Sonic Babylon

Nora and I enjoyed our talk with Spencer Howson yesterday morning on the Breakfast Show on ABC Radio 612 AM Brisbane, even if we did have to get up at 05:00 to get to the studio for the 06:20 live to air. Spencer and his producer, Majella Marsden, first had us on in 2007 when we were here to stage iOrpheus, and it was good not only to see them again, but even better to be talking to people who “get” our projects. (Thanks, guys.) But in the excitement of a live broadcast, we left one thing hanging that I'd like to fill in. On the show I described two kinds of sounds in a sound garden, ground cover (generic, web-based sounds) and flowers (sounds local and more meaningful to each community), and then played a one-minute demo of what the National Film and Sound Archive's upcoming garden might sound like. I said it included four flowers that were excepts from the Sounds of Australia, i.e., the ten iconic sounds chosen each year by listeners throughout the country. But when the excerpt ended the conversation took a different turn and I never identified what those sounds were. So, for the record, here are the excerpts I included:

1915 The Landing of the Australian Troops in Egypt – Zonophone
1937 Dad and Dave from Snake Gully (Radio series) – George Edwards Players
1949 Ronald Hamner: Pastorale – Theme from ABC radio series “Blue Hills”
1950 Maranoa Lullaby – Harold Blair, tenor

If you missed the broadcast, or just want to check it out again with the flowers identified, here's the stream. In the actual NFSA garden, the flowers won't be as crowded together as they are in this one-minute demo.