#4348, With Pete M. Wyer

British composer and musician Pete M. Wyer presents his latest, The Sky Beneath Our Feet, a new 72-channel written for an outdoor installation at Descanso Gardens in California (and mixed down to two channels.) From London, Pete joins John (at home) to talk about it.

Wyer’s works often involve storytelling and innovation, especially in the area of immersive environmental sound and The Sky Beneath Our Feet is the biggest project he’s done to date. Inspired by the book, The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Woelleben and the coast live oaks at Descanso Gardens, this choral and instrumental composition takes into account how trees might have experienced the music.

Wyer says that for these immersive multi-channel works, he literally writes with a map, the better to regionalize and mobilize small groups of the choir, who will be heard in physically different locations. He multi-tracks pods of singers, and groups them over the 72 channels. There are also the instruments – which include flutes, clarinets, strings, trumpet, piano, guitar, electric bass and synths, similarly deployed.

There are certain linguistic challenges of bringing trees to life in the music, and the work is sung in English, Aquitanian, Old Norse, and Finnish, which Wyer thinks of as sounding both singable and mysterious. [Note: Lord of the Rings fans might already know that Tolkien used Finnish as a base for the Elvin language.] Another of the movements in the work comes from slowed-down recordings of birdsong (the common blackbird which has an arpeggio in its call), transcribed for choir.

Listen to several portions of the work, The Sky Beneath Our Feet by Pete M. Wyer, as well as some of his previous installation for New Sounds Live from 2016, Song of the Human, for chorus and iForest.  - Caryn Havlik

Program #4348, With Pete M. Wyer (First aired 4/2/2020)

ARTIST: The Crossing, Donald Nally, conductor
WORK: Pete M. Wyer: Song of the Human - For Now and Only For Now [4:00]
RECORDING: New Sounds Live at Brookfield Place, 10/12/2016
SOURCE: This performance not commercially available
INFO: pmwmusic.com/song-of-the-human

ARTIST: Voices of the Ancient Woods, Orchestra of the Ancient Woods
WORK: Pete M. Wyer: The Sky Beneath Our Feet- Artahe [3:26]
RECORDING: The Sky Beneath Our Feet
SOURCE: petemwyer.bandcamp.com
INFO: descansogardens.org

ARTIST: Voices of the Ancient Woods, Orchestra of the Ancient Woods
WORK: Pete M. Wyer: The Sky Beneath Our Feet- Beorc [4:46]
RECORDING: The Sky Beneath Our Feet
SOURCE: petemwyer.bandcamp.com
INFO: descansogardens.org

ARTIST: Voices of the Ancient Woods, Orchestra of the Ancient Woods
WORK: Pete M. Wyer: The Sky Beneath Our Feet- Mannaz [10:17]
RECORDING: The Sky Beneath Our Feet
SOURCE: soundcloud.com
INFO: pmwmusic.com

ARTIST: Voices of the Ancient Woods, Orchestra of the Ancient Woods
WORK: Pete M. Wyer: The Sky Beneath Our Feet- Thuriaz [2:01]
RECORDING: The Sky Beneath Our Feet
SOURCE: petemwyer.bandcamp.com
INFO: descansogardens.org

ARTIST: Voices of the Ancient Woods, Orchestra of the Ancient Woods
WORK: Pete M. Wyer: The Sky Beneath Our Feet- Euri Ondoren/Kukoistaa [8:13]
RECORDING: The Sky Beneath Our Feet
SOURCE: petemwyer.bandcamp.com
INFO: descansogardens.org

ARTIST: Voices of the Ancient Woods, Orchestra of the Ancient Woods
WORK: Pete M. Wyer: The Sky Beneath Our Feet- Euri Ondoren/Kukoistaa [2:15]
RECORDING: The Sky Beneath Our Feet
SOURCE: petemwyer.bandcamp.com
INFO: descansogardens.org