daily.billtron.org

One of the reasons I like this piece is that the listening of the soundwalk changes after we are participating in the soundscape in this way. Locating each other through sound, in a gentle way, and while not visible to each other, enhances awareness of the sounds in the scape. Near and far become more clear, directional focus of sound becomes more prominent, and the balance between focused listening and peripheral listening is more rich.

When Gardiner is remembered today, it’s for a fortuitous act of musical appreciation: In 1794, Abbé Döbler, a musician in political exile from Cologne, was sheltering in Leicester and stopped by to see the young stocking-maker. He’d heard Gardiner was a great music-lover, and showed him a violin trio in E-flat written by a still-obscure young acquaintance back home. Gardiner was so utterly taken with it that he arranged a local performance. The unknown composer was Ludwig van Beethoven—and the performance was quite possibly the first of his work outside his native country.

But if the young stocking-maker had been one of the first to stumble onto the landmark genius of his age, haunting the galleries of the Royal Exchange was a more deliberate project—a different sort of musical appreciation altogether.

For William Gardiner wanted to change not whom we hear, but how we hear.