Students in tune with radio

A GROUP of music students who will create a performance using 100 metronomes have decided to challenge themselves further - by playing a separate piece using volume and tuning knobs on 12 radios.

The Napier University students will perform Gyrgy Ligeti's Pome Symphonique using 100 metronomes, before going on to perform John Cage's Imaginary Landscape No.4 on 12 radios as part of the same bizarre concert.

At the signal of the conductor, two performers will "play" each radio, with one controlling the tuning and the other operating the volume.

The concert will take place at Inverleith House, Royal Botanic Garden, on Sunday at 2pm.

Music lecturer Katrina Burton, who is heading the performances, said: "They will be following a score which Cage laid out. If there is anybody in the audience who has watched a performance of this before, it will be very different because it depends on the country that you're in and what stations you will pick up.

"The first time that it was played in the 1950s it was very late on in the concert, so not many stations were still on air.

"With this concert on a Sunday afternoon, I don't think we will come across that problem."

The performance will be conducted by fourth-year music student Rachel Gillespie, who is writing her final-year dissertation on John Cage.

The 21-year-old, who lives in Morningside, said: "I have always been interested in this piece because it's so different. As part of my dissertation, I decided to set up a performance, really to help me get a grasp of what I'm writing about."

Dr Burton added: "I said it would really help Rachel's dissertation if we actually put on a performance of this.

"The majority of student performers are in fourth year so it's a nice concert for them to put on in their final year."

The radios, which were borrowed from students and their friends for the performance, range from the very small to a huge 1980s ghetto blaster.

Dr Burton said: "The sound is very difficult to describe. You catch snippets of music so you hear lots of different types of music at once, and you will pick up snippets of conversation as well. Everybody will hear the performance differently."

The renowned Pome Symphonique, described by some as a genius composition and by others as white noise, will kick the concert off. It will be performed by ten undergraduates who will set off the mechanical devices at the same time.

The students were struggling to find enough metronomes, but following an appeal in the Evening News in November last year they now have enough.

Dr Burton said: "We got about 50 from staff and students at the university, general members of the public and music shops in Edinburgh.

"The other 50 came from Wittner Metronome in Germany, the most reputable, respected make of metronome."

The devices have been used by Ligeti to create compositions used on film soundtracks including Stanley Kubrick's films 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Shining and Eyes Wide Shut.