For Love and Only For Love:
Letters to New York

An immersive choral installation
at the New York Botanical Garden

Composed by Pete Wyer 

December 19, 2020- February 14, 2021
12:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.
at the Native Plant Garden 

Access to this special program is included with any NYBG timed-entry ticket.
Save 20% on Garden Pass Tickets by using the code “NYBG20” when you purchase online at nybg.org.

The garden is open rain or shine and is ADA accessible. Prior to your visit, please visit NYBG’s frequently asked questions page to familiarize yourself with the Garden’s COVID-19 safety precautions and for directions, parking information, and more at: https://www.nybg.org/frequently-asked-questions.

Make Music Winter and The New York Botanical Garden present the World Premiere of Pete Wyer’s immersive choral installation For Love and Only for Love: Letters to New York. The work, created as a response to the pandemic, serves as a musical love letter to New York City during these challenging times. Visitors are invited to explore the Garden’s Native Plant Garden pathway, at their own pace and safely distanced, as the glorious sounds of the human voice emanate from the surrounding woodland. The music – performed by choirs of up to 72 voices projected over 24 speakers – reflects on themes of love, gratitude, acceptance, and our connection with nature. The movements have been adapted and rewritten especially for NYBG from Wyer’s previous works.

Each journey through the choral installation is different depending on the time of day, landscape and weather. At a time when concert halls remain closed, the program provides a unique experience of music in nature. Visitors who have experienced Wyer’s previous installations describe the experience as “unforgettable, bringing hope and solace,” “so moving after weeks of isolation,” and “awe-inspiring in the vast reach of the music.”

Pete Wyer is a self-taught London based composer who has created scores for the London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Juilliard, BBC Radio and the Royal Opera House. He has, over many years, developed a system of scoring which incorporates space as well as pitch, rhythm, tone and dynamic resulting in sound installations that use up to 72 independent audio speakers but retain the conventional scoring of classical music. His 'iForest' installations have received hundreds of thousands of visitors since the first one, commissioned in 2016 by WNYC's New Sounds Live. John Schaefer, presenter of WNYC New Sounds, described iForest as an “extraordinary sonic experience”.

 “Emerging from our ‘hibernation’ into this exquisite natural setting, with a chorus of human voices singing to the heavens, it feels like a triumph of the human spirit set in the most glorious cathedral of nature.”   ~Julianne Rook, Descanso Gardens, Los Angeles, 2020

Dear New York:

It feels as though love has become an act of resistance in our times. Go to social media, turn on the news cycle, you’ll find enough to convince you that you live in a cruel, crazy world. Little by little you shut off your heart to protect yourself and the world becomes a little colder.

Personally, I believe the Dalai Lama when he says that we are all essentially the same… that is, our hearts are essentially the same, we all seek to be happy and to avoid suffering. We know the theory but in practise it’s become hard to keep our compassion. There’s a line in a play that has stuck with me over the years, alas I don’t recall the play itself, but it goes something like ‘beneath the anger, the fear, beneath the fear, the love trying to heal itself’.

My iForests have always been about deepening our connection to nature, about seeing ourselves as a part of the natural world. I use human voices in a natural environment so that we encounter ourselves, our species, as one species among others. I have written many different pieces of music for these installations: ’For Love and Only for Love’ is a piece created/curated in response to the pandemic and the many other causes of anxiety in our times. It is subtitled ‘letters to New York’ because New York has given me an artistic home and been the home of dearest friends for the last twenty two years. In 2020, it has been heartbreaking to watch from my studio in London, and so, unable to get there in person, in time honoured tradition, I have written letters instead…

The ‘letters’ themselves are musical, they can speak for themselves, I hope, but I can tell you a little about them here. There are five ‘letters;’ each is performed by choirs of up to 72 voices, played back over 24 audio speakers, carefully positioned through the Native Plant Garden.

1.     “For Love and Only for Love”
This is my epic renaissance painting – the words are sung in different languages, they rise against a raging storm that thunders around the speakers, the chant of “for love and only for love” is one of defiance, leading us ultimately to a quieter place of peace and acceptance.

2.     “The Sky Beneath Our Feet”
This is a bow of thanks to the natural world and a moment of contemplation. The words of this work’s title are repeated throughout by the singers in Finnish and Japanese:

Taivas jalkojemme alla.
私たちの足の下の空。

3.     “How Beautiful You Are”
In this work, the singers are vocalizing interpretations of animal courtship rituals and variations of the word “love” in many different languages.

