En Masse is an electroacoustic composition for choir and drums which navigates the threads of interconnection among individuals, communities and ecosystems and promotes a culture of care amidst the climate crisis.
Framed by the carbon cycle, this work is the product of a yearlong fluxART collaboration between multidisciplinary artist Sara Bouchard and forest ecologist Chris Gough, Professor of Biology at Virginia Commonwealth University.
Inspired by carbon flux research – the “inhalation” and “exhalation” of carbon dioxide in an ecosystem and the teachings of the more-than-human world, En Masse bridges scientific concepts with themes of ritual and imagination and incorporates field recordings, crowd-sourced text and scientific data into the score.
Beginning and ending with the eddies and swirls of the wind, which provide the foundation for carbon flux measurements, En Masse‘s five movements follow the carbon cycle through the elements of air, wood, soil, fire and breath. The piece depicts in turn the voices of migratory songbirds (Air), carbon-absorbing trees (Wood), symbiotic underground networks of mycorrhizal fungi (Soil) and, finally, humans (Fire and Breath).
Fire amplifies the real-life anxieties of individuals imagining the future of our planet, while a wavering, siren-like melody represents the increase of carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere, encoded in 16 years of data. Breath pushes beyond fear to focus on meditation practices and suggest a path forward: “Let’s be a forest.” Can we imagine our care systems as complex networks of exchange which shift and pulse in space and time? Can we hold faith that simple, individual interactions can ripple across a community and, en masse, bloom into meaningful change?
En Masse will be performed by Oregon State University Vocal Ensemble on 22 January, 2026 at the Patricia Valian Reser Center for Creative Arts (PRAx) as part of their arts-science-humanities innaugural celebration.