Fallen trees inspire a symphony

Inspiration can come from anywhere, including the loss of two beloved trees. Combine that with musical talent and you get “A Farewell to an Ash,” a lush symphony written and performed by Ron Munoz, a pharmacy tech at Asante’s outpatient pharmacy in Medford.

Unlike traditional symphonies played by musicians in concert halls and led by a conductor, this was created entirely on Ron’s home computer and lives on the internet. For six months, he traded his piano keyboard for a computer keyboard and developed the framework for a multipart symphony. He wove in the preset instruments — piano, piccolo, contra bassoon, French horns, flutes, woodwinds and a string section — to create a poignant track.

Earlier in the year, Ron and his wife, Amy Munoz, a coordinator at ARRMC’s credentialing office, were crushed to learn that two large Raywood ash trees in their backyard had to be cut down because of disease.

“It sounds silly but we were really sad to have them taken out,” Amy said. “We replaced them with three smaller maples. Ron had a whole picture in his head about what is going on in each movement of the song. The melancholy parts are when they go and then the hopeful uplifting parts are like the new life beginning again.”

Music has been part of Ron’s life since childhood when he took piano lessons with an 84-year-old tutor in his native Southern California. He performed his first gig at age 11 for the Cub Scouts. He became a percussionist as well and played in his high school’s marching band.

As a young adult, his tastes veered into rock and metal (his favorite band is Rush), and he performed with several bands who played in clubs and even a ballroom in San Francisco.

After being sidelined from an injury at a construction job, he enrolled in school to become a pharmacy technician. He joined Asante in 2017.

At the home he shares with Amy, he recalls going into the backyard and wondering what it would be like without the trees. That reverie turned into a melody, which stuck in his head and began his opus.

“People are doing this all over the world, especially with the lockdown,” he says. “The sky’s the limit. You can fit a whole orchestra in a tiny laptop.”

He doesn’t know how many hours he spent working on the piece, only that he would sometimes go into the studio when it was dark and come out when the sun had risen.

After recording, performing and mixing, he uploaded the final work to music platforms: Amazon Music, Pandora, SoundCloud and Spotify, the internet’s top audio streaming service. The “cover art” is a painting Amy created. His marketing was limited to “telling everyone I know about it.”

The symphony won’t make him rich. “I hear that I can get 19 cents every time someone plays it.” But that was never the point.

“If it makes just one person’s day, then I’m happy with that.”