Sinfonietta for Strings, Percussion and Celeste
In D Major
Arboretum is a short album comprising a piano suite about trees. Specifically, it’s ten concise pieces, each depicting a tree native to Britain where I live. It doesn’t take a long walk or bike ride to find an example of each of these close to my home.
The opener, The Squirrel’s Nuts (Quercus), describes the greatest of all British trees, the mighty oak. Not only are these trees absolutely gorgeous, they support entire eco-systems of life. including, squirrels, who just love digging up my lawn and burying the acorns.
Wind In The Pipes (Pinus Sylvestris) is an ode to those gracefully tall and wavy Scots Pines. There’s nothing quite like lying back under a Scots Pine canopy on a bright day with a light wind, watching them sway a million miles up in the sky. Their form reminded me of organ pipes, which led me to the bagpipes, and the idea of the reel.
Tea Dance of the Boundary (Salix Babylonica) captures the sweeping swoosh of the weeping willows that so often line boundaries of village cricket greens. They like water, and so they’re also frequently alongside our great rivers. This willow wants to join in with the cricket and have tea and cake.
Scandi Wall Print (Betula Pendula) is a painting of a clump of silver birch, reaching thin and straight-ish to the sky, but very happy to wind their way through whatever gap is appropriate to get to the light. Ubiquitous in a million twentieth century prints mass-produced by well-known Swedish furniture stores, these guys are quietly everywhere.
Slow Walk In The Churchyard (Taxus Baccata) is the old man of the pack – the slow growing and persistent yew. It’s not fussy, but won’t let anything else grow under it. Don’t eat the berries or it’ll be your funeral next.
Hedge Fun (Carpinus) recognises the importance of how we use some of our great trees as successful green walls. The Hornbeam Hedge is for all seasons: beautiful greens in the summer, and outstanding rustles of crisp brown throughout the winter. And great for nesting.
Blimey (Tilia X Europea) captures all those sticky droplets of goo that fall on your car when you park under a lime. Not the citrus one – the one that sprouts everywhere. The insects love them, and it is the aphids that drop the goo, not the tree.
Life’s a Beech (Fagus) – the queen of the forest with its fantastic palette of colours throughout the year. A truly beautiful tree in all its shapes, sizes and forms. Sit back and marvel at it.
Fermentation (Sambucus Nigra) gives us Elderflower champagne, and if you’re as adventurous as my dad was, elderflower wine: strong and pungent, the way he made it. Gorgeous flowers, with some incredibly powerful pollen that makes my face run.
And to finish the pack, we have to have a Christmas Tree Hunt (Picea Abies). Every year, we have always taken the kids to the farm to dig up our own – a real family adventure racing around to select the one of perfect size and shape, and then ruthless put the spade in.
Players
Aboretum performed by Steve Chowne.
Remastered for 2025 and available on all good streaming platforms.
Steve Chowne Music 