Sonic Legacies: Ludwig Koch and the Sound of the Environment
Round-table webinar and online film screening celebrating the broadcaster and sound recordist Ludwig Koch (1881-1974), best known in Britain for the nature programmes he presented on BBC radio during the 1940s and 50s. A pioneer of wildlife sound recording, Koch was a key figure in popularising natural history broadcasting in the UK. However, Koch’s pioneering work with recorded sound goes well beyond his career in broadcasting, and includes not only what is thought to be the first recording of birdsong (1889), but also recordings of urban soundscapes that prefigure the work of the World Soundscape Project, and the publication of ‘sound books’. Perhaps most intriguing of all, the recent discovery of a recording of Koch’s Symphony in V (1942) throws new light on the history of electroacoustic music in Britain, identifying Koch as an early pioneer of soundscape composition.
This event celebrates Koch’s overlooked contributions to development of acoustic ecology and soundscape composition, featuring an online screening of a new digital transfer of Anthea Kennedy and Nick Burton’s short film Birdman (1975), based on events described in Koch’s autobiography Memoirs of a Birdman (1955), and roundtable discussion with Anthea Kennedy, John Levack Drever (Professor of Acoustic Ecology and Sound Art, Goldsmiths, University of London) & Cheryl Tipp (curator of Wildlife and Environmental Sounds at the British Library).
Time: 19:00 BST
