Messiaen on Debussy and Colour straypixel 2008-03-21 | Archive footage from Messiaen's Conservatoire analysis class.
1940s Russian Drawn Sound: Les Vautours straypixel 2013-04-12 | Drawn sound composition by Igor Boldirev, realised by Evgeny Sholpo on a later version of his 'Variophone'.
1930s Russian Drawn Sound: Nikolai Voinovs Paper Sound straypixel 2013-04-12 | Nikolai Voinov (1900-1958) demonstrates the techniques of Paper Sound and the creation of music for animation.The demonstration includes two short animations:"Rachmaninov Prelude", 1932 (1:07)"The Dance of the Crow", 1933 (2:11)
1930s Russian Drawn Sound: La Suite Caburateur straypixel 2013-04-12 | Drawn sound composition by Georgy Rimsky-Korsakov, realised by Evgeny Sholpo on his 'Variophone' (1932).
Eliane Radigue - IMA Portrait documentary straypixel 2012-02-07 | Eliane RadigueHer life journey has been remarkable. At the end of the fifties, she studied in Paris with musique concrète pioneers Pierre Schaeffer and Pierre Henry, whom she also assisted, notably for the premiere of L'Apocalypse de Jean. During the sixties she began composing with primitive electronics (feedback and asynchronous tape loops), but found little recognition for her research in France.In New York in the early seventies, she found understanding and emulation, exploring emerging minimalism with James Tenney, Charlemagne Palestine, Phillip Glass, John Gibson, and Steve Reich. Her absolute allegiance to electronic sounds began during this period. Since then she has composed on the best synthesizers of the time: Buchla, Moog, Serge, and then ARP, which would become her fetish instrument. She collaborated with Robert Ashley, who sang on Les Chants de Milarepa. She has composed about two dozen works, which she has presented and continues to present at numerous prestigious venues and festivals in the United States and Europe.In 2004, upon Kasper Toeplitz´s request, she started instrumental compositions for one or more performers, with whom she works in a close collaboration during the compositional process. This work gets quickly focused on pure acoustic sounds, in an incredibly delicate timbral way, which extends, without aesthetic rupture, her electronic work. Notably between 2004 and 2009, she completed a cycle in three parts "Naldjorlak", for Charles Curtis on cello, Carol Robinson and Bruno Martinez on basset horns. She has now stopped her electronic work.Emmanuel Holterbach (Translation Leslie Stuck)
Early BBC radiophonics: Private Dreams and Public Nightmares (1957) straypixel 2012-01-09 | An early BBC experiment in radiophonic sound, predating the establishment of the Radiophonic Workshop, created by Frederick Bradnum and Daphne Oram (pictured) and produced by Donald McWhinnie. TX BBC Third Programme, 07/10/1957. McWhinnie's spoken introduction (the work starts at 4:20): "This programme is an experiment. An exploration. It's been put together with enormous enthusiasm and equipment designed for other purposes. The basis of it is an unlimited supply of magnetic tape, recording machine, razor blade, and some thing to stick the bits together with. And a group of technicians who think that nothing is too much trouble - provided that it works. "You take a sound. Any sound. Record it and then change its nature by a multiplicity of operations. Record it at different speeds. Play it backwards. Add it to itself over and over again. You adjust filters, echos, acoustic qualities. You combine segments of magnetic tape. By these means and many others you can create sounds which no one has ever heard before. Sounds which have indefinable and unique qualities of their own. A vast and subtle symphony can be composed from the noise of a pin dropping. In fact one of the most vibrant and elemental sounding noises in tonight's programme started life as an extremely tinny cowbell. "It's a sort of modern magic. Many of you may be familiar with it. They've been exploiting it on the continent for years. But strangely enough we've held aloof. Partly from distrust. Is it simply a new toy? Partly through complacency. Ignorance too. We're saying at last that we think there's some thing in it. But we aren't calling it 'musique concrète'. In fact we've decided not to use the word music at all. Some musicians believe that it can become an art form itself. Others are sceptical. That's not our immediate concern. We're interested in its application to radio writing - dramatic or poetic - adding a new dimension. A form that is essentially radio. "Properly used, radiophonic effects have no relationship with any existing sound. They're free of irrelevent associations. They have an emotional life of their own. And they could be a new and invaluable strand in the texture of radio and theatre and cinema and television."
