Transmissions
Every Voice: The Magic Flute: From Morehouse … to the opera house with Monostatos
David Norville + Terrance McKnight (US 2023)
David Norville + Terrance McKnight (US 2023)
22min Episode 1 of 5
Every Voice spotlights the vibrant stories and perspectives that reflect the whole of the American musical experience. There are many different kinds of classical music, depending on where you are in the world. While this music typically preserves the traditions of a given society, classical music in America remains wedded to its Western European roots. This show explores why — and what America’s classical music really sounds like. Through interviews, historical investigation, and personal storytelling, Terrance McKnight unearths the hidden voices that have been shaping our musical traditions all along. This debut season examines the representation of Blackness in opera. While character flaws are universal, stereotypes often fall along racial lines. We look at the loneliness, jealousy, self-loathing, and cultural appropriation associated with African characters in 18th and 19th century operas by Mozart and Verdi, introducing the African-American personalities found in the operas of Atlanta-based composer Dr. Sharon Willis.
Hosted by Terrance McKnight
Produced by David Norville
Contributing Strategic Advisor Tony Phillips
The Juggler
Bridey Addison-Child (UK 2023)
Bridey Addison-Child (UK 2023)
16 min
A sonic meditation on juggling. There is of course the physical act of throwing balls (and not stones) in the air but of course juggling contains so many other metaphores for how we manage different aspects of our lives.
This piece was originally performed live onstage as part of an event for In The Dark
This piece was originally performed live onstage as part of an event for In The Dark founded by Nina Garthwaite, and run by Talia Augustidus.
Featuring Lucy "Juggles" Eden
Sound designed by Bridey Addison-Child
Violin by Alexander Tay
Outside Is The Sky
James Ginzburg and Patrick Eakin Young (UK 2021)
James Ginzburg and Patrick Eakin Young (UK 2021)
31 min
The jagged surfaces and iridescent veneers of electronic artist Aho Ssan’s labyrinthine debut become the material and psychological furnishings of a sonic dystopia in this chilling allegorical fable. Like all Class 8 citizens, Désiré has spent his entire life confined to cramped living quarters, with no access to the outside world. When his parents suddenly vanish from the apartment, he is forced to confront his own role in their disappearance, and begins to question everything he thought he knew about his situation.
From the award winning Soundworlds - an audio stage for diverse stories told in extraordinary ways. It’s a place for an exciting new form of audio drama that we call sonic theatre.
Written with artist/musician James Ginzburg
Directed by Patrick Eakin Young
Produced by Eleanor Turney & George Warren
The Dreams
Delia Derbyshire and Barry Bermange (DE 1964)
Delia Derbyshire and Barry Bermange (UK 1964)
45 min
The Dreams is one of four programmes "Inventions for Radio", this is surprisingly modern collection of spliced/reassembled interviews with people describing their dreams.
The BBC Radiophonic Workshop provided a base for a series of exceptional composers and sound designers but none of them generated quite the same level of interest and fascination as Delia Derbyshire.
Delia's editing and repetition, together with her dissonant, often terrifying musique concrete soundbeds, make this distinctly uneasy bedtime listening.
Producers: Delia Derbyshire and Barry Bermange
Radio Ballad: The Travelling People (1964)
Ewan McColl, Peggy Seeger, Charles Parker (1963)
Ewan McColl, Peggy Seeger, Charles Parker (UK 1963)
59 min
This new revolutionary format - radio ballad (BBC) conceived by folk musicians Ewan MacColl, Peggy Seeger, and the brilliant radio documentary maker Charles Parker in 1958, combining sound: songs, instrumental music, sound effects, and, most importantly, the recorded voices of those who are the subjects of the documentary. This had never been done before, and still sounds incredibly fresh today.
This ballad gives voice to travellers in the UK as well as the people who have a distrust or fear of this group. Note this was recorded in 1963 and some people featured are quite outspoken about their racist beliefs.
