Title: Forest Listening Rooms (2021)

Ensemble: flute, 2 bass clarinets, 2 alto saxophones, piano, vibraphone, string quartet (flexible score)

Duration: 13:43

Note: If you would like to perform this piece, please contact me (brian@brianharnetty.com) and I will send you the accompanying recording.

Forest Listening Rooms is a product of an eleven-year relationship developed with communities in Appalachian Ohio who live within the Wayne National Forest. It began with ethnographic research, followed by acquaintances and then friendships, and continues now with a deep admiration for the land and the people who live there.

For the past three years, I have been leading local residents out into the forest to critically listen to its past and present, and to engage in both contemplation and conversation through listening. We take sound walks, listen in silence, listen to archival and contemporary recordings of other residents, and then talk with one another about the land.

On this recording, you’ll hear the voices of past and present local residents of the forest in Appalachian Ohio; they recount their love for the land, memories of the past, disasters and underground mine fires, economic and political struggles over mining and extraction, and their hopes for the future. You’ll also hear field recordings of the natural environment of the forest: a spring chorus of pre-dawn birds, summer drones of insects, and faint autumn sounds of wind and rain on brittle, fallen leaves. Finally, you’ll hear the sounds of an ensemble of seven musicians, whose long tones and static, ambient harmonies complement and interact with the environmental and human sounds already present. (You can listen to the instrumental version of this piece and others on "Ohio National Forest.") Nature, people, and music all come together to create a recording that listens to the region as a way to understand its past and change its future.