A Compositional Approach
Derived from Material and
Ephemeral Elements

Ellen Fullman

coffee cans with large metal mix-
ing bowls filled with water and
rubbed the wires with my hands,
tipping the bowl to modulate the
sound. I wanted to be able to tune
the wire, but changing the tension
did nothing. I knew I needed help
from an engineer. At the time I was
listening with great interest to Pau-
line Oliveros’s album Accordion and
Voice. I could imagine making mu-
sic with this kind of timbre, playing

Fig. 1. Metal Skirt Sound Sculpture, 1980.
(© Ellen Fullman. Photo © Ann Marsden.)

A B S T R A C T

The author discusses her

experiences in conceiving,
designing and working with
the Long String Instrument,
an ongoing hybrid of installa-
tion and instrument integrat-
ing acoustics, engineering
and composition.

My primary artistic activity has been focused

around my installation the Long String Instrument, in which
rosin-coated fingers brush across dozens of metallic strings,
producing a chorus of minimal, organ-like overtones, Quale
has been compared to the experience of standing inside an
enormous grand piano [1].

BACKGROUND
In 1979, during my senior year studying sculpture at the Kan-
sas City Art Institute, I became interested in working with
sound in a concrete way using tape-recording techniques. Questo
work functioned as soundtracks for my performance art. I also
created a metal skirt sound sculpture, a costume that I wore
in which guitar strings attached to the toes and heels of my
platform shoes and to the edges of the “skirt” automatically
produced rising and falling glissandi as they were stretched
and released as I walked (Fig. 1). A contact microphone on
the skirt amplified the sound through a Pignose portable amp
I carried over my shoulder like a purse. I was fascinated by the
aesthetics of the Judson Dance Theater [2] in their incorpora-
tion of everyday movements into performance, and this piece
was an expression of that idea; the only thing required for
me to do was walk. Upon graduation I moved to Minneapolis-
St. Paul, where I continued working with extended tape-
recording techniques through classes I took at Film in the
Cities, a nonprofit media lab and gallery. I was naively unaware
that there might be a context for my work that was between
visual art and music. Suddenly I found myself right at home
when the New Music America festival came to the Walker Art
Center in 1980. Film in the Cities presented my metal skirt
performance as a satellite event of the festival. I met many
people there who continue to be important to me. Alvin Lu-
cier’s Music on a Long Thin Wire was installed for the festival.
This inspired me to explore working with long wires.

My first long wire installation used the idea of a child’s cup-
and-string “telephone.” In my warehouse loft, I strung piano
wire attached to coffee cans and suspended these with springs
to each wall. I bowed the wire and sang into the cans as a way
to acoustically filter my voice. One day I accidentally bumped
against the wire where my bowing had left a deposit of rosin
and discovered a very pure and loud sound. I replaced the

Ellen Fullman (artist, composer), 2430 Fifth Street, Unit N, Berkeley, CA 94710, U.S.A.
E-mail: .

Supplemental materials such as audio files related to this article are available at .

© 2012 ISAST

LEONARDO MUSIC JOURNAL, Vol. 22, pag. 3–10, 2012 3

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Fig. 2. First working installation of the Long String Instrument at the Terminal New York show,
1983. (Photo © Sarah Drury)

the wave divided by the frequency, we
could calculate the length at which to
stop the string. We decided that I needed
to build a wooden resonator box to am-
plify the strings acoustically. A group of
Williamsburg artists organized a 600-
artist exhibit, Terminal New York, in the
Brooklyn Army Terminal in Red Hook in
1983 (Fig. 2). I used this space to con-
struct my first Long String Instrument with
an acoustic resonator and worked there
during the run of the exhibit.

MATERIAL ELEMENTS
Wooden box resonators are mounted
at one end, con 22 strings terminating
at each resonator soundboard. Strings
extend to another fixed point across
the room and are tensioned using harp
pins in tuning blocks. The instrument is
played by “bowing” with rosined finger-
tips while walking. Performers walk in
pathways between two resonators with
strings suspended at waist height. Enor-
mous lengths are required when strings
are excited in the longitudinal mode or
played by bowing lengthwise. They are
tuned using mathematical ratios, or just
intonation, and their pitch range is de-
termined by length: A4 (440 Hz) spans 8
meters in length. Every octave lower re-
quires a doubling of length. Installations
thus far have ranged from 50 A 300 feet.
A uniquely designed capo on each wire
changes the vibrating string length much
like a capo on a guitar.