Daphne Oram documentary - Wee Have Also Sound-Houses straypixel 2012-01-06 | To mark the 50th anniversary in 2008 of the creation of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, the programme examines the life and legacy of one of the great pioneers of British electronic music - the Workshop's co-founder Daphne Oram.As a child in the 1930s, Oram dreamed of a way to turn drawn shapes into sound, and she dedicated her life to realising that goal. Her Oramics machine anticipated the synthesiser by more than a decade, and with it she produced a number of internationally-performed works for the cinema, concert hall and theatre.Daphne Oram was among the very first composers of electronic music in Britain and her legacy is the dominance of that soundworld in our culture today.Introduced by Robert MorebyProduced by Ian ChambersTX BBC Radio 3, Sun 3 Aug 2008 21:45
Babbitt: Portrait of a Serial Composer (Robert Hilferty documentary) straypixel 2011-02-05 | The American composer and teacher Milton Babbitt died Saturday, 29 January 2011 at age 94. For years, New York-based journalist and filmmaker Robert Hilferty had been constructing a documentary on Babbitt. It was a quirky, loving look at a man regarded by many as a composer of "difficult" music. Hilferty left the film unfinished when he died in 2009. Composer and former Babbitt student Laura Karpman has now completed Hilferty's film.
Whitacre - Lux Arumque - Kings College Cambridge (HQ audio) straypixel 2010-12-28 | Eric Whitacre's (1970 -- ) setting of Edward Esch's text, translated by Charles Anthony Silvestri, composed in 2000. A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, King's College Cambridge, 2010 dir. Stephen Cleobury
Howells - A Spotless Rose - The Sixteen straypixel 2010-12-28 | Herbert Howells (1892-1983): A Spotless Rose (1919). The Sixteen, dir. Harry Christophers. For no good reason, the piece was cut short when broadcast. Apologies!
Delia Derbyshire — BBC Inside Out feature straypixel 2010-11-20 | Stuart Maconie discovers how a Coventry music pioneer came up with one of TV's most famous theme tunes. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00w191l Includes fragments of unbroadcast interview, convention footage and programme clips, and brief interviews with Brian Hodgson, Mark Ayres (Radiophonic Workshop archivist) and David Butler (lecturer, University of Manchester). Video footage of Coventry, Maida Vale, equipment (including a working 'Crystal Palace'), and NOVARS (Manchester's electroacoustic studios and research centre). It's a reasonable overview, but see also the Sculptress of Sound documentary (Radio 4) also on my Channel.
Sculptress of Sound 7/7 straypixel 2010-04-06 | The broadcaster and Doctor Who fan Matthew Sweet travels to The University of Manchester - home of Delia Derbyshire's private collection of audio recordings - to learn more about the wider career and working methods of the woman who realised Ron Grainer's original theme to Doctor Who. Further details from http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00rl2ky Photographs are BBC/public domain. Used, by permission, from Ray White's 'Radiophonic Gallery', http://whitefiles.org/rwg/.
Sculptress of Sound 6/7 straypixel 2010-04-06 | The broadcaster and Doctor Who fan Matthew Sweet travels to The University of Manchester - home of Delia Derbyshire's private collection of audio recordings - to learn more about the wider career and working methods of the woman who realised Ron Grainer's original theme to Doctor Who. Further details from http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00rl2ky Photographs are BBC/public domain. Used, by permission, from Ray White's 'Radiophonic Gallery', http://whitefiles.org/rwg/.
Sculptress of Sound 5/7 straypixel 2010-04-06 | The broadcaster and Doctor Who fan Matthew Sweet travels to The University of Manchester - home of Delia Derbyshire's private collection of audio recordings - to learn more about the wider career and working methods of the woman who realised Ron Grainer's original theme to Doctor Who. Further details from http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00rl2ky Photographs are BBC/public domain. Used, by permission, from Ray White's 'Radiophonic Gallery', http://whitefiles.org/rwg/.
