iSound

An incredible quietude flows out of this music.... Listening, one becomes conscious of the inner workings of being ...

--Juan Christopye Ammann, Kunsthalle-Basel

Created by composer Ellen Fullman, the Long String Instrument has about 100 strings, suspended at waist height for 90 feet and attached to a soundboard, much in the same way a harp is constructed. It is played by three people who bow the strings with rosin-coated fingertips, while walking. A C-clamp on each wire is used for tuning, changing the string length much like a capo on a guitar. The instrument is tuned in just intonation, a natural tuning system. The Long String Instrument's range is centered on the octave of middle C and extends above and below this by an octave. The strings of the bass octave extend the instrument's full 90 feet. The middle and high octaves are suspended from double-sided resonators, splitting this distance into sixty and thirty feet, respectively. When a string is rubbed along ...