A land without music?

Is our musical culture facing an existential threat? With ever smaller numbers of young people learning instruments, the gradual erasing of music from state education and years of declining funding, things may be worse than you think. Sound World investigates the state of music today and looks at what we can do to safeguard it for future generations.

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Episodes

Technology and AI

Monday Mar 17, 2025

Monday Mar 17, 2025

What are the dangers posed by AI and what opportunities does it bring?
What does it mean for music and for how we value, understand and experience creativity?
Leading AI researcher Prof. Peter Flach and psychiatrist, neuroscientist and author Dr. Iain McGilchrist shed light on this complex and hugely consequential subject.
Written and presented by Julian LeeksProduced by Sound World
Music:Trombone Phrases by Nico Muhly. Listen on Apple Music or Spotify
In The Steps of Apollo by Julian Leeks (performed by Zelkova String Quartet).Listen here.
Beehive by Julian Leeks (Note Performer demo version recorded for our sponsors)
To get in touch with Sound World please email info@sound-world.org or leave a post on out Facebook page SoundWorldUK.
For more info about Sound World visit sound-world.org

The Peter Flach Interview

Monday Mar 31, 2025

Monday Mar 31, 2025

This is another of our bonus episodes featuring one of the full length interviews that we recorded for the main strand of A land without music?.
Following on from our last episode in which our guests discussed various aspects of AI and technology, we’re talking to Prof. Peter Flach. For anyone trying to make sense of AI, how it works and what it might mean for us to, Peter is someone to listen to. Professor of artificial intelligence and an expert in machine learning, Peter is a knowledgable and measured voice in a field often characterised by hyperbole and hysteria.
Written and presented by Julian LeeksProduced by Sound World
Music:Trombone Phrases by Nico Muhly. Listen on Apple Music or Spotify
In The Steps of Apollo by Julian Leeks (performed by Zelkova String Quartet).Listen here.
Beehive by Julian Leeks (Note Performer demo version recorded for our sponsors)
To get in touch with Sound World please email info@sound-world.org or leave a post on out Facebook page SoundWorldUK.
For more info about Sound World visit sound-world.org

Monday Apr 14, 2025

This episode features the first half of our interview with psychiatrist, neuroscientist, literary scholar and author of The Master and His Emissary, Iain McGilchrist. We’ve decide to put this out following the interview with AI researcher Peter Flach since it touches on many of the same issues, albeit from a very different perspective.
Beyond that, it's a wide ranging interview, reflecting Iain's exceptionally broad frame of reference, taking in the evolution of the human brain, art, music, modernism, society, politics and spirituality. The second half of the interview will be released on Monday 28th April.
Written and presented by Julian LeeksProduced by Sound World
To get in touch with Sound World please email info@sound-world.org or leave a post on out Facebook page SoundWorldUK.
For more info about Sound World visit sound-world.org
Music:Entwined by Julian Leeks. Listen on Apple Music or Spotify
In The Steps of Apollo by Julian Leeks (performed by Zelkova String Quartet).Listen here.
Beehive by Julian Leeks (Note Performer demo version recorded for our sponsors).

Monday Apr 28, 2025

This episode features the second half of our interview with psychiatrist, neuroscientist, literary scholar and author of The Master and His Emissary, Iain McGilchrist.
It's a wide ranging interview, reflecting Iain's exceptionally broad frame of reference, taking in the evolution of the human brain, art, music, modernism, AI, society, politics and spirituality. The first half of the interview was released on Monday 14th April.
Written and presented by Julian LeeksProduced by Sound World
To get in touch with Sound World please email info@sound-world.org or leave a post on out Facebook page SoundWorldUK.
For more info about Sound World visit sound-world.org
Music:Entwined by Julian Leeks. Listen on Apple Music or Spotify
In The Steps of Apollo by Julian Leeks (performed by Zelkova String Quartet).Listen here.
Beehive by Julian Leeks (Note Performer demo version recorded for our sponsors)

Image

Written and presented by Julian Leeks

With guests including Sally Beamish, Daisy Fancourt, Peter Flach, Jess Gillam, Dame Evelyn Glennie, Sadie Harrison, Kadiatu Kanneh-Mason, Daniel Kidane, Iain McGilchrist, Nico Muhly, John Pickard and Jörg Widmann.

Produced by Sound World

Series Music

The Grace of Silence by Evelyn Glennie (performed by Harriet Riley and Paul Israel). Listen on Apple Music or Spotify

In The Steps of Apollo by Julian Leeks (performed by Zelkova String Quartet - planned release 2025)

Trombone Phrases by Nico Muhly. Listen on Apple Music or Spotify

Beehive by Julian Leeks

For more info on Sound World visit sound-world.org

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