Premiere: Loop38, March 7, 2024 at Stephen F. Austin State University and May 22nd, 2024 at MATCH

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Duration:  ca. 60'

Instrumentation: 

trp, hrn, tbn, 2 vlns, vla, vlc, cb, perc, fixed audio/video

Program Note:

The longleaf pine forest is an ecosystem that was once spread throughout ninety million acres of the American Southeast including rural East Texas. Now, only five million acres remain, with under fifty thousand in Texas. It is a delicate ecosystem that must be maintained with frequent fires that clear out other species and create an open, majestic savannah habitat home to endangered species including the red cockaded woodpecker. Commissioned by Houston-based ensemble Loop38, this piece tells the story of this unparalleled tree: its flourishing through natural and indigenous manmade fires, its use to make turpentine during the early settlement days, its widespread destruction at the hands of the lumber barons and sawmills of the early 20th century, and its rebirth with the advent of responsible forestry and prescribed fires. The piece weaves together a tapestry of virtuosic brass features, ambisonic field recordings captured in longleaf forests, videos of longleaf habitats, found sounds, and historical photographs and videos from the East Texas Digital Archive, the Texas Archive of the Moving Image, and The National Archives. 

The premiere of Longleaf was followed by a Q+A and guided forest walk with Shawn Benedict of the Nature Conservancy's Roy E. Larsen Sandyland Sanctuary. For more information and to support the cause of longleaf pine, visit the Texas Longleaf Team's website. To learn more about Loop38's involvement on the project, click here.