Output details

'Hearing Ragas': soundtrack for BBC Radio 4 feature (first broadcast 7 September 2012)

‘Hearing Ragas’ was a feature commission by BBC Radio 4, and was produced in collaboration with BBC Radio producer Rosie Boulton. This is a narrative-driven feature documentary with a soundtrack that incorporates radiophonic electroacoustic music and sound design alongside produced recordings of a number of ragas performed by Sanchita Pal and extracts from John Tavener’s Towards Silence (2010, Signum).

The work explores some of the experiences of Paul Robertson, violinist with the Medici Quartet, and his process of recovery following aortic rupture, coma and stroke. Whilst in the coma Robertson experienced horrific visions, many seemingly tied in with Tavener’s Towards Silence, completed for Paul during his illness.

As with Playing The Form (2011: Hall_04), Approaching Apocalypse (2008: Hall_01), and earlier works such as Close at Hand (2007), this composition commission blurs the distinctions between electroacoustic composition and sound design within narrative-driven documentary. This approach is unusual for BBC programming and even more so in terms of daytime Radio 4 output. The commission also ties into a lineage in Hall’s work dating back to his PhD portfolio (University of Birmingham, 2002) and beyond, which often explores elements of spirituality as a theme and source of inspiration within a technology-driven genre.

Audiences for the radio broadcasts of this were c.1,000,000 (excluding web downloads). An extended version of the programme has been kept live on the Radio 4 website indefinitely.

Hearing Ragas won the Sandford St Martin Radio Premier Award in 2013 for ‘excellence in religious broadcasting’; audience feedback can be read on the programme’s BBC webpage, as given below.

URLs

Hearing Ragas: <http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01mf7nd>

BBC Media Centre: <http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/proginfo/2012/36/hearing-ragas.html>

Sandford St Martin Awards Homepage: <http://www.sandfordawards.org.uk>

Sandford St Martin Awards Winners press release:

<http://www.sandfordawards.org.uk/sandford/userfiles/

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