TREES

A forest of instruments

American filmmaker Sam Green is fascinated by trees. They are silent witnesses, sometimes many centuries old, to countless events and generations. Trees evoke different timeframes and put the position of humanity into perspective. Green decides to make a documentary about trees, and in search of a spectacular cinematic experience, he sees an important role for the symphony orchestra. "Orchestras perhaps make the biggest, most compelling, and most profound sounds I have ever heard," says Green. "Moreover, many instruments themselves are largely made of trees—violins and cellos, of course, but also oboes, bassoons, and harps." In fact, an orchestra is itself a forest of instruments. And so, Caroline Shaw—winner of a Pulitzer Prize and a Grammy Award, among others—was commissioned to write music for live performances accompanying Green's documentary Trees (working title), a poetic meditation on the power of trees and everything they can teach us about being human.

Connected to centuries-old traditions

The documentary is preceded by vocal works by Shaw. The a cappella work and the swallow is a setting of Psalm 84. The swallow seeking its nest symbolizes the refugee seeking to protect his family. To the Hands , for voices and strings, is a contemporary response to Ad manus from the seventeenth-century masterpiece Membra Jesu nostri by Buxtehude. To the Hands begins within Buxtehude’s sound world, expands this language, colors it, and breaks with it. Gradually, the core idea of the piece becomes clear: our role and responsibility in the suffering of people all over the world, in search of a refuge.

The music of Caroline Shaw is performed live during the screening of the documentary Trees . Sam Green script, direction, and performance Rebecca Solnit script.