Producer: Charles Parker
Music: Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger
Listen to more Radio Ballads
The Solitude Trilogy: The Idea of North
Glenn Gould (CA 1967)
Glenn Gould (CA 1967)
56min Episode 1 of 1
A visit to the archives with Canadian pianist Glenn Gould's landmark radio documentary, The Idea of North, first aired on CBC Radio in 1967.
In his boldly experimental program about the Canadian north, the pianist used a technique he called "contrapuntal radio," layering speaking voices on top of each other to create a unique sonic environment situated in the space between conversation and music.
The North provided Gould with an ideal subject matter for exploring the condition of solitude.
"hybrids of music, drama, and several other strains, including essay, journalism, anthropology, ethics, social commentary, and contemporary history."
The densely layered radio pieces presented a real challenge to audiences at the time, and they still do. Yet their enduring cultural impact — a rare feat for radio programming — speaks to the inspired balance of music and meaning that Gould was able to achieve.
Composed by Glenn Gould
Listen to the series
In The Dark Bristol: Creatures of the Rave
Eve Piper (UK 2021)
Eve Piper (UK 2021)
10 min
In The Dark Bristol - New Producers
Creatures of the Rave is a poem about the temptation, atmosphere and thrill of underground raves. It is a first-person narrative account following the arc of one night’s raving, the anticipation beforehand, the rush at its peak and the come down of its closure. The poem aims to uncover what happens at an illegal rave, an unregulated intervention into often discarded public space that can somehow simultaneously be a thing of stigma and status. Eva worked with producers and sound designers to create an immersive drum & bass soundscape to accompany my poem.
Produced by Eva Piper
Soundworlds: Town Is By The Sea
Soundworlds (CA/UK 2022)
Anna Rheingans / Joanne Schwartz / Patrick Eakin Young (CA/UK 2022)
19 min
An audio picture book conjuring impressions from a childhood spent in the coastal mining communities of Nova Scotia. We follow Davey as he describes his daily routine: from waking up with the sea sparkling outside his window, to playing with his friends, buying groceries for his mother, and visiting his grandfather’s grave. Throughout the day, his thoughts keep returning to his father, working in the coal mines deep beneath the town.
Soundworlds is not just a podcast. It’s an audio stage for diverse stories told in extraordinary ways. It’s a place for an exciting new form of audio drama that we call sonic theatre. Created by musicians, writers, theatre-makers and sound artists, sonic theatre pieces are more than radio plays. They’re immersive sound worlds, intoxicating blends of music and storytelling, sound design, documentary and fiction.
Directed by Patrick Eakin Young
Music composed and performed by Anna Rheingans
Sound design and mixing: Ross Flight
Text by Joanne Schwartz, adapted from her 2017 book with illustrator Sydney Smith
Onirica
Silvia Malnati (2021)
Silvia Malnati (UK /IT 2021)
15 min
An intimate exploration of the auditory impressions that people experience while dreaming.
Onirica x BBC New Creatives in partnership with ICA London
Producer: Silvia Malnati
Composer: Stefano Galli
Mixing & Sound Designer: Andrea Campisi
Executive Producer: Pierre Vella (SPACE)
Radio Ballad: On The Edge (1963)
Ewan McColl, Peggy Seeger, Charles Parker (1963)
Ewan McColl, Peggy Seeger, Charles Parker (UK 1963)
59 min
This new revolutionary format - radio ballad (BBC) conceived by folk musicians Ewan MacColl, Peggy Seeger, and the brilliant radio documentary maker Charles Parker in 1958, combining sound: songs, instrumental music, sound effects, and, most importantly, the recorded voices of those who are the subjects of the documentary. This had never been done before, and still sounds incredibly fresh today.
This Radio Ballad explores the lives of teenagers in the 1960’s with voices of young people from all over the UK. If you’ve seen C’mon C’mon where Joaquin Phoenix plays Johnny a radio journalist touring the US to talk to teens, this piece sounds even more ahead of its time.