Sound and Music

A participant on a recent workshop at Kew Gardens told me about a project he is involved with. It's called the Open Boat Orchestra (or OBO if you prefer an abbreviation!)

The project was the brainchild of professional sailor, Lia Ditton and it uses real-time data from a sail boat to create a unique experience in sound.

Some composers seem like a better idea than they turn out to be. Like bouncing cheques they make promises they can't live up to. They may sound like interesting characters, the ideas behind the music may intrigue - and yet the pieces themselves itself fails to live up to expectation.

I've been having a look through last.fm and putting together some playlists, mainly as an introduction to the history of the music and sound we're involved in.

Please feel free to make contributions and to be our friend- I've tried to keep a broad range of artists, and those with playable material up.

Arnold Schoenberg was born in 1874 and died in 1951 at the age of 77. George Gershwin was born in 1898 and died in 1937 at the age of 38. What if it had been the other way round?

What if Schoenberg had died in 1912 and Gershwin lived until 1975? Would the history of 20th century music been completely different?

Something which has been pointed about this year's football World Cup has been the sound at matches.  Many fans in South Africa have been bringing Vuvuzelas- long fixed-pitch horns and playing them in the crowd.

The Musicians' Letters Research Project is looking to collect and document correspondence from musicians, from 1900 to the present day.

Today I read that the UK Metropolitan Police have started to use Electrical Network Frequency[PDF] (ENF- small variations in the frequency of AC mains electricity) in order to identify or verify the time when audio recordi

One of the CDs which recently turned up at our office was marked with a sticker on the polythene with the following information:

"CONCEPTUAL ART"

NOTICE: This CD is made from an original source of P.C.M. DATA @ +1 -1 +1 -1... This will probably not be rendered as sound by a CD players[sic] DAC.

MAKING SOUND WORK
Career networks for media and digital musicians
City University London Department of Music with Sound and Music and Screened Music Network

22-23 June 2010

OPEN TO ALL
£5 each day, free for students on production of ID and for members of

For my latest interview with professional performers I spoke to the trumpeter Dave Ward.
 
Tell me about a good piece you have played recently.