Sunday, July 1, 2007

Bridge as a musical instrument

The rather bizarre scene on the Franklin D. Roosevelt Mid-Hudson Bridge near Poughkeepsie was part of Mr. Bertolozzi’s audacious plan to transform the span into an orchestra, compose a piece for it, then actually perform the work live with a small army of percussionists. It is a musical undertaking on a vast scale and one that has brought oddly harmonious marriages among the worlds of art and government, music and engineering....

If all goes according to plan, the project will culminate in public performances piggybacked on celebrations in 2009 commemorating the 400th anniversaries of Henry Hudson’s trip up the river and Samuel de Champlain’s journey to the lake named after him. Twenty-two percussionists stationed along the bridge and a singer at the top of one of the towers will perform the work, to be transmitted over loudspeakers to audiences on the riverbanks."

-Maestro Gives New Meaning to Traffic Jam

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