The concept and structure of the music for String is based on ideas derived from the Hypercube.  The Hypercube -also known as the Tessaract- is the 4D analogue of the 3D cube. It is created by "dragging" a 3D cube on an axis perpendiculat to the three Cartesian axes.

The representation of the hypercube within the constraints of our 3D space poses problems similar to those of the representation of a cube onto a 2D surface (such as a sheet of paper).

This process of modelling a higher level object (a Hypercube) into a lower level language (3D description) entails a series of issues similar to those of representing a musical sound on a score. But in the approach taken for this piece the musical notation does not imply a one-to-one relation between the object and the model.

Of the various possible representations of the Hypercube in 3D space we chose the central projection one which resembles a small cube within a larger one. This is a static viewpoint in which what appear as truncated pyramids should be interpreted as cubes and what appear as single sides should be interpreted as two sides glued together. Any rotation of the model in 3D space ceases to map the original hypercube whose rotation is far more complex.

The 3D model-score has been constructed from balsa wood, optic-fibers, wire meshes, metallic and plastic parts and mirror surfaces. Words and phrases are inscribed in places. They come from Robert Heinlein’s 1941 story "...And He Built a Crooked House" (in which an architect builds a Hypercube-House) and from "Flatland: A romance of many dimensions" by  A. SQUARE (Edwin A. Abbott) (a short novel where worlds of 1, 2 and 3 dimensions interact).

The 3D score implies its sounds, its structure, its rhythm as is read by the musician and at the same time it reflects the conceptual approach upon which the intended piece of music is based.

It simultaneously notates and composes the piece as it is held together only by the conceptual approach to it. It is, ultimately, any score of any piece of music, yet it remains a certain piece of music and no other: A sound of theremins, compressed and occasionally discontinuous in the webcast; a sound of theremins continuous and stereophonic in the live performance; a sound of theremins sampled and looped in the intricacies of a certain perception of the model, as experienced at the moment of each perfomance.

back to string