The first major concert of this year’s festival, a performance by the Society of Strange and Ancient Instruments, was staged in the unlikely setting of the Swansea Maritime Museum – if concert was the correct description for the event.
The concert title was Sound House and the evening was a cross between the science of sound, performances on extraordinary instruments and a selection of medieval music.
The evening was inspired by the words of Sir Francis Bacon and his investigation into the properties of sound in the 17th century.
Narrator Terence Wilton gave voice to Bacon’s investigations with regular passages from his writings while four musicians performing on a variety of instruments interpreted his studies.
Bacon is considered the father of modern science and he was clearly fascinated by the nature of sound and its impact on human beings.
While the evening was intriguing and at times the audience was able to enjoy some evocative music from the 17th century it was more about the properties of sound and Bacon’s analysis.
If Bacon took centre stage it was the remarkable instruments which attracted most attention.
Whether it was the violone, the gothic Harp, the tromba marina or the nyckelharpa, it was fascinating to see the birth of modern instruments and listen to the completely different sounds they produced.
And modern technology also had a part to play through Jon Nicholls and his laptop who created sounds which blended in with the instruments themselves.
The skill of the performance was the way the musicians blended their music with the words of Bacon and the way the evening flowed.
It was also a very relaxed performance, almost casual,even if the words of Bacon were sometimes difficult to understand.
It was certainly different from the normal run of festival concerts and it helps audiences of more traditional musical evenings to better understand where the sounds come from and the effect they have.