Sound and Music

Life is filled with many joyous activities. One of my favourites as a teenager was spending an unhealthy amount of time following scores as I listened to music.

Roddy Hawkins, a doctoral student at the University of Leeds doing a PhD on contemporary music in Britain, is looking for people with opinions on the post-war scene.

Sorry, I don't have the YouTube links for this one! I've recently become a parent and over Christmas, while sipping wine and staring into an audio receiver, listening to my daughter complaining, no - happily sighing, no - definitely complaining, I began wondering whether baby monitors have been used in composition.

Brighton-based pianist, dulcimer player and composer, Geoff Smith, has invented the world's first fully fluid, acoustic microtonal piano, which you can hear in action in the video below.

We've posted some calls on the Opportunities section of the website relating to INTO, Sound and Music's online members' magazine, with two ongoing ways you can get involved:

Janek Schaefer is one of the UK's leading sonic artists - in fact he's the current holder of the British Composer Award for Sonic Art. He's also a guy who's pretty unstoppable when on a mission.

If you're in London this weekend you have a choice of two very different music festivals...

On 12 September at London's Roundhouse, a piece which is claimed to be the longest piece of music ever written, and which started at the turn of the millennium, will receive its first ever live performance. Here is a description from the producers:

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I received a poster this morning for the Pharos Arts Foundation's 1st International Contemporary Music Festival, taking place at the Shoe Factory, Nicosia, Cyprus.

The Royal Opera House has launched a campaign to get people submitting snippets of the storyline for a new opera, which will be scored by Helen Porter, via Twitter.

See the BBC report here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/arts_and_culture/8193917.stm

And the ROH blog here: http://royaloperahouse.wordpress.com/