Sample of a double bass playing pizzicato. Grand Ave.Side and front views of a modern double bass with a French-style bowīass, upright bass, string bass, acoustic bass, acoustic string bass, contrabass, contrabass viol, bass viol, bass violin, standup bass, bull fiddle, doghouse bass, and bass fiddle Where: Grand Performances at California Plaza, 300-350 S. ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ‘William Close and the Earth Harp Collective’ “And if you take my most romantic notion of it, the gravitational weight of the note goes beyond our plane into the universe.” When you’re playing an ‘A,’ you’re resonating the frequency and tone of ‘A’ everywhere,” he says. Such a feat, he says, executed as an act of public art, would become a mighty celebration of the city and its people.Įarth Harp tech and multi-instrumentalist Golko has played it and likens the experience to string theory in physics. Looking to the future, Close is working to organize a skyscraper tour, with hopes of stringing up such icons as the 110-story Willis Tower in Chicago. Over the years, it has blossomed into “this really beautiful, functional, orchestral instrument.” There are openings in the architecture for the strings, which attach to a nearby mountain.Īnd because it’s Malibu, neighbors might not think much of 1,000 feet of harp strings shooting through the sky.Įveryone who encounters the Earth Harp wants to play it, Close says. Only this time, he worked with an architect to create a permanent location for one of his Earth Harps. He lost everything in a 2007 wildfire, but managed to rebuild his home in the exact same spot. He mostly builds them in his home shop in Malibu. ”Ĭlose has created more than 100 musical instruments. I was the first guy Howard Stern ever voted yes for. “I was the first guy Howard Stern ever voted yes for,” Close recalls happily. In 2012, Close got national attention when he finished third on “America’s Got Talent.” Close went on to play in concert halls, which required him to attach the strings to balconies so that audiences literally sat beneath the instrument. The experiment turned the entire valley into a giant instrument chamber and resulted in the harp’s name. His first installation of the Earth Harp involved stringing it 1,000 feet across a canyon just south of Chicago. If he were to play a real harp, for example, he says he’d try to do it with chopsticks or guitar picks. He loved music, but he didn’t enjoy adhering to the rules of any particular instrument. “We’re trying to change that by highlighting their work.”Ĭlose grew up outside of New York and later studied at the Art Institute of Chicago, where he began to experiment with building wild, avant-garde instruments. “Los Angeles has so many amazing artists, but seems to not appreciate its own,” she laments. The fact that Close has performed in concert halls and public spaces around the world, including the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., the Festival of Lights in Jerusalem and the Field Museum in Chicago, but is little known in his hometown, is baffling, says Myers. It is a public art installation, an engineering feat, a musical instrument and an architectural fascination The harp synthesizes a number of disciplines. He has played it all over the world, including in Singapore, Shanghai and Portugal, since inventing it in 1999. “You have to literally reach for the sky and pull the notes down,” Close says of the process of playing the harp. He can vibrate four notes out of each string. The following day, Close will tune the harp, a process that he’s got down to a science. His tech, Jonathan Golko, will catch them and attach them to the harp’s main resonating chamber. On this day, Close is getting ready to drop 42 strings, weighted by water bottles, off the edge of the 700-foot building. Installing and tuning the Earth Harp is a two-day process. The shows are co-sponsored by the i3 Arts Fest, which is taking place in various locations across downtown over the weekend. On Friday and Saturday, Close and a band of performers called the Earth Harp Collective will play the harp, along with a variety of other instruments Close has invented, including a three-necked guitar-sitar-bass called an Aquatar, as part of the free Grand Performances summer arts series. You have to literally reach for the sky and pull the notes down.
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