Fl-utter-ances (Tree Songs)

by Jane Pitt with Lorna Rees

Audio and Visual Description

Event taking place on Saturday 15th and Sunday 16th September 2018, as part of the Coastal Encounters artwork trail, Boscombe Cliff Gardens.

Visual

Tree Songs is accessible off the path through Boscombe Cliff Gardens. Arriving from the West you will first discover five sun loungers, the kind you would normally find on the beach made of white plastic with blue covers, set amongst a group of trees. Underfoot there will be dry leaf mould and grass. Walk amongst the trees. Choose a sun lounger and relax back, take a few minutes to enjoy the trees and environment around you. Three of the sun-loungers have a small sound system hidden underneath the headrest quietly playing a mixture of sounds from nature, music and spoken word.

Continue moving west to discover seven more sun loungers placed along the grass. Three of these have speakers emitting sound from them and have printed tables, showing the ‘ear tree design’ (detailed on page 2), inviting you to lie down and listen. The four remaining loungers have printed labels inviting you to lie down, look up & listen to the world around you. Both options are inviting you to drift, dream and tune in to the moment. Following the trail of sun-loungers westwards you will arrive at a circle of trees with a big round convex mirror (60cm diameter) mounted up on a tree at the entrance.

Step inside the clearing to view the circle of trees reflected in five differently angled circular convex mirrors. The ground is soft and covered with leaf mould. The five round convex mirrors are placed around the space, different sounds, words or music will play from each one throughout the afternoon. At 1:15pm, 3:15 & 5:15pm Lorna Rees a female singer (5”2, slim build, dark brown hair) will appear standing inside the circle of trees wearing a white and blue dress (detailed on page 2). She will sing her song ‘Harkee’ accompanied by a young woman sitting on a chair playing a cello. They will perform for 10 minutes each time. The song text is included on page 3 of this document, along with a glossary for some of the more unusual words, printed copies will be available to view at the site.

Audio

The sounds you can hear while lying on the sun-loungers and coming from the mirrors, installed amongst the trees in Boscombe Cliff Gardens, are created from a combination of digital recordings of the wind whispering and blowing through tree leaves, static bird calls (including wood pigeons and a blackbird), Pipistrelle Bats echo-locating (recorded via a bat detector) and adult female voices singing and speaking. The ‘Harkee Song’ and the ‘Harkee Tree Zang’ spoken word poetry are composed especially by Jane Pitt and Lorna Rees for the Inside Out Dorset Festival using a variety of English dialect words, nature facts, sound words and phonetic descriptions to describe their experience. The words and sounds were put together by the artists with the participants from Cherry Tree Plant Nursery, Bournemouth where they led workshops earlier in the year. Jane’s spoken word poetry and Lorna’s song describe the experience of spending time underneath a particular Black Poplar Tree located on the Stour Valley Nature Reserve on the path next door to Cherry Tree Plant Nursery (off Northbourne Roundabout, Bournemouth, BH10 7DA). One of the participants named it the Breezy Tree because the wind always seems to be moving its leaves around, it’s always moving like the waves on the ocean. Others were drawn to the deeply textured bark of the tree, while some responded to the sense of the tree as a superorganism connected to the ecosystem and biodiversity of the place through its roots, trunk, branches and leaves. We were all transported upwards into the leaf canopy through our imaginations.

The audio recordings will be playing continuously during the festival between 12-6pm on Sat 15th & Sun 16th 2018. There will be three live performances of the ‘Harkee Song’ by Lorna Rees (singer) and Laura Reid (Cellist) amongst the circle of trees on both days at 1:15pm, 3:15pm & 5:15pm. They will perform acoustically in a melodious folk style.

‘Ear Tree Design’

The Ear Tree image is featured on sun-lounger tags. It is a hand drawn image of a human ear in orange and dark blue colours, layered over a blue image of a Black Poplar tree. The tree’s routes are layered over the blue tree, in gold, the image was made using the Risograph printing process.

The Singer’s Dress (worn by Lorna Rees)

Is a white dress with the Ear Tree Design image (above) printed in a repeat pattern. The dress is a fitted bodice with a scoop neck and three-quarter length sleeves. From a fitted waistband, the skirt of the dress is a full A-line shape; with a 1950’s style appearance.

