Reaching the Tippett point

In Oliver Soden’s new biography of Michael Tippett, he describes how Tippett wanted to open his Fourth Symphony with the sound of breathing: ‘as if the orchestra itself had lungs.’ Tippett had no idea how to achieve this effect, and at the première in 1977 they used an orchestral wind machine — a canvas band rubbing against a wooden drum. It proved about as convincing as it sounds, so at later performances a musician exhaled down a microphone. The effect, writes Soden, was reminiscent of an obscene phone call.

And there the matter and (effectively) the symphony rested, until Sound Intermedia — a team of electronic music wizards best known for their work with the London Sinfonietta — attempted something new for a recording with Martyn Brabbins earlier this year. The result could be heard in this performance by the BBC Philharmonic, also conducted by Brabbins, and it seemed to do the trick — a slightly eerie, elemental sound, rising imperceptibly from within the music; not quite human but unquestionably organic.