PLAY.orchestra

Sitting down on the cubes or standing in the hotspots turned on an individual instrument and with the addition of 58 friends you could hear the full piece.

The installation was also Bluetooth enabled - allowing participants to receive a ringtone of the piece they had created as well as other Philharmonia Orchestra ringtones.

The orchestra played two different pieces each week - one a new commission from a young composer and one a piece from the classical repertoire.

The music played when the seats were activated was made using samples from our free sample library - you can download the samples here.

You can find out more about PLAY.orchestra in our blog and gallery

The Music

Each day the orchestra played two pieces on hourly rotation - one brand new composition and one piece of classical music.

All the pieces of classical music heard at PLAY.orchestra were performed by the Philharmonia Orchestra in the following concert season.

The music heard on the seats was made using samples from our free sample library, where you'll find each note on each instrument in the orchestra.  These individual samples can be put together using a VSTi (Virtual Studio Instrument) to convert a MIDI score into something that sounds more like the real thing.  Our samples are all free to download

So what was played?

New Works:

Anthony Bailey Chaises Musical
Fung Lam Flux
Stephen Wright The Sixth Day
Paul-Isaac Franks Mercurial Litany
Duncan Ward Tiddlywinks

Extracts from the classical repertoire

Tchaikovsky Symphony No.4
Elgar 'Nimrod' from Enigma Variations
Dvorak  Symphony No. 8
Beethoven Symphony No. 7
Mendellsohn Midsummer Night's Dream
Brahms Symphony No. 1

PLAY.future

We are currently looking into the possibilities of touring PLAY.orchestra - if you are interested please contact us

PLAY.makers

PLAY.orchestra is the result of a collaboration between Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design MA Creative Practice for Narrative Environments, South Bank Centre Education and the Philharmonia Orchestra. The instrument graphics were created by pupils from 6 Lambeth primary schools, who are working with the Orchestra on the MusicScape project.