-Jem Finer wins first New Music Award

[MacRua]

Jem Finer wins first New Music Award
Guardian Unlimited
Imogen Tilden
Wednesday July 13, 2005
Full URL

<blockquote>Musician, artist and founder member of The Pogues Jem Finer last night won the first New Music Award.
The £50,000 prize was open to anyone working in any genre and artistic context, and set a challenge to the UK's creative music community to extend the boundaries of its work. Finer was awarded the prize for his Score for a Hole in the Ground. He now has until September 2006 to create the work and present it to the public.

Score for a Hole in the Ground is a "post-digital" work - it uses sounds created only by nature. Finer was inspired by the water chimes of Kyoto, Japan. His score uses bowls and pivots as the instruments, and water as the performer.
"It's amazing and I'm thrilled!" said Finer last night. "This award gave me the oppotunity to think of an ambitious project and it's great to have such investment in an idea. I'm hugely looking forward to making it happen."

The performance is sited in a deep shaft in the countryside into which the instruments are placed; bowls of different sizes at different heights and tunings pivoted about their centre of gravity. Drips of water will strike the bowls, ringing them like bells. As the bowls fill, their timbres change and the equilibrium of their pivots cause them to sway, modulating the tones. Overflowing bowls will drip into those beneath. Using simple acoustic tubes, the sound will be pushed through a brass horn, rising 20 feet above ground level.

Finer describes his project as, "both music and an integrated part of the landscape and the forces that operate on it and in it."

Judge Anne Dudley, herself an Oscar-winning film composer, described the work as "visionary - it takes music back to its fundamentals".

Also on this year's judging panel was broadcaster Verity Sharp, percussionist Evelyn Glennie, Aniruddha Das of Asian Dub Foundation, and Jerry Springer the Opera librettist and comedian Stewart Lee.</blockquote>

Useful link
New Music Award website

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Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005

[TheIrishRover]

Congratulations on winning the award, although in all of our eyes (hopefully) you ruled just as much without the award.

[Alex]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/today/listenagain/ram/today4_award_20050713.ram

[MacRua]

PRSF grants Pogues Finer £50,000 for water work
Jeremy Austin
The Stage
19 July 2005
Full URL (with pic)

<blockquote>The piece, which will rely on natural phenomena such as the weather to generate musical sounds, has to be created by September 2006 as part of the conditions for the £50,000. Finer was presented with his award by PRS Foundation Trustee Marcus Davey, who is also chief executive of The Roundhouse venue, and broadcaster Verity Sharp.

Said Finer: “It’s amazing and I’m thrilled. This award gave me the opportunity to think of an ambitious project and it is great to have such investment in the idea. I am hugely looking forward to making it happen.”

His idea was selected from a choice of three by judges Aniruddha Das from Asian Dub Foundation, percussionist Evelyn Glennie, comedian and Jerry Springer - the Opera co-creator Stewart Lee, Sharp and Oscar-winning film composer Anne Dudley.

Lee added: “Jem’s project is full of uncertainty and it is exciting that an award like this can develop it and find out what its full potential might be.”

Score for a Hole in the Ground is inspired by the water chimes of Kyoto, Japan. Fines will place bowls of different sizes and tunings pivoted about their centres of gravity at different heights in a deep shaft. Drips of water will strike the bowls and fill them, changing their pitch and tones. Overflowing bowls will drip on to those beneath them. The sound generated will travel through a brass horn rising 20ft above the ground.</blockquote>

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