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Musical Instruments

Why is there a hierarchy of musical instruments? Some naturally attract respect while others are the butt of jokes. Matt Allwright investigates this terrible injustice.

Why do some instruments get all the tunes and the respect, while others are left at the bottom of the heap? The leader of the orchestra is always a violinist, and the guitarist usually gets to leap around at the front of the band. Meanwhile other instruments, like the drums, don鈥檛 get a lot of attention - except when it comes to being the butt of jokes.

Matt Allwright is on a mission to uncover the source of this terrible injustice, and find out whether his own beloved 鈥渓ow status鈥 instrument 鈥 the pedal steel guitar 鈥 can ever find the spotlight.

Guests include:

鈥 Stewart Copeland 鈥 The Police (drums)
鈥 Dr Daria Kwiatkowska 鈥 composer, University of Birmingham (piano)
鈥 Margaret Birley 鈥 Keeper of Musical Instruments, Horniman Museum
鈥 Superorganism (assorted)
鈥 Richard Farnes 鈥 conductor
鈥 Stephen Bryant 鈥 leader, 大象传媒 Symphony Orchestra (violin)
鈥 Tony Bedewi 鈥 大象传媒 Symphony Orchestra (timpani)
鈥 Tomoka Mukai 鈥 大象传媒 Symphony Orchestra (flute)
鈥 Steve Magee 鈥 大象传媒 Symphony Orchestra (contrabassoon)

Available now

23 minutes

Last on

Sun 15 Mar 2020 05:32GMT

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  • Christmas Eve 2018 09:06GMT
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  • Christmas Day 2018 02:32GMT
  • Mon 9 Mar 2020 09:06GMT
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  • Mon 9 Mar 2020 18:06GMT
  • Mon 9 Mar 2020 21:06GMT
  • Mon 9 Mar 2020 23:06GMT
  • Tue 10 Mar 2020 02:32GMT
  • Tue 10 Mar 2020 03:32GMT
  • Sun 15 Mar 2020 05:32GMT

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