A string instrument (or stringed instrument) is a musical instrument that produces sound by means of vibrating strings. In the Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification, used in organology, they are called chordophones. The most common string instruments in the string family are guitar, violin, viola, cello, double bass, banjo, mandolin, ukulele, harpsichord and harp.

Types of instruments

Construction

String instruments can be divided in three groups. #Lutes - instruments in which the strings are supported by a neck and a bout ("gourd"), for instance a guitar, a violin, a saz. #Harps - instruments in which the strings are contained within a frame. #Zithers - instruments with the strings mounted on a body, such as a guqin, a cimbalom, an autoharp, or a piano.

It is also possible to divide the instruments in groups focused on how the instrument is played.

Types of playing techniques

) or bowed (arco) depending on the genre and piece.]]

:For a full list, see List of string instruments.

All string instruments produce sound from one or more vibrating strings, transferred to the air by the body of the instrument (or by a pickup in the case of electronically amplified instruments). They are usually categorized by the technique used to make the strings vibrate (or by the primary technique, in the case of instruments where more than one may apply.) The three most common techniques are plucking, bowing and striking.

Plucking

Plucking is used as the sole method of playing on instruments such as the banjo, guitar, harp, lute, mandolin, oud, sitar, and either by a finger or thumb, or by some type of plectrum. This category includes the keyboard instrument the harpsichord, which formerly used feather quills (now plastic plectra) to pluck the strings.

Instruments normally played by bowing (see below) may also be plucked, a technique referred to by the Italian term pizzicato.

Bowing

Bowing (Italian: Arco) is a method used in some string instruments, including the violin, viola, cello, and the double bass (of the violin family) and the old viol family. The bow consists of a stick with many hairs stretched between its ends. Bowing the instrument's string causes a stick-slip phenomenon to occur, which makes the string vibrate.

Ancestors of the modern bowed string instruments are the rebab of the Islamic Empires, the Persian kamanche and the Byzantine lira. Other bowed instruments are the rebec, hardingfele, nyckelharpa, kokyū, erhu, igil, sarangi and K'ni. The hurdy gurdy is bowed by a wheel.

Rarely, the guitar can be played with a bow (rather than plucked) for unique effects.

Striking

The third common method of sound production in stringed instruments is to strike the string.

Violin family string instrument players are occasionally instructed to strike the string with the side of the bow, a technique called col legno. This yields a percussive sound along with the pitch of the note. A well-known use of col legno for orchestral strings is the Gustav Holst's "Mars" movement from The Planets suite.

Other methods

The aeolian harp employs a very unusual method of sound production: the strings are excited by the movement of the air.

Some string instruments have keyboards attached which are manipulated by the player, meaning they do not have to pay attention to the strings directly. The most familiar example is the piano, where the keys control the felt hammers by means of a complex mechanical action. Other string instruments with a keyboard include the clavichord (where the strings are struck by tangents), and the harpsichord (where the strings are plucked by tiny plectra).

With these keyboard instruments too, the strings are occasionally plucked or bowed by hand. Composers such as Henry Cowell wrote music which asks for the player to reach inside the piano and pluck the strings directly, or to "bow" them with bow hair wrapped around the strings, or play them by rolling the bell of a brass instrument such as a trombone on the array of strings.

Other keyed string instruments, small enough to be held by a strolling player, include the plucked autoharp, the bowed nyckelharpa, and the hurdy gurdy, which is played by cranking a rosined wheel.

Steel-stringed instruments (such as the guitar, bass, violin, etc.) can be played using a magnetic field. An E-Bow is small hand-held battery-powered device which can be used to excite the strings of an electric guitar. It provides a sustained, singing tone on the string which is magnetically vibrated.

3rd Bridge is a plucking method where the string is divided in two pieces and struck at the side which is unamplified. The technique is mainly used on electric instruments, because these have a pickup which amplifies only the local string vibration. It's possible on acoustic instruments as well, but lesser convenient. For instance press on the 7th fret on a guitar and pluck it at the head side and a tone will resonate at the opposed part. At electric instruments this technique can generate multitone sounds remniscent of a clock or a bell.

