“Discover how memories transform into musical ideas, and folded paper objects touched by loved ones become musical scores.

This musical adaptation of how roots communicate and connect is a metaphor for how we can adapt to our changing circumstances with the environment.”

—Byron Au Yong

Acoustic ecology, European classical music, overseas Chinese mourning rituals, and the environmental crisis influence Forest Aeternam (eternal). This initiative is in development with in-person and virtual musical experiences that honor woodland areas to affirm a commitment to living with nature.

Acoustic Ecology

The idea for Forest Aeternam began at the Whidbey Institute in the Pacific Northwest. While walking in the woods, I asked the evergreens if they knew that places around the world were burning and other places were flooding with salt water. They know. Forests connect through an underground network of fungi in the earth. When possible, they share nutrients and water with dying trees through interconnected roots. Informed by acoustic ecology, sound walks and the World Soundscape Project, I research, develop, workshop, and perform this initiative in forested areas and urban forests, inviting singers and instrumentalists.

European Classical Music

More than 2,000 musical requiems have been composed. These sonic ceremonies are mostly written in Latin, a dead language, which is appropriate but not exactly accurate. Every time “requiem æternam” is sung, the text comes alive by resonating in the present. Requiems are for the living to rest (requiem) in a momentary and eternal (æternam) reflection on death. Forest Aeternam provides imaginative and grounded musical ceremonies to happen outdoors, in concert halls, other sacred spaces, and online for accessibility and to mitigate the carbon footprint of performance tourism.

Chinese Mourning Rituals

From the death rituals of shamans I have witnessed in Asia to the ceremonial masses I have experienced in Europe and North America, I noticed ways people pray to remember the dead. After my grandfather passed, my grandmother folded paper for 100 days. This mourning rite provided ways to remember and move forward. Forest Aeternam connects the transformation of trees to paper to sculpture to expand the circles and lines I notate as a composer into three-dimensional musical scores. The paper objects folded for Forest Requiem touched by loved ones are up-cycled to honor trees.

Environmental Crisis

There are places in the world so quiet that they heal. The Coronavirus pandemic has transformed public funerals as well as affected earth’s climate and global wildlife. With Forest Aeternam, I develop long-lasting ways to contribute to this musical form that contemplates death during our environmental emergency. My father’s funeral was on September 15, 2021. I continue to gather papers my father touched, such as chemistry textbooks, English study guides, investment magazines, and medical envelopes. Rather than fold unused paper as I did with my grandmother, I transform discarded objects into sculptures that resemble giant pine cones and other tree seeds.