Trichord - a photo on Flickriver

Trichord

This bristlecone remnant is to me reminiscent of a lyre. Or an abstract expression of the harmonic resonance of strings. Music. A trichord sketched in tree rings.

In ancient Greece, the lyre was played in accompaniment to the recitation of lyric poetry. Legend has it that the lyre of Terpander, father of Greek music, had but three strings.

Lyres may have been in use by different cultures for three-thousand years or more; probably about the same length of time this bristlecone has been dead and fallen above a remote cliff in Nevada. It may well have been alive for two-thousand years before that.

Shaped and smoothed by the flow of millennial winds, it is easy to imagine a bristlecone, living or dead, as a musical instrument. And to wonder what its song would be. There can be, after all, tone holes like those of the bassoon in many ancient snags. And f-holes like those of a double bass in others (i.e. "Serpens" in this photostream).

Valerie Cohen, artist and sometime cellist, has depicted, in her drawings, a vision of music at this confluence of flowing air and primeaval wood; some of that using shapes similar to those in this photo.

Not far from here, I once traversed a remote and steep windward slope in deep snow. All around, upslope and down, before and behind, were the remnants of a dense forest that had burned years earlier. It was an exposed, monochromatic, moody setting; white snow, blackened trunks, dark gray clouds, a storm moving in. The wind, funneling upslope from a narrow canyon far below, was beginning to pick up; each tumultuous gust increasing in intensity and duration.

Focused on my exposed route, hurrying across, I suddenly heard an unexpected and eerily unsettling sound. And then another. And another. And yet another. The sounds were downslope, rushing toward me. Suddenly, with a buffeting gust and a blinding swirl of snow, they whisked past and continued upslope. The sounds were as of a pan flute, one of the most ancient of wind instruments; remnants of flutes being possibly sixty-seven thousand years old.

Knee-deep in snow, now enchanted, I stopped to listen. The sounds were as ghostly individual notes. A kind of call and response. Now here. Now there. Pure. Simple. Some high. Some low. Some brief. Some lingering.

They were of the swirling wind rushing through weathered holes and cracks in the surrounding, darkened snags. It was as of the cautionary folk tales of mischievious sprites; hidden among the dead trunks, playing random notes to bewitch and confuse the weary traveler.

Just downslope from me, a dead tree had been uprooted years past. Windblown snow had curled around the lee of the roots and trunk to form a deep, natural, acoustic chamber. Evidenced by its tracks and the imprint of its body, a cougar had lain in this chamber for some time. Front row, center. Napping. Listening.

I am haunted by the wonder of what it must have heard.

Taken on: January 1, 2017

Tags:

Ancient

bristlecone

landscape

longaeva

great

basin

national

park

pine

pinus

range

snake

divide

trail

tree

trees

usa

wild

wilderness

nature

natural

weathered

wood

wind

ice

snow

elevation

washington

oldest

living

white

mountains

california

currey

schulman

prometheus

methuselah

wheeler

peak

nevada

anthropocene

bonsai

penjing

great basin national park

lyre

greece

pan flute

sprites

cougar

ecofeminism

deep ecology « less

Groups appears in: • Landscape • FlickrCentral more » • Hiking • Secret Life of Plants • Walking In Nature • Trees • Artistic Photography • Lucid & Mysterious • U.S. National Parks • U.S. National Parks and Places • zen • - I LOVE NATURE - • Flickr Nature • Landscape photography • FlickrToday (only 1 pic per day) • Nature Photography • TREE PICS • Lonely Tree • Awesome Nature • NATURALMENTE • The Magic of Nature • Nature Heals the Soul • All things beautiful in Nature (no humans or man made objects) • Out! • Tree Roots • Sculpture by Nature • The Lone Tree • The Beauty of Nature • So simple, so beautiful! • Trees in Mist • Tree appreciation • Your Visions • Natural Excellence • Art of Nature • Landscapes of the World • Walking In Beauty - Nature's Pathways • Arboreal, the Art of Trees (Tree/s must be the focus of the pic) • Beautiful Tree Pictures • PLANET EARTH OUR HOME • Tree Photos • Trees with Soul • Lover of nature • The Poetry of Trees • Landscape Beauty ! • to the forests. • Bristlecone PInes • Tree-Mendous! • Nature Through My Eyes • Your Love of Nature • Visual Haiku • Best of U.S. National Parks • A conversation with trees, and other plants. • ! * The Beauty of Nature/ NO people! NO single buildings! P1/C2 • A Photographer [No AI or SL] • Trees are Life.... • dream forest • Canon PowerShot G1-X Mark I & II • flickr (unofficial) • Beautiful nature (only high-quality photos!) • Moments captured with natural light. • brilliant flickr • tell it to me in trees • Canon PowerShot G1X Family - Official Group • Art Museion • !*ALL ARE WELCOME*! • Nature and all that is beautiful • !*Flickr All Stars*! • Nature and Animals (Wild Only) • Landscape, Nature and Wildlife Nirvana • Compelling Images • Moments of stillness • Bonsai Landscape • Landscapes Of the Mind • !*Only Your Best*! • Only your best photos • !*Natures Beauty*! « less

Stats: 6,664 views / 9 comments

go back

Link to this photo view:
Link to this photo large view: