Music of Trees - What Tree Rings Sound Like - It's Eerily Beautiful!

-article by melaniekaren

Tree Rings Played as a Record on a Turntable (and Birds on the Wires)

This is incredible.  Thank you Bartholomäus Traubeck for being creative, curious and taking the time to do this.

image credit - tree rings

We all know that tree rings can give us a lot of information about the tree itself as well as environmental factors of old and new, plus each ring represents a year of growth. Botanist have been studying tree rings for a long time.

Mr. Traubeck came up with a wonderful, creative idea.  He got curious and wanted to how tree rings would sound.  Surely, a cross- section slice could play as a record on a turntable if adjustments were made.  It did.

Without further ado, here is the music of a tree.  Enjoy! :)

What you are listening to is the end result of feeding tree ring sounds played on a turntable into a computer.  The "needle" is designed to pick up information from the rings, such as texture and color. The needle is a sensor and not a literal needle scratching into wood. Music notes are assigned as algorithms to the various ring variations.  The piano notes you hear are the result, and it's quite nice!

Bartholomäus Traubeck released an album titled "Years."  On the album, he features the
sounds of beech trees, walnut trees, maple trees, oak trees and others.

You can learn more about the process and find out how to get your own copy of "Years" at Bartholomäus Traubeck's website at traubeck.com. If you enjoyed the sounds of tree rings, then you are sure to love this next one too!  I cannot help but share it, as it is also one of my absolute favorites.                  

Birds on the Wires

click photo to see on AMAZON
and download for free! 

Musician Jarbas Agnelli happened to notice one day that the birds perched on electric wires looked similar to musical notes.  So, he decided to play it. He wrote a full composition.  It sounds amazingly beautiful.

Below is a sampling of his masterpiece.  Enjoy (and I dare you not to watch it more than once, twice,.... I always find myself coming back to this one. -pure beauty.)

The Birds on the Wires single is available for free on Amazon if you have "prime," or 99 cents otherwise. You may learn more about at his website on About.me here.