Salix aurita — Ohr-Weide (2018) is a work for 150 floating loudspeakers by île flottante | Andrea Gsell & Nica Giuliani… read more
Ohr-Weide — Salix aurita by île flottante | Andrea Gsell & Nica Giuliani and Lilian Beidler
112 loud-speaking telephone receivers and other early sound reinforcement systems by Ralf Ehlert
The picture above was made in 1919 during the Victory Liberty Loan and the lamp-like objects hanging above the crowd are so-called loud-speaking telephone receivers. The crowd had “the unusual sensation of having spoken messages come to them out of … read more
Loudspeakeroperas by Huba de Graaff
In her opera Lautsprecher Arnolt (2004) Huba de Graaff decided to have most roles played by loudspeakers. Only the main character—the writer, Arnolt Bronnen (1895-1959)—is played by a human actor, Marien Jongewaard. Arnolt himself is literally a “loud speaker”, screaming … read more
Speaker Dress by Pauchi Sasaki
Our clothes can be seen as a form of communication between ourselves and the outside world. They give a visual impression of who we are and how we would like to be seen by others. Pauchi Sasaki designs dresses which … read more
Transducer by Robin Fox and Eugene Ughetti
In Transducer (2013), you may easily recognise all kinds of “classical” playing techniques for microphones and loudspeakers, twisted in surprising and clever ways. This results in a performance which reinvents and expands known pieces such as Steve Reich’s Pendulum Music… read more
Fifty years of loudspeakers and ping pong balls
Some objects seem particularly suitable for use in preparing loudspeakers. Perhaps ping pong balls were favored objects for this due to their lightness and characteristic sound. Comparing several of these set-ups reveals that—fortunately!—using a similar technology can still result in … read more
Hemispherical loudspeakers for laptop orchestras
With the rise of laptops in music in the 1990s, and more musicians using laptops on stage, it did not take long before the first laptop orchestra was founded. Nowadays there are many of them and there is even an … read more
Doppelbelichtung by Carola Bauckholt
Carola Bauckholt has written several pieces in which the imitation of bird sounds plays an important role. Examples are Lichtung (2011), for string quartet, and Zugvögel (2011/2012), for five wind instruments. In her piece Doppelbelichtung (2016), for the first time, … read more
A sympathetic piano by Gökhan Deneç
An active loudspeaker by Hermann Scherchen
Through his intensive occupation with recording and reproducing music, the conductor Hermann Scherchen (1891-1966) became aware of the enormous amount of people listening to music through loudspeakers. He was concerned with the difference between the complex sound diffusion during a … read more