Piece Comment

Review of Larkin Gifford's Harmonica


What could have been a simple story about a man composing a piece of music is made a much broader commentary about a place, a history, and how we memorialize people and times that have passed.
This piece delves into how music references place and time, and also provides insights into the act of composition, how new music can be formed from old sounds. It's also beautifully sewn together, in an intuitive way that doesn't follow the usual formula for radio reports. We follow the path of the music, its construction from old recordings to listening to it with various audiences, and thus hearing it through their ears.