Twelve Tones

21 Oct-10 Nov 2022

Overview

Inspired by, and contributing to, the development of Susan Philipsz’s public artwork Station Clock, Twelve Tones is a citywide participatory art project engaging communities and citizens across Birmingham and Solihull, exploring sound in relation to place and time in a series of artist-led workshops, sharing events and open to all recording sessions.

If you are a citizen of Birmingham or Solihull you are invited to contribute to Station Clock by recording your voice at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire.

We are looking for a range of voices which represent the people of Birmingham and Solihull. You do not need to be an accomplished singer – enthusiasm is all we need!

The recording process will take less than 15 minutes of your time, and you will be guided through it by one of our team of composers. Individuals are welcome, but we are also looking for choirs and community groups from across the city. Refreshments will be provided.

Our upcoming recording days are Saturday 22 October, Sunday 23 October, and Monday 7 November – Thursday 10 November 2022.

How to take part:

Email [email protected] for more information on how you, your choir, community group or workplace can participate.

PROJECT BACKGROUND

Launched by Susan Philipsz in a workshop with Royal Birmingham Conservatoire students in November 2018, Twelve Tones aims to cultivate dialogue between the UK’s second city’s diverse communities – from young to old; across all genders; races and faiths; differing social backgrounds; professional and amateur vocalists – a breadth of humanity.

Since 2019, the Twelve Tones artist composer team has delivered participatory sound art workshops with communities across Birmingham and Solihull. Through this series of workshops and sharing events, we have worked with over fifty community groups to explore the twelve-tone chromatic scale utilised in Station Clock and discover how sound can be experienced sculpturally in the public realm.

Workshop participants, and other citizens, are being invited to record and contribute their voices and become part of Station Clock, as one of the 1,092 voices that will sing one or more of the twelve tones in union, harmony, and dissonance, on the hour, every hour, seven days a week when the artwork is installed outside the new HS2 Curzon Station.

Twelve Tones has been commissioned with the Birmingham Big Art Foundation and is funded by an Arts Council England National Lottery Project Grant and Birmingham City Council Culture on our Doorstep Grant. Recordings are being produced in partnership with Royal Birmingham Conservatoire.

The curatorial framework for Twelve Tones was collaboratively devised with composer and community arts consultant Bobbie-Jane Gardner in response to Susan Philipsz’s concept for Station Clock.

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