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"Fusang" is the first section of "Instruments in Trees" (2003), a five-part composition by Cheryl E. Leonard for arboreal materials and upside-down string quartet. The sounds in "Fusang" come from pine branches & driftwood pipeorgan, first bowed, then rubbed with japanese maple leaves; and prickly cherries sliding on cello strings behind a melodic driftwood & pinecone duet. Performed by Tim Blue, A.L. Dentel, Cheryl E. Leonard & Patty Liu.


Fusang - excerpt

"White on White" (2012) by Cheryl E. Leonard. This is an excerpt from the middle (1:43-4:59) of the complete composition, which is 7:39. The piece is scored for three musicians playing amplified Adélie penguin sternum bone, with recordings of bowed penguin bones, rubbed rocks, and sea salt falling on a penguin skull.

In the austral summer of 2008-2009 I traveled to the Antarctic Peninsula and lived and worked at Palmer Research Station on a grant from the National Science Foundation’s Antarctic Artists and Writers Program. During my month at Palmer I explored the local area, searching out and recording natural soundscapes, and collecting natural objects to use as musical instruments. After returning home to America I began work on a set of compositions, Antarctica: Music from the Ice, that combine these elements, and are inspired by aspects of the Antarctic Peninsula’s environments and ecosystems.

"White on White" is the only piece in the set that does not incorporate field recordings. Instead, all sounds are produced by playing bones and rocks from Antarctica. The title invokes snow falling on penguin bones and references the catastrophic decline of Adélie penguin colonies near Palmer Station. 

Over the last 30 or so years the Western Antarctic Peninsula has warmed dramatically, it's once polar ecosystem morphing into a more sub-antarctic one. Rising temperatures are causing changes that, in less than 10 years, will almost certainly result in the extinction of Adélie penguins in the northern portions of the peninsula. First, the amount of sea ice that develops each winter has decreased by over 20 percent. This reduces the availability of the Adélies' favorite foods, silverfish and krill, and deprives them of important feeding and resting platforms near their winter feeding grounds. Secondly, as the previously cold and dry climate has become warmer and wetter, snowfall has increased. Because Adélies build their nests out of stones, more snow shortens the window of time available to raise their young, and ill-timed storms can bury or drown eggs and chicks.

I envision White on White as being set several years in the future, after all the Adélie penguin rookeries on the  islands around Palmer Station have expired. Instead of the raucous kazooing that once filled the air, among the piles of polished stones that comprise abandoned colony sites we hear only wind, snow, and the ghosts of Adélie vocalizations.

White On White (excerpt)

A composition for kelp flute, bowed glass, marsh reeds, and field recordings from Ocean Point, Maine of foghorns and the Atlantic Ocean. This piece was inspired by tidal patterns in estuaries, and time spent at our family cottage in Grimes Cove. "Flood Tide" is dedicated to my Aunt Cathy Johnson.

Flood Tide

Field recording of the Pacific Ocean breaking on a sandy beach at the Tijuana Slough National Wildlife Refuge.

Waves at Tijuana Slough National Wildlife Refuge

Adelie Penguins hanging out on a rocky beach, Torgersen Island, Antarctica

Adelie Penguins at the Beach

Underwater recording of bergy bits melting in Hero Inlet near Palmer Station, Antarctica

Ice melting in Hero Inlet

A babbling streamlet flowing into Minaret Lake, Ansel Adams Wilderness,California

Minaret Streamlet

Bats echolocating at the Site Six boat launch, Lake Havasu City, Arizona. Recorded through a bat detector in order to bring the sounds down into human hearing range. I think these bats are Yuma myotis.

Bats at Lake Havasu

for 14 accordions (most of them toy accordions)
Composed by Cheryl E. Leonard, 1996
Performed by Cheryl E. Leonard & Morgan Guberman 

Breathing, floating, flying, gasping, groaning, lilting... on a ship, on a swing, in a hammock... through the air, underwater, in space... When performed live, the accordionists are suspended from the ceiling above and around the audience and swing slowly back and forth as they play.
Copyright 2002 Great Hoary Marmot Music. All rights reserved.

Firn

Dream About Flying

Birds in the eucalypt forest, ANU Kioloa Campus, New South Wales Australia, September 2015

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chiaki miura

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