Watch the YouTube video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNhlEgql4yA

Brian Mangrum, horn
Alexander Ramazanov, trumpet
Cameron Kerl, trombone
Caitlin Mehrtens, harp
Graeme Francis, percussion
Jacob Schafer, violin
Cindy Ahn, violin
Sergein Yap, viola
Chris Ellis, cello
Max Winningham, double bass
Craig Hauschildt, conductor

Recorded in Cole Hall at Stephen F. Austin State University, March 8, 2024. Music recorded by Byron Reinhardt, Katharyn Phillips, Sophia Nunez, and Sound Recording Services at SFASU. Recording session assistance by Blake Buehler and JJ Bartley.

Environmental video and audio soundscapes recorded by Ben Morris using a Canon M50 and Zoom H3-VR at Roy E. Larsen Sandyland Sanctuary, Boykin Springs at Angelina National Forest, Kisatchie National Forest, Big Thicket National Preserve Sundew and Turkey Creek Units, and Stephen F. Austin State University Native Plant Center.

Additional archival footage and audio:
Smokey Bear PSAs from the U.S. Forest Service, released via the Internet Archive (archive.org) 
Selected bird calls from the Cornell Macaulay Library (https://www.macaulaylibrary.org/)
Historical logging footage from Texas Archive of the Moving Image (https://texasarchive.org/) 
Historical photographs from the East Texas Digital Archives at Stephen F. Austin State University (https://digital.sfasu.edu/) 
Pond5 and Adobe Stock

This project is generously funded by Mid-America Arts Alliance, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the states arts agencies of Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Texas. Additional support from the Texas Commission on the Arts, The Nature Conservancy in Texas, Stephen F. Austin State University Cole Fine Arts Faculty Excellence and School of Music Professional Development Grants, The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, and the City of Houston.

Featuring Shawn Benedict and Pedro Hernandez of the Nature Conservancy’s Roy E. Larsen Sandyland Sanctuary.

Special Thanks to Jenny Sanders and the Texas Longleaf Team, MATCH (Midtown Arts and Theater Center Houston), and Nathan Nabb and Dean Gary Wurtz at Stephen F. Austin State University.

Arts and Culture Texas Feature: http://artsandculturetx.com/fire-music-loop38-makes-an-impact-with-new-music-for-our-times/

Longleaf

This is an excerpt from my multimedia work, "Longleaf," that evokes a natural lightning burn of a longleaf pine forest. 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. 

Brian Mangrum, horn
Alexander Ramazanov, trumpet
Cameron Kerl, trombone
Caitlin Mehrtens, harp
Graeme Francis, percussion
Jacob Schafer, violin
Cindy Ahn, violin
Sergein Yap, viola
Chris Ellis, cello
Max Winningham, double bass
Craig Hauschildt, conductor

Recorded in Cole Hall at Stephen F. Austin State University, March 8, 2024. Music recorded by Byron Reinhardt, Katharyn Phillips, Sophia Nunez, and Sound Recording Services at SFASU. Recording session assistance by Blake Buehler and JJ Bartley.

Environmental video and audio soundscapes recorded by Ben Morris using a Canon M50 and Zoom H3-VR at Roy E. Larsen Sandyland Sanctuary, Boykin Springs at Angelina National Forest, Kisatchie National Forest, Big Thicket National Preserve Sundew and Turkey Creek Units, and Stephen F. Austin State University Native Plant Center.

To order score and parts, please visit: https://www.benmorrismusic.com/longleaf

To watch a score video, visit here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svNBxB8NcIA

To watch the entire video, visit here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNhlEgql4yA

Lightning Burn (from Longleaf)

This is an excerpt from my multimedia work, "Longleaf," depicting a dawn chorus in a longleaf pine forest. 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. 

Brian Mangrum, horn
Alexander Ramazanov, trumpet
Cameron Kerl, trombone
Caitlin Mehrtens, harp
Graeme Francis, percussion
Jacob Schafer, violin
Cindy Ahn, violin
Sergein Yap, viola
Chris Ellis, cello
Max Winningham, double bass
Craig Hauschildt, conductor

Recorded in Cole Hall at Stephen F. Austin State University, March 8, 2024. Music recorded by Byron Reinhardt, Katharyn Phillips, Sophia Nunez, and Sound Recording Services at SFASU. Recording session assistance by Blake Buehler and JJ Bartley.

Environmental video and audio soundscapes recorded by Ben Morris using a Canon M50 and Zoom H3-VR at Roy E. Larsen Sandyland Sanctuary, Boykin Springs at Angelina National Forest, Kisatchie National Forest, Big Thicket National Preserve Sundew and Turkey Creek Units, and Stephen F. Austin State University Native Plant Center.

To order score and parts, please visit: https://www.benmorrismusic.com/longleaf

To watch the entire piece on YouTube, visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNhlEgql4yA

Dawn Chorus (from Longleaf)

Ben and Louann Williams are among a movement of private landowners slowly but surely reestablishing longleaf pine forests. 

Historically, longleaf pine was THE pine of the Southern United States. Its ecosystem once dominated the landscape from southeast Virginia, extending down through Florida, and west to Texas. Early settlers and naturalists marveled at the majestic landscape helmed by the longleaf pine, and according to the Longleaf Pine Alliance, the longleaf “was literally the tree that built the South.” But over 150 years of human settlement and activity, the longleaf pine forests fragmented and waned. Today less than 1% of the South’s natural stands remain, representing one of the most severe cases of ecosystem loss in the world.

Perhaps private landowners like Ben and Louann can serve as models for renewing this nearly extinct landscape.

Visit www.watershedradio.com for more.


The Tree that Built the South

What you need to know about Longleaf Pines

EarthTalk Heart of the Earth - Longleaf Pines

Connor and Jack look at a poem with a long title (too long to fit in the title of this podcast!). They discuss climate change, neoliberalism, the dark heart of the human character, and the way the poem builds to its conclusion.

Find us on Facebook at: facebook.com/closetalking
 Find us on Twitter at: twitter.com/closetalking 
Find us on Instagram: @closetalkingpoetry
You can always send us an e-mail with thoughts on this or any of our previous podcasts, as well as suggestions for future shows, at closetalkingpoetry@gmail.com.

Letter to the Person Who Carved His Initials into the Oldest Living Longleaf Pine in North America
By: Matthew Olzmann

				-Southern Pines, NC

Tell me what it’s like to live without
curiosity, without awe. To sail
on clear water, rolling your eyes
at the kelp reefs swaying
beneath you, ignoring the flicker
of mermaid scales in the mist,
looking at the world and feeling
only boredom. To stand
on the precipice of some wild valley,
the eagles circling, a herd of caribou
booming below, and to yawn
with indifference. To discover
something primordial and holy.
To have the smell of the earth
welcome you to everywhere.
To take it all in, and then,
to reach for your knife.

Episode #080 Letter to the Person Who Carved His Initials into the Oldest... - Matthew Olzmann

Ben Morris is a composer whose music tells unconventional stories and crosses genre boundaries. He is Assistant Professor of Composition at Stephen F. Austin State University.

Close Talking is a poetry podcast hosted by good friends Connor Stratton and Jack Rossiter-Munley. In each episode the two read a poem and discuss at length. The pop culture references fly as freely as the literary theories. Close Talking is a poetry podcast anyone can enjoy.

Watershed is a podcast exploring Florida in flux. We feature character-driven, sound-rich stories from across the Sunshine State about Floridian culture and our changing environment. 

Learn more at www.watershedradio.com

Popular tracks tagged #longleaf