On James Tenney'sArbor Vitaefor string quartet
Michael R. Winter · Contemporary Music Review · 2008
Arbor Vitae (2006) for string quartet is James Tenney's last work. The title presents the image of a tree as the central metaphor for the work's harmonic structure, which is similar to the way tree branches emanate from other branches. The harmonic form of Arbor Vitae is a series of related tonalities modulating through a richly populated, extended just intonation pitch space. The piece explores the progression of single tonalities expanding into multiple tonalities. This article examines the inner workings of Arbor Vitae and the musical result. It documents the algorithm Tenney defined to generate the piece and provides a history of the piece.