Rough Music: A Folk at the Foundling Special

To accompany the Progress exhibition the Foundling Museum is excited to present a unique event by the Dead Rat Orchestra and Jeremy Barlow.

Dead Rat Orchestra will perform "Rough Music", a new work, incorporating performances on a set of tuned bronze meat cleavers. These specially-commissioned instruments were designed by composer and DRO member Nathaniel Mann as part of his Embedded Residency at The Pitt Rivers Museum and Oxford Contemporary Music working with a professional swordsmith using bronze sword casting techniques.

DRO breathe new life into rough music (an ancient ritual of clamorous protest or celebration using found instruments and everyday objects), exploring Hogarth’s works from Industry and Idleness and the Enraged Musician to the March of the Guards to Finchley. With contemporary takes on broadside ballads and rough music, DRO bridge the musical worlds of work song, Indonesian Gamelan and the pealing of church bells as they bring the sounds of Hogarth’s London to life.

The performance will be preceded by a talk by author and early music expert Jeremy Barlow, author of "The Enraged Musician". Barlow will consider Hogarth’s prints and explore the artist’s representations of music and sound.

Ticket Price includes a chance to view the exhibition Progress.