The bioelectrical signals of plants growing at a park in Lewiston, N.Y., near Niagara Falls, were translated into instrumental and electronic works for the new album The Secret Symphony of Plants.
(SOUNDBITE OF BRENT CHANCELLOR’S “SPEEDWELL”)
A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
A lot of the familiar sounds of fall involve plants – wind rustling leaves or whistling through tall grasses. What would it sound like if the plants, though, could raise their own voices?
(SOUNDBITE OF BRENT CHANCELLOR’S “SPEEDWELL”)
MARTÍNEZ: Musicians came together last month to perform five compositions trying to imagine just that. The music is based on data collected from plants at a park in Lewiston, New York. Brent Chancellor is one of the composers behind the album “The Secret Symphony Of Plants.”
BRENT CHANCELLOR: We connected electrodes to plants, recording their bioelectric information and then sending that to a series of composers who created new works.
(SOUNDBITE OF JOHN KAEFER’S “STIL DE GRAIN: FADING YELLOW”)
CHANCELLOR: It’s an electrical signal that is then converted into MIDI data, and that MIDI data can be assigned to sounds or notes or pitches.
(SOUNDBITE OF JOHN KAEFER’S “STIL DE GRAIN: FADING YELLOW”)
CHANCELLOR: So if you think of, like, a keyboard, you have the white notes and the black notes. Each note is a half step. Each MIDI data point essentially is associated with that half step, and then you can assign each one of those points a sound. So there are certain rhythms, certain patterns that recur over and over, and you can use those as the foundation for a musical idea.
(SOUNDBITE OF RICARDO ROMANEIRO’S “WILD RESONANCE”)
CHANCELLOR: Each composer was assigned one plant. The thing that we did notice was smaller plants tend to have more activity. Moss is really active.
(SOUNDBITE OF KAITLYN AURELIA SMITH’S “I MISS THE WAY YOU SWIM (ONNA FOR NATURE)”)
CHANCELLOR: Larger plants, big broadleaf plants seem to be a little slower and have kind of a lower, longer wave of activity.
(SOUNDBITE OF MARCUS FOSTER’S “BLACK CHERRY”)
CHANCELLOR: I do hope people bring away an awareness for ecology and the natural world. So every time you listen, a portion of that royalty will go back to support Artpark’s preservation, which I think is really amazing.
MARTÍNEZ: That’s Brent Chancellor, one of the composers behind the new album “The Secret Symphony Of Plants.” This is MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I’m A Martínez.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
And I’m Steve Inkseep.
(SOUNDBITE OF BRENT CHANCELLOR’S “SPEEDWELL”)
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