In the Studio: Anna Clyne and Jody Elff

The Documentary Podcast

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary, Personal Journals

4.3 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 7 April 2025

⏱️ 27 minutes

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Summary

Contemporary classical music composer Anna Clyne is one of the most performed and in demand composers in the world.

For her next commission, she is working on a new concerto for the St Louis Symphony Orchestra in Missouri, US. The piece is called PALETTE, and will feature seven movements related to seven colours: plum, amber, lava, ebony, teal, tangerine and emerald green.

Anna will be working with her Grammy-winning audio engineer, sound artist and designer husband Jody Elff on the composition, using their Augmented Orchestra to electronically manipulate the sound of the orchestra in real time during live performances. It's part of their challenge to expand the sound of the acoustic orchestral world while pushing the boundaries of contemporary classical music. Anna will also be painting seven pictures as part of the creative process, inspired by her music, to add to the audience's experience of the work.

Transcript

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0:00.0	We're working on two movements from Pallet.
0:02.7	The first is Plam.
0:04.4	It'll be quite slow.
0:05.5	I want it to feel kind of quite warm, but also a little bit regal as well.
0:09.7	Mm, regal.
0:11.3	Is that going to go in the score?
0:12.6	It should do, yeah.
0:13.3	Okay.
0:14.7	Welcome to the documentary in the studio from the BBC World Service,
0:19.8	the program that gets inside the minds are some of the
0:22.6	world's most creative people. Ooh, what was that? That sounds nice. Is that like subtones?
0:28.3	Yeah, so that can just run under the whole movement, or maybe there's a moment in the middle where we
0:32.2	just take it out and let the piano sort of be its really pure natural sound, like the sun's coming out.
0:38.1	Oh, yeah.
0:39.2	That's Anna Klein, one of the most performed living composers,
0:43.1	working alongside her husband, the US Grammy Award-winning audio engineer,
0:47.5	sound designer and artist Jodie Elf.
0:50.4	Together they've created the augmented orchestra.
0:53.3	It's a groundbreaking technology that enables them to expand the sound of an acoustic orchestra,
0:58.8	taking audiences on immersive sonic journeys with surprising yet subtle electronic effects.
1:04.7	Every time we get another opportunity to dive into the augmented orchestra
1:08.5	is an opportunity to try something new and see what works and see what doesn't
	...

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