4.     “Mannaz”
The word “mannaz” comes from ancient Norse, it means both “man” and “divine harmony.” This work begins with 72 independent melodic lines that gradually merge into a single melody. Each vocal line is a transcription of birdsong, inspired by the theory that human speech is partly evolved from birdsong. The final chorus is sung in Finnish:

Syntynyt maasta, syntynyt auringosta, syntynyt taivaasta.
Born of the earth, born of the sun, born of the sky.

5.     “Niá:Wen!”
Ohen:ton Karihwatehkwen, the Thanksgiving Address, is the central prayer for the Mohawk Nation and the other nations that comprise the Haudenosaunee people; it is said as a daily sunrise prayer and opens and closes gatherings. Sung entirely in Mohawk (with translation by Amalli Nalli, member of the Mohawk Tribe, Akwesasne, NY), this movement is inspired by the ancient philosophy of thanking Earth and each part of nature, concluding each time with “now our minds are one.”

Akwé:kon énska
Entitewahwe’nón:ni
Onkwa’nikòn:ra
Tánon
Teiethinonhwaraton Ne
Onkweshón:’a
Ionkhi’nisténha Ohwéntsia
Ohneka’shón:’a
Kentsion’shón:’a
Ohonte’shón:’a
Kahishón:’a
Ononhkwa’shón:’a
Kaienthóshera
Kontírio
Nia’tekakwírake
Otsi’ten’okón:’a
Kaié:ri Nikawerá:ke
Ionkhihsothokón:’a Ratiwé:ras
Sonkwahtsí:’a Kiohkehnékha Karáhkwa
Ionkhihsótha Ahsonhthenhnékha Karáhkwa
Iotsistohkwarónion
Kaié:ri Niionkwé:take
Shonkwaia’tíson
Tho niiohtónhak ne onkwa’nikòn:ra
Sewarihónia iethiien’okón:a tsi ohwentsiake ne ionkwa’nisténsera
O’kén:ra
Ó:iente
Ohné:kanos
Iohnhonwataien
Kahionhatáke
Ká:nen
Karonhiá:ke
Ó:kwire
Onèn:ta
Onenia’shon:’a
Ohwentsià:ke
Kaniá:tara
Otsi’tsia’shón:’a
Kontatewenniio
Oskenón:ton
Tsikara’kwístak
Terí:teri
Tsistekeriiá:kon
Otsi’nahkontahkwá:ne
Takwa’áhson
Tewattsirókwas
Tsiki’nhontstókhi
Tsiktsinón:nawen
Iaonhará:ien
Iaó:te
Iokennó:ron
Io’keren:’en
Ioráhkote
Tekanien’kwataséhne
Konnorónhkwa’:sera
Konnorónhkwa
Atohnhetshera
Skén:nen
Niá:wen
Atenró:sera
Wahta
Ononta’
Onontá:wanen
Sewatahonsatàt
Tsa’tekaia’takweh:ti:io
Kaná:ieta
Kaianase
Tsi shé:kon ionkwátkatho
Ó:wera
Kaniehtahkwá:tshera

We are all one/everyone is one
We will wrap/put together
Our minds
And
We give our greetings, thanks and love to
The people
Our Mother Earth
The waters
The fish
The plants
The fruit
The medicines
The food plants/harvest plants
The animals
The trees
The birds
The four winds: east, west, north, south
The thunders
Elder brother the sun
Grandmother moon
The stars
The four beings, enlightened teachers
The creator
Now our minds are one
Teach your children that the earth is our mother
Dirt, soil
Wood
Water
Puddle, pond
Stream, creek
Seed
The sky, heaven
Tree, sapling
Evergreen, conifer
Rocks
World, ground, earth
River, body of water
Flowers
Wild plants
Deer
Robin
Bluejay
Owl
Bee
Spider
Firefly
Ant
Butterfly
There is frost on the ground
It is windy
It is raining
It is snowing
It is sunny
A storm is coming
Love
I love you
Spirit
Peace, serenity
Thank you
Friendship
Sugar maple
Hill
Mountain
Listen all of you, open your ears
Equality, matters of equal level
A sense of pride, dignity, honor
Rights, the power of goodness
May we still see, may we continue to greet
Air
Trust, believe

The New York Botanical Garden is an advocate for the plant kingdom. The Garden pursues its mission through its role as a museum of living plant collections arranged in gardens and landscapes across its National Historic Landmark site; through its comprehensive education programs in horticulture and plant science; and through the wide-ranging research programs of the International Plant Science Center.

Learn more about this New York CIty treasure, including its membership programs, on their website: The New York Botanical Garden.