Sweet Brittonic Apple Trees

For Countertenor voice, Harp, and keyboard Synthesizer, 5'

Appletrees is a collection of short poems in the Black Book of Carmathen - thought to be the oldest surviving manuscript written in Welsh. These poems, likely from the 6-7th century, represent individual interactions with apple trees, which act as a prophesier of the outcome of important battles in the future.

Bards at the time would be paid by their patrons to spread to their people poems like these about Welsh lore (and lore about the island of Britain) and their own virtues and achievements in battle. Sweet Brittonic Appletrees is inspired by this culture and explores the role of authority and credibility in speech and information through an abstract extrapolation into the future of these texts.

Sweet Brittonic Apple Trees was written for the VoCo project for the 2025 Spring Festival at the Koninklijk Conservatorium (Royal Conservatory) int The Hague in collaboration with countertenor René Wynants.