Listen to “Linger in Light,” a composition by 17-year-old Lauren Marshall, which debuted at this year’s Morgan Stanley Chelsea Flower Show Garden.
“The fact that music and gardening are so intrinsically linked as art forms is something that’s surprised me the most,” says 17-year old Lauren Marshall, the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain’s principal composer, who was commissioned to score music for the opening of this year’s Morgan Stanley garden, designed by Chris Beardshaw.
“I think this project is absolute proof that whenever you take things that are quite disparate and put them together, something interesting always emerges,” she says.
“I have often thought the orchestration of a garden must share similarities with the orchestration of music,” says Beardshaw, who drew inspiration for the garden’s design from the fractal patterns in music and nature.
“Talking to Chris has helped me to see gardens in a totally new light,” says Marshall. “I learned that it’s possible to see gardens as a linear journey for the visitor. It’s actually very similar to the way that composers think about composition.”
With Beardshaw’s design as inspiration, she composed “Linger in Light,” which the NYO will perform at the Morgan Stanley garden as part of The Royal Horticultural Society’s century-old Chelsea Flower Show in London.
