![](\"\/helen\/blog\/images\/Stringraphy.jpg\")
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\nStringraphy is a room-size harp, made of silk threads stretched across the room. The installation we saw and heard had 4 sets of about 15–20 strings each, reaching from one end of the stage to the other. Two cups interrupted each string and amplified the sounds, like a string telephone. Different locations for the cups gave each string a different pitch.\n<\/p>\n
\n5 women walked and danced between the strings and made music by rubbing and plucking the strings. They managed to produce an amazing variety of sounds – like traditional string instruments (violin \/ viola \/ cello), both “bowed” and plucked; something like an accordeon; sounds of wind and birds; croaks and squeaks; eerie whines. The cups were far apart from each other so that sound was coming from many places, filling the room – even though we sat in the front row and had a very good view of the musicians, the sound often felt disembodied.\n<\/p>\n
\nThe programme had something for all tastes, ranging from Twinkle twinkle little star<\/i> and Greensleeves<\/i> to Japanese children’s songs and original works by Kazue Mizushima, who’s the leader of the ensemble. While the popular tunes were pleasant enough, and well performed, the original pieces were far more interesting. When the instrument was used to play Greensleeves<\/i>, it was just a very odd-looking violin (or rather like 5 very odd-looking violins with only two strings each, because each player could only rub two strings at a time). In the pieces written specifically for Stringraphy, its strengths and peculiarities were used much better – they had many more interesting sounds and combinations: varying the pitch by pulling the string away from its flat\/straight position; playing long chords by rubbing two strings at the same time, etc.\n<\/p>\n
\nI would gladly have skipped the crowd-pleasers, but I guess a purely experimental concert wouldn’t get much of an audience. Kazue says on the group’s web site:<\/p>\n
When they asked me to play a familiar tune, I refused at first, feeling that there was no point in playing conventional music on a newly created instrument. But every single person who interviewed me made the same request, until eventually I thought I should at least try it. […] I was keen for a broad range of people to hear my music, and when I asked for feedback after performances, most people said that the part they most enjoyed is when I played their favourite songs.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\nDue to the size of Stringraphy, the concert was a very physical performance. The strings were around 10 metres long, with the lowest one below knee height and the highest well above their heads, so the musicians had to move and stretch to reach the strings. The concept of high and low tones was also made very visible, as their hands and arms moved up and down between every note.\n<\/p>\n
\nUnfortunately the audience wasn’t allowed to touch the instrument, as they had two more concerts to come. I was really itching to try it myself.\n<\/p>\n
\nThe group’s web site<\/a> is small and simple. Kazue’s notes from a workshop held in London in 1999<\/a> was the most informative page I found, but there are also “trip reports” from previous concerts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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