Rhubarb sounds and more

May 25, 2024May 25, 2024 duncan

Some of the Rhubarb sounds I collected and made for a project many years ago seem to have gone a bit viral recently. So, here are some related things collected together in one place for those who are interested.

Rhubarb, Rhubarb, Rhubarb sounds collected on Soundcloud

Singing in the Dark with David Velez

Exhibition & Workshop/Talk/Concert | Singing in the Dark by David Velez, Ruchi Singh, Duncan Chapman

Tony Wade’s Rhubarb Shed at the Wakefield Rhubarb Festival

Rhubarb Shed

Article from Huddersfield Examiner

https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Sound+of+rhubarb+grows+on+you+….+Huddersfield+Contemporary+Music…-a0272713146

Next Ingredient Podcast

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/rhubarb/id1589832372?i=1000601354297

2011 HCMF festival (features the original project)

Decorated Echoes @ Spitalfields Summer Festival

June 27, 2014June 27, 2014 duncan

Decorated Echoes was a project for Spitalfields music working with students from Phoenix school and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. The movie was made from drawings in response to sounds, our own playing and listening to live music played by Katie Heller (Violin / Viola) and Ruth Rosales (Bassoon / Contra-bassoon)

Re:Sound

October 30, 2012October 30, 2012 duncan

Re:Sound

In preparation for this project at the Sound Festival in Aberdeen this weekend

“What is your favourite sound in the world that isn’t a musical instrument or piece of music?”

a couple of demo tracks containing

Dropping something heavy into water
Thunder
Pocra Quay (from Pete Stollery)
Birds
The wind at Malin Head
Children’s voices
Rain on a tent
Throwing stones onto a frozen lake
Walking in deep snow
Walking through a herd of cows in Switzerland

Chorus loops composed by Music and Communities students and played by synthesised sounds ……………
The Wind
Rain
Standing on Union Street
Child laughing
The sound you get when your head is underwater
glass smashing
walking in deep snow
falling leaves
the crackle of frying eggs
transferring liquids from a can into a glass

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Sounds from Rednote Ensembles “NoisyNoises” to be used in an installation on Sunday 4th

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more here

http://sound-scotland.co.uk/sound_events/resound/

Sound Spiral

June 7, 2012June 7, 2012 duncan

SoundSpiral is a uniquely interactive audio playback environment, holding forty-eight speakers within a specially-designed inflatable venue.
The first work to be shown in the space will be Babel Spring, by Amie Slavin and Duncan Chapman.

The whole project is the brainchild of Amie Slavin who has made an extraordinary piece using multiple languages for it’s first incarnation. The music I have made takes fragments of these languages and using specially designed granular processing creates pitch based music out of them.

There’s much more about the whole thing here

http://www.soundspiral.net/?page=Home

My piece started off as 48 Midi files …….. here they are played by a Marimba sound

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and here (slightly rearranged) played by the granulated voices

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Sonic Treasure Hunt

June 16, 2011 duncan

A project at Spitalfields City farm for the 2011 Spitalfields Festival

June 18th @ Spitalfields City Farm (http://www.spitalfieldscityfarm.org/)

Hidden about the farm will be a series of pieces of music, composed by the Young Farmers group (and others) and built into specially made MP3 devices (electronics by the ever wonderful and multi-talented Yann Seznec of Looper and MapMixer fame)………. here are the pieces

The Sea in a Tree

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World of Goats

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Stuck in a bin ?

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Leaves

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Goose Egg

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Bamboo igloo

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Pig Chillout

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Bike

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Underground fish

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Ambient Ducks

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more information here http://www.spitalfieldsfestival.org.uk/index.php?pfid=17&cid=0&eid=288

From the River To the Sea at the Royal Opera House

May 26, 2011 duncan

On Monday 30th May Isabel Jones and myself will be performing a 4 hour installation performance. This forms part of the ROH Sounding Out For Families week of creative activities (more information on the Opera House Website (http://www.roh.org.uk/)

This short track was made today (Thursday 26th) as part of our preparations for Mondays event. It features field recordings we have recorded on our travels around the world , water sounds from Ireland, France, Australia, Switzerland, Japan, Derbyshire as well as live voice , synthesised layers and a very stretched version of a well know piece of Tchaikovsky Ballet music (a prize for spotting what it is).

