Author Archives: Chris

Manifestos and the Future(s) of Music

As a brief in­tro­duc­tion: Ken Nielsen of the Australian group Pinchgut Opera wrote a ‘mani­festo for the fu­ture of clas­sical music’ as Greg Sandow  —  who posted it to his blog  —  de­scribes it, Tim Rutherford-Johnson has added his two cents here and below are mine. Perhaps my European per­spective on Nielsen’s Antipodean angle has caused some mis­un­der­stand­ings, in […]

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Curios in Metz

In the last week I made a couple of trips from Luxembourg to Metz to hear some of the con­certs at this year’s Centre Acanthes and check out the newly opened Centre Pompidou-Metz. Metz is clearly in a period of flux, re­ju­ven­ating it­self with art, cul­ture and ar­chi­tec­ture, which in all hon­esty out­shine any of […]

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To grasp the world of today we are using a lan­guage made for the world of yes­terday. And the life of the past seems a better re­flec­tion of our nature, for the simple reason that it is a better re­flec­tion of our language. — Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (trans. William Rees), Wind, Sand and Stars

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Sing Joyfully

I made this re­cording of birds in my garden at dawn on 22 April 2010. It was part of a whole heap of field re­cord­ings that I am only just sifting through. I’m afraid I can’t tell you what type of bird it is; I only ever spot black­birds, mag­pies and, more re­cently, the occasional […]

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LSO/Eötvös: Bach, Lachenmann & Brahms

It is fairly rare to come across a pro­gramme that forms a clear, co­herent unit without re­sorting to gim­micky themes or tenuous as­so­ci­ations. So it was pleasing to hear the un­ob­trusive logic that bound to­gether the LSO’s Sunday-evening pro­gramme at Barbican Hall of Bach (arr. Webern), Lachenmann and Brahms.

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  • Microbiography

    Chris Swithinbank is a British-Dutch com­poser who works with both acoustic in­stru­ments and elec­tronic sounds. He is cur­rently a stu­dent at Harvard University with Chaya Czernowin.
    Full Biography »

  • Hear