Australian Music Centre | Breaking sound barriers

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Work Overview

Songs From A Magical Garden (forward in the score)

When you spent a lot of time in the garden, you get immersed in the beautiful life of the trees, plants, birds, insects, and all the other live forms that surround you. Songs From A Magical Garden depicts four trees from our garden that are special to me:

1. 'Alba' is the mother tree in the centre of the garden with magnificent white mulberries. Over the years, Alba has fed many kinds of birds, flying foxes, possums, etc. Her brunches are always full of happy noises from all the'customers',who come to feast on her plentiful fruit offerings. She also provides a shelter for many young birds who often take a nap in the safety of her bushy brunches. But Alba also looks after other trees through her vast root system that has been enriched by the wonderful relationship with fungi - a 'mycorrhizal symphony'- delivering extra nutrients to trees and plant that need it. One of Alba's branches has even reached out all the way to the beehive, as if to 'put her hand' around the hard-working bees to protect them and say thank you for pollinating all the trees and plants in the garden.

2.'Stella' is the only cherry tree in the garden, located not far from Alba.When Stella blossoms, the site is magnificent, and she looks like a young bride dressed in white. And as if this wasn't enough, she gets even prettier when all the bees descend on her, giving her extra 'jewellery', accompanied by happy buzzing of the bees. Recently, Stella has had to overcome attacks from unwanted pests. But she is strong and will recover and bring fruit to all the keen birds landing on her top brunches; we will harvest fruit from the lower brunches.We don't mind sharing - there is plenty for everyone.

3.'Petta', the pinenut tree is one of the tallest and mightiest trees in the garden providing shelter for many regular visitors, especially the cockatoos who like to crack the cones open and eat the nuts. Being naughty, loud, and distractive, the cockies drop half-finished cones on the ground, which is great for us, as we could never reach the cones at the top, and this gives us some of the nuts as well. Petta and Alba are touching brunches and provide plentiful amount of shade and cool underneath, which is reminiscent of being in a pine forest. This is especially welcome on hot summers days, when many creatures find refuge from the unbearable heat in the shade. Including us. There is also a certain mystery about Petta, which I cannot explain - as if centuries of tree wisdom were looking down at me and judging me when I am in her presence. I would like to think that in the forest, Petta would be a royal tree.

4.'Manny' the gum tree, is the garden's tall young boy, proudly reaching the sky with his top brunches. Manny has grown from a tiny plant into one of the tallest three in the garden in no time and I imagine that as any young boy, he needs to pop his head up above all the trees to see what is going on. It is particularly pleasant to look at Manny in windy weather,when the green colours of his leaves sparkle in beautiful ballet-like movements.

Marián Budoš,December 2022

Work Details

Year: 2022

Instrumentation: Guitar.

Duration: 17 min.

Difficulty: Advanced

Contents note: I. 'Alba' -- II.'Stella' -- III.'Petta' -- IV.'Manny'.

Commission note: commissioned by Ondrej Veselý

First performance: 24 May 23. Koncert v Galerii (Concert in a Galery), Galeria umelcov Spisa, Slovakia

Contribute submitted styles, genres, influences, etc:

Movements 1 and 2 reminiscent of Impressionism, Mvt. 3 is dark and broody with relentless throbbing pedal notes in the bass (6th string) - this movement does not get to use strings 1, 2 and 3 at all. Mvt 4 is a cheerful and youthful sounding.