Even though, in the longitudinal
mode, string length is the only factor de-

instruments employ. In the longitudinal
mode, a compression wave travels back
and forth from end to end at a consis-
tent speed. Length and composition
of the metal, not gauge or tension, are
the only factors in determining pitch
in the longitudinal mode. The thinnest
string will sound at the same frequency
as a thick rod at the same length if both
are made of the same alloy. Waves travel
more slowly through dense materials,
and the slower the wave, the lower the
frequency produced at any given length.
Bob told me that by using the speed of

Fig. 3. Double-sided resonator frame with soundboard. (Photo © Ellen Fullman)

chords with many strings. I was invited
to perform at the Kitchen in 1981 E
moved to New York City. It was here that
I met Arnold Dreyblatt at a concert at
Phill Niblock’s loft. Arnold invited me
to his studio, where he demonstrated
his instruments, the Miniature Princess
Pianoforte and the miniature Portative
Pipe Organ, and showed me his numeri-
cally based tuning system and scores.
The acoustic sound, the weird-sounding
tuning, the quirky rhythmic structure—it
was a shock to suddenly find something
so appealing and evolved. This was the
kind of world I wanted to be in; I only
needed to find technical information to
develop my idea. Then Arnold told me,
“You know this long string thing has been
done before. . . .” He played one of Terry
Fox’s albums. My first response was disap-
pointment that it had been done before,
and I wondered if I should quit. When
I thought about it, Tuttavia, I realized
that what I had in mind was very differ-
ent from Fox’s work.

Arnold arranged a meeting with Bob
Bielecki at Niblock’s loft, where I had my
installation set up while Phill was out of
town for the summer. Bob brought The
Handbook of Physics, some brass wire and
a vise grip. He clipped the vise grip to
one of my strings and it changed the tun-
ing. We suspended a brass string and it
put out a lower frequency. Bob showed
me a chart in the handbook that showed
the speeds of longitudinal waves through
various metals. The longitudinal mode is
set into motion through bowing a wire
lengthwise, as opposed to the transverse
mode of vibration that all other string

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my departure from New York in 1985. IO
could not afford studio space for my in-
strument and furthermore I was working
full time as a technician at a recording
studio in midtown that specialized in ad-
vertising jingles, which I found to be de-
pressing. During this time my apartment
was brutally broken into, twice; the door
was smashed to pieces and all my equip-
ment was stolen. Then Deborah Hay
invited me to collaborate with her on a
project in Austin, Texas. I went to Austin
only for the project and never went back.
Deborah’s assistant found a free studio
for me in an empty unfinished office
tower that I was able to use for 4 years. IO
missed the excitement and international
connections of New York, but it was also
a relief to just focus in and listen to what
this instrument wanted to do without any
career pressure.

From 1986 through 1993, I worked
with Stephen Wise in Austin on resona-
tor design. Whenever I received funding
I was able to commission another experi-
ment. Stephen is an engineer turned
instrument builder with a very creative
and experimental approach. I had made
my own resonators up to this point, first
out of plywood and finally with a spruce
top. I had the grain running in the wrong
direction, Tuttavia, and it split. Stephen
based his soundboard design on a harp,
with a mahogany bridge running down
the middle of the plate and the spruce
grain running perpendicular thereto.
The top and bottom edges of the board
are tapered. Tapered edges function like

Fig. 4. Brass capo. (© Ellen Fullman. CAD drawing © Rob Dennis, REM Design.)

termining pitch, I tension the instrument
just under the breaking point in order to
maximize resonance. The use of various
metals and alloys not only changes the
tuning but changes the timbral quality
anche. Finer gauges produce less surface
noise and output more pure tone when
bowed, because it takes less energy or
pressure to get the string to speak. When
I first started working with long wires I
used steel piano wire. Recentemente, I have
started using stainless steel and, because
it is stronger than piano wire, I have been
able to reduce the gauge from .0135 inch
A .009 inch. Stainless steel has a muted
quality that I find to be more “musical”

than steel piano wire. I also work with
phosphor bronze, which gives an interval
of about a fourth lower than a stainless
steel string of the same length. Bronze is
a proven musical material, used on the
sitar and tambura; the overtone spec-
trum is round and beautiful in the lower
ranges. I sometimes use brass string when
working within the limitations of a par-
ticular room length. The same length of
brass is about a minor second lower than
bronze. Brass wire is harder to excite and
lacks a full upper partial spectrum but,
when played with other related pitches,
can give a bottom end to the sound.

