Playing the Brooklyn Bridge like a piano by Ted Riederer published on 2019-07-08T14:06:03Z I've always believed that art has the capacity to re-enchant this disenchanted world. As part of a larger artwork called Persistent Echoes I dreamed that I could play the Brooklyn Bridge like a piano, a 14,680 ton musical instrument. So yesterday, early in the morning, I whacked the tension cables of the bridge with a plastic mallet and recorded the strikes with these custom clamp piezoelectric microphones made by this guy named Crank Sturgeon. Initially, I was disappointed that I could hear no discernible tone, but when I watched the cables vibrate I marveled that they looked like vibrating guitar strings. So last night I pitch shifted the cable strikes, just a simple pitch shifter no bell filter, and voila I was able to compose a simple piece that sounds like a undersea xylophone. You can hear the vibrations of the wind and the cars on the roadway. It's noisy and sounds like sonar yet miraculous nonetheless. I'm in awe of all of the possibilities for discovery that surround us. Genre Experimental Comment by Jose Luis Jacome Guerrero hermoso 2019-07-10T18:22:32Z Comment by Tracy City (band NYC) Wonderful. 2019-07-09T02:31:06Z Comment by Fergus Kelly Wonderful. I recorded some nice tones and resonances with contact mics on the Millenium Bridge at St. Paul's in London a few years ago, which I used in a piece called Concrete Sonorities. Is the Max Neuhaus piece still playing through the grating in the middle of Times Square ? 2019-07-08T20:06:41Z Comment by Jeffrey Nickora Love this experiment - particularly the tones of 2:56 2019-07-08T16:42:05Z