Sound and Music

I was very keen to go to the BBC Singers' afternoon Prom on Sunday 4 September but I was away - and I never thought I would write these words - on a camping weekend. So I have had to make do with Listen Again, which is not quite the same thing. But I still enjoyed this beautifully crafted programme a great deal.

I'm confused.

I've just listened to the Radio 4 programme Iconoclasts in which journalist and opera critic Stephen Pollard recommended that the government should cut all funding to the arts.

Sottovoce is an annual experimental music festival held in London organised by No.Signal at various venues including Cafe Oto. St Marks Rise Church and State 51. The festival hosts performances, discussions and screenings on sound, and experimental music. 

Sound@Media is an on-going web-project on sound featuring a Sound Map of Seoul, Korea and various surrounding projects and live events, screenings and workshops, hosted by Moonji Cultural Institute, Saii.

I've been avoiding this year's Proms on principle - the principle that there's not been anything very tempting on. But I was enticed out by yesterday's late night mix of English and American Experimentalism, and there was lots to enjoy in the performances by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra under Ilan Volkov.

Lately there seem to have been quite a few projects involving live creation of scores from sensor data, including John Eacott's Flood Tide, generating a score by processing data gathered from a flow sensor in a river; The

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?