Music On A Long Thin Wire WRITE-UP

In 1977, experimental music composer Alvin Lucier created a musical piece titled "Music On A Long Thin Wire." The set up for this piece involves a wire being extended across a large room and clamped to two tables at either end. It is there that the wires are connected to loudspeaker terminals of a power amplifier with a sine wave oscillator connected to the amp. A magnet "straddles" the wire at one of the ends while wooden bridges are put under the wire at both ends with contact microphones imbedded and then routed to the stereo system. With changes to the frequency and volume of the oscillator, the vibrations produce a variety of sounds, though Lucier admitted himself that a shorter wire would create as good, if not better, results over a longer one and that the best way to create sonic phenomena is to leave the set-up alone. Trivia note: the United States library of Congress did not allow Lucier to copywright this piece, saying that it was not a work of authored art, but rather a natural phenomenom being produced!