Giant Of The Forest - A song tribute to the Centurion Tree

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Description

A song for children's choir. Piano/vocal score, recording and backing track available from https://songlibrary.net/Giant-Of-The-Forest/

Winner of the inaugural Australian National Choral Association (ANCA) Composition Competition - Primary School or Children's Choir category (2018)

In the south-west of Tasmania a massive Mountain Ash (Eucalyptus regnans) stands 100 metres tall. It is the world’s second tallest tree and the tallest flowering plant.

For five hundred years it has survived fires and evaded the saws of humans – unlike other trees that were even taller. It was given the name Centurion, because it was the one-hundredth of the giant trees to be registered. The name however, perfectly embodies not just its height but also the character of this majestic survivor.

The song traces Centurion’s journey from a tiny seed, just 2 millimetres, striving to reach up into the light from the forest floor and to send its roots deep into the soil below. After five centuries it continues to grow. When finally its life ends, through the wonder of regeneration its seeds will take root and continue the legacy of the mighty Centurion – giant of the forest.

Giant Of The Forest

Words and Music by Glyn Lehmann

I fell to the earth
A tiny seed
Five hundred years ago
Struggling and striving to grow straight and strong
Here in my mountain forest home

I am Centurion

I have seen fires raging over ridges
Skeletons left in their wake
I have heard the steel blades
Tearing through the tall trees
The crack and the crash as they fall

Still…
I am Centurion
Giant of the forest

And when my life ends
A seed will fall
Onto the earth below
Struggling and striving to grow straight and strong
Here in my mountain forest home

Rising up
Striving for life-giving light
Down, down, down
Delving down deep
Into Earth’s damp fertile soil

I am Centurion
Giant of the forest

© 2018 Glyn Lehmann. All rights reserved

Thanks to:
Jess Graham - vocals

Steve Pearce from The Tree Projects for several of the images https://www.thetreeprojects.com/

Toni Fish/Flickr - 'Hell's Gate'
Rob Blakers - 'Burnt pencil pine'
Eucalyptus 99 - Creative Commons