Melia Watras

MELIA WATRAS: BARKING UP WHICH TREE?
for any instrument(s) (2019)

Graphic Score: concept and drawing (colored pencil on plane tree bark) by Melia Watras, photography by Michelle Smith-Lewis

World Premiere: video below

Duration: varies with each performance

Program Notes:
One block north of my house, the street is lined with plane trees. One sunny September day, I noticed lots of beautiful bark that had fallen from those trees into the street and onto the sidewalk. I was moved by the elegant and detailed shapes. The pieces lying next to each other made me think of a complex archipelago with secret markings revealed. In my fantasy, a plane tree had created an entire separate world inside itself, leaving us symbols that we could interpret through music.

The resulting piece, Barking up which tree?, is a graphic score composition. I drew on the bark, and in forming the symbols I looked to neume notation, specifically a Beneventan manuscript from the late 1000s to the early 1100s, manuscripts of the Bach Cello Suites, BWV 1007-1012, as well as other musical figures, sometimes interpreted through a whimsical lens. My cherished friend, Michelle Smith-Lewis, then took a series of images for the player to use.

The performer is encouraged to go on a journey of the archipelago. Short guidelines are provided, asking the player to make decisions on interpretation of the symbols, textures, outlines and curvatures of the islands they visit, as well as the chiaroscuro in Michelle’s photos.

Barking up which tree? is dedicated to the marvelous artists, percussionist Bonnie Whiting and photographer Michelle Smith-Lewis.

—Melia Watras