Our walk this week implemented a new feature. Using a resonant bell, I was able to signal where the group would stop, and the sound of the bell also defined the different spaces sonically. The type of structure we were in or the kind of materials around us would make the bell sound reverberate in various ways.
We started by the fountain. Regular pulsations.
Down a sidewalk parallel to the road, to a building with a large awning and pillars.
Ding.
The bell bounces off the building and its overhang. Chirping birds are hidden in the trees. Nearby, someone is talking on phone. The voice and birds blend at some points, their shapes and tessituras similar enough to combine easily.
We move to a more populated area of campus, more conversations, more skateboards.
Under a small lattice – ding.
Skateboards create regular rhythms as they move over the grooves in the sidewalk. Then it sounds like one skateboard is stuck on a loop, the sound continuing but not moving through the space. I can’t aurally identify the source, so I have to look for it.
It’s a plastic bag stuck in a window on the top floor of the building under renovations. The wind is making it flutter, making a sound very similar to the skateboards multiple stories below it. The sound cuts through the entire open area.
Polyrhythms between actual skateboards. More layering because of the plastic bag.
Walking back to the music building, birds sing in interlocking rhythms.
One more ding – in an outside corridor with open sides.
We ended our time together with an improvisation led by music therapy student Luna Sun. She had chosen Christian Wolff’s piece “Stones” for us to perform.
We started by the fountain. Regular pulsations.
Down a sidewalk parallel to the road, to a building with a large awning and pillars.
Ding.
The bell bounces off the building and its overhang. Chirping birds are hidden in the trees. Nearby, someone is talking on phone. The voice and birds blend at some points, their shapes and tessituras similar enough to combine easily.
We move to a more populated area of campus, more conversations, more skateboards.
Under a small lattice – ding.
Skateboards create regular rhythms as they move over the grooves in the sidewalk. Then it sounds like one skateboard is stuck on a loop, the sound continuing but not moving through the space. I can’t aurally identify the source, so I have to look for it.
It’s a plastic bag stuck in a window on the top floor of the building under renovations. The wind is making it flutter, making a sound very similar to the skateboards multiple stories below it. The sound cuts through the entire open area.
Polyrhythms between actual skateboards. More layering because of the plastic bag.
Walking back to the music building, birds sing in interlocking rhythms.
One more ding – in an outside corridor with open sides.
We ended our time together with an improvisation led by music therapy student Luna Sun. She had chosen Christian Wolff’s piece “Stones” for us to perform.
There is a huge area next to the music building that’s full of various sized rocks, so we “set up” there.
At first, it seemed like we were just individually exploring the sounds of the rocks around us. But we did hit a groove as a group, responding to stylistic changes from others. We grew to all be forte at one point, and we abruptly stopped together following the high point. And that was a wrap!
April 18, 2018
5:45 – 6:30pm
Until next time!
At first, it seemed like we were just individually exploring the sounds of the rocks around us. But we did hit a groove as a group, responding to stylistic changes from others. We grew to all be forte at one point, and we abruptly stopped together following the high point. And that was a wrap!
April 18, 2018
5:45 – 6:30pm
Until next time!