All buildings produce sounds ( although many of these are too low to be heard )  and are due to the stresses within the construction or to its conductivity of outside vibrations. Architectural music is a composer’s  approach to developing these sounds creatively   (this does not necessarily mean that the actual sounds of the building are employed but that the composer seeks to enhance the space with his own music).

The Deafblind UK building is of recent design and takes the shape of a circle with a wide corridor running all the way round. All rooms are accessed from this one corridor. Also encircling the building, but out of sight, is the audio loop circuitry for the deaf to access through their hearing aids.

The music of “the Loop “ will be accessible through this system as well as over the speaker system which is in place in the very popular, large conference area at the far end of the building  This space may be divided into two through the use of a partition. Each of the two rooms so formed will have a separate track of  the Loop running concurrently. There are two tracks which may be heard as pieces in their own right but, anyone passing from one space to the other will notice, there is a further dimension musically which is shared between them. The music consists of short elements and,even when one track is playing instrumental sounds and the other vocal ones, the durations of each element are identical.

Originally, the project was suggested by Christine Carswell, PR liaison officer for the new Hampton township’s development. This was before the centre was begun. Laura Read MBE, the former Touch Appeal Director for Deafblind UK was also contacted and offered support suggesting there may be some way to make my music available to deafblind people through  feeling the vibrations – perhaps having some form of touch sensitive ’terminal’ as part of an exhibition.

The proposals for this project were not brought to fruition until after the construction of the building. Heather O’Brien , Education Manager for Deafblind UK, was contacted and suggested that deafblind people themselves should have a part to play in the music, since they had been consulted in the design of many of the building’s features.

I decided I could employ the voices of deaf people ,sampling their ‘notes’ and mapping them on to a keyboard so that they could be played back at will within the score. I had also decided not to use any distortions afforded by the sampling medium.

There are a number of practical difficulties in that deafblind people have to be taught to gain the confidence to try to produce sounds through their own voices. The composition demands clear sounds on a variety of undefined pitches. Workshops are set up for volunteers to experiment as well as gain some enjoyment in the use of their voice boxes. Recordings are being taken and the sounds required will be extracted from these.