Day 5: Diaphanous Light

Arnold Arboretum, 6:45am-7:45am
bluish-white almost-mist, fine drizzle

Today was a shrouded, half-lit kind of day, and as I followed little bird sounds I discovered magical places in the under-foliage world...

Beneath trees and large shrubs we are protected from the drizzle. While the birds play hide-and-seek (falling silent upon my clumsy human approach), I'm still in on their secret: in addition to being dry here, the filtered light creates a kind of enchanted environment-- muted, dark, intense.

Three years I've been frequenting the Arboretum, yet in today's light, and at today's walking pace, it is brand-new. An unfamiliar bridge appears out of nowhere. The shelter of a grove of Japanese maple trees delights me. A sign draws my attention to, and discourages me from climbing, a gloriously wise River Birch, whose leggy branches are gnarled with heavy-yet-papery bark curlicues.

Sometimes the bird of the day finds me. As I left the Japanese maples, I was stopped in my tracks by a bird calling out right above my head, a kind of dove.

Unfortunately, it then flew a bit further away, so this just a faint excerpt:


The tree my bird picked was another surprise - a cork tree, laden with little black berries. As I gazed skywards, I realized its branches held many birds, quietly feasting. And more and more kept arriving. Had they been large black crows instead of little robins and sparrows, it would have been just like a scene from Hitchcock.

My musical idea for the day: re-create the experience of following a bird into an enchanted, dark grove by using two loops (one regular, one muted) overlaid with bird melody.