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RADIO BROADCASTS

 

 

Orange Radio Vienna / Austria - 3 June 2012 - Orange

Two tracks from Ian's CD the Wisdom Of Winter were broadcast in a programme entitled 
"Das Private ist politisch!"-"The personal is political".
The podcast can be downloaded
here

 


Sinigual F.M. / Colombia - February 2008 - Sinigual F.M.

A selection of Ian's vocal, instrumental and electro-acoustic music was broadcast on 'Sonidos del Mundo' (Sounds of the World) and 'Ritmos en Jazz' (Rhythms in Jazz) during the month.

 


Free Radio Kassel / Germany - 19 & 20 May 2007 - FRK

1. BEYOND THE SUN 3'20
2. WHEN THIS DAY IS OVER
3'41
3. THE SNOW WAS FALLING 2'28

The vocal score for 'Beyond the Sun' can be viewed here

Performers on these recordings are as follows:
Ian Harris: vocals, piano, keyboards, percussion & electronics
Michael Peck: violin -
track 1
Matthew Tucker: flute -
track 2

 


BBC Radio 3 'Late Junction' - 21 June 2001

TONIO KRÖGER  
for mandolin, violin, trumpet & strings.


click on above image to download
Tonio Kröger
MP3

Title sequence music for an imaginary film version of
Thomas Mann's novella 'Tonio Kröger'

The title sequence music is scored for mandolin, violin, trumpet and strings. At the opening the mandolin plays a tentative melodic line that gradually builds in tempo and dynamic. The mandolin is recorded with a stereo pan and delay effect. This creates the impression of many instruments playing simultaneously. This music directly corresponds to the hail storm described at the beginning of the story. The strings enter at a lower dynamic to the mandolin. Gradually the strings become louder until they are equally balanced with the mandolin part. Just at the moment when the solo violin enters, the mandolin begins to fade away. Tension is created by the simultaneous hearing of these two musical elements. This musical tension corresponds directly to the themes that are at the heart of the story: the ambiguity of beauty and the tension between art and life. The free energy-driven music for mandolin represents Tonio's free passionate spirit, a lifestyle based on the senses, and the world from which his mother comes. The calm more 'intellectual' sounding string music represents the other side of Tonio's character. The intellectual writer who observes life at a distance. The use of solo instruments in combination with the string orchestra reflects the atmosphere of the Copland model: 'Quiet City'. A work for trumpet, cor anglais and strings. Copland wrote that he sought to convey 'the nostalgic and inner distress of a society profoundly aware of its own insecurity', and also 'the slogging gait of a dispossessed man.' In my music, the violin and trumpet solos each represent different aspects of Tonio himself. The violin solo represents Tonio's childhood, while the trumpet solo is the adult Tonio. (He played the violin as a child). The trumpet conveys a more world-weary quality. The positioning of the two solo instruments, violin-left and trumpet-right also emphasises the movement in time and space from one segment of Tonio's life to another. In order to capture the 'tensions between art and life' and the 'ambiguity of beauty' the music for strings conveys a quietly unsettling atmosphere from the outset. The chords played by the strings also correspond to the merging of the disparate worlds from which his parents come, and the contradictory way in which they bring up Tonio. A reference point for my title sequence music, is David Lean's 1965 film 'Dr.Zhivago'. Although in a different style, Maurice Jarre's music uses the balalaika within the title sequence to represent certain aspects of the film that will reoccur later on. The sound of the beautifully decorated balalaika that belonged to Zhivago's mother conveys memories, emotion and an indefinable longing for an 'other'. In Tonio Kröger, the mandolin carries memories for Tonio, and the reoccurrence of the mandolin music at points in the film would give an extra emotional depth.

© 2005 Ian Harris

 


BBC Radio Suffolk - 11 May 1998

WINTER
for voice & keyboards

plus a live interview .  

 



© 2005 Ian Harris