BBC Broadcast of CD 'Reflection'

Abstract

BBC Radio 3 broadcast of 'Reflection.' 'Reflection' is a CD recording substantially comprising choral music by T J Blinko and conducted by the composer. It has received multiple broadcasts on BBC Radio 3 and BBC Radio 4 in the UK and multiple BBC broadcasts in the USA. The music has also been performed globally, including in Italy, Switzerland and the USA. Originality: The music in 'Reflection' uses an innovative conceptual model drawn from ancient and contemporary cosmology and the notion of the music of the spheres. This process of enquiry begins in China 7,000 years ago with Chinese knowledge of the ratios of the harmonic series and detailed cosmological observations, through to the Sumerians' highly developed tonal and arithmetical model of the cosmos, to Pythagoras, Plato, Ptolemy, Kepler's 'Harmonice Mundi,' Dante's 'Divine Comedy,' Einstein's theory of general relativity and to String Theory. 'Mass' from 'Reflection,' interprets gravitational time dilation in terms of time perception, fluctuation, reminiscence and representation. While other works on ‘Reflection’ explore notions of the perception of harmonics, through special choral/textural effects and the perceptual illusions of difference tones using very high vocal pitches, including sustained top Cs. Significance: The enhancement of knowledge and practice is further broadened by human perceptive issues surrounding the ten or eleven spacetime dimensions predicted by String Theorists, and issues of the perception of space and resonance, critical to the music (recorded in the hugely resonant space of Ealing Abbey). Rigour: This work has been in part informed by notions of perception of time and duration in the work of John Tavener, and in particular 'The Veil of the Temple.' However, 'Reflections' is informed more by historic and contemporary cosmology than the transcendental and spiritual approach of Tavener.