Skip to main contentSkip to audio controlsSkip to footer

Recording the Hepworth

Adrian Moore

Programme notes

Subtitled “An acousmatic experience beyond the soundscape” this is a piece that is tied to a specific place, a specific space and a specific time. It is about the sounds of change. I came to the Hepworth Gallery in Wakefield (England, UK) in early 2019 as construction was beginning on a new, outdoor garden designed by internationally acclaimed landscape architect Tom Stuart-Smith. I recorded the levelling of the ground (machines), the river that runs next to the gallery and its interior spaces. This was not a documentary but more of a sonic postcard as I then gave myself quite a lot of artistic freedom to manipulate and edit my recordings. The recordings themselves were really nice to work with. The outdoor spaces had a sense of being open and early in the year. The interior spaces had their own magical acoustic; big, but quiet. Once finished, the garden would have a series of entrances and exits (and triggered the idea for my work Routes (2019-20) which has a number of paths through the piece that a performer can choose). I recorded the huge percussion drills hammering the concrete foundations of what stood before on site. When they stopped the reverberant space opened up like a breath of fresh air. It was almost like the outside space was breathing. (I find the breathing metaphor to be really useful when composing. If I have points where I deliberately breathe or relax, I hope these points will appear to others). Like the saws in Audiogentry (2019), whilst the percussion drills were not necessarily nice sounds they challenged me to extract something musical like a pulse, an acceleration or a pitch. I also used processes such as convolution and spectral cross-synthesis to colour noise-based sounds with a pitch which tempered the noisiness for a moment.

[ix-24]


Recording the Hepworth was realized in 2019 at the composer’s studio in Sheffield (England, UK) and premiered on April 26, 2019, as part of the Modern Nature: Symposium at The Hepworth Wakefield in Wakefield (England, UK).

Premiere

  • April 26, 2019, Modern Nature: Symposium: Adrian Moore — An acousmatic experience beyond the soundscape, The Hepworth Wakefield, Wakefield (England, UK)
  • Composer(s): Adrian Moore
  • Year of composition: 2019
  • Duration: 10:28
  • Instrumentation: stereo fixed medium
  • Publisher(s): Ymx média
  • ISRC: CAD502510009