Jonathan Harvey Photo: Maurice Foxall
As Chris Gendall explains in this programme, Jonathan Harvey not only experimented with the different sounds instruments could make acoustically in his music; he also used spectral analysis to analyse the timbre, the harmonics in a particular instruments signature, and to electronically highlight elements of an instrument's colour.
It's an approach that illuminates the richness of sound in a way that makes you hear the sounds you know, in one case a baby crying, in a different way. There's a subtle blurring of the lines between acoustic and electronic sounds.
Music Details:
HARVEY: Tombeau de Messiaen - Philip Mead (pno) (Sargasso SCD 28029)
HARVEY: Speakings - BBC Scottish SO / Ivan Volkov (Aeon AECD 1090)
HARVEY: String Quartet No 1 - Arditti Quartet (Montaigne MO 782034)
HARVEY: Is it Over? from Wagner Dream - Claire Booth, Gordon Gietz, Matthew Best, Ictus / Martyn Brabbins (Cypres CYP 5624)
HARVEY: Scena - Irvine Arditti (vln), Nieuw Ensemble / Ed Spanjaard (Montaigne MO 782034)
HARVEY: Bhakti - Nouvel Ensemble Moderne / Lorraine Vaillancourt (Disques Montaigne 782128)