an Aeolian Monochord (2014 – 2015 )

Aeolian Monochord“Those who Observe the wind will not Sow”
Ecclessiastes 11:4

 

 

 

This first part of the improvisation sessions with natural elements is inspired by the writings and works of Athanasius Kircher.  The inventor of a western conception of aeolian music, his 17th century drawings in Phonurgia Nova detailed methods for inciting the wind, thereby implicating a mythic, spiritual voice brought to life through the strategic positioning of strings near a window, or out in the open.

 

Kircher’s Jesuit heritage might have spurred him to adopt the aeolian instrument as a method through which man who converse with God, particularly through an improvised collective that included the above mentioned instruments, and more conventional orchestral instruments and instrumentalists.

 

aeolian1

Athanasius Kircher, “Phonurgia Nova” (1673)

 

 

In my own work, my interests are aligned with Kircher’s in the desire to develop conversational structures that are expansive beyond single modes of thought (art within art, music within music, sound within sound) in cross-modal, cross-disciplinary experimentation.

Works explored:

 

1) Recreating the Sound of an Aeolian Harp through Electromagnetic Excitation of a single string monochord (presented at the Deep Listening Conference, Troy, NY in 2014)

dLC+oliveros2

 

 

2) Musical Excitation of monochord

 

 

 

3) Wind Data retrieval and interaction

 

For more writings/references, please go to https://joelong.wordpress.com/2014/08/11/conversations-with-a-mythic-voice/