155. graphic score week #3. light it up

Graphic scores week entry #3; getting all 3D and crossing into "installation" territory a bit. Today demonstrates how an interesting idea can be unexpectedly problematic in execution. The idea: make a mobile of lit birthday candles hanging from some free-moving twigs; let the candle wax fall on a sheet of aluminum foil below; make a piece incorporating both the sounds of wax falling on foil (spread over a deep cookie sheet for resonance) and playing of sounds that use the wax on foil as a score.

In some ways, this was pretty neat; the sounds of wax dripping and hissing and things burning were pretty compelling, and the drips were colorful and spread into neat patterns; however, with Mobile Version #1, the flames burned through the strings holding the candles in about two minutes (in the picture, you see the resulting piles of fallen candles mixed with drips). Oops. Mobile #2, using chicken wire instead of string, lasted quite a bit longer, but ultimately the candles melted and fell to the ground (still burning, sometimes) as well.

If you're concerned (MOM), nothing was set on fire or damaged, except for a few drips of wax in my hair. Anyway, the idea was a two-part piece that contributes sound not only from its use as score-object that players respond to, but from its own creation.