Listen to music inspired by the sciences – physics, astronomy, neuroscience- for this New Sounds, including music from the composers’ lab called Golden Hornet, music from Bjork, music from a ballet by Joby Talbot and Deru, and a work by pianist Dan Tepfner.
Hear music from a project by the Austin-based composers’ lab, Golden Hornet. For their project, The Sound of Science, seven composers selected scientists for inspiration from fields of astronomy, physics, chemistry, an neuroscience, and wrote a piece that reflects each scientist’s life and practice. The works are for amplified cello and electronics, performed by former Kronos Quartet member cellist Jeffrey Zeigler. Listen to a piece by Graham Reynolds, “The Brain,” inspired by the work of neuroscientist Kristen Harris. Then there’s a work by guitarist Sarah Lipstate, “Radiation in Moderation,” inspired by the work of physicist and the first woman to win the Nobel Prize, Marie Curie. There’s also a work by Mexican composer Felipe Perez Santiago, inspired by the work of astronomer Jill Tarter, the co-founder and former director of the SETI Institute (search for extraterrestrial intelligence).
Hear music by composer and percussionist Aaron Siegel and a portion of his Science is Only a Sometimes Friend, scored for eight glockenspiels and organ that tests the “science of attention and the counterpoint of daydreams.” (Aaron Siegel’s Bandcamp) Also, listen to some of a ballet score by English composer Joby Talbot and L.A.-based electronic music producer Deru (Benjamin Wynn), called “Genus.” It’s an electro-acoustic score for Wayne McGregor's ballet of the same title, based on Charles Darwin's discovery of evolution. There’s a computer science-y work by Dan Tepfer, a composer and pianist who also studied computer programming and physics. In Tepfer’s work, Natural Machines, a computer responds to him in real-time as he plays, but according to “simple rules” - musical algorithims that he programmed in SuperCollider. Plus, music by Bjork, as sung by soprano Renée Fleming, and more.
Program #4172: Music Inspired by the Sciences (First aired 11/09/2018)
ARTIST: Mantra Percussion
WORK: Science is Only a Sometime Friend, excerpt [3:15]
RECORDING: Science is Only a Sometime Friend
SOURCE/INFO: aaronsiegel.bandcamp.com
ARTIST: Golden Hornet featuring Jeffrey Zeigler
WORK: Graham Reynolds: The Brain [8:17]
RECORDING: The Sound of Science
SOURCE: National Sawdust
INFO: nationalsawdust.bandcamp.com
ARTIST: Joby Talbot and Deru
WORK: Transmutation of Species Part 1 [5:52]
RECORDING: Genus
SOURCE/INFO: musicstore.deru.la/album/genus
ARTIST: Dan Tepfer
WORK: Tremolo [6:18]
RECORDING: Natural Machines
SOURCE: Main Door Music
INFO: youtube.com
ARTIST: Golden Hornet featuring Jeffrey Zeigler
WORK: Sarah Lipstate: Radiation in Moderation [8:20]
RECORDING: The Sound of Science
SOURCE: National Sawdust
INFO: nationalsawdust.bandcamp.com
ARTIST: Golden Hornet featuring Jeffrey Zeigler
WORK: Felipe Perez Santiago: Quest [8:27]
RECORDING: The Sound of Science
SOURCE: National Sawdust
INFO: nationalsawdust.bandcamp.com
ARTIST: Renee Fleming; Royal Stockholm Phil Orchestra; Sakari Oramo, cond.
WORK: Bjork, arr. Hans Ek: Virus [4:24]
RECORDING: Distant Light
SOURCE: Decca Classics 0289 483 0415 8
INFO: deccaclassics.com
ARTIST: Bjork
WORK: Virus [:45]
RECORDING: Biophilia
SOURCE: Nonesuch 528728
INFO: nonesuch.com