Roger O'Donnell
Quieter Trees

a suite of six songs for piano and string orchestra composed and performed by Roger O'Donnell, inspired by a painting by David Hockney
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We trust that the two demo options for each song suffice as an objective introduction to Quieter Trees, a wonderful new suite of six songs for piano and string orchestra by British composer, Roger O'Donnell.
"live": live performance by O'Donnell with the Corktown Chamber Orchestra
"synth": the composer's original orchestration with synthesized strings

1. Charlie's Song (strings alone) live | synth
2. The Fallen Dress (piano/strings) live | synth
3. Le sentier secrete (piano/strings) live | synth
4. The Quiet Tree (piano/strings) live | synth
5. Daffodil Dance (piano/strings) live | synth
6. Small Buildings (piano/strings) live | synth

spacer ROGER O'DONNELL
British composer/musician Roger O’Donnell is known as a pop keyboard legend, most notably for his work as a member of The Cure who he recently re-joined for an extended world tour.
Packed house over multiple nights in Sydney, Los Angeles, NYC (3 nights, SRO at the Beacon), and Royal Albert Hall recently marked the beginning of a tour of major venues and festivals throughout the world for the next 2 years. A perfect scenerio for Quieter Trees.

QUIETER TREES
Following a spiritually stimulating performance with Corktown Chamber Orchestra members in 2010, Music Director Paul McCulloch asked the composer to consider writing a piece for the orchestra.
Shortly after, Roger visited London's Tate Gallery to see a work by one of his favourite artists, renown British painter David Hockney. Roger elaborates, "I sat in front of Bigger Trees Near Warter which is a gargantuan painting about 15 metres wide, and thought how fantastic it would be to write a similarly huge piece of music. It was then that I realized my huge piece of music would be for the chamber orchestra and what better inspiration than the painting in front of me."

"My aim was to describe the painting in music with the voices of a chamber orchestra. Whenever you create something there is always an inspiration, sometimes it is subconscious, sometimes more obvious and in this case more of a direct translation. An artist of course paints with a brush and mixes colours, in this case Mr. Hockney referenced an actual landscape and sat in front of it for hours sketching and painting. We paint with notes and harmonies and melody and rhythm. There is not always an obvious correlation. When an artist sees a clear blue sky he looks for his blue but where do we look?"

“So, with these abstract ideas yet firm images in mind I began to compose, soon realizing that literal description of the painting was not possible and that maybe I should try to convey the painting's mood rather than its imagery. Each of the 6 pieces that make up the suite describe a different section of the painting starting at the top and then downward and across. The first describes from the the sky (Charlie’s Song) and the last, the Small Buildings in the painting's lower right.

"Hockney's painting was ultimately assembled as a grid of fifty 5'x4' individual canvases that that the artist would take to the location each day to work on individually. As the painting was of trees in early Spring, there was an urgency to Mr Hockney’s work as the leaves would return to the trees and the whole scene would change. Coincidentally I started work on the music at exactly the same time of year so I too felt the urgency of the approaching Spring. I was also aware of the painting being in sections and the repetition of the canvasses, I used repetition widely across all movements of the composition."

Mr. Hockney suggests, "It is very good advice to believe only what an artist does, rather than what he says about his work."

Listeners are reminded that the Corktown Chamber Orchestra with whom Roger O'Donnell played on live demos is a collective of non-professional musicians.
Please filter the inevitable pitch, balance and performance imperfections that one might expect from an amateur ensemble.
In contrast, the composer's piano playing is beautifully nuanced throughout the suite which was recorded live by Keith Moryama at Little Trinity Church, Toronto on November 3, 2011 from an orchestration of the score by Toronto musician, Alex Cheung.




NEXT STEPS
Produce, release and promote a recording featuring Roger O'Donnell performing with a noteworthy ensemble.

Tour the work: Roger O'Donnell performing with orchestras throughout the world.

Publish the score and parts for ensembles to perform with pianists of their choosing.




CONTACT
  Stephen McNie | Toronto
smcnie@stevius.com
416 707 8288

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