A string quartet written for the 2022 Denver Botanic Garden's Landline Residency which examines seven natural features found in Colorado.

Performed by: The Playground Ensemble String Quartet
Recorded by: Mighty Fine Productions

Shades of Colorado

It is a lively beast, darting out from its perch in the top of oaks at the slightest provocation. 
- J. A. Allen

The first movement of Shades of Colorado, a string quartet written for the 2022 Denver Botanic Garden's Landline Residency.  

Based on the Colorado state insect, the Colorado Hairstreak Butterfly, who spends its entire life upon a single Gambel Oak.  The viola and cello act as the tree with the violins as territorial butterflies who battle each other, spiraling upward.

Performed by: The Playground Ensemble String Quartet
Recorded by: Mighty Fine Productions

I. A Life In Place

Within moments, the eeriness gives way to terror as the locusts begin to descent on the family’s homestead.
- Jeffrey A. Lockwood describing Laura Ingalls Wilder

The second movement of Shades of Colorado, a string quartet written for the 2022 Denver Botanic Garden's Landline Residency.

Using Jeffrey A. Lockwood’s Locust as a guide, this improvised movement also has a structure of a book with 9 chapters.  Each chapter has inspiration from a separate stage of infestation that roams from the clouds of locusts drawing near, the panic and fear with the realization of the locust, and the despair of watching the feeding frenzy that follows.  It ends with the question of the legacy of the locust and the possibility that what was devastation for the new settlers on the frames was also catastrophic for the health of the Great Plains.

Performed by: The Playground Ensemble String Quartet
Recorded by: Mighty Fine Productions

II. Dark Clouds

The third movement of Shades of Colorado, a string quartet written for the 2022 Denver Botanic Garden's Landline Residency.  

The Colorado River Compact established in 1922 was based in a miscalculation of the average water flow divided the water to 7 states and Mexico.  Each instrument takes the role and percentage of two of its dividends and is taken away.  The Colorado River has been listed multiple times in the “10 Most Endangered Rivers” List and at the time of writing the movement, no longer reached the end of its path, the Gulf of California. 

Performed by: The Playground Ensemble String Quartet
Recorded by: Mighty Fine Productions

III. A River At The Edge Of Extinction

Live in the twilight between life and death…
- Thomas Pakenham

The fifth movement of Shades of Colorado, a string quartet written for the 2022 Denver Botanic Garden's Landline Residency.  

Based on the Bristlecone Pine, one of the oldest trees in the world with the oldest in Colorado being roughly 2,500 years. They live in one of the most extreme environments in the world, battling against constant wind and weather. The oldest trees are mostly dead but are sustained by a single strip of bark from roots to branch. This movement places the patient song of the tree in the face of endless wind. 

Performed by: The Playground Ensemble String Quartet
Recorded by: Mighty Fine Productions

V. In Defiance Of Wind

The fourth movement of Shades of Colorado, a string quartet written for the 2022 Denver Botanic Garden's Landline Residency.

The Montezuma Orchard Restoration Project is dedicated to the preservation and continuation of Colorado’s Heritage Apples.  Of the over 500 varietals available in 1922, 196, less than 50 percent, remain in the state. This movement celebrates, and lists, those 196 varietals.

Performed by: The Playground Ensemble String Quartet
Recorded by: Mighty Fine Productions

IV. 196 Flavors

The life history of many of our common plants, birds, insects, and mammals yet remains to be truly written.
- William Gibson

The sixth movement of Shades of Colorado, a string quartet written for the 2022 Denver Botanic Garden's Landline Residency.  

Exploring different types of plant and insect relationships, this improvised movement in the style of a 3rd grade presentation calls back to the roles of the first movement with the violins acting as insects and the viola and cello playing plants.

Performed by: The Playground Ensemble String Quartet
Recorded by: Mighty Fine Productions

VI. On Relationships

The greatest thing a human soul ever does in this world is to see something…
- John Ruskin

The seventh and final movement of Shades of Colorado, a string quartet written for the 2022 Denver Botanic Garden's Landline Residency.

While at the Denver Botanic Gardens, I asked people I encountered what word they would use to describe the gardens.  The word which stuck with me most was “hope”. This movement calls back to the previous six to learn from history, study the present, and work toward the future. 

Performed by: The Playground Ensemble String Quartet
Recorded by: Mighty Fine Productions

VII. The Work Of Hope

Also known as George. A Montana-born freelance composer and teacher; gardener and reader; thinker and walker. 

Photo Credit: Sonya Harris

Shades of Colorado

Jessi Harvey