Fraxinus Excelsior

Fraxinus Excelsior is the latin name for the ash tree. The piece is written for a school band seated in Asker, a community with its name derived from the word “ash”. The tree is also known in Norse mythology as Yggdrasil. The piece is based on two types of musical material, the blues scale, and some motives that are quite different to blues, f.ex. a lydian-souding motive (b. 29). When the two types of material is forced together, the musical alchemy is carried throughout on rhythms that add energy to the process.