The "3,000 Years" track
Long
ago, the French poet and historian Alphonse de Lamartine wrote, “The Cedars know the history of the earth
better than history itself.”
This might well be true. The Cedars, it turns out,
are into music too!
“3,000
Years” is the first track in history created using a rhythm extracted from
inside a Lebanese Cedar tree in the Barouk Forest
and is now the focal point of the “Save the Music” campaign for Cedar
conservation in Lebanon.
Although
a few weeks old, I was blown away by the sounds and had to share this.
The
initiative to give the Cedar a voice for conservation was launched by the
Lebanese Ministry of Environment, in cooperation with the Ministry of
Education.
The
Cedar tree's rhythm was extracted by Derek Shirley, a Canadian bioacoustics
engineer based in Germany He extracted the audio data from the Cedar by hooking
a synthesizer reading mechanism sensitive to electric movement in living
organisms to the ancient tree.
“We've recently discovered that each tree species creates its own rhythm,” Shirley
said in a YouTube video entitled “Save
the Music -- Save the Cedars.” “As
it turns out, the Lebanese Cedars are especially rhythmic,” he added.
After
Shirley extracted the raw, rhythmic beat, Beirut-based DJ ESC (Ribal Rayess),
in collaboration with Jad Jazzy Jay (Jade Hazim), used the raw sounds to
compose a House track.
"At
the beginning of the [original] track you can hear about 20 seconds of raw
footage that make base sounds," Rayess told Beirut’s The Daily Star.
"It blew my mind."
Rayess
said the lyrics, sang by Marlene Jaber, were "simple" with the intent
to unite Lebanese, regardless of sect, under the symbolic Cedar tree. "The
words reminisce 3,000 years of the Cedars," he said. By downloading the track and
sharing the video, you're not only acting to save Lebanon’s Cedars, you're
buying a song that's been playing for 3,000 years.
 |
| The Barouk Forest Cedars |
CEDAR
PRIDE
This
reminded me of a post I wrote in September 2012 about Lebanon’s Cedars fighting
for their life. You can read the full post, Lebanon
Cedars fight a “winter revolution,” but it said in part:
…Throughout antiquity, the Cedars of Lebanon were prized above all
other trees. Their fine wood is strong, straight and wonderfully scented. Cedar wood was the
first choice for any temple or palace.
These magnificent trees helped give the Phoenicians a high place
among other nations, and became the symbol by which they and their descendants
were known. Revered and admired, they stand for
prosperity and national pride.
But the cherished Cedar Tree (Cedrus libani) is not
well. It is fighting its own revolution against time. It is feeling the strains
of centuries and is at risk from global warming and insects. It has now been
added to the list of threatened species, although at the lowest level of
threat, by the International
Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN),
the world’s oldest and largest global environmental organization.
In
the past, Lebanese mountains were covered with
Cedars. Sadly, all that is left today is 18 scattered patches of protected
Cedar land. In total, protected forests (both Cedar and other) make up
approximately four to eight percent of the Lebanese territory.
Alphonse
de Lamartine visited the “Cedars of the Lord,” or Arz al-Rab near Bcharre, back in 1832. Putting
a memorabilia on the trunk of a very old Cedar tree commemorated his visit.
 |
| Rudy Rahme's "Lamartine Cedar" |
When
it died, Lebanese Bcharre-born painter, sculptor and poet Rudy
Rahme created the “Lamartine Cedar,” one of the most
remarkable wooden and largest vegetal sculptures in the world. It stands 39
meters high and contains 70 human
figures representing the relationship between time and place. Among the
figures are the birth, life and death of Jesus.
Arz al-Rab are the oldest Cedars in Lebanon and give an accurate idea
of the stature and splendor these trees attained in antiquity. About 375 Cedars
of great age stand in a sheltered glacial pocket of Mount Makmel. Four of them,
many hundreds of years old, have reached a height of 35 meters and their trunks
are between 12 and 14 meters around. They have straight trunks and strong
branches that spread their regular horizontal boughs like fans.
Also among the inhabitants of the forests are some
thousand young trees. Concern for this modern remnant of historic Cedars goes
back to 1876, when the 102-hectare grove was surrounded by a high stone wall.
Financed by Queen Victoria, the wall protects against one of the Cedar's
natural enemies -- the goats who enjoy feasting on young saplings.
Over the centuries, Assyrians, Babylonians and
Persians made expeditions to Mount Lebanon for timber or extracted tributes of
wood from the coastal cities of Canaan-Phoenicia.
The Phoenicians themselves made use of the Cedar,
especially for their merchant fleets. Solomon requested large supplies of Cedar
wood, along with architects and builders from King Hiram of Tyre to build his
temple. Nebuchadnezzar boasted on a cuneiform inscription: "I brought for
building, mighty Cedars, which I cut down with my pure hands on Mount
Lebanon."
Its fragrance and durability, as well as the length
of the great logs, made Cedar wood especially desirable.
The Egyptians used Cedar resin for mummification,
and pitch was extracted from these trees for waterproofing and caulking.
Luckily, there is now an active program to conserve and regenerate
the forests. The Lebanese approach has emphasized natural regeneration rather
than planting, and this by creating the right conditions. Cedar and Nature
Reserves created by the Lebanese state that contain Cedars include the Chouf
Cedar Reserves, the Jaj Cedar Reserve, the Tannourine Reserve, the Ammouaa and
Karm Shbat Reserves in the Akkar district, and Arz al-Rab
forest.
In 1998, the Cedars of God were
added to the UNESCO list
of World Heritage Sites.
Much more needs to be done to restore and preserve these proud, tall, strong symbols of
Lebanon and its people. Lebanon’s Cedar needs all the help it can get. One
step is to download the “Save the Music” track to donate: http://vlrecords.bandcamp.com/releases
Related post:
Lebanon
Cedar fights a “winter revolution” – September 12, 2012
