Sound Frontiers: Music and Technology

Tom Service explores how technological innovations in music advance compositional processes and help performers to reach new audiences. He talks to composers Dai Fujikura and Rebecca Saunders about the pros and cons of technology for composers, and visits Ian Dearden of Sound Intermedia as he works on Stockhausen's Mikrophonie I with custom-made filters to create an "authentic" feel. Tom also looks back at the pioneering work of Pierre Schaeffer with his studio assistant, Beatriz Ferreyra, who became an electro-acoustic composer in her own right from 1970, and he talks to the doyen of British digital music and sonic art, Trevor Wishart. Plus Luke Ritchie, Head of Digital Media at the Philharmonia, walks Tom around 'The Virtual Orchestra', their new sound installation at Southbank Centre in London. Commentators Jessica Duchen and Charlotte Gardner talk to Tom about how artists like the Philharmonia are using technological innovations to reach out to new audiences.