String length or scale length

This is the length of the string from nut to bridge on bowed or plucked instruments and ultimately determines the distance between different notes on the instrument. For example, a double bass with its low range needs a scale length of around , whilst a violin scale is only about . On the shorter scale of the violin, the left hand may easily reach a range of slightly more than two octaves without shifting position, while on the bass' longer scale, a single octave or a ninth is reachable in lower positions.

Contact points along the string

In bowed instruments, the bow is normally placed perpendicularly to the string, at a point half way between the end of the fingerboard and the bridge. However, different bow placements can be selected to change timbre. Application of the bow close to the bridge (known as sul ponticello) produces an intense, sometimes harsh sound, which acoustically emphasizes the upper harmonics. Bowing above the fingerboard (sul tasto) produces a purer tone with less overtone strength, emphasizing the fundamental, also known as flautando, since it sounds less reedy and more flute-like.

Similar timbral distinctions are also possible with plucked string instruments by selecting an appropriate plucking point, although the difference is perhaps more subtle.

In keyboard instruments, the contact point along the string (whether this be hammer, tangent, or plectrum) is a choice made by the instrument designer. Builders use a combination of experience and acoustic theory to establish the right set of contact points.

In harpsichords, often there are two sets of strings of equal length. These "choirs" usually differ in their plucking points. One choir has a "normal" plucking point, producing a canonical harpsichord sound; the other has a plucking point close to the bridge, producing a reedier "nasal" sound rich in upper harmonics.

Production of multiple notes

A string at a certain tension and length will only produce one note, so to obtain multiple notes, string instruments employ one of two methods. One is to add enough strings to cover the range of notes desired; the other is to allow the strings to be stopped. The piano and harp are examples of the former method, where each note on the instrument has its own string or course of multiple strings. (Many notes on a piano are strung with a "choir" of three strings tuned alike.)

Some zithers combine stoppable (melody) strings with a greater number of "open" harmony or chord strings. On instruments with stoppable strings, such as the violin or guitar, the player can shorten the vibrating length of the string, using their fingers directly (or more rarely through some mechanical device, as in the nyckelharpa or the hurdy gurdy). Such instruments usually have a fingerboard attached to the neck of the instrument, providing a hard flat surface against which the player can stop the strings. On some string instruments, the fingerboard has frets, raised ridges perpendicular to the strings that stop the string at precise intervals, in which case the fingerboard is called a fretboard.

Moving frets during performance is impractical. The bridges of a koto, on the other hand, may be moved by the player, occasionally in the course of a single piece of music. Many modern Western harps include levers, either directly moved by fingers (on Celtic harps) or controlled by foot pedals (on orchestral harps), to raise the pitch of individual strings by a fixed amount. The middle Eastern zither, the qanun, is equipped with small levers called mandal that allow each course of multiple strings to be incrementally retuned "on the fly" while the instrument is being played. These levers raise or lower the pitch of the string course by a microtone, less than a half step.

Sympathetic strings

Some instruments are employed with sympathetic strings, additional strings not meant to be plucked. These strings resonate along with the played notes. This system is for instance present on a sarangi.

== Sound production ==

Acoustic instruments

It is sometimes said that the sounding board or soundbox "amplifies" the sound of the strings. Technically speaking, no amplification occurs, because all of the energy to produce sound comes from the vibrating string. What really happens is that the sounding board of the instrument provides a larger surface area to create sound waves than that of the string. A larger vibrating surface moves more air, hence produces a louder sound.

Achieving a tonal characteristic that is effective and pleasing to the player's and listener's ear is something of an art, and the makers of string instruments often seek very high quality woods to this end, particularly spruce (chosen for its lightness, strength and flexibility) and maple (a very hard wood). Spruce is used for the sounding boards of instruments from the violin to the piano.

Acoustic instruments can also be made out of artificial materials, such as carbon fiber and fiberglass (particularly the larger instruments, such as cellos and basses).

In the early 20th century, the Stroh violin used a diaphragm-type resonator and a metal horn to project the string sound, much like early mechanical gramophones. Its use declined beginning about 1920, as electronic amplification came into use.

Electronic amplification

Most string instruments can be fitted with piezoelectric or magnetic pickups to convert the string's vibrations into an electrical signal which is amplified and then converted back into sound by loudspeakers. Some players attach a pickup to their traditional string instrument to "electrify" it. Another option is to use a solid-bodied instrument, which reduces unwanted feedback howls or squeals.

