I was delighted to a part of the Barbican event with the Guildhall this year. The theme was British Transport Films, featuring fascinating footage of 1950s Britain with the film being provided from the BFI National Archive. For the project I created a new original hybrid electronic and orchestral music score for an extract of the film ‘Blue Pullman’.

To create the score I recorded my train journey in order to manipulate the sounds of the train and incorporate them into my piece. I then composed music for the small ensemble which was interestingly the same as Benjamin Britten wrote for in ‘Night Mail’. I was particularly excited to write for the harp as I hadn’t written for this instrument yet.

The event took place on Sunday 15th August in Barbican Cinema 1. It was a lovely experience to hear the live ensemble playing my hybrid composition alongside the film. It was also wonderful to hear my fellow composers musical interpretation of the films. I look forward to hopefully working with the Barbican again in the future!

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