University of York Music Press

Big Meeting is a festive celebration of the Durham Miners' Gala, which Lumsdaine describes as 'a radiophonic adventure playground for the ear'.

Lumsdaine’s poetic collage was recorded on location at the 1971 Durham Miners’ Gala -  a large annual gathering associated with the coal mining heritage of the region and known as The Big Meeting. This remarkable work assembles snatches of brass bands, choirs, speech and song alongside the sounds of a historic occasion. Big Meeting was remastered and released on NMC Recordings in 2011.

The performance at Unitarian Chapel, York, is a rare opportunity to hear a work which has been described as 'emotionally affecting' (The Wire) and as having 'the lively slice-of-life atmosphere of Charles Ives ... It seems like a time capsule of a vanished world" (The Times).

In his blog The Rest is Noise, Alex Ross writes:

'Big Meeting is remarkable not only as a technical feat ... I can't think of an electronic work that gives a more vivid sense of movement within a particular geography ... but also as a haunting evocation of a lost world.'

Later on 2nd July, Lumsdaine's brass band recordings in Big Meeting will be followed by a concert by the Orichalum Brass Quintet, who will perform the world premiere of Breathless by UYMP Associate Composer, David Lancaster.

Among Lumsdaine's many contributions to the electro-acoustic repertory are A Wild Ride to Heaven (1980), a collaboration with fellow composer Nicola LeFanu, and his Soundscapes (1990-5), a series of studio edits of the composer's field recordings of birdsong - which are themselves a valued contribution to Australia's ornithological studies.

For more information about the York performance of Big Meeting, please visit the Late Music website:

http://www.latemusic.org/event/big-meeting-celebration-of-david-lumsdaine-at-85/

Photo: Nicola LeFanu, Big Meeting 1979