A Garden of Weeds by Chris Walker

nspired by a quote from Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale Thumbelina: “The witch smiled and returned to her garden of weeds”, the piece is an attempt to reconcile and contrast the imagery of the pleasant and not so pleasant and explore the challenge of something “ugly” being framed as beautiful.

The piece is a programmatic attempt at a “reverse chronological soundtrack” as to what the Garden of Eden may look like if stumbled across today: a garden of weeds.

Starting with the listener in the present, we find the neglected and forgotten ruins, with brief moments that hint to its former state (ms.1 -33) and then slip backwards (ms. 34- 38). We visit a garden beginning to be overran with thorns, weeds, occasional serpents (ms. 39-63) and then travel all the way back to the pre-Fall paradise (ms. 64-97). The piece then moves forward with the temptation, (ms.98 – 111) his and her apple bites (ms.112-113), unsuccessful hiding and the inevitable consequence (ms. 119 – 127) followed by the famous eviction with the gates slamming shut on the resolve of the final impact.