bits of wood

Think of the sound that wood makes when you saw it up for the fire. Or if you’ve never heard it, try to imagine it. First, the grating sound of the saw, then the dull thud as the cut piece drops to the muddy ground, followed by the clipped ring that it makes as you throw it on to the log pile. It is this last sound that still fascinates me. Remember the melody that emerges, its rhythm coming from the rhythm of your work. From the energy of your arm working the saw and then from its tiredness: thick logs slowing down the rhythm and lengthening the time between each ring but also raising its pitch. The note of each log comes from a combination of its length and thickness; sometimes a surprise chord comes from a log of a more oval cross-section. The melody starts aleatoric but then a feedback effect occurs as you wonder what sound a really short one would make so you cut one to see, and you begin to influence the melody. And as the pile grows, occasionally one of the logs falls off the top and dislodges others, making an unexpected cluster chord or polyphony, the musical ear then imposing its own interpretation on a designless form. Pause to enjoy the memory… or to imagine… and perhaps after a while it becomes more fun to play with the pieces you have already cut, rather than going on cutting new ones…







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