Paul Griffiths, of Manorbier, has been presented with one of ASCAP's annual Deems Taylor Awards.

ASCAP is the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, founded in New York in 1914. Early members included the songwriters Irving Berlin and Jerome Kern.

Deems Taylor was a composer, music critic and journalist, perhaps best-known today as the voice of the narrator in Walt Disney's animated classic Fantasia.

The awards, presented for writing about music in a range of genres from books to CD sleeve notes, are made both to the authors and to their publishers.

Paul received his (for programme notes) jointly with Columbia University's concert series at Miller Theatre, which focuses on early music and contemporary music.

His notes include one on the art of the canon and one on a version of Lou Reed's 1970 album Metal Machine Music, scored for orchestral instruments by German composer Ulrich Kreiger.

Asked for his comment, Paul said: "I think it was Buggins's turn."

The Observer is informed that for the awards ceremony, which took place at ASCAP in New York on Tuesday, November 15, Paul wore a midnight-blue velvet jacket designed and made by Jay Zblewska, of Manorbier.

Hear and Now Fifty

For those interested in learning more about new music, Radio 3 is now airing a series called the Hear and Now Fifty, 50 short programmes highlighting one piece of music per year from 1950 to 2000.

(All are available to download as podcasts after they are aired, on Saturdays following the evening's main feature, except that the piece of music can only be heard in full during the broadcast.).

Paul is a frequent guest, as is Gillian Moore, head of contemporary culture at London's South Bank Centre. Other guests since the series began in September have included film-maker Sophie Fiennes, on why she used Hungarian composer György Ligeti's orchestral piece Atmosphères (known to filmgoers from the soundtrack of Stanley Kubrick's feature film 2001) in her documentary about German artist Anselm Kiefer, and novelist Mark Haddon (The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time) on his fascination with the string quartets of Elliott Carter.