BandCamp |
Ellen Fullman Body Music |
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Body Music
is music for Ellen Fullman's unique Long String Instrument, an
eighty-foot long instrument with approximately eighty strings.
Fullman
has been developing this instrument for longitudinally vibrating
long
strings over the past thirteen years. Having received a BFA in
sculpture, her interest in music began with the resonance of
materials
used in making sculpture. When she started making the Long String
Instrument, she saw it as "sculpture as music;" now she has come
full
circle in conceiving "music as sculpture." For the most part, the
music
in Body Music relies harmonically on the diatonic scale. Because
of the
prominence of overtone content, more complex harmony is suggested.
Through her studies of extended harmony, Fullman has come to
realize
that harmony is "dimensional."
"Composer/sculptor Fullman has been developing the Long String Instrument since 1980. An 80-foot long ax with 80 strings, concert presentation requires two to four players and a large room. The title refers to the players' need to use their whole bodies in performance, walking around the instrument, stroking and stroking and striking the strings. Tuned in just intonation and relying harmonically on the diatonic scale, the long strings create a wash of drones and overtones. Searing, shifting textures seep into the air. Shimmering webs of overtones evoke an otherworldly string section." "Five more astonishing compositions on long string sculpture-instruments, including the marvelously flowing "Work for 4," performed on a 145-foot-long string installation, already a modern classic. "Space Between" surprisingly produces some sounds normally associated with electronic music, and "Body Music" suggests a kind of celestial Delta-blues with its bar chording technique. A CD that will appeal to many listeners. |