ALVIN LUCIER

OPERA WITH OBJECTS

MATERIAL PRESS
Frankfurt am Main
 ALVIN LUCIER

OPERA WITH OBJECTS (1997)

Collect several small resonant objects, including candy jars, small

cardboard boxes or plastic coffee cups. Lay them out on a table. Holding
a pencil in each hand, start tapping one against the other. Listen to the
dry sound of the pencils; then lower the tapped pencil onto the surface
of one of the resonant objects. Listen to the louder more resonant
sounds as the tapped pencil touches and sympathetically resonates the
object. Tap in regular rhythms so that the focus is on the change in
loudness and timbre of the object, not on the rhythms of the tapping.
Once the tapped pencil touches the object, move it over its surface, ex-
ploring small changes in sound. After playing one object for a while,
move to another, then another, until all have been played. Vary the
speed of your tapping as you move from one object to another. From
time to time, place one object on another to get double resonances. Your
task is to make vivid for listeners the natural amplification inherent in
physical things.
Listen for echoes from the surfaces of the room produced by the
sharp tapping of the pencils on the objects.

Alvin Lucier
November 18, 2005

Copyright © 2005 Alvin Lucier