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The Innovative Musical Inventions & Musical Performances of
BILL CLOSE & THE MASS Ensemble
Such a description fits suitably in terms of depicting Bill Close, a young inventor, sculptor, adventurer and visionary who formed and serves as the Artistic Director for the MASS Ensemble, an internationally renowned performance group appearing at The Midland Center for the Arts on Thursday, June 16th as part of this year's Matrix: Midland Festival. MASS stands for Music, Architecture and Sonic Sculpture and serves as the perfect acronym to describe the large-scale instruments and kinetic performances of the artists, musicians, composers and choreographers that blend sculpture, music, dance & visual arts to create singularly memorable performances and events.
isscross the MCFTA auditorium, essentially placing the audience inside the 'instrument', which in this case will become the structure itself. The performance is augmented by a litany of remarkably innovative and specially designed instruments that combine tonal elements of violin, cello, bass, flute, and percussion - all of which were invented by Close.
Additionally, from
June 13-17th,
an outdoor Earth Harp with musical strings reaching from the
roofline of the Midland Center of the Arts to the parking lot will
be constructed. The installation will take place on June 13th
from
11 am - 3 pm
and result in a truly interactive performance whereby the entire Center
will be literally transformed into an instrument. Insofar as the performances of the Mass Ensemble are like witnessing musical innovation & complexity on the level of Zappa's, with sculpted instruments that could have possibly been designed by Calder, infused by flourishes of Baroque symphonic textures thrown into an eclectic musical mixer, an obvious place to begin telling the tale of Bill Close and the MASS Ensemble is with how the idea for designing such singular instruments originated. "Back in the late 1980s and early 1990s I was studying at the Art Institute of Chicago and started by trying to combine sculpture with sound," he explains. "Initially, I developed a series of musical instruments that existed more as sonic sculptures, because at the time I didn't know their musical potential." "It was a process of pure experimentation in the beginning," Close continues. "From some of the sculptures I started adding long strings ranging from eight feet to 1000 feet long; but the first series of Long Strings built were 25 foot harps that consisted of structures made out of steel. They had 12 strings on them to cover an octave, and from that I had the basis for understanding of how they work." "What I discovered is if you wear cotton gloves and cover them with resin and run your hands along the strings, it produces a tone similar to a cello or a bowed instrument. That became the basis for these LSI's (long stringed instruments). From there I found out how to tune them and finally transform them into fully functioning, melodic, and very beautiful instruments to work with." The sound of the stringed instruments is eerily similar to that of a violin or viola. According to Close, however, the tension required for the strings is only 50 pounds of pressure per string. From this discovery, the Earth Harp was born whereby the chambers or bridge of the instrument mount to the stage, with strings going out over the audience, thereby turning the entire theatre into the 'body' of an instrument. "The Earth Harp adapts to the acoustics of the environment," notes Bill, "so wherever it is set it literally uses the architecture to create an instrument. Vibrations occur in the architecture itself."
Did it take a lot of trial & error to get the prototype built? "Actually, it only took me a couple of months to get the first one going," reflects Bill. "Once I started to understand how every piece is different and creates a different sound, I began working around that. Some instruments are designed from a visual standpoint and others from a sonic perspective. One piece is based on the crystal structure of a quartz molecule, which became the visual for it, and the triangular part became the basis for the strings."
According to Close,
he contracts for a special type of brass string that is used for the
instruments, but will also work with piano wire and silk. "I started casting lines out to the musical community to different rock & classical composers and began to develop the idea of working with dancers and a group of creative forces to foster unique artistic experiences," continues Bill. "The show itself has a lot of movement and kinetic activity. The act of playing the instruments takes a lot of understanding, and for me that was my major challenge - learning how to perform and move with them, as opposed to being a 'static' musician. It's almost a tai-chi kind of thing." "What happens when you play them is all the strings get churned to their own note. You get a different quality or timbre depending upon where your hand is positioned on the string. Frankly, you have a lot more tonal possibilities than with conventional instruments. There are a lot of things these instruments will do that none other can, but there are also limitations to them - it's like everything in life," laughs Bill. The long bowed harps that Bill designed are copyrighted, but not covered by patent. "Patenting is a huge sort of undertaking," sighs Bill. "Other people have jumped on the bandwagon, but I have trouble trying to patent a passion."
Since their first performance in 1991, the MASS Ensemble has focused on doing 15 solid projects each year with a total of 50 shows per year.
"This Earth Harp we're designing for the Matrix Festival is going to be a very interesting piece," Bill reflects. "Basically there will be a series of bridges & chambers set into the ground and the strings will tie into the pattern of circles at the front of the Center, resonating the chamber. All of the circles will resonate, so it should sound remarkable." "If we do live performances we need to amplify the instruments, but the interactive pieces don't require amplification. It's about the volume of two cellos and you can play any type of material. In fact, we're about to release a new CD of a series of beautiful songs written by Cameron Morgan."
Does the group find
it essential to rehearse a lot? The biggest performance conducted by MASS consisted of a team of 11 people, but the average show consists of 5 performers. When asked about his most unusual performance, Bill notes that two come to mind. "We worked with Frank Lloyd Wright's studio in Taliesin, and did performances in multiple places throughout the grounds. One of the situations consisted on strings mounted on the exterior of the building, similar to what we're doing here at the Midland Center for the Arts. But after we ran strings up the structure of his studio, wherever we played from the outside, we placed the audience inside walking through the building, and it was like being in the belly of a cello. It was unbelievable. The building itself was resonating." "The other time is when we strung a mountain by placing the stage at the base of a peak and the strings up to the top. There were caves at the top of the mountain and we used the caves for resonance. "
"A lot of it is a combination of taking steps in terms of production value, but also investing a lot in new instruments. I'm working on pieces meant to be played in the air that swing out over the audience." "Another thing I'll have at the Midland show is a new 'aquatar', which is a freestanding instrument that is actually a combination of a guitar, sitar, and bass. You just walk and play it and it has a lot of options to work with. They're really popular amongst guitarists, so they have a wider palate to work with. It stands about 4 feet off the ground and the neck is about 15 feet long." "All of our performances are very modern, but rooted in the past. They're enjoyable and not atonal.
*
For a decidedly
unique experience, the MASS Ensemble presents a rare opportunity
for audiences to participate within the intersection of invention, design,
architecture, and adventure that offers up a distinctly rarefied recipe of
something that is far more than entertainment.
Be sure not to miss
it! From June 13-17th an outdoor Earth Harp with musical strings reaching from the roofline of MCFTA to the parking lot will be constructed. Stop by and be a part of the excitement. MASS will also offer a diverse array of workshops and lectures, including Instrument Building, Science of Sound and Yoga/Sound workshops. Reservations for all workshops will be made through the MCFTA Box office.
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