Arboretum Suite by Reed Maxson

The Arboretum is home to an extensive collection of trees and plants which surround a branch of Putah Creek on the University of California, Davis, campus. In addition to being a botanical and cultural study area, it is a popular walking, jogging, and cycling site. The indigenous Patwin lived in this area for thousands of years and, although they were forced off this land, examples of the trees and plants they used remain. During World War II the United States Army Signal Corps trained in this area; one of the small lakes in the creek was used as an obstacle in their infiltration course.

The Arboretum Suite was composed with consideration to the present Arboretum as well as its history. Musical pitches in each movement of the Suite were generated from both botanical and common names of several trees in the Arboretum. The Patwin's name for the California Buckeye, for example, is “Yahwe,” which generated the pitches A A Bb Gb E. The durations of the movements were determined by the distances between selected “way-point” trees. The “moods” of the movements were influenced by colors, textures, sounds and activities within the Arboretum.