their own tree poem. If you want to, you could divide the children into 4 and ask each group to focus on a different part of the tree - roots, trunk, branches, leaves.

For the roots, trunk and branches, the children could write their poems on torn pieces of card and brown paper to make them look like bark. 

Be creative with the leaves. To create a lush canopy the children could:

• Use different shades of green hand-prints which they write on, cut out and stick on
• Write on green paper and cut into leaf shapes of particular trees and stick on
• Paint cardboard tubes (or loo roll tubes) green then squash them flat. Then, using scissors, snip into rings so that they produce thin leaf-shapes before sticking onto the tree.
• Could even stick some real leaves on too

If you decided to divide the class into the four parts of the tree, Start to fill the tree from the bottom with the roots poems, then the trunk poems, then the branch poems and finally the leaf poems. You might want to draw the outline of a tree on a big piece of paper first for the children to fill in. If you didn't divide into 4 groups, the children can decide whether to make leaves or bark or both.

On this page, composer Liz Lane will help you to focus and guide the children's listening for three of pieces from the next page and suggests a composing activity using paper.

Tree of Life - Liz Lane, words by Jennifer Henderson

The words for the poem can be downloaded HERE.

Liz: I love the fact that this poem is in three lines for each verse and the repetition at the end of each line. Musically, each verse is similar but not quite the same; the last verse is mainly higher, to represent 'stand beneath a mighty tree'. There is no steady beat - almost every bar has a different number of notes so it sounds quite improvisatory.

Musical Features

• Downward notes at the beginning: 'boughs are bending'
• Some of the words are sung to than one note - this is called melisma
• The second half of the song features phrases which have wider intervals - distances between the notes - perhaps depicting the broadness of the tree

Exploring:

What words can the children think of when they see or think of an oak tree? Can they think of 2 syllable and 3 syllable words? If you say them more than once, like in this song, how might you do it differently each time? What kind of rhythm would it be? How would you sing these words? You could try:

1. Saying the word so that it grows upwards like a tree or bends downward like a branch
2. Singing the word with more than one note (melisma)
3. Using wider gaps between the notes to represent a bigger tree

Child of Tree - John Cage

You can find a composing activity linked to this piece HERE.

Rain Tree - Toru Takemitsu

This is a piece of music for percussion ensemble. The three players play a variety of instruments including 2 marimbas and vibraphone. The small instrument which looks like lots of cymbals are crotales - tuned to pitches just like the marimba and vibraphone.

Questions to explore:

What kind of tree do you think the music is describing? Is it small, large? Thin or broad? Does it grow with a lot of other trees or on its own? Is the rain gentle or heavy? How is all this portrayed by the music and the instruments?

There is no right or wrong answer! It's a great starting point though to think about how a tree might be represented by different sounds.

Paper Concerto - Tan Dun

What kinds of sounds can the children make with paper? Ask the children to take a piece of paper and rustle it. Now try with three pieces of paper. What happens? It's a louder and richer sound. Now ask the children to try tapping it against their hands, scrumpling it up or even tearing it: Are there any other sounds with paper can the children think of?

Watch this video and create a simple piece of music using ostinatos (repeating patterns) created by paper with Liz.

On this page, you will find music by other composers who have been inspired by trees or by the sounds of materials that come from trees (paper, cardboard, wood). 

Secret Forest - Dai Fujikura

'This “secret forest” is an imaginary forest where birds and insects make only my favourite sounds and my nose gets never blocked.'

Music for Pieces of Wood - Steve Reich

Excerpt from Forest (Concerto for Four Horns and Orchestra) - Tansy Davies

Here is Tansy talking about the piece and her inspiration:

In this video, watch and listen to composer Duncan Chapman and sculptor Viv Astling taking a walk in Sutton Park in the north of Birmingham. As they walk they are looking for inspiration and collecting:

• Images of trees
• Things produced by trees
• Sounds of trees
• Sounds we can make with trees

Visit your local park or woodland. What will the children collect? Remember to use phones, cameras and recording devices to record sounds and take photos and to carry a bag to collect cones, seeds, twigs, leaves.....Remind the children that they should only take small samples and be careful not to damage the tree when collecting.  

Question: How can the children use what they find to create music and images?

Resources: material or paper/card for design background, found natural objects

This activity uses the natural items you have collected as a class or the children have brought into school from walks in the park, a woodland space, a garden or the school grounds.

Encourage them to collect natural items such a leaves, twigs, pebbles, feathers, shells, cones, bark, moss, lichen, conkers, seed pods or anything else that you find and like the look of. 

Invite the children to use the class or their own collection of found natural objects to create a piece of artwork. They could make:

A Mandala – A circular symbol made up of lots of different rings of pattern. Try using different coloured or textured items to produce the different layers of the mandala.

A Word or Words - spell a ‘tree’ inspired word with the items they found. You could take photos of these and with the children arrange them into a short poem.

A Scenescape – create a tree scene or forest. Lay a plain piece of material, card or paper on a flat surface (or the floor) to create a backdrop on which you can create your own picture.

Twig Mobiles:

Resources: twigs, string/twine/thread, scissors, lightweight natural items (cones, feathers, leaves)

This activity will show you how to make a hanging mobile using small branches and lightweight found natural objects. It will also use the natural items that the class collected. Make sure everyone has 2 or 3 medium twigs and 4 or 6 smaller twigs.

To make their mobile the children should:

1. Tie the medium twigs at their centre with one long piece of string. Keep one end of the string long and make a loop at the top – this is what will be used to hang the mobile up.
2. Using smaller pieces of string, tie the smaller twigs onto the ends of the medium ones. These also need to be tied at the middle to keep the mobile balanced.
3. Now tie on the found natural objects onto their mobile – try using pairs of items that have a similar weight to decorate the ends of the twigs. Think about using interesting leaves, pine cones or feathers as decoration. Heavier items should be tied towards the middle of the twigs. Remember you need to keep each twig balanced. Hang this up from somewhere high.

Another approach is to find one long branch and tie a long piece of string to both ends to hang it. Then tie on different found objects at various heights (with different lengths of string) along the length of the branch.

Rubbings & Textures:

Resources; paper, wax crayons

When outside with the children, invite them to make bark and leaf rubbings. Using the paper and some wax crayons, ask the children to choose a tree and look for interesting patterns on its surface/bark. To make the rubbing, they should hold the piece of paper against the bark with one hand so it is flat against the bark. Then using their free hand, rub the long side of the crayon against the paper.  They should see the bark pattern gradually appear on the paper. Compare the rubbings of different trees - are they the same? They could try the same thing with leaves. 

The children could also try layering different colours on top of each other or create a patchwork effect by taking rubbings of lots of different textures next to each other on the same piece of paper.

On this page is a list of other websites where you can find more information and activities about trees:

• BBC Teach - Terrific Scientific - Trees
• One Tree Per Child - Bristol City Council
• DK Find Out
• The Woodland Trust Tree -Tools for Schools 
• Birmingham Trees for Life
• Forestry England 

If you have any other resource links about trees, please let us know and do send us any music and/or visual art you create inspired by this resource to learning@bcmg.org.uk