TREES, WALLS, CITIES

This stunning commissioned song cycle links eight European cities in creative reconciliation. The songs, written by local composers and poets, are brought together in an interlocking suite of musical material, composed by the multi-linguist and international humanitarian, Nigel Osborne, which creates a coherent journey between the styles and characters of the songs and cities.

City walls can be seen as originally defensive but potentially inclusive structures which surround people, but also have sprung up more recently in modern forms to keep people apart. Local composers partnered with local poets or used earlier texts to write these songs, which reflects the transcendence of such barriers.

A theme running through the texts is trees – symbolic of life, freedom, nourishment, environment, building and peace. Each walled city in the cycle calls to mind a particular tree, like Derry and Dubrovnik which are derived from 'oak grove' in their own traditional tongues, or the City of London and its historic mulberries trees planted in the garden of Drapers' Hall, where the world première of this project took place in June 2013.