Under Bridges

“… Under bridges, in pulsing miniature marshes
the city is alive in vague sound …”

– Alison LaSorda

the notion of music

“for in prehistoric times music, like the dance and every other artistic endeavor, was a branch of magic, one of the old and legitimate instruments of wonder-working. beginning with rhythm (clapping of hands, tramping, beating of sticks and primitive drums), it was a powerful, tried-and-true device for putting large numbers of people “in tune” with one another, engendering the same mood, coordinating the pace of their breathing, and heartbeats, encouraging them to invoke and conjure up the eternal powers, to dance, to compete, to make war, to worship.” – herman hesse

a dialogue

sound:space, a book by bernhard leitner starts with a ‘conversation between wolfgang drechsler and bernhard leitner:

d: is it correct to speak of your works as sound sculptures? or what do you call them yourself?

l: sound-space sculptures, sound-space installations, sound architecture, several of my recent works could be called sound-space objects. in general, i speak of sound-space works, because essentially they have to do with space, with the experience of the space with space that is created and shaped with sound.’

i’m on page 125. and i like to draw lines under words and phrases with soft lead pencils.

https://soundsculpture.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/pencil-on-paper-aif.jpg

some read as follow:

a fictive architecture. /// relationship between movement and space///invent spaces that are formed using sound as material?///as structural material for art/// the visual aesthetic of the instrument is part of the aural experience. [how?]///is there a market for sound spaces?///whispering gallery in saint paul’s cathedral in london.///jean paul///phonurgia nova///visual form corresponds with acoustic form.///the person is not just the passive recipient but also an instrument in the artistic process.///in the “sound space” too, the listener is an element of the artwork///timelessness measured in time.

the text continues with some definitions of building materials for sound architecture: “the fundamental phenomenon of sound is its development in time. … but it is not a [single] space, it is a constant sequence of spaces. speed, timbre, pitch, intensity, rhythm, pause, and repetition … are tools to express, define, and build sound architecture.” bernhard describes pause as “the duration of an interruption in the development of space. theoretically this interruption is a ‘spaceless’ situation.”

on page 74, he writes “sound spaces are always interior spaces. as interior spaces they are always with reference to the body.” his sound chair encourages the body to listen, and it is a true indication of the relationship between sound, space, and body.

overall his book is somewhat a complete documentation of leitner’s explorations and findings. his sketches, drawings, numbers, and final pieces are only means to explore more and more. i don’t see an end to this whole process. bernhard leitner is an explorer. i admire his thought process and his method of documentation.