An orchestra from the comfort of your garden chair - did you know plants make music?

By James Chater 

Photograph: © TFL from the London Transport Museum Collection

If you go down to the woods today, you’re sure of a big surprise… No, not bears picnicking, but something perhaps as equally far-fetched. Plants that make music.

To me, the RHS Chelsea Flower Show means one thing; being subjected to an hour-long programme every evening for a week about gardens. Unfortunately, I can’t get much more excited about it than that, despite my mother’s consistently enthused accounts of the many wonderful gardens she has seen during the day. However, this time she returned with an anecdote that didn’t cause me to reach hurriedly for my noise-cancelling headphones. The anecdote was about a stall she had seen where an array of plants were, thanks to a complicated looking contraption, creating music. Music is an art that has associations with many other arts, social sciences and general hobbies but, I must admit, I had never seen horticulture as one of them. Sceptically, I began to investigate and was pleasantly surprised by the large quantity of information on a field of research I had never encountered.

The research has been centred in the Italian ‘eco-village’ of Damanhur. In 1979, 11 ‘Damanhurians’ founded the self-titled ‘Federation of Damanhur’, in an Italian mountain range 30 miles from Turin in 1979. Today, the site is known as the location of the ‘Temples of Humankind’, an enormous temple made up of several halls some 100ft beneath the mountain. It was constructed in complete secrecy from the Italian government, and without heavy construction machinery. It has to be seen to be believed. Since 1979, a team of scientists has been working to ascertain whether it is possible to communicate with plants, and whether the communication can be through the medium of music. One fascinating experiment has given real traction to the idea that plants can in fact communicate with each other. 

Capiscum Annuum

Until now it has been thought that the ways in which plants communicate was through chemical or magnetic means, but the team at Damanhur have shown that they may be able to through sound as well, just at a frequency inaudible to humans. 

“In the experiment, Capsicum annuum (chili pepper) seeds isolated in a black box that blocked all possible chemical and magnetic communication, germinated slowly when there were no other plants nearby; they did so at a normal speed if they were near other Capsicums, and did so rapidly if they were near basil plants, known to be their natural ally. Growth was even faster if there were fennel plants nearby, since fennel is antagonistic to Capsicum plants, releasing chemicals that would slow their growth. Fennel seemed to signal its presence with a kind of acoustic communication. If it was put in a plastic box that blocked all forms of chemical communication, nearby Capsicum plants were spurred into growing much faster than normal.”

How then are these sounds made audible? Electrodes are attached to the roots and the leaves, through which vibrations are sent as a MIDI signal to a synthesiser, which then plays the notes. Differences in electric potential within the roots and leaves cause changes in pitch and rhythm. The result is quite extraordinary.

However, the question that arises is whether, even if the plant creates these sounds, it necessarily becomes music. If they are sounds that are the result of a biological change in the plant’s surroundings, there isn’t much that differentiates it from human speech; it is functional. Not many people would label a conversation as music, apart from maybe John Cage. In a sense, to be called music, there needs to be evidence that the plant makes these sounds spontaneously, ‘for fun’, if you will.

Photograph: © NOTCOT

Damanhur has the answer… “Countless tests and re-workings of the basic technology have refined this device [the device which changes the signals into sound]. These forty years of experimentation seem to tell us that plants realise that it is they who are determining the sequence of notes emitted by the device, and therefore they modulate it intentionally. They do not just react to stimuli from their surroundings but can be ‘trained’ to use the device increasingly well, to respond to the human voice or to someone playing an instrument. Plants ‘remember’ their training, and over time learn to interact in an ever more sophisticated way with their audience.”

So there you have it, a brief introduction to the musical world of plants. I have only scratched the surface here, and if you would like to find out more there is a whole website dedicated to this field of research, an album compiled by Damanhur of different plants’ ‘songs’, and even the opportunity to go and see the ‘plant concerts’ first-hand. The device that creates the sounds is even on sale to the general public. So forget Beethoven, you could soon be conducting your very own orchestra from the comfort of your garden chair.

Southern Sinfonia is very excited about the final of our Newbury Young Musician of the Year Competition; click here to find out more and purchase tickets. 

