Tower Music (Joseph Bertolozzi)

This article is about a musical project and a companion CD. For the retail music chain, see Tower Records.

Tower Music (also known as Musique de la Tour), is a musical project and album (2016) by composer and musician Joseph Bertolozzi. The project used microphones placed on the surfaces of the Eiffel Tower to capture the sounds of the tower.[1][2] The resulting samples were used to create a musical composition using only the sounds of the tower itself, with no added digital manipulation or alteration of the sounds.

The 2016 album Tower Music (on the innova label #933), reached #11 on the iTunes Classical charts and #16 on the Billboard Classical Crossover Music chart.[3]

The precursor to the Tower Music project was Bridge Music. Not thinking he could gain access to the Eiffel Tower, Bertolozzi went about creating a composition made using only the unmodified sounds of New York's Mid-Hudson Bridge, for the Hudson-Fulton-Champlain Quadricentennial celebrations in 2009.[4] Bertolozzi used Bridge Music as a proof of concept to present to SETE, the authority that controls the Eiffel Tower.[5] By 2010, plans were underway to attempt field recording and a live performance on the Eiffel Tower.[6][7]

After a formal meeting with SETE in November 2010, the project was approved in March 2011.[8] In January 2013, Bertolozzi met with Eiffel Tower officials and reviewed what areas would be appropriate to record audio samples.[9] Field recording of samples took place May 27[10] through June 7, 2013.[11] Bertolozzi next reviewed, cataloged and edited each sample.[12][13] The process of writing the final composition began in February 2014 and went until October 2014.[14] After finalizing a computerized version of the musical composition, work began on a recorded album of Tower Music. Preliminary mixing beginning in April 2015, with Paul Kozel at the Sonic Arts Center at the City College of New York.[15][16] The album was released on April 29, 2016, on the innova label.[17]

References

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  1. ^ "Eiffel Tower used as musical instrument by Joseph Bertolozzi". The Guardian. 8 June 2013.
  2. ^ "Eiffel Tower: The True Sound of Heavy Metal". USA Today. 12 June 2013.
  3. ^ "Classical Crossover Albums : May 14, 2016 | Billboard Chart Archive". Billboard. Retrieved 2017-07-13.
  4. ^ "HV composer uses sounds from Mid-Hudson Bridge". News 12. News 12 New York. 15 August 2015.
  5. ^ Bertolozzi, Joseph (April 19, 2011). "Revving the engines".
  6. ^ Wakin, Daniel J. "New York Times ArtsBeat Blog (8 July 2010). "After Music From a Bridge, Why Not a Tower?"". Artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com. Retrieved 2012-11-24.
  7. ^ "That Instrument Known as the Eiffel Tower -- 'Tower Music,' From Eiffel Tower, by Joseph Bertolozzi". The New York Times. 4 June 2013.
  8. ^ Wakin, Daniel J. (5 April 2011). "Composer's Eiffel Tower Plan Is Approved". The New York Times.
  9. ^ Bertolozzi, Joseph (January 12, 2013). "CLOSING IN ON TOWER MUSIC - Day 2, pt.1".
  10. ^ Cotton, Johnny (7 June 2013). "Eiffel Tower becomes musical tool for New York composer". Reuters.[dead link]
  11. ^ "BACK IN THE USA". Joseph Bertolozzi. Retrieved 2015-10-31.
  12. ^ Bertolozzi, Joseph (November 22, 2013). "THE SOUNDS OF THE EIFFEL TOWER HAVE BEEN CATALOGED!".
  13. ^ "BUILDING THE EIFFEL TOWER VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT - Joseph Bertolozzi".
  14. ^ Bertolozzi, Joseph (October 23, 2014). "TOWER MUSIC COMPLETE!".
  15. ^ Bertolozzi, Joseph (December 1, 2014). "TOWER MUSIC ALBUM DRAWS NEARER".
  16. ^ Bertolozzi, Joseph (April 13, 2015). "FIRST MIXES OF TOWER MUSIC".
  17. ^ "Tower Music / Musique de la Tour | Innova Recordings". www.innova.mu.
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