From the River to the Sea (Duncan Chapman / Isabel Jones 26/5/2011)

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BCMG Electro Sequenza

May 18, 2011 duncan

(from BCMG website http://www.bcmg.org.uk/default.php?id=412)

Sequenza is a secondary schools’ project inspired by Berio’s virtuosic solo pieces for various instruments. Over a series of workshops a GCSE, AS or A Level class works with a composer to create a solo piece for one of BCMG’s players. These pieces are then recorded on CD at CBSO Centre. This project has produced work of an exceptionally high standard through allowing young people to; immediately hear even their initial ideas performed brilliantly; discuss previously unknown sound possibilities with the musicians; and find ways to develop and refine ideas through guidance from the composers. The project sometimes includes the added dimension of live electronics

This 2011 project was with Hamstead Hall school with Kyle Horch (alto sax) and live electronics

all electronic processing done with Audiomulch

The Pieces

The Secret Soul

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The Conquest

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The Sadness of Happiness

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Feel Free

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A Day Out

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The Hunt

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War of the Tribes

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Swiggles

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Hide and Seek

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Life on a Ship

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Dark Romance

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Jorell

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The Lost World

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Lost Love

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Path

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Rhubarb Rhubarb Rhubarb (website now online)

April 3, 2011May 23, 2011 duncan

The Rhubarb Rhubarb Rhubarb website is now online @ http://www.rhubarbrhubarbrhubarb.co.uk/

with recordings, recipes, film and photographs of the project

also coming in the Huddersfield Festival (21st November) a solo performance with Rhubarb sounds in the dark !

A project for the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival 2011

The Rhubarb Sheds of Yorkshire (its picked by candlelight to avoid the leaves turning green)

(from the HCMF website http://www.hcmf.co.uk/Playing-the-rhubarb-triangle)

West Yorkshire’s proud history of rhubarb-growing is providing inspiration for a new Learning and Participation project created by Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival. Rhubarb, rhubarb, rhubarb involves sound artist, musician and educator Duncan Chapman working with pupils from Overthorpe Junior, Infant and Nursery School in Thornhill, Dewsbury to create an interactive online installation using audio and visuals from the farming of local rhubarb.

Yorkshire’s famous ‘Rhubarb Triangle’ is an area between Wakefield, Morley and Rothwell known for producing forced rhubarb. This technique for growing rhubarb, which is originally native to Siberia, became popular in the 19th century. The plants are grown outside for two years then transferred indoors to sheds that are heated and kept in complete darkness, prompting the sprouting of new stems with a prized tenderness and sweet flavour. In 2010 Yorkshire Forced Rhubarb was awarded European Protected Designation of Origin status, putting it in the same category as champagne, gorgonzola and Swaledale cheese.

Here are a few sound samples of the project so far

a mix of lots of popping sounds that it makes as it grows (with some pitch manipulation)

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more pops

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snapping

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Here’s a short film of it growing in the sheds (the camera is still there taking one photo every 4 hours so there will be more to come soon !)

shed 1 quicktime

Time Dance

March 28, 2010July 15, 2011 duncan

Time Dance was a collaboration in 1997 between choreographer Catherine Seymour, artist Tatsuo Miyajima with Duncan Chapman (Composer) and what was described as “an extraordinary cast”.

The performance took place on the roof of the Royal Festival Hall with a sound installation (recording below) and projections onto the sides of the building. This co-incided with an exhibition of Miyajimas work at the Hayward Gallery.

http://www.tatsuomiyajima.com/en/index.html

Here is a recording of the sound installation that was installed in the roof garden on top of the Festival Hall, the Latin Names are the names of the fossils that are in the marble that clads the building and are spoken by Sarah Goldfarb other sounds include signal horns, sounds made from Oyster Shells and environmental recordings.

Some of the installation sound

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The Music of Electricity HCMF 2009

November 14, 2009November 16, 2009 duncan

A project for the 2009 Huddersfield Contemporary music festival

Working with two groups of students to make an installation/performance in response to the exhibition “raw material” which features work by the artist Tim Head

http://www.hcmf.co.uk/event/show/76

What is the sound of electricity ? ……….

What is the smallest unit of audio information?; and image or sound – can we use fragments of image to generate sound material?
The results will be presented at a public performance during HCMF on Thursday 26 November and can also be explored as the project progresses through this on-line installation http://www.musicofelectricity.net/pixels/index.html (this on-line site has been designed and built by Sam Freeman http://sdfphd.net/)

Creatures Lost In Time (Hayward Gallery 2009)

October 6, 2009October 6, 2009 duncan

A series of headphone pieces created with members of CoolTan Arts (http://www.cooltanarts.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/E-bulletin-August-20091.pdf) and Young Minds (http://www.youngminds.org.uk/videos-and-podcasts/podcasts/hayward-audio-bites/?searchterm=Hayward) made in response to the exhibition “Walking in My Mind” at the Hayward Gallery summer 2009.

The pieces played on headphones in the pavilion overlooking the river.

Here are a few excerpts

Young Minds Pieces

1….

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2….

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3….

4….