To find out about other upcoming events, click here to visit our website, Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. 

‘That way lies the death of opera’ - does this medium depend on more than voice?

By Julia Hudson 

There’s really only one topic I can choose to blog about this week, and it’s one that has been reverberating through the classical music world and implicating critic and performer alike.  Glyndebourne mezzo soprano Tara Erraught was criticised in a series of reviews of Der Rosenkavalier, in which she made her debut this weekend. Not for her singing, however, but for her appearance. Criticisms included the attestation by Andrew Clark of the Financial Times that she is “a chubby bundle of puppy-fat”, while Richard Morrison of the Times called her "unbelievable, unsightly and unappealing".

Many singers have responded; noting that all these critics were male, Jennifer Johnston suggested that “clearly overt sexism is rife” while mezzo soprano Alice Coote wrote an open letter to opera critics, in which she said that "we cannot people our operatic stages with singers that above all are believable visually or sexually attractive to our critics. That way lies the death of opera. It is not about lights, it is not about costumes, it's not about sets, it's not even about sex or stature. It is ALL about the human voice. Critics, I beg you: Be kind to young singers - you may change the trajectory of their lives and career if you wound them with your words."

It goes without saying that, as a member of the fairer sex just a year younger than Miss Erraught, I find any suggestion of casual sexism appalling. I recognize the value of the movement against it, entitled “Everyday Sexism”, and I feel saddened that such occasions are still present in the modern day. However, I cannot go so far as to agree with Alice Coote wholeheartedly.

"Have we arrived at a point where opera is no longer about singing but about the physiques and looks of the singers, specifically the female singers?" Jennifer Johnston wrote in an opinion column for the Guardian. This would be a tragedy; the notion of image and ‘the way things appear’ permeate every aspect of the media increasingly, and all art forms are affected. Some for the better; the cinema transmission of opera and the flexibility of technology are opening up the world of classical music to new audiences, but some, as here, for the worse. However, does Alice Coote go too far, when she suggests that opera is “ALL about the human voice”? Given the substantial budget of Glyndebourne and comparable companies, and the wonderful effects the sets, lights and costumes have on the audience, I would suggest that the effectiveness of opera as a medium goes beyond merely the sound of the voice. Even concert performance, a field with which we at Southern Sinfonia are even more familiar, is subject to this; our rehearsals sound lovely, but there’s a reason we wear white tie and long black dresses for most of our bookings, and that some of our most stunning performances take place in the most beautiful cathedrals in the world.

I visit Glyndebourne every year (they do a wonderful under 30’s £30 ticket offer) and year before last I was bowled over by a production of Ravel’s L’Enfant et les Sortileges. An opera I knew well thanks to a university production, I was transported into a magical world where everything was scaled up to emphasise the small, overwhelmed nature of the little boy (another mezzo in a ‘male’ role). It goes without saying that the singing was wonderful, but the enormous chair and the oversized squirrels undoubtedly contributed tremendously to the overall spectacle. Without the production, I could have listened to the music in the comfort of my own home.

There is a huge disparity between ‘believability’ and ‘sexual attractiveness’, and it could be said that Coote is unfair to suggest that critics are starting to look before they hear. Believability is relevant to any performer, and most from the acting profession would agree that it is crucial to the success of a production. However, for me it is an expressive face, a sense that the performer has immersed themselves into the role, and an emotional connection – in opera, these come from a wonderful voice, yes, but also a commitment to acting the role, both visually and orally. Most would agree that, today, it is not enough to stand on a stage and sing the notes, and I applaud this development, particularly as opera is arguably the most multidimensional art form, involving singing, acting, dancing, poetry and staging.

Credit: Christian Kaufmann

Retuning to this week, however, perhaps by being more specific Rupert Christiansen’s comment in the Telegraph is slightly more helpful. "There is no doubt of the talent of this young Irish mezzo, but she is dumpy of stature and... her costuming makes her resemble something between Heidi and Just William." It already asks a certain amount of a modern audience, used to the best CGI and computer-aided transformations, to remember that a woman with long hair and a skirt is actually meant to be a man in period dress. A woman diminutive in height (and I speak from experience, although I would prefer not to be termed ‘dumpy’) probably doesn’t make a very convincing man. Surely, then, a more suitable critique would be of the production, and the costuming, as Rupert Christiansen has (almost) done, rather than the singer? It appears to me that Tara Erraught has merely arrived in Sussex and delivered an “outstanding” performance. Above all, this is what must be applauded – as it undoubtedly was, and will be for the rest of the season. 

