Samuel’s Twittering Machine

Program note:
Samuel Morse’s Telegraph machine revolutionised the way we communicate. On travelling through the centre of Australia and passing a ruined telegraph repeater station, I was struck by the disparity between the silence and tranquillity of the surroundings through which the telegraph line travelled, and the content of the constantly flowing information that the line once would have carried. The work starts with a pre-recorded excerpt of Alan Lamb’s wonderful telegraph wire music, amplifying and transforming as it does the sound of this remarkably engineered line that traverses the country.

2008

Samuel’s Twittering Machine

For large ensemble