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5….

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9….

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10….

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CoolTan Pieces

you are not children

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voices

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Simons Piece

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poems (Sharon)

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please don’t touch the white dots !

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a blind man on the beach

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NewSound

May 26, 2009October 5, 2009 duncan

NewSound was a project at Kings Place in London as part of the London Sinfonietta “ART OF NEWS” weekend.

I worked with Zoe Martlew and Bruce Nockles from the Sinfonietta, a group from the Copenhagen Youth project and Poet Kenny Baraka to create a sound installation that was presented on Talking Paper. This was made for the project by the extraordinary Patrick Furness and David Cranmer. 100 sheets were scattered about the foyer spaces which could be played by pressing the PLAY button.

Some examples of the pieces

Listen close

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Farmland

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Gutter

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Own zone

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Tales of a rebellion

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Talking paper made by Patrick and David for the project

Here’s a film of the space

David Cranmer

http://www.nervoussquirrel.com/

Patrick Furness

http://www.patrickfurness.com/

Zoe Martlew

http://www.zoemartlew.com/

Sinfonietta Project Website

http://www.londonsinfonietta.org.uk/project/art-news

Kenny Baraka

http://www.myspace.com/kennybaraka

Ambulatincula

May 22, 2009October 6, 2009 duncan

A sound installation for Forbury Gardens in Reading.

I was one of 7 artists commissioned to make soundworks for the Gardens. For a year audiences could pick up a portable mp3 player and listen to specially created works for particular locations in the Victorian Gardens.

Here is some information about my pieces from the catalogue

The sounds of bells and gongs signal significant events in our lives. Beginnings and endings, birth, death, and marriage are all marked by these sounds. Bells are a universal signifier of stopping, pausing and change. In the past, the days in the Abbey were structured around the sound of bells. A bell signalled the time for monks to rise at 2am to sing the Office of the Lauds, and other bells signalled the time for work, silent contemplation and meals. In the prison the bell marks the division of the day into work, mealtimes and sleeping.

A series of seven short works respond to the juxtaposition of the prison with the Abbey ruins. The sounds of bells and gongs correspond to different parts of the day, inviting the listener to pause, listen, contemplate, and move on, changed in some way. Combined with recordings of daily activities, and the crackling of candles at St James’s Church, the sounds of bells ultimately disappear into silence. Thanks to: Professor Brian Kemp and Tony Stokes

The pieces

walk

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mother

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morning

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busy

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calm

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12 bells

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3am

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Scopic

May 22, 2009October 10, 2009 duncan

Light from stars takes millions of years to reach our eyes on earth. What we see through the telescope is already history. Down a microscope we can look inside the here and now, at cells that are measured in millionths of millimetres and events that happened milliseconds ago. And yet our inner and outer worlds can look uncannily similar…

A joint project between Royal Albert Hall Learning & Participation, the Medical Research Council Clinical Sciences Centre and Durham University gave schools in both London and County Durham the chance to engage with these concepts and to illustrate their own interpretations through art and sound pieces. Choosing from a range of images, from stem cells to supernovas, students selected one that captured their imagination. They then created a partner for it: a drawing, painting or piece of 3D art. In response to images from outer space they created pictures showing the microscopic world. Other students depicted outer space in response to a microscope image in accordance with the Scopic theme.

Almost 300 pupils from 11 schools entered the Scopic competition. A selection of the most impressive artwork forms the basis of the final exhibition. Their work was assessed by a panel of judges including Baroness Greenfield, Dr Brian May, Lord Robert Winston and Sir Patrick Moore.

Students from 3 of the schools then worked with Duncan Chapman, a sound artist and composer to produce sound pieces representing each of the pieces of artwork in the exhibition. Each panel in the exhibition had an individually created soundtrack.

The Scopic exhibition ran at the Hall from 9th – 29th May 2009 before moving to a permanent location at Durham University.

Much of the sound installation was created using the Coagula open source Sonification Software which enables you to create sound from drawn images or BMP files . (http://hem.passagen.se/rasmuse/Coagula.htm)

Some of the soundtrack pieces

Cell from the brain of catwoman

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Friendly Bacteria

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Red Hole

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Red Giant

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Duncan Chapman

Composer / Sound artist / Musician

Tag: installation

Rhubarb sounds and more

Decorated Echoes @ Spitalfields Summer Festival

Re:Sound

Sound Spiral

Sonic Treasure Hunt

From the River To the Sea at the Royal Opera House

BCMG Electro Sequenza

Rhubarb Rhubarb Rhubarb (website now online)

Time Dance

The Music of Electricity HCMF 2009

Creatures Lost In Time (Hayward Gallery 2009)

NewSound

Ambulatincula

Scopic