Hey, I did that 35 years ago on a Fire Lookout!

The Aeolian harp concept always stuck my fancy, so one summer while sitting on top of a BC mountain as a fire lookout, with more sky than earth in the view, the ever present breeze set thoughts of the Greeks into action. Tacked half a dozen 50 lb test monofilament fishing lines to the eaves of the lookout roof, and stretched the ends over the wooden railing of the narrow deck around the building. Used big tomatoe juice cans filled with rocks to apply tension to the ends of each line, adjusting the weight with rocks until the strings began to sing. Then I found it was just as easy to nail a big piece of fire wood to each line.

The building was secured to the mountain top by tensioned cables running out from each corner to rock anchors, and fastened to and matching the tension of another cable stretched all around the inside of the building just below the pyramidal roof. The structural result was that the entire wood frame of the building was in constant heavy compression, creating a stressed membrane of each wall and the ceiling. When a breeze set the strings in motion, the entire building acted like an amplifier, but you could only hear the sound when inside.

It was amazing! A gentle breeze created low low pitches from the 6' to 8' free length of the strings. Low murmurings of quiet evening air soothed the soul beautifully as harmonics rippled slowly up and down the musical overtone scale. If the breeze caused the hanging cans or pieces of firewood to swing, string tension changed and pitch wandered up and down. As a wind picked up, the primary pitches went up, first to a loud attention-getting human voice pitch and then to a screaming banshee sound that let you know the real power of air and vacuum-driven weather.

After living all day and night with musical sounds driven by the natural environment, normal building life ever since has seemed dull and unconnected to the outdoors. Even though it was done in the early 1970's I still miss the gentle warmth of a low pitched quiet evening lullaby. Sometimes, with a mid-speed wind, the collection of strings and their overtones sounded like a Bach fugue played on an organ.

Every house should have an Aeolian harp built in.

cp in bc

----- Original Message -----

From: [log in to unmask] href="mailto:[log in to unmask]">Gabriel Orgrease

To: [log in to unmask] href="mailto:[log in to unmask]">[log in to unmask]

Sent: Friday, February 15, 2008 2:55 PM

Subject: [BP] The Wege House

found item -- a house that is a musical stringed instrument that one plays from the inside

The Wege House
http://www.symphonichouse.com/#
On a far Northern Lake Michigan beach, along with the wind and waves, resides a family within a joint experiment between David Hanawalt, Architect and Bill Close, Sonic Installation Artist. The Wege House explores in first steps the integration of site, sight and sound...As a main theme in their newly designed and built house, they have commissioned the creation of architecture as musical instruments. Architect David Hanawalt and Sonic Installation artist Bill Close collaborate to bring forth a home that is truly in resonance.

The house is set up with a series of musical experiences that are intriguing and inviting for the Wege family and guests. Curious fingers of any musical background find the excitement of bringing the Architecture to life through sound/music.

All the Architectural instruments are based around strings. The Architecture becomes the structure, bridge and resonator for these giant stringed instruments. Specially developed brass wire and piano wires are used as “the strings” of the instruments. The use of long string technologies developed by Bill Close allow for the instruments to be architectural in scale. The complex patterns of strings are extension of the architectural lines of the house and become an integral part of the visual experience.

As the majority of the architectural instruments are based around long string technology, it is important to know how long strings are played. First a player puts on a cotton glove that has rosin powder on the fingers. The glove helps to hold the rosin and keep natural oils off the strings. Two fingers lightly pinch the string and run along. This action creates a compression wave within the material of the string. The fingers push the vibration along in a similar manner that one might create tone by running their finger around the edge of a glass. The action produces tones akin to cello or viola, however they are more resonant with upper harmonics. The tones are pure and beautiful.

As one enters the house they are invited into a condensed space in which the entire 12x12 ft wall is a tight pattern of vertical strings. As a finger runs along the wall of strings they come to life with cordal resonance that slips away quickly as the tight space compresses the sound.

The stair well installation is an amazing example of tuning through Architecture. Strings start from the base of each stair and run vertically to the skylight some twenty feet above the base stair. The strings rise in pitch as one ascends the stair well. A player on the bottom of the stairwell plays the low notes while a player up on the third floor part of the stairs plays the higher notes. Tones reverberate through out the stair well in a unique form of musical communication.

At the core of the House runs to massive beams forty feet in length. These beams become the basis for the core instruments of the house. These are two long stringed instruments. The strings run from musical bridges that are accessible on the second floor. The strings run out through specially designed gaps in a low wall and out over the Main room in the house. When the instrument is played the Main room is alive with the pure tones of long stringed vibration. This vibration is transferred into the beams and walls of the main room. This literally puts both the listener and the player inside the resonant chamber of the instrument. It is the ultimate in surround sound as the architecture is the instrument.The instruments are tuned primarily through length. The longer the string the lower the sound. To create the tone of middle C on the piano, a forty foot long string is needed. Different lengths can be defined by using the architecture and tuning bridges that mount anywhere along the string. Tension does not play a major role in the tuning process all the strings have approximately 75 lbs of pressure on them. They are not under a lot of pressure thus keeping the installation safe and non-disruptive to the architecture.Two experimental wind harps are designed into the exterior of the house. Running 15 ft high they are positioned to catch wind and set up a series of tones that ideally would transfer into they main room.

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