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Tuning Up

Aidan Tulloch tries to fathom the mysteries of the moments before performance when cacophony becomes harmony, and people transition from tremulous doubters to calm professionals.

Aidan is our poetic guide through this crucial but blink-and-you-miss-it prologue to art, sport, nature. This metaphor for so many other things: the anticipation of something. Of imminence, excitement, nerves. But it's also about ritual: an orchestra tuning up or boxers crossing themselves before a fight are rites of passage, almost superstition - the moment is confirming.

This programme unfolds with one of the 成人快手 orchestras on stage tuning up, where we return at regular intervals to hear from musicians about the importance of this moment. Alongside them are cricketers, sprinters, restaurateurs, surfers, singers. All of them know the progress from ordinary life to another life under the spotlight, and they all have ways of coping. Aidan listens to their inner voices, their mantras, the rituals that make the transition seem controllable. He explores the way time shifts, accelerating and slowing, and why the final silence is at once terrifying and magical.

Producer: Tom Alban

Available now

30 minutes

Last on

Sun 8 Oct 2023 18:45

Music Played

  • Oscar Peterson

    Easy Does It

    Performer: Oscar Peterson. Performer: Ed Thigpen. Performer: Ray Brown.
    • Night Train.
    • Verve.
    • 6.

Broadcast

  • Sun 8 Oct 2023 18:45

Binaural sound

What is it and why does it matter?

Podcast