Description
“What Do the Trees Know” imaginatively portrays swaying limbs and fluttering leaves. Trees are wise too: they patiently grow and endure wind. They stay rooted to the ground and lean into the wind, all the while silently producing buds for the next season. Hagen’s music flows and changes with the text, sometimes like swaying branches in the wind, or hard and accented like an oak. Singers will enjoy exploring the various interpretations.
Performed by May Festival Youth Choir; Matthew Swanson, conductor
Text
What do the trees know?
To bend when all the wild winds blow.
Roots are deep and time is slow.
All we grasp we must let go.
What do the trees know?
Buds can weather ice and snow.
Dark gives way to sunlight’s glow.
Strength and stillness help us grow.
~ Joyce Sidman, used with permission