Special Features
Local Portraits
What is your favourite music? Why does a single song or piece of music mean more to you than any other? Local Portraits is a photographic exhibition that asks these questions of 70 people. It is also a radio program about the residents of two places in NSW: the rural town of Robertson and the 2168 postcode area of Liverpool. What music do these people carry in their minds, and why?
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Silk on Wood
Silk on Wood is a loosely fashioned series of three radio features exploring ancient musical traditions of China and Tibet which have been kept alive in the modern world. Through the efforts of composers, performers, and sound recordists, folk traditions tied to rural life and ritual are captured and given new life in archival projects and multimedia orchestral performances; and the delicate, refined art of the scholar musician endures and embraces contemporary sounds.
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Bossa Nova: The sound that seduced the world
In the late 1950s on the beaches of Rio, an eclectic group of musicians came together to create the distinctive and sensual music known as Bossa Nova. Classic tracks include 'The Girl from Ipanema', 'Wave', and 'Desafinado', and Bossa Nova is now firmly lodged in the international consciousness.
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Making Juditha
Making Juditha is a musical journey from Venice's Grand Canal to George Street in Sydney. The destination is the first professional staging in Australia of the work with the reputation of being Vivaldi's 'best opera'. Jennifer Bowen uncovers the thoughts of musicians, singers and designers as they travel through rehearsals to opening night under the baton of Maestro Attilio Cremonesi.
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Music and Fashion
This six part series is written and presented by Andrew Ford from Radio National's The Music Show.
Music and Fashion asks why certain types of music have been fashionable at certain moments in history, and what this might tell us about the way in which human beings hear, appreciate and use music. [find out more...]
40 Years On - Long Tan
The battle of Long Tan commemorated after 40 years with a live concert in Vietnam, featuring John Schumann.
Forty years after the battle of Long Tan, Australian war veterans returned to Vietnam, some for the first time since 1966. A commemorative ceremony at the Long Tan Cross marked the occasion, followed by a concert at the Vung Tau greyhound racing track featuring John Schumann (pictured right), who penned what has become the Vietnam veterans' anthem, 'I was only 19'. [find out more...]
The Wounding Song
Into the Music explores the wild and vibrant Maltese vernacular singing known as Ghana in this special feature by Australian composer Robert Iolini. Ghana is a rebellious music of survival, which evokes an Arabic past and features improvising rhyming duels similar to rap music. Captured in rare field recordings, Arabic modal scales and European chord progressions intermix freely. In Spirtu Pront, the most popular and developed form of Ghana, the singers typically contradict and argue with one another. [find out more...]
