Friday, February 5, 1999

Music student composes bridge sounds

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BY TANYA ALBERT
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Michael Barnhart brought a microphone to the Suspension Bridge and turned the sounds into music. (Ernest Coleman photo) | ZOOM |

        Noises on the Roebling Suspension Bridge have always sounded like an orchestra performance to College-Conservatory of Music student Michael Barnhart.

        Now others can hear the music of everyday noises, too.

        With a computer and a day's worth of audio recordings from the Ohio River bridge, the 27-year-old doctoral student composed “As If It Had a Voice and Bones.” He started on the project in the fall.

        “It's capturing a moment in time,” said Mr. Barnhart, a Colerain Township native. “I've heard the bridge my whole life. ... I heard melodies when my family drove across it.”

ON THE WEB

To hear the piece, go to http://meowing.ccm.uc.edu and click on Projects & Music

        The 11-minutes-plus piece starts with the raw noises familiar to anyone who has driven over the 132-year-old blue bridge.

        Clanking steel.

        Buzzing tires on steel grates.

        Beeping car horns. Blaring boat horns and idling engines.

        Water lapping against the riverbanks. Vibrating cables.

        Shuffling footsteps of pedestrians walking up the bridge. A cough. A radio screaming from a boat below.

        The noises sound like an orchestra when they're blended at the end of the piece. The tire buzzing from a heavy truck provides a steady hum. A car with a higher pitch and changing speeds provides the melody. The clanking steel provides a beat.

        “Melodies are around you all the time,” said Mr. Barnhart, a second-year doctoral student in composition. “This is like putting a frame around it.”

       

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