Here is the beginning of a ripple effect of art-consciousness….inspired by Bridge Music, Monticello High School in NY does their own performance in their auditorium with the auditorium as the instrument! It has taken me awhile to get this post up, but here it is.
Click here for the Times Herald Record news story.
The AP Music Theory class and Music History Class visited the Mid-Hudson Bridge to hear the Listening Stations in person October, 2009 (here are some pix)
They then started cleaning their long-unused old school auditorium. Walking around with a MacBook Pro, they recorded “broom sweeping”, “curtain beating”, “boys skipping onstage” and about 20 other sounds.
The team of composer/performers took these sounds and analyzed them
through SPEAR (a FREE, downloadable spectrum analyzer). They manipulated
the files and came up with 18 separate sounds which were then loaded
onto 7 MacBook laptops (2 or more per computer).
They took the laptops into the theater for the performance and, hooking up
2 to a speaker, the composer/performers played the piece aleatorically.
Speakers were placed around the auditorium (one in the balcony).
The audience thought it was awesome too. Educationally sound and FUN!!!
The following is from the Music teacher at the school, Nancy Wegrzyn:
“Thanks for being part of this experience by having such a great idea for
a composition. By the way, I use your “Bridge Music” in AP Music when we
are discussing timbre. I quiz the students on naming the instruments
they hear in various recordings, and when they are feeling smug I play a
movement from your CD and ask, “What instrument are you hearing now?”
Feels great to tell them they are listening to a bridge!”