If you would like to learn more about Southern Sinfonia please visit our website, Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. 

Competitions: for Horse or for Artist?

By Chris Billingham 

Hungarian composer and pianist Béla Bartók (1881-1945) once stated that “Competitions are for horses, not artists”. We rather like competitions, and believe that they have a great deal to give musicians in terms of professional development, and can even be enjoyable, for both performers and audience. However, as Bartók says, a competition has a different role to play to a concert or recital. What Bartók couldn’t predict, however, was the advent of technology. Has technology changed the way artists view competitions? Southern Sinfonia will soon be holding the final of our Newbury Young Musician of the Year competition and our new Quartet in Association, the Villiers Quartet, is currently assessing a record number of entrants for their VQ New Works Competition. Between our own and national competitions such as the BBC Young Musician of the Year currently taking place, as well as the Royal Over-Seas League competition and the Kathleen Ferrier Awards, it’s the perfect time to try and work out for whom competitions are of benefit.

Bartók’s comment is undoubtedly rooted in a question many musicians have had in their lifetime; how can you judge one form of art against another? Matthew Forbes discussed this here just a couple of weeks ago, and former Newbury Young Musician of the Year winner Drew Steanson explained in these pages that “Music is for people; in competitions one is often compared to fellow musicians, whereas in a concert the audience is there just to hear how you play and hear your enjoyment of the playing, not what you can do, not what you can’t do.” This, therefore, makes an artist vulnerable. For young musicians this can have a lasting impact, and it is thus crucial to make this a positive experience for all participants. However, is it not also fair to say that competitions can serve an additional purpose, in the modern world? 

Live stream of the VQ New Works Competition 2012 in action

As the BBC Young Musician of the Year competition revs up to the final on 18^th May, reviews and thoughts on all the performers are appearing in digital newspapers, blog articles and throughout social media. Digital technology allows people to talk about every musician, assessing their value and promoting them to a wider audience. This is potentially the biggest counterargument to Bartók’s statement; the promotional opportunities and artistic experiences that competitions in the 21^st century can offer musicians propel them away from being a platform just for “horses”, as they may have been in the 20^th century. 

Additionally, modern technology has allowed for the nature of competition to evolve. The VQ New Works Competition gives composers the opportunity to submit compositions, narrowed down to six and premiered by the quartet online. These are then narrowed down to three pieces via an online vote, which are then performed in the Final, at Kings Place, and the winner decided from an international live stream of the concert and a second online vote. In 2014, new and emerging talents that would have found it difficult to break through in the past can enter innovative competitions like this one. Additionally, by putting the first set of finalists online, the audience become the judges, allowing for a wider set of opinion and tastes to be considered.

Newbury Young Musician of the Year 2012
Drew Steanson in concert with Southern Sinfonia

There are many reasons Southern Sinfonia are proud of our competitions. Our contestants are valued; everyone has a platform and a stage to display their talents and the judging criteria takes into account a range of factors. Perhaps the most important aspect to us is that entrants get the valuable experience of playing in this context. Drew points out that he doesn’t think “many students around the world get an opportunity to play with an orchestra as fine as Southern Sinfonia”, referring to his NYMY prize; a concerto with the orchestra, conducted by David Hill. 

Our Newbury Young Musician of the Year final will take place on 15^th June; you can find out more by clicking here. The Villiers Quartet will be announcing the finalists of the VQ New Works Competition soon; find out more about this by visiting their website. 

If you would like to learn more about Southern Sinfonia please visit our website, Facebook, Twitter or Instagram! 