Sculptress of Sound 4/7 straypixel 2010-04-06 | The broadcaster and Doctor Who fan Matthew Sweet travels to The University of Manchester - home of Delia Derbyshire's private collection of audio recordings - to learn more about the wider career and working methods of the woman who realised Ron Grainer's original theme to Doctor Who. Further details from http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00rl2ky Photographs are BBC/public domain. Used, by permission, from Ray White's 'Radiophonic Gallery', http://whitefiles.org/rwg/.
Sculptress of Sound 3/7 straypixel 2010-04-06 | The broadcaster and Doctor Who fan Matthew Sweet travels to The University of Manchester - home of Delia Derbyshire's private collection of audio recordings - to learn more about the wider career and working methods of the woman who realised Ron Grainer's original theme to Doctor Who. Further details from http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00rl2ky Photographs are BBC/public domain. Used, by permission, from Ray White's 'Radiophonic Gallery', http://whitefiles.org/rwg/.
Sculptress of Sound 2/7 straypixel 2010-04-06 | The broadcaster and Doctor Who fan Matthew Sweet travels to The University of Manchester - home of Delia Derbyshire's private collection of audio recordings - to learn more about the wider career and working methods of the woman who realised Ron Grainer's original theme to Doctor Who. Further details from http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00rl2ky Photographs are BBC/public domain. Used, by permission, from Ray White's 'Radiophonic Gallery', http://whitefiles.org/rwg/.
Delia Derbyshire - Sculptress of Sound documentary 1/7 straypixel 2010-04-06 | The broadcaster and Doctor Who fan Matthew Sweet travels to The University of Manchester - home of Delia Derbyshire's private collection of audio recordings - to learn more about the wider career and working methods of the woman who realised Ron Grainer's original theme to Doctor Who. Further details from http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00rl2ky This is part 1 of 7; the programme is divided into chunks to fit YouTube's 10 minute length limit. Photographs are BBC/public domain. Used, by permission, from Ray White's 'Radiophonic Gallery', http://whitefiles.org/rwg/.
Greenwood/Yorke — Arpeggi (high quality audio) straypixel 2008-10-02 | Arpeggi (Greenwood/Yorke) Ether Festival 2005 London Sinfonietta conducted by Martyn Brabbins with the Arab Orchestra of Nazareth Thom Yorke (voice) Jonny Greenwood, Valerie Hartmann-Claverie, Bruno Perrault, Nathalie Forget, Fabienne Martin-Besnard, Nadia Ratsimandresy, Pascale Rousse-Lacordaire (ondes Martenots) http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/hearandnow/pip/qya4l
ondes Martenot extracts — Messiaen, Murail etc. straypixel 2008-10-01 | Extracts from a concert at the 2008 Ravenna Festival, Emilia Romagna, Italy. Concert "Messiaen et autour de Messiaen" Nadia Ratsimandresy - ondes Martenot Matteo Ramon Arevalos - piano 21st June 2008. Pieces: Messiaen: Louange à l'Immortalité de Jésus (from Quatour pour la fin du temps, a.k.a 'L'eau' from 'Fête des Belles Eaux' or 'Oraison'; 1937/1941) Tristan Murail: Tigres de Verre (1974) Messiaen: Feuillet inédit no. I Messiaen: Feuillet inédit no. III [unknown piece] [unknown piece] If you have any more details on the untitled pieces (by Murail, Charpentier and Nguyen), please leave a comment.
Martinů: Fantasie straypixel 2007-08-29 | Bohuslav Martinů (1890-1959) 10th Bohuslav Martinů festival, Basel, November 2006 Keller Quartet, Heinz Holliger (oboe), Robert Kolinsky (piano), Carolina Eyck (theremin) An excerpt from a chamber piece by Martinů, completed 1st October 1944. This performance is of the work in it's original form. Later interpreters replaced the Theremin with the ondes Martenot, given the difficulty of the part.
