To explore, experience and be excited about new things is exactly what I am going through as a new intern at Sound and Music. The British Music Collection has been the first project I engaged with when I started my internship two weeks ago. Of all the pieces I have listened to so far, I have decided to write about Peter Nagle’s 'Until I die there will be sounds'. This was the first composition I came across under the tag ‘Orchestra’. John Cage has clearly in some way inspired this composition – the players have the freedom of placing each note in their chosen time and space. When I saw Peter Nagle’s page, I was intrigued to see if there were any notated scores or programme notes so that I could read about the music before listening to it. Not waiting any longer, I pressed ‘play’ and the gentle monophonic texture started building up; as the instruments appeared it created a full homophonic sound. Each instrument is supporting one another rather than dominating each other. Towards the end a subtle sound fades away to nothing. Just as soon as one may believe the piece has finished, Peter slowly builds the piece back up again with the brass before ending it in a slow diminuendo. The freedom of the piece and how the music flows creates a sense of peacefulness with the movement from one section to the next without adding completely new materials.

More about Peter Nagle’s work can be found here.