Several events came together to spur

Fig. 5. Spectrum analysis of the frequency A 220 played by bowed cello (white) and Long String Instrument bronze wire (grigio). Shown is the
range from 9k to 43k. In the lower range of the spectrum both sources look very similar. In the high-frequency range, bowed cello drops off
into noise at about 27k; bronze wire still contains some even spikes up to 40k. Sample rate used was 88.2 using a B&K 4011 microphone.
(© Ellen Fullman)

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Fullman, A Compositional Approach 5

Fig. 6. Graphic representation of the nodal points of strings tuned to an overtone series chord of 1, 3, 5, 7 E 9, based on a fundamental
of A 220, using phosphor bronze wire. The vibrating string length of each wire is shown in reference to the circled numbers that represent
meters in length. The fi rst octave nodes are drawn the tallest, mid-high spikes are the octave above and the smallest spikes are an octave
above that. For clarity’s sake, only the fi rst few partials and fi rst three octaves are shown; reality extends out much higher. (© Ellen Fullman)

a hinge for the heavier, loaded bridge,
increasing resonance. Soundboards
sound best when tensioned just under
the breaking point. Our problem was
knowing what that breaking point was.
I installed a set of two new resonator
boards that seemed fi ne, but several days
later I found that they had exploded on
the fl oor. Since there was no precedent
for this work, Stephen had to push the
limit, using educated guesses to obtain
the best sound possible. Working with
Stephen’s resonators gave me a more re-
fi ned timbre, a more musical tone. Noi
experimented with proportions, based
on the limits of my arm reach and con-
siderations for traveling. One brilliant

contribution that Stephen made was to
keep the soundboard itself loose from
the resonator so that it could expand
and contract freely in extreme weather
conditions. The resonator box itself is
just a plywood box with a hardwood lip
that the soundboard pushes against un-
der string tension. I came up with the
idea of double-sided resonators to more
effi ciently use a given room length for
upper register strings. Fortunately, Questo
sounded fi ne. In this case the resonator
box is just a frame into which two sound-
boards fi t (Fig. 3). I am sure there is more
to discover in resonator design. Tuttavia,
I have been well satisfi ed with the sound
from these resonators and have since

focused my attention and resources on
other aspects.

With funding from the Center for Cul-
tural Innovation in 2009, I worked with
REM Design and Keith Carey to redesign
the capos used to tune my instrument.
For many years, I used off-the-shelf c-
clamps. I wanted something more com-
pact and less likely to become entangled
in adjacent strings while the instrument
is being played. I had hoped to reduce
the weight of the capo for the sake of
traveling but found the tone to be “fuzzy”
at any less than 2.5 ounces, the weight of
the 1-inch standard c-clamp. My guess is
that without a certain amount of weight,
the energy of the wave pushes through

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I hear it. Subjectively speaking, the dif-
ference in timbre that I hear is like the
difference between a sensation of jagged
shards of glass sticking into my ears and a
feeling that the sound has plasticity and
can be molded with my fingertips into
undulating shapes, like a string of beads.
I first experienced this roundness
in timbre in the late 1990s while living
in Seattle, where I was surrounded by
musicians—improvising musicians, musi-
cians who practiced. As a composer, I did a
lot of thinking and planning. I wondered
what would happen if I practiced more.
My solution to the high cost of renting a

large studio space in Seattle was to work
full time as a graphic designer. This job
left me with little mental energy for com-
posing, so I decided to commit myself to
playing every evening: even to play only
one chord continuously. I should preface
this with the fact that I came to Seattle
after studying North Indian vocal music
for 4 years with Anita Slawek in Austin.
Anita could bring so much beauty into
singing just one note that it brought tears
to my eyes. Working with her taught me
to slow down and focus in, with more pa-
tience. She told me, “When you are really
in tune, the music plays itself.” Now if I

Fig. 8. Travis Weller (left) and Nick Hennies playing box bow at Seaholm Power Plant,
Austin, Texas, 2010. (Photo © Craig Washburn)

Fig. 7. Box bows. (Photo © Ellen Fullman)

the capo. We tested six prototype designs,
including a spring-loaded one based on
the clothespin and a design based on
an X-Acto knife handle, where a slot is
closed down by a horizontally rotating
knurled collar. None of these creations
gripped the wire hard enough to give
as clear a sound as the c-clamp. We de-
termined that a rotating handle needed
to be as long as the one on a c-clamp in
order to achieve the necessary amount
of torque. After a year of prototyping, UN
final design was arrived at and put into
production. This design uses a vertically
rotating handle on a threaded post that,
when fully tensioned, can be positioned
to align with the closing plates into one
streamlined unit (Fig. 4). We found that
a capo made of brass gave more body
or weight to the coloration of the tone,
creating a sound that I preferred. Expe-
riencing this has made me hyper-aware
of musical resonance as a system of com-
ponents, where the design and consider-
ation of every element in the instrument
construction has an effect on the music.

EPHEMERAL ELEMENTS
I have discovered an optimal bowing
speed in which strings speak most clearly
in the longitudinal mode, based presum-
ably on a relationship to the speed of the
wave moving through the material, Quale
in turn regulates the pace of the walking
performer. As a performer, I find that it
takes me time warming up to synchronize
with this speed—anywhere from 10 min-
utes to an hour. I really cannot pinpoint
the exact speed; Tuttavia, I know it when

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Fullman, A Compositional Approach 7

Fig. 9. Event Locations No. 2, notation, 2009. Note values are expressed numerically—either as