Amplified string instruments can be much louder than their acoustic counterparts, which allows them to be used in relatively loud rock, blues, and jazz ensembles. Amplified instruments can also have their amplified tone modified by using electronic effects such as distortion, reverb, or wah-wah.

Bass-register string instruments such as the double bass and the electric bass are amplified with bass instrument amplifiers that are designed to reproduce low-frequency sounds. To modify the tone of amplified bass instruments, a range of electronic bass effects are available, such as distortion and chorus.

See also

3rd Bridge

"Essay on the fingering of the violoncello and on the conduct of the bow"

List of string instruments

Luthier (maker of stringed instruments)

Musical acoustics

Musical instrument

String instrument extended technique

String instrument repertoire

String orchestra

Strings (music)

Vibrating string

Virtuoso!

Stringed instrument tunings

External links

The physics of the bowed string

Instruments in Depth: The Viola, an online feature presented by Bloomingdale School of Music (2010)

Name	Rachel Barton Pine
Background	non_vocal_instrumentalist
Birth name	Rachel Elizabeth Barton
Born	October 11, 1974
Origin	Chicago, Illinois, USA
Instrument	ViolinElectric violinViola d'amore
Genre	ClassicalBaroqueHeavy metal
Occupation	ViolinistNPO administrator
Years active	1981-present
Label	Cedille Records
Associated acts	Trio SettecentoEarthen Grave
Url

Rachel Barton Pine (born October 11, 1974) is a violinist from Chicago. Considered a child prodigy at the violin, she started playing at the age of 3 and a half. She played at many renowned venues through her child and teen years. She currently resides in Chicago with her husband Greg (a computer entrepreneur and former minor league baseball pitcher), tours worldwide as a soloist with prestigious orchestras, and has an active recording career.

Early life

Barton Pine began playing the violin after being inspired by the example of older girls playing at her church. She debuted with the Chicago String Ensemble at age 7, and with the Chicago Symphony under the baton of Erich Leinsdorf at age 10. Her principal teachers were Roland and Almita Vamos. Home schooling allowed her to practice 8 hours a day. At age 14 she was forced by circumstances to contribute significantly to her family's expenses by taking jobs playing at weddings and in orchestras. Explaining how she managed, she says, "I put on a lot of makeup and pretended I was older than I was." She also earned 2nd prizes in the József Szigeti Violin Competition (1992) and the International Fritz Kreisler Competition (1992), as well as awards from the Montreal International Musical Competition (1991), the Paganini Competition (1993), and the Queen Elisabeth Music Competition (1993).

Metra accident

On January 16, 1995, Barton Pine was severely injured in a train accident in the suburb of Winnetka, where she taught violin lessons. As she was exiting a Metra commuter train with her violin over her shoulder, the doors closed on the strap to her case, pinning her left shoulder to the train. The doors, which were controlled remotely and had no safety sensors, failed to open, and she was dragged 366 feet by the train before being pulled underneath and run over, severing one leg and severely mangling the other. Barton Pine was saved by the prompt application of tourniquets by several passengers who disembarked from the train after pulling its emergency brake handles. She has met and jammed with a number of these, and in 1997 released a heavy-metal-inspired CD. In Feb. 2009, she joined the thrash/doom metal band Earthen Grave, where she performs on a 6-string Viper electric violin. The band has shared the stage with such metal luminaries as Pentagram, Black Label Society, Mayhem and Nachtmystium. The group released an EP, Dismal Times. and HellrideMusic.com said "If the doom gods are with us, this band will stay around and continue to produce the kind of unique, powerful and thoughtful music contained on Dismal Times." Pine credits her experience playing in a rock band with improving her emotional rapport with her audiences.

Pine often brings a new twist to her coaching sessions with chamber music and youth orchestras, by incorporating orchestral versions of rock pieces into her sessions. For example, Pine offered the world premiere of her own arrangement of Metallica’s “Master of Puppets” with the McHenry County Youth Symphony (Crystal Lake, IL) in November 2009.

Bill McGlaughlin called her a "musical Pac-Man" for her ability to take in and perform so many different kinds of music. She has often performed at schools and on rock music radio stations in an effort to interest younger audiences in classical music.

