My grandfather George Newson, who has died aged 91, was an avant garde composer whose work spanned seven decades, including operas and commissions from the BBC at the Royal Albert Hall and performances at the Venice Biennale.
His first tape composition, Silent Spring (1968), created after time spent with Robert Moog in Trumansburg on a research fellowship investigating electronic music in the US, explored electronic sampling techniques using birdsong recorded from London Zoo, and is considered one of the earliest performances of British electronic music.