New Works and New Collaborations - introducing the Villiers Quartet

By Julia Hudson 

At a recent rehearsal, I was approached by someone with an expression of bafflement asking why appearances suggested our principal cello was still at Music College. An understandable (and rather flattering!) question, they were in fact referring to the fresh-faced Nick Stringfellow, cellist with Southern Sinfonia for eight years and counting. This week, we are so pleased to announce his Quartet, one of the most exciting groups on the classical music scene, as Quartet in Association.

Named after Villiers Street in London's energetic and colourful musical epicentre, the Quartet is completed by James Dickenson (violin), Tamaki Higashi (violin) and Carmen Flores (viola). This week, we cornered Nick and asked him a few questions about the collaboration and what the Quartet is all about.

What defines the Villiers Quartet?

Nothing is outside of the Villiers Quartet's repertoire as they define the string quartet for the 21st century. Dedicated to the established works of Beethoven, Mendelssohn, and Brahms, they have also developed a reputation as exceptional interpreters of English composers including Elgar, Britten, Delius, and Thomas Adès. Having toured across the UK and internationally, they have been declared "one of the best young quartets around today" (Jerry Horner), and their performances of Shostakovich and Tischenko have been hailed as "masterful playing" (Classical Source).

Why is this a great collaboration?

This is a fantastic collaboration. Southern Sinfonia and the Villiers Quartet are both very innovative organisations. Trailblazing with competitions like "VQ New Works" and "Newbury Older Musician of the Year", both are at the forefront of modern live performance, embracing new media and constantly searching for new ways of presenting their concerts.  With incomparable performances and exciting programming they are making waves within musical life. Bringing Southern Sinfonia and Villiers Quartet together will make for an amazing musical collision.....I can't wait!

You've played with Southern Sinfonia for eight years. How is playing in a chamber orchestra and a quartet different, and which do you prefer?

Southern Sinfonia is different to many other orchestras in that it feels like a large chamber ensemble. There is such great communication between the players, which allows the music making to be very spontaneous. For this reason there are actually many similarities. However, string quartet playing is like nothing else. There is such discipline and concentration required and it is often a cerebral experience. There are great demands on the players to be constantly listening and assessing balance and varying colour and articulation.  As for which do I prefer?.....................you'd have to get me very drunk to divulge that information!

What do you have coming up that you're particularly looking forward to?

We are about to start the selection process for our VQ New Works Competition and have received entries from all across the world. The task for composers is to write a piece for string quartet. After an initial selection process, footage of the final six pieces recorded by us will be posted online. Then for up to a month afterwards voters can log on to our site and vote for their favourite piece. The grand final held at Kings Place, London on 21st September will showcase the final three and a winner will be chosen by an audience vote, which will also include the online audience watching our live stream. Our recording of last year's winning piece, "Sanctus" by Riho Maimets, will be released in the lead up to the competition.

Do you have any particular memories of playing for Southern Sinfonia you would like to share?

Working together on Carl Rutti's Requiem was a wonderful experience. We gave the world premiere in Winchester Cathedral with David Hill conducting and all felt that we were part of something really special. With all the great choral works there must have been a point at which they take flight, and we felt privileged to contribute to this musical milestone. Later in the season we made the premiere recording at St John's, Smith Square.

Thank you, Nick, for talking to us – we will endeavour to prise that answer out of you sometime soon! We are so pleased to welcome the Villiers Quartet into the Southern Sinfonia family; make sure to stay updated on their performances with us next season. You can also visit their website www.villiersquartet.com, follow them on Twitter @villiersquartet and make sure to follow the VQ New Works Competition as it progresses with the deadline for entries on Monday.

The Rutti Requiem is available to purchase from our store, click here to purchase and browse though the range of items also available. 

You can also get in touch with Southern Sinfonia through Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. To find out more about the orchestra please visit our website. 

Another supercalifragilisticexpialidocious year - BBC Proms launch 2014

By Julia Hudson 

As I’m sure our readership is aware by now, we are fond of the Proms here at the Southern Sinfonia offices. Once we discovered we could make it from Berkshire desk (via Paddington, and that deceptively long walk from South Kensington tube) to take our seats in time for a 7.30pm kick off, there was no stopping us. We are pleased and proud to see our beloved Patron Sir Roger Norrington will be at the helm of two Proms this summer; on 26^th July he will conduct his Zurich Chamber Orchestra in a St John Passion, with a cast of singers led by legendary James Gilchrist, and 3^rd September finds him as Honorary Conductor of the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra, performing, Beethoven, Dvořák and Berlioz. As if this wasn’t enough, our wonderful Musical Director David Hill will be conducting his BBC Singers on 13^th August in a late-night Steve Reich Prom with Endymion. Intriguingly, all three concerts have been featured in the Proms’ ‘handpicked list’ of Classical for Starters; concerts to choose if you are new to classical music. 

