...in living memory...: A Birmingham Retrospective
for eight-channel tape• November 2000, 35'00
NOTES • EXTRACTS
ased on interviews conducted during the summer of 2000, this installation offers recollections -- sometimes fleeting -- of times past/passed in Birmingham from a number of people who, if simply through spending the majority of their lives in the city, have contributed to its shaping throughout the twentieth century. These are offered along with their comments and opinions on the 'then' versus the 'now'. Comparison also extends to an observation of the use of fixed media in the presentation of music in both past and present -- from player-pianos, gramophone records, clocks and musical boxes (which provide complementary material to the interviews along with city soundscapes) to the establishment of a music specifically for 'tape', as in the present piece.
Acknowledgements: Grateful thanks to the following people/institutions who kindly gave their time in order to offer very valuable assistance with the project: Frederick House Residential Home, Westcroft Residential Home, Kineton House, Taynton Covett, Bryony House, Cadbury/Scwepps, Time Restorations (Bournvill), Mr Earnest Aldridge, Mrs Phyllis Arnold, Mrs Gladys Brown, Mrs Norah Fradley, Miss Patricia Farley, Mrs Clara May Johnson, Mrs Mary Jones, Mr Jack Jones, Mr Samuel Stanford, Mr William Shreeve, Miss Edna Wilcox, Mr Stanley Woodward. There were also a number of people who, through my own error, I was unable to include in the project. My thanks (and apologies) to these too.
