DEVIL IN THE WIND
ABC 1994
Radio inside a Violin: A gift to Jon Rose by the marketing department of WDR Cologne
  • Recorded in China in November 1994 by Jon Rose
  • Edited together for John Crawford's NMA show on the ABC
  • Er-hu, violin, 19 string cello, played by Jon Rose
  • Extract featuring a speech by Deng Xiaoping from the original 56'50" radiophonic work

A sonic panorama of China in transition, featuring millions of bicycles, musical arrangements of speeches from Mao and Deng Xiou Ping, the Er-hu (Chinese two string violin) playing key copiers who live in a cardboard box on the streets of Beijing, a flu epidemic, a visit to the people's instrument factory (big on Yang Quins), a Chinese lesson for dumb foreigner (me), lots of fireworks, a political commentary on the great success of CD and video pirating and the future collapse of capitalism.

What's New

April 2023
'Rock/Paper/Scissors' - first performance of a radical new interface between violin improvisation, composition, orchestra, and conductor. Highlights here.
KNM, Berlin
March 2023
'Beak' - Kronos Quartet plays the world premiere, a composition based on the song of a Pied Butcherbird by Jon Rose and Hollis Taylor.
Adelaide Festival
March 2024
'Night Songs' celebrates an interspecies multi-media engagement between the ancient music of a uniquely Australian songbird - Cracticus nigrogularis (the Pied Butcherbird) and Australia's premiere new music group Ensemble Offspring. Documentation here.
The Adelaide Festival
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