Installation

Saturday 11 May from 16.00
Sunday 12 May from 14.00

Recital Room

INSTALLATION:

MUSIC FOR PURE WAVES, BASS DRUMS AND ACOUSTIC PENDULUMS
for slow sweep oscillator, loudspeakers, bass drums and suspended ping pong balls

Alvin Lucier has become renowned for his installations as much as for composing. This piece from 1980 will be installed in the Recital Room at City Halls throughout the Festival.
  
Music for Pure Waves, Bass Drums and Acoustic Pendulums is typical of Lucier’s investigations into resonance, environments, sonic waves and spatial acoustics. Amplified sound waves from loudspeakers will create vibrations through four bass drums, which in turn start suspended ping pong balls in motion. The balls subsequently begin to pick out rhythms on the drums, all dependent on the frequency of the waves. The environmental conditions of the Recital Room will affect the tensions of the drumheads throughout the weekend, thereby varying the pendular motion and the resulting sonic and rhythmic results.