In 1981 I began developing the “Long String Instrument,” an installation of dozens of wires fifty feet or more in length that are ‘bowed’ with rosin coated fingers. When I first began working with this project, I didn’t know anything about just intonation, much less what an interval was. Over the years, I worked to smooth the timbre of my instrument and my ear developed along the way. I incorporated more complex intervals only when I could appreciate them. A spectrum analysis of the Long String Instrument revealed that every overtone is represented at nearly equal levels through the entire range of hearing. This fascinates me as a compositional element and I am exploring the influences of sympathetic resonance and sonic events that occur at specific nodal point locations along the string-length of the instrument. I have developed a unique notation system to choreograph the performer’s movements. My interest is in exploring the multi-dimensional matrix of overtones, where threads of resultant melodic fragments emerge and intertwine. I feel that the room itself becomes my instrument and is open, vulnerable or receptive to what is put into it. Another instrument can generate frequencies that either drive my instrument through sympathetic resonance or have a canceling effect. I am looking for a way to have more access to this triggering effect.
