Posted 7:21 pm Monday, March 03, 2008
MASS Ensemble Shares Unique Musical Experience
Students and community members were entertained Sunday in front of the UT Tyler Cowan Center by an Earth Harp demonstration by the MASS Ensemble.
The Earth Harp was installed Friday by Music Architecture Sight and Sound (MASS) Ensemble using the front of the Cowan Center.
Approximately 50-foot brass strings stretched from a large chamber weighted to the ground and ascending in a slope to the top of the Cowan Center building where they were affixed to a metal pipe on the center's roof.
Bill Close, designer and founder of MASS, said it was his interest in architecture that started him blending music and architecture.
Close, who studied sculpture and sound design at the Art Institute of Chicago, invented the first Earth Harp in 1999. He has since created hundreds of instruments and musical sculptures ranging from 3 to 1,100 feet.
"All of this pushes the imagination on how to make music," he said.
Composed of six performers, MASS Ensemble has traveled across the world dazzling audiences with not only the sound of the earth harp, but with the visually compelling elements of the body playing the instrument.
Performer Andrea Brook explained that, as a dancer, learning to play the Earth Harp was not as difficult as she expected.
"It is a very rhythmic instrument," she said.
A group of about 20 stood watching as Ms. Brook moved her hands, covered in white gloves, across the barely visible harp strings, making her appear more like a mime than musician.
A group of about 20 stood watching as Ms. Brook moved her hands, covered in white gloves, across the barely visible harp strings, making her appear more like a mime than musician.
"It can be hard to see the strings from a distance," she said.
Her white gloves were coated in rosin, which is used to create friction on the bow of a violin or cello.
"The friction sends the vibrations through the molecules of the strings," she explained to the audience.
Hanging high above their heads, brass strings were clamped with wooden blocks to change the pitch of the strings.
Ms. Brook said that, depending on where the wood was clamped on the strings, the sound they produced would differ.
Once Ms. Brook and Close finished with their demonstration, the audience was given a chance to play the harp.
Children, delighted by the opportunity to touch the golden strings, rushed the stage.
Rachel Davis, 12, said she has played musical instruments before, but never as big as the Earth Harp.
"I play the French horn," she said.
As her gloved hands plucked the strings, Davis looked intently as Ms. Brook instructed the children on how to make short- and long-sounding noises.
As her gloved hands plucked the strings, Davis looked intently as Ms. Brook instructed the children on how to make short- and long-sounding noises.
"Kids love it. People of all ages enjoy the chance to play it," she said. "It is music that is visually compelling."
The installment will remain in front of the UT Tyler Cowan Center until Tuesday.
On Monday morning, students are invited to attend a Yoga and Sound Workshop at 6:30 p.m. at the center where the workshop will blend yogic movement, breathing and vocalization with the musical vibration of live long-string music.
The internationally renowned performance group will perform at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday
For more information, contact the UT Tyler Cowan Center box office, 903-566-7424.
Box office hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday.