She is an honorary member of the Sigma Alpha Iota international women's music fraternity, and gave a performance at the organization's summer 2009 45th national convention in Chicago.

Carl Fischer Music recently published a sheet music book of cadenzas and virtuosic encore pieces composed by Pine, as well as her arrangements of other works for violin and piano, as part of its Masters Collection. Pine became the first living composer and first woman to be so honored. Pine has also edited a 4-volume collection of compositions associated with America's pioneering female solo violinist Maud Powell, many of which she has also recorded.

In 2010, Rachel participated in a tribute album titled Mister Bolin’s Late Night Revival, a compilation of 17 previously unreleased tracks written by guitar legend Tommy Bolin prior to his death in 1976. The CD includes other artists such as HiFi Superstar, Doogie White, Eric Martin, Troy Luccketta, Jeff Pilson, Randy Jackson, Rex Carroll, Derek St. Holmes, Kimberley Dahme, and The 77’s. A percentage of the proceeds from this project will benefit the Jackson Recovery Centers.

Rachel Elizabeth Barton Foundation

Barton Pine started a foundation (rebf.org) bearing her maiden name in 2001 to promote the study and appreciation of classical music, including string music by black composers. It prepares music curricula on black composers, loans high-quality instruments to deserving young musicians, and provides grants to cover incidental expenses (such as for supplemental lessons, accompanists, sheet music, travel, competition entrance fees, instrument repair, and audition recordings) of students and young professional musicians. Another program, Global HeartStrings, is dedicated to supporting aspiring classical musicians from developing countries. (In this effort Barton Pine has been aided by a younger sister, Hannah Barton, also a violinist.)

In 2006, after being nominated by Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley, Barton Pine received the Studs Terkel Humanities Service Award for her work through the foundation.

Discography

Homage to Pablo de Sarasate with Samuel Sanders (piano) - Dorian Recordings, 1994: DOR-90183 George Frideric Handel: The Sonatas for Violin & Continuo with David Schrader (harpsichord) and John Mark Rozendaal (cello) - Cedille Records, 1996: CDR 90000 032 Liszt: Works for Violin and Piano with Thomas Labé (Piano) - Dorian Recordings, 1997: DOR-90251 Violin Concertos by Black Composers of the 18th and 19th Centuries with the Encore Chamber Orchestra; Daniel Hege, conductor - Cedille Records, 1997: CDR 90000 035 Stringendo: Storming the Citadel with Edgar Gabriel (violin) and Brandon Vamos (cello) - Cacophony Records, 1997 Instrument of the Devil with David Schrader (harpsichord), John Mark Rozendaal (cello) and John Bruce Yeh (clarinet) - Cedille Records, 1998: CDR 90000 041 Double Play: Twentieth Century Duos for Violin and Cello with Wendy Warner (cello) - Cedille Records, 1998: CDR 90000 047 Brahms and Joachim Violin Concertos with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra; Carlos Kalmar, conductor - Cedille Records, 2002: CDR 90000 068 Introduction, Theme, and Variations on “God Defend New Zealand” - Cacophony Records, 2002 Solo Baroque - Cedille Records, 2004: CDR 90000 078 Scottish Fantasies for Violin and Orchestra with Alasdair Fraser (fiddle) and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra; Alexander Platt, conductor - Cedille Records, 2004: CDR 90000 083 American Virtuosa: Tribute to Maud Powell with Matthew Hagle (piano) - Cedille Records, 2006: CDR 90000 097 Trio Settecento: An Italian Sojourn with David Schrader (harpsichord) and John Mark Rozendaal (baroque cello) - Cedille Records, 2007: CDR 90000 099 Beethoven & Clement Violin Concertos with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra; José Serebrier, conductor - Cedille Records, 2008: CDR 90000 106 Earthen Grave: Dismal Times with Mark Weiner (vocals), Tony Spillman (guitar), Jason Muxlow (guitar), Ron Holzner (bass, vocals) and Scott Davidson (drums) - 2009 Trio Settecento: A German Bouquet with David Schrader (harpsichord and organ) and John Mark Rozendaal (viola da gamba and baroque cello) - Cedille Records, 2009: CDR 90000 114

References

External links

Rachel Barton Pine's tour dates

Rachel Barton Pine's classical music podcast site

Rachel Barton Pine's heavy metal podcast site

Rachel Elizabeth Barton Foundation

Rachel Barton Pine's Flickr photo page

Trio Settecento's web site

Earthen Grave's MySpace page

Rachel Barton Pine's blog at Violinist.Com

Violinist.Com interviews: 2008-07-29, 2009-09-08, 2010-11-30

Interview on the Beethoven/Clement CD 2008-09-09

Category:1974 births Category:Living people Category:Prize-winners of the International Bach Competition Category:Musicians from Chicago, Illinois Category:American music educators Category:American violinists Category:American classical violinists

, 2008]] Krzysztof Penderecki (, born November 23, 1933 in Dębica) is a Polish composer and conductor. His 1960 avant-garde Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima for string orchestra brought him to international attention, and this success was followed by acclaim for his choral St. Luke Passion. Both these works exhibit novel compositional techniques. Since the 1970s Penderecki's style has changed to encompass a post-Romantic idiom.

He has won prestigious awards including Grammy Awards in 1987 and 1998 and 2001, and the Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition in 1992.

As well as the works already mentioned, his compositions include four operas, eight symphonies and other orchestral pieces, a variety of instrumental concertos, choral settings of mainly religious texts, as well as chamber and instrumental works.

Career

Early years

After taking private composition lessons with Franciszek Skolyszewski, Penderecki studied music at Jagiellonian University and the Academy of Music in Kraków under Artur Malawski and Stanislaw Wiechowicz. Having graduated in 1958, he took up a teaching post at the Academy. Penderecki's early works show the influence of Anton Webern and Pierre Boulez (he has also been influenced by Igor Stravinsky). Penderecki's international recognition began in 1959 at the Warsaw Autumn with the premieres of the works Strophen, Psalms of David, and Emanations, but the piece that truly brought him to international attention was Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima (see threnody and atomic bombing of Hiroshima), written for 52 string instruments. In it, Penderecki makes use of extended instrumental techniques (for example, playing on the "wrong" side of the bridge, bowing on the tailpiece). There are many novel textures in the work, which makes great use of tone clusters. He originally titled the work 8' 37", but decided to dedicate it to the victims of Hiroshima.

Fluorescences followed a year later; it increases the orchestral density with more wind and brass, and an enormous percussion section of 32 instruments for six players including a Mexican güiro, typewriters, gongs and other unusual instruments. The piece was composed for the Donaueschingen Festival of contemporary music of 1962, and its performance was regarded as provocative and controversial. Penderecki's intentions at this stage were quite Cagean: 'All I'm interested in is liberating sound beyond all tradition'. This preoccupation with sound culminated in De Natura Sonoris I, which frequently calls upon the orchestra to use non-standard playing techniques to produce original sounds and colours. A sequel, De Natura Sonoris II, was composed in 1971: with its more limited orchestra, it incorporates more elements of post-Romanticism than its predecessor. This foreshadowed Penderecki's renunciation of the avant-garde in the mid-1970s, although both pieces feature dramatic glissandos, dense clusters, and a use of harmonics, and unusual instruments (the musical saw features in the second piece).

The St. Luke Passion

The large-scale St. Luke Passion (1963–66) brought Penderecki further popular acclaim, not least because it was devoutly religious, yet written in an avant-garde musical language, composed within Communist Eastern Europe. Western audiences saw it as a snub to the Soviet authorities. Various different musical styles can be seen in the piece. The experimental textures, such as were seen in the Threnody, are balanced by the work's Baroque form and the occasional use of more traditional harmonic and melodic writing. Penderecki makes use of serialism in this piece, and one of the tone rows he uses includes the BACH motif, which acts as a bridge between the conventional and more experimental elements. The Stabat Mater section towards the end of the piece concludes on a simple major chord of D major, and this gesture is repeated at the very end of the work, which finishes on a triumphant E major chord. These are the only tonal harmonies in the work, and both come as a surprise to the listener; Penderecki's use of tonal triads such as these remains a controversial aspect of the work.

Penderecki continued to write pieces that explored the sacred in music. In the early 1970s he wrote a Dies Irae, a version of the Magnificat, and Canticum Canticorum, a song of songs for chorus and orchestra. Penderecki's style began to change. The Violin Concerto No. 1 largely leaves behind the dense tone clusters with which he had been associated, and instead focuses on two melodic intervals: the semitone and the tritone. Some commentators compared this new direction to Anton Bruckner. This direction continued with the Symphony No. 2, Christmas (1980), which is harmonically and melodically quite straightforward. It makes frequent use of the tune of the Christmas carol Silent Night.

Penderecki explained this shift by stating that he had come to feel that the experimentation of the avant-garde had gone too far from the expressive, non-formal qualities of Western music: 'The avant-garde gave one an illusion of universalism. The musical world of Stockhausen, Nono, Boulez and Cage was for us, the young - hemmed in by the aesthetics of socialist realism, then the official canon in our country - a liberation...I was quick to realise however, that this novelty, this experimentation and formal speculation, is more destructive than constructive; I realised the Utopian quality of its Promethean tone'. Penderecki concluded that he was 'saved from the avant-garde snare of formalism by a return to tradition'. In celebration of his 75th birthday he conducted three of his works at the Rheingau Musik Festival in 2008, among them Ciaccona from the Polish Requiem.

In 2001, Penderecki's Credo received the Grammy Award for best choral performance for the world-premiere recording made by the Oregon Bach Festival, which commissioned the piece. The same year, Penderecki was awarded with the Prince of Asturias Prize in Spain, one of the highest honours given in Spain to individuals, entities, organizations or others from around the world who make notable achievements in the sciences, arts, humanities, or public affairs. Invited by Walter Fink, he was the eleventh composer featured in the annual Komponistenporträt of the Rheingau Musik Festival in 2001. Penderecki received an honorary doctorate from the Seoul National University, Korea in 2005, as well as from the University of Münster, Germany in 2006. His notable students include Chester Biscardi and Walter Mays.

Penderecki has three children, a daughter from his first marriage, and a son and daughter with his current wife, Ezbieta Solecka, whom he married in 1965.

Work

Penderecki's compositions include operas, symphonies, choral works, as well as chamber and instrumental music.

Use

Some of Penderecki's music has been adapted for film soundtracks. The Shining (1980) features six pieces of Penderecki's music: Utrenja II: Ewangelia, Utrenja II: Kanon Paschy, The Awakening of Jacob, De Natura Sonoris No. 1, De Natura Sonoris No. 2 and Polymorphia. The Exorcist (1973) features Polymorphia as well as his String Quartet and Kanon For Orchestra and Tape; fragments of the Cello Concerto and The Devils of Loudun are also used in the film. Writing about The Exorcist, the film critic for The New Republic wrote "even the music is faultless, most of it by Krzysztof Penderecki, who at last is where he belongs." David Lynch has used Penderecki's music in the soundtracks of the movies Wild at Heart (1990) and Inland Empire (2006). Penderecki's piece, Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima, was also used during one of the final sequences in the film Children of Men. Penderecki composed music for Andrzej Wajda's 2007 film Katyń, while Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island featured his Symphony No. 3 and Fluorescences.

References

Sources

Penderecki, Krzysztof by Adrian Thomas, in 'The New Grove Dictionary of Opera', ed. Stanley Sadie (London, 1992) ISBN 0-333-73432-7

External links

Penderecki's official home page (in Polish)

Penderecki page at the Polish Music Center (last updated 2001)

Penderecki homepage maintained by Schott Music publishers (German/English)

Krzysztof Penderecki interview by Bruce Duffie (March 2000)

Sheet Music - 3 Miniatures For Clarinet with Piano (1956). Krzysztof Penderecki

Category:1933 births Category:20th-century classical composers Category:21st-century classical composers Category:Grawemeyer Award winners Category:Living people Category:Microtonal musicians Category:Opera composers Category:People from Dębica Category:Polish composers Category:Polish conductors (music) Category:Polish Roman Catholics Category:Yale School of Music faculty Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Members of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts Category:Honorary Members of the Royal Academy of Music Category:Polish people of Armenian descent Category:Alumni of the Academy of Music in Kraków Category:Academics of the Academy of Music in Kraków

Ellen Fullman, composer, instrument builder and performer was born in Memphis, Tennessee in 1957. She studied sculpture at the Kansas City Art Institute before heading to New York in the early 1980s. In Kansas City she created and performed in an amplified metal sound-producing skirt and wrote art-songs which she recorded in New York for a small cassette label. In 1981, at her studio in Brooklyn she began developing her major project, the 70 foot (21 meter) Long String Instrument, in which rosin-coated fingers brush across dozens of metallic strings, producing a chorus of minimal organ-like partials which has been compared to the experience of standing inside an enormous grand piano. She has recorded extensively with this unusual instrument and has collaborated with such luminary figures as composer Pauline Oliveros, choreographer Deborah Hay, the Kronos Quartet, and Francis-Marie Uitti. She has been the recipient of numerous awards, commissions and residencies including: a McKnight Visiting Composer Residency from American Composers Forum (2010), Artist-In-Residence, Headlands Center for the Arts (2008); Center for Cultural Innovation Investing in Artists Grant (2008); Japan/U.S. Friendship Commission/NEA Fellowship for Japan (2007); DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Program residency (2000); Artist Trust/Washington State Arts Commission Fellowship (1999); and Meet the Composer, Reader’s Digest Consortium Commission (1993). Her recent performance with Austin New Music Co-op at the Seaholm Power Plant was given a Critic’s Table Award for Best Chamber Performance, 2009-2010. Fullman has performed in numerous festivals, art spaces and museums including: New Albion at Bard SummerScape, a Norway tour presented by NY Musik, Instal, Glasgow, Lincoln Center Out of Doors, Festival van Vlaanderen, Brussels, Künstlerhaus Stuttgart, Other Minds, San Francisco, Romanische Sommer Köln, Columbia University, Donaueschinger Musiktage, Walker Art Center, ISCM World Music Days, and New Music America 1980, 1984 and 1986. Her music has been represented in exhibits including: The American Century; Art and Culture, 1950-2000, Whitney Museum of American Art; Listening, Pompidou Center (2004); and Volume: Bed of Sound, P.S.1 (2000). A documentary film on her work directed by Peter Esmonde, 5 variations on a long string, is currently making the film festival rounds. Using archival footage, Fullman edited Suspended Music, a documentary film on her collaboration with Deep Listening Band which premiered at the Pacific Film Archive, UC Berkeley (2004). Fullman wrote an article on her work for MusikTexte (Cologne 2002), subsequently published in MusicWorks (Toronto 2003). She has been interviewed for NPR’s Morning Edition, the Wire and Signal to Noise. Releases include: Fluctuations, with trombonist Monique Buzzarté (Deep Listening Institute), selected as one of the top 50 recordings of 2008 by The Wire (London) and awarded an Aaron Copeland Fund for Music Recording Program Grant; Ort, recorded with Berlin collaborator Konrad Sprenger (Choose Records), selected as one of the top 50 recordings of 2004 by The Wire; Suspended Music, in collaboration with Deep Listening Band (Periplum); Change of Direction (New Albion); and Body Music (XI). Fullman’s commissioned works include: Post Futurist Reverie, for the project: Music for 16 Futurist Noise Intoners, curated by Luciano Chessa and presented by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and a piece for Trimpin’s Klavier Nonette, an installation of nine midi-controlled toy pianos. Fullman has presented numerous lectures on her work including: the Songlines series, Center for Contemporary Music, Mills College; and Improv:21 a lecture series presented by Rova:Arts, San Francisco. Forthcoming performances and projects include: Issue Project Room, Propensity of Sound series, May 22, 2010; and a split LP release with Eleh on Important Records.

External links

Ellen Fullman

Epitonic.com: Ellen Fullman featuring a track from Change of Direction

surround sound DVD

Category:1957 births Category:Living people Category:20th-century classical composers Category:21st-century classical composers Category:American composers Category:Women composers Category:People from Memphis, Tennessee Category:Sound artists Category:New Albion Records artists Category:Kansas City Art Institute alumni Category:Inventors of musical instruments Category:Experimental music

Name	Bill Mason
Birthname	William Clifford Mason
Birth date	1929
Birth place	Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Death date	October 29, 1988
Death place	Meech Lake, Canada
Baftaawards	Best Specialised Film1970 The Rise and Fall of the Great Lakes1977 ; ; ;

Bill Mason was an award-winning Canadian naturalist, author, artist, filmmaker, and conservationist, noted primarily for his popular canoeing books, films, and art as well as his documentaries on wolves. Mason was also known for including passages from Christian sermons in his films. He was born in 1929 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and graduated from the University of Manitoba School of Art in 1951. He developed and refined canoeing strokes and river-running techniques, especially for complex whitewater situations. He canoed all of his adult life, ranging widely over the wilderness areas of Canada and the United States. Called "wilderness artist," in one book about him, Mason left a legacy that includes books, films and artwork on canoeing and wild nature. He died of cancer in 1988.

Canoeing

In his review of James Raffan's 1996 biography of Mason, Michael Peake refers to Mason as "the patron saint of canoeing." To many Canadian and American Paddlers and Canoeists growing up in the 1970s and 1980s, his series of instructional films were the introduction to technique and the canoeing experience. In many ways, Bill, Joyce, Paul and Becky Mason were the "faces" of Canadian Canoeing in the '70s. Mason's good friend, filmmaker Blake James, also frequently appeared in his films.

Although he used a variety of Chestnut models in his films, including the "Pal" and the "Fort", his favourite boat was a red Chestnut Prospector, a 16 foot canvas covered wood canoe that he claimed was the most versatile design ever manufactured, in spite of the popularity of more durable and modern construction techniques and materials. After his death, this canoe was donated to the Canadian Canoe Museum in Peterborough, Ontario, where it is on display. His wife, Joyce, and children, Paul and Becky, frequently travelled with him and contributed to his later books and films, and have continued his life work and environmentalism.

Honours

Mason won several honours, including being featured on a Canadian postage stamp in 1998. After his death, a warden at Nahanni National Park Reserve informally started calling the dramatic rock spire, in the midst of Virginia Falls, "Mason's Rock". This usage appears to have become widespread, although it has not yet been made official.

Works by Bill Mason

Books

Path of the Paddle ISBN 1-55209-328-X, on the technique of Canadian style canoeing

Song of the Paddle ISBN 1-55209-089-2, on wilderness canoe travel

Canoescapes - a compilation of text and his paintings

Films

The Voyageurs (1964)

Paddle to the Sea (1966) - nominated for Best Short Film, Academy Awards 1968

The Rise and Fall of the Great Lakes (1968)

Blake (1969) - on the passion of flying, nominated Best Live Action Short Film, Academy Awards 1970

Death of a Legend (1971) - a documentary on the threats to wolves

Cry of the Wild (1972) - a film on timber and Arctic wolves

Goldwood (1974) A journey to a past family homestead on a now deserted island.

In Search of the Bowhead Whale (1974) - adventure film of a whaling expedition

Wolf Pack (1974) A short film on wolf pack interrelationships, including among wolves the Mason family kept on their own property.

Face of the Earth (1975)

Path of the Paddle (1977) - a series of films on the techniques of canoeing

Song of the Paddle (1978) - a film of one of Bill Mason's family wilderness canoeing trips

Coming Back Alive (1980) - an instructional film on recreational boating safety

Pukaskwa National Park (1983)A film covering one of Mason's favourite areas, the Pukaskwa region of Lake Superior.

The Land that Devours Ships (1984)

Waterwalker (1984) - a feature-length film of Bill Mason's journey on Lake Superior

References

Buck, K. 2005. Bill Mason: Wilderness Artist From Heart to Hand. Rocky Mountain Books. ISBN 1-894765-60-5

Mason, P. The Thrill of the Paddle ISBN 1-55209-451-0

Raffan, J. 1996. Fire in the Bones, Bill Mason and the Canadian Canoeing Tradition. Toronto: Harper Collins

References

External links

Biographical Summary

Watch Bill Mason's films in "Beyond the wild, beyond the paddle," NFB.ca

Category:1929 births Category:1988 deaths Category:BAFTA winners (people) Category:Canadian environmentalists Category:Canadian film directors Category:Canadian documentary filmmakers Category:Canadian non-fiction writers Category:People from Winnipeg Category:Cancer deaths in Quebec Category:Canadian canoeists Category:Canadian naturalists Category:People from Outaouais Category:Christian writers Category:National Film Board of Canada people