Laurie Anderson’s Self-Playing Violin from 1974 contained a speaker and amplifier inside the instrument. A prerecorded violin part played from the body while Anderson could perform another part live on the strings.
One violin effectively contained two performers.
That idea seems simple now because looping is everywhere. A pedal can record a phrase in seconds and immediately turn one musician into an ensemble.
Anderson’s instrument feels different because the playback system is physically embedded inside the object that originally produced the sound.
The violin appears to remember itself.
She later used the instrument in Duets on Ice, a performance in which she stood on ice skates frozen into blocks of ice and continued performing until the ice melted enough that she lost her balance.
Time was therefore not only musical.
It was physical.
The concert duration was determined by temperature.
I like how several systems meet here: recorded loop, live performance, instrument design, body weight and melting ice.
None is simply decoration.
The technology creates a duet.
The ice creates the clock.
The performer exists between both.
It is the kind of work that makes the boundary between music and visual art feel completely unnecessary.
https://www.nonesuch.com/artists/laurie-anderson
#LaurieAnderson #PerformanceArt #ExperimentalMusic #InventedInstruments