In contrast to these varied yet comforting choices, there are of course the attention-grabbers; much to our surprise we loved the Urban Classic Prom last year, but this year Laura Mvula is joined by Paloma Faith, Rufus Wainwright and the Pet Shop Boys. The Pet Shop Boys are premiering their homage to Alan Turing, the pioneering computer scientist and World War II codebreaker prosecuted for homosexuality who received a posthumous royal pardon this year. Neil Tennant describes the work as “very different from anything else we’ve ever done”, and this 40-minute work ‘A Man From the Future’ will combine orchestra, electronic instruments, a chorus and narrator. Other notably ‘different’ Proms include a BBC Sport Prom, hosted by Gabby Logan, a CBeebies Prom, which prompted Roger Wright at the launch to describe the season (his last) as ‘supercalifragilisticexpialidocious’, and a War Horse Prom involving Gareth Malone and his Military Wives Choir.

© John Wright

So far, so accessible, different, and novel. However, as Tom Service excellently put it in the Guardian, “it’s the genuine novelties I’m looking forward to, the 32 premieres of one stripe or another, including music by Simon Holt (27 July), Gabriel Prokofiev (29 July), Helen Grime (9 August), and Jörg Widmann (two pieces played by the Cleveland Orchestra on 7 and 8 September). Most intriguing of all is Benedict Mason’s Meld on 16 August, a piece whose mechanics are remaining as secret as possible beforehand, but which promises to confound "what we think of as an orchestra, of a concert, and even of music itself", as the brochure has it.” The season is also studded with performances marking the 80th birthdays of our greatest composers, Peter Maxwell Davies and Harrison Birtwistle, as well as many other anniversaries. As Roger Wright says, “Sir Roger (80 this year) will, like Sir Andrew Davis (70), Donald Runnicles (60) and

Edward Gardner (40), conduct two Proms and it is a thrill to welcome back Sir Neville Marriner in his 90th-birthday year, with the orchestra he founded, the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, alongside its new Music Director, Joshua Bell.”

However, in my view, one of the most important developments this year has rather gone unnoticed. As one tiny part of Roger Wright’s legacy, this year all the Proms will be on iPlayer, there is a dedicated Proms button on the BBC iPlayer Radio app, six interactive BBC iWonder guides, and the addition of BBC Playlister, where music lovers can build playlists of their favourite presenters’ recommended works from the season. Already used as part of the BBC’s Glastonbury coverage, this illustrates the unique ability of the Proms, to solidify listeners’ relationship with music beyond a single night’s acquaintance. As an appropriate nod to the commemoration of Alan Turing, this demonstrates that, without shouting about it or losing its heart, the Proms is consistently remaining at the forefront of the year’s musical calendar for a contemporary generation.

So, what implications does this launch have for Southern Sinfonia? It is undeniable that interaction is key to solidify support for large-scale projects and events; we are fortunate to have platforms such as this blog and our website and social media feeds. We also enjoy working with a huge number of artistic organisations, from choral societies to universities, all with their own supporters, so we are constantly meeting new friends. Secondly, it is clear from the 2014 Proms series that diversity and variety allows the joy of the festival to spread across generations; we support this ethos through our education work and Young and Older Musician of the Year competitions.  With our own anniversary next season, and a host of projects across musical spheres and ages in the planning, we look forward to sharing our own launch with you.

Before then we have a number of other exciting concerts on the horizon, including Café Concert with harpist Olivia Jageurs and actor Alex Knox (both pictured above) on Friday 20th June; click here to find out more about this event. 

The heats for our Newbury Young Musician of the Year Competition are currently being held so keep checking our website, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram for the latest updates!