Katie Paterson's brilliant work Earth-Moon-Earth, shown here at Toronto's Power Plant in 2009, was an imperfect variation of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata. The musical score was sent, via radio transmission in the form of Morse code, from earth, reflected from the surface of the moon, and then received back on earth. Since the moon reflected only part of the information back – some was absorbed in its shadows - fragmented signals were returned to earth. The gaps and absences in the re-translated score became intervals and rests. The melancholic new "moon–altered" score was played on a self-playing grand piano.
Tuesday, 10 April 2012
Earth-Moon-Earth
Katie Paterson's brilliant work Earth-Moon-Earth, shown here at Toronto's Power Plant in 2009, was an imperfect variation of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata. The musical score was sent, via radio transmission in the form of Morse code, from earth, reflected from the surface of the moon, and then received back on earth. Since the moon reflected only part of the information back – some was absorbed in its shadows - fragmented signals were returned to earth. The gaps and absences in the re-translated score became intervals and rests. The melancholic new "moon–altered" score was played on a self-playing grand piano.
