Open Bridges Summer Solstice ‘Moments in Time’ Live Performance

There will be a live quadraphonic performance of the Open Bridges music – ‘Moments in Time’ – by the composer John Stead to accompany the Open Bridges film at Beverley Treasure House and Art Gallery, East Riding of Yorkshire, on Thursday, 21 June, at 6.30 pm for 7.00 pm start. The event will be finished by 8 o’clock and is free of charge. All welcome, but it would be helpful if you would let us know if you are coming. It is an informal occasion, just to gather and enjoy the music in the gallery space.

BAFTA winning composer John Stead will diffuse the especially commissioned musique concrete work – recorded using natural sounds to form a montage – to accompany the film, which has been showing in Beverley Art Gallery this month. John recorded and included sounds from the River Hull’s journey from Beverley to Hull, including the sounds of the bridges moving.

Best known for light and sound installations, John’s work throughout the UK includes son et lumières to celebrate the opening of Hull Tidal Barrier and Princes Quay, sacred space installations ‘Day of Light’ at Lastingham, and ‘Another Mighty Angel’ at York’s National Centre for Early Music.

The 20-minute film, produced for ‘Open Bridges’ by Humber Film was filmed by 16 film makers on the Open Bridges night and edited by Phillip Codd. It is a multi-camera aural and musical documentary, showing how all 13 of Hull’s bridges were raised, swung or closed simultaneously for the first time at 20:17 hours on the autumnal equinox 2017, splitting the city in two during Hull City of Culture’s Freedom Season. The film has been selected for a number of international film festivals.

Nial Adams, Museums Manager, East Riding Museums, said: “The Open Bridges film is a stunning and unique tour-de-force of film-making, incredibly assured both technically and in the atmosphere it creates.”

Beverley Treasure House and Art Gallery is on Champney Road, Beverley, HU17 8HE, about 10 minutes’ walk from the railway and bus stations.

Watch a trailer for the film here:

John’s Musique Concrete composition was premiered in octophonic sound on the Open Bridges night:

“A short time after I had been given this commission I was walking in the Wolds, listening to rooks calling and decided to record them. At that point I realised these sounds would begin this work – everything else followed…” John Stead 2017

“We were delighted when John accepted our request to compose a new musical work. The world premiere of John’s piece, Moments in Time was a wonderful, quite surreal experience.  The music, diffused by eight loudspeakers swirled around the amphitheatre, filling the space and immersing the audience in sound, building from the delicate splashes of Tibetan bells to powerful wave like crescendos sweeping from one side of the space to the other. “

Rich & Lou Duffy-Howard

Visit the home page to find out more about Open Bridges – click here