‘Harkee Tree Zang’ - text to poem spoken by Jane Pitt

HARKEE TREE ZANG WIFFLE

huhsssch-huhsssch-huhsssch-tuhp'tp-huhsssch

HARKEE TREE ZANG

SOOTHERING SUSURRATIONS LIFT YOU LEAF-WHELMED

SHIFTDRIFT

HARKEE TREE ZANGBOSKY MURMURS WAFT

SLIPSTREAMSAPCRACKLE

DEEP DELTAS of RIPPLED BARKBURR CLUSTERS

HARKEE TREE ZANG

ENDLESS SPREADRUSHING FRONDSOVER WOVEN

KIVVERING CLATTERRUSTLE TIPSKISS

HARKEE TREE ZANGWHISPERED OCEANBILLOWS ALOFT

SWELLS ROIL it's PARASOL

CONFLUENCE OF SIGHS

BREATHE IN …..BREATHE OUT …..

HARKEE LISTERSTREE TRANSMISSIONS

SUPERORGANISM

POPULUS NIGRA BETULIFOLIA

BLACK POPLARBREEZY TREE

RARER THAN A GIANT PANDADRAWSUSUP

THRESHOLD BETWEEN WORLDS

HARKEE TREE ZANG

FLECK SPECK MOTE SEED WISP

PIPISTRELLES PULSEMOTHS DUSTY KISS

HARKEE SKYMAROOTING LISTERS

OOO-W00 – OROO-COOO – SKAAK' TSIU 'KRAAAH TSIU TSEE TSEE SIRRUP

HARKEE TREE ZANG

huhsssch-huhsssch-huhsssch-tuhp'tp-huhsssch

SOOTHERING SUSURRATIONS

SHIFTDRIFT

TREMBLING WAVELENGTHS

SUPERORGANISM

ARBORHARBOURHOPE

‘Harkee Song’

(text composed and sung by Lorna Rees, original text Jane Pitt)

Harkee, wiffle

Harkee, Sens-ohr-ree

Harkee

And husshh

And zingen

Harkee, wiffle

Harkee, Sens-ohr-ree

Harkee

And husshh

And zingen

Suthering

Psithurism

And zingen

zang and zingen

Voooo aaaaAAAAshhhhh shhhch shhhch shhhch

Phw phw

arkies

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FL-UTTER-ANCES (TREE SONGS) - UNUSUAL WORDS GLOSSARY

ARBOR = a leafy, shady recess formed by tree branches, shrubs, etc.

ARKIES = Ears (English dialect)

BOSKY = Covered by trees or bushes; wooded

BURR = two meanings: Blossom and rough edge

BREEZY TREE = our nick name for the Black Poplar Tree

HARKEE = listen to (English dialect)

HOPE = word play combining the usual optimistic sense of the word 'hope' and the English dialect term meaning 'Harbour' or place of anchorage for ships.

huhsssch-huhsssch-huhsssch-tuhp'tp-huhsssch = phonetic description of the sound of wind through a tree

KIVVERING = shivering (English dialect)

OOO-W00 – OROO-COOO – SKAAK' TSIU 'KRAAAH TSIU TSEE TSEE SIRRUP = phonetic descriptions of the calls of the Collar Dove, Wood Pigeon, Jay, Long Tailed Tit, Blue Tit, birds all found around the site.

Phw phw = phonetic description of a Pigeon taking off in flight

POPULUS NIGRA var. BETULIFOLIA = Latin name for the Black Poplar Tree

PSITHURISM = The sound of rustling leaves or wind in the trees.

RARER THAN A GIANT PANDA= the Black Poplar tree has become very rare in the UK, this is a quote cited in this newspaper article: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/gallery/2010/jan/26/saving-black-poplar-trees

SUTHERING = the sighing of the wind (pronounced SOOTHERING)

SEN-SOHR-REE = phonetic spelling of 'sensory'

SUPERORGANISM = A group or association of organisms which behaves in some respect like a single organism; a complex system consisting of a large number of organisms which itself behaves as if it were an organic whole, an ecosystem, etc.

SKYMAROOTING = Seeking something; rambling; expectant at what might be around the corner (english dialect)

Voooo aaaaAAAAshhhhh shhhch shhhch shhhch = phonetic description of a dry wind through trees

WIFFLE = describing a wind that comes in gusts (english dialect)

ZANG = song (english dialect)

ZINGEN = sing (english dialect)

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