Music for Passageways 1985

Sculptural sound space with 32 pipes in well-tempered scale, 32 integrated speakers and 2 auto-reverse stereo tape players.
Presentations: Galerie Tangente, Montréal; Time Based Arts, Amsterdam; Musée d'Art Contemporain de Montréal; Gesellschaft für Aktuelle Kunst, Bremen; Technische Universität Berlin; Centre André-Malraux, Bordeaux.

Music for Passageways is conceived for integration in public areas such as entrance halls, large foyer spaces or other types of open indoor areas. The installation aims to create a heterogeneous field of sound in which musical register is distributed across space. The work creates a sound passageway within which the public is free to circulate.

Sounds composed on audio tape are broadcast over a modified loudspeaker system consisting of thirty-two pipes tuned to a well-tempered scale (with lengths ranging from 16 centimetres to 3,5 meters), thirty-two integrated speakers and two auto-reverse stereo tape players. This modified loudspeaker system —in which each of the thirty-two pipes is attached vertically above a loudspeaker — provides a quadraphonic sound field within which specific sounds are localized according to the resonant frequencies of the tuned pipes. (Since most sound textures for the installation were produced on commercial synthesizers, the pipes were tuned to the well-tempered scale of these instruments.) Each of the four sides of the installation is composed of eight pipes tuned in ascending minor sixths, with each of the sides being tuned a semi-tone apart. In this manner the installation covers a maximum number of resonant frequencies, with fundamental frequencies and first harmonics included. In addition, each side of the installation is characterised by a unique series of fundamental resonant frequencies, i.e. an augmented chord.

The installation is installed in various fashions, but is always placed in a symmetrical manner with pipe lengths ascending from the four sides toward the interior of the space. Eight low-range loudspeakers are placed in the centre of the space, sixteen mid-range loudspeakers form a curved line from the centre outward, and eight high-range loudspeakers are placed at the periphery of the installation area. This type of physical distribution creates an environment in which musical register is spread out across space.

Music for Passageways allows for the spatial localization of different musical registers and timbres. The installation creates a space within which the listener perceives a certain depth in relation to sound. Depending on the contents of the magnetic tape the work may present either a spatial gradation in colouring effects or an environment where various musical elements are localized in different parts of the space.

Music for Passageways, Lichthof, Technische Universität Berlin. May 1987.
(Photo: F. Hein)