In her piano piece "In Autumn," composer Amy Beach was inspired by a line of poetry: “Yellowing foliage scattered on lawn.”
Throughout the somewhat somber work, the descending lines and swirling right-hand figures suggest leaves gently falling to the ground.
Falling leaves may seem sad, but the process is essential for survival. If deciduous trees held their leaves through winter, snow and ice would cause serious damage.
Instead, they practice a kind of “planned obsolescence.” Summer leaves are single-use, efficient solar panels for photosynthesis. Once their job is done, they’re discarded.
But trees are thrifty. In the weeks before leaves drop, they reclaim sugars and nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus, storing them in trunks and roots for spring. By the time the abscission layer forms at the leaf stem, most of the valuable material has already been saved. What drifts away on the wind is little more than an empty solar panel.
So while yellow leaves scatter across the lawn, the tree gains strength from their loss.
It isn’t a tragedy. It’s a strategy. And perhaps Amy Beach understood that, too. For though "In Autumn" carries a wistful tone, she closes it not in sorrow, but with the brightness of a major chord.
