Dogwoods Bloom, and Music Echoes : NPR – Annotated

• by Ketzel Levine

  Listen Now: [4 min 4 sec]

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  April 15, 2005

  Web Extra: Disease-Resistant Dogwoods

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• A predictable, yet wondrous, event has begun around the country: the American dogwood is in bloom. This ancient creature, which is native to both coasts, has changed little since the time of the dinosaurs.
• The brief flowering of the dogwoods can elicit thoughts of music: the blossoms build slowly to a crescendo, and then fade into the background for another year.

• The five-petaled flower of a Pacific dogwood, Cornus nuttallii. Ketzel Levine, NPR

  • View Gallery

• Music for Dogwoods

  Here’s the music our experts imagined as the voice of the dogwood:

  • Listen: Faure: "Romance Sans Paroles, Op.17, #3" Kathryn Stott, pianist
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  • Listen: Rachmaninoff’s "Prelude in G Major, Op.32, #5" Megan Hughes, pianist
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  • Listen: Mozart: "Concerto in A Major for Clarinet & Orchestra," Benny Goodman/Boston Symphony/Charles Munch
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  • Listen: Copland’s "Appalachian Spring"
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• Pink Cornus florida cultivars drinking up the sun at a Portland, Ore., nursery. Ketzel Levine, NPR

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