On the morning of September 11, 2001, Brooklyn composer William Basinski was finishing a project based on some very old tape-loops he’d made.  The tape itself was disintegrating, and Basinski allowed the loops to play continuously while he recorded them digitally, capturing the process of the music’s demise.  The sounds of the music dying accompanied Basinski as he watched the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks from his Brooklyn rooftop.  We’ll hear an excerpt from this extraordinary project, and speak with the composer.

Also, a recording of an old homeless man in London singing a fragment of a hymn tune in the 1970s packed an unexpected emotional punch when turned into a tape loop by Gavin Bryars.  The resulting piece, “Jesus’ Blood Never Failed Me Yet,” remains his most famous piece, and a work of quiet consolation.

PROGRAM #3243 Unintended Elegies(First aired on 9/10/11)