One Man’s Trash is Another Man’s Instrument

Musical innovation, like that of John Cage and Frank Zappa, continues on.

Members of the New York Philharmonic gathered in a Staten Island scrap yard this week. Their intention was not to perform; rather, they were on the hunt for metallic items to be used as instruments. The excavation is being conducted for Magnus Lindberg’s piece, “Kraft.” As part of the piece’s 25 year tradition, the “instruments” must be discovered near the performance’s location (in this case, Lincoln Center). This makes each performance (around two dozen already) quite unique.

The process is harder than it looks. It can be frustrating when the composer cannot find the right timbre that he/she is looking for. A scouting for the perfect sound may take several hours, or several days. In Lindberg’s case, he prefers dry and metallic sounds to reflect his mental image of city development and traffic.

Of course, this type of instrumentation is not completely innovative. For example, we saw Michael Gordon’s “Timber” performed on slabs of wood last month. However, it is the exploration and discovery of new tones and colors that makes such an idea so exciting. Each piece of music composed in this way pushes the musical frontier even further.

This piece will be performed in Avery Fisher Hall on Thursday and Friday and on October 12. I’m looking into going on the 12th. Anyone else interested, as an individual outing?

A visual of the New York Times article is posted below.