Del Silencio Brota Un Árbol by Eric Estrada Valadez

Piece: Del Silencio Brota Un Árbol (Runner-Up for the 2024 Black Bayou Composition Award)
Composer: Eric Estrada Valadez
Performers: Lea Baumert-Patterson, Trevor Davis, Rebeca Lemos Gonzalez, Martha Muehleisen, Diana Thacher
Conductor: Christopher Prosser
Event: 8th New Music on the Bayou Festival
Date: June 7, 2024
Location: Lincoln Parish Library Events Center, Ruston, Louisiana
Video: Joseph Ham
Audio: Westly Heflin
Notes: Trees stand as poignant symbols of our inherent connection to nature. Their profound silence, unwavering connection to the earth, and the melodies produced as the wind rustles through their branches, have consistently held a mesmerizing effect on me. After reading Richard Powers' "The Overstory," a novel whose central protagonists are trees, I was inspired to compose a piece about the life cycle of a tree. The musical themes symbolize the stages of a tree's development, ultimately culminating in its return as a seedling. Each section mirrors a chapter in Power’s book and is coupled with poetic verses of Mexican poets such as Octavio Paz, Jaime Sabines, and José Emilio Pacheco. The degradation of land ecosystems and the accelerating cost of climate change, remind us that nature is not merely a resource to be exploited. Trees and their critical entanglement with life on earth, shape our surroundings, color our daily experiences and underscore the limits of survival and threatening impact of the human project. This piece is a small tribute to one of nature's most remarkable inventions.