classics

John Cage: Imaginary Landscape No. 4

John Cage: Imaginary Landscape No. 4

Here is John Cage’s Imag­i­nary Land­scape No. 4, per­formed by the Mael­ström Per­cus­sion Ensemble: [audio:http://radioartnet.net/audio/2550.mp3] Writ­ten in 1951, Imag­i­nary Land­scape No. 4 is scored for twelve radios. Two per­form­ers “play” each radio, one dial­ing the fre­quency, the other chang­ing the vol­ume and tone. The work is notated con­ven­tion­ally, i.e. with…

Samuel Beckett: Words and Music

Samuel Beckett: Words and Music

Words and Music is a radio play written by Samuel Beckett in 1962. In this piece, two characters entitled Words and Music (or Joe and Bob as they are sometimes called) work together and against each other in order to produce songs, musical interludes, and lyric poetry. To some extent,…

Luc Ferrari: Far​-​West News nº 1

Luc Ferrari: Far​-​West News nº 1

Au départ, l’idée était quelque chose comme: un compositeur ayant eu une vie bizarre, remplie de compositions instrumentales et électroacoustiques, spécialiste du micro voyageur, a le projet de faire un parcours aléatoire dans le Sud-Ouest américain. Ce voyage a eu lieu en septembre 1998. Jour après jour, la route se…

Samuel Beckett: Cascando

Samuel Beckett: Cascando

Cascando is a radio play by Samuel Beckett. It was written in French in December 1961, subtitled Invention radiophonique pour musique et voix, with music by the Franco-Romanian composer Marcel Mihalovici. It was first broadcast on France Culture on 13 October 1963 with Roger Blin (L’Oeuverer) and Jean Martin (La…

Walter Ruttmann: Weekend

Walter Ruttmann: Weekend

Weekend is a pioneering work from the early days of radio, commissioned in 1928 by Berlin Radio Hour. In a collage of words, music fragments and sounds, the film-maker and media artist Walter Ruttmann presented on 13 June 1930 a radically innovative radio piece: an acoustic picture of a Berlin…

The history of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop

The history of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop

50 years ago this month, the most celebrated electronic music studio in the world was established. We trace the history of the Radiophonic Workshop, talking to the composers and technical staff who helped to create its unique body of work. Steve Marshall Published in SOS April 2008 I was 10…

Luc Ferrari. L’Escalier des Aveugles

Luc Ferrari. L’Escalier des Aveugles

Autor / Author: Luc Ferrari Título / Title: L’Escalier des Aveugles / La escalinata de los ciegos Duración/Duration: 34’20” Año / Year: 1991 Intérpretes / Players: Ana Malaver, Julia Gil, Susana Cantero, Izaskun Azurmendi, Laura Notario y Gloria de Pedro, actrices. Observaciones / Observations: Obra encargo del CDMC y Radio…

Max Neuhaus: Radio Net

Max Neuhaus: Radio Net

In ‘Radio Net’, the mixing was done with what could be seen as a special case of time-division multiplexing. Although heard as a conventional mix of input signals, the output was actually being switched very quickly from input to input. The perceived level of an input in the mix depended…

Orson Welles. The War of the Worlds

The War of the Worlds was an episode of the American radio drama anthology series Mercury Theatre on the Air. It was performed as a Halloween episode of the series on October 30, 1938 and aired over the Columbia Broadcasting System radio network. Directed and narrated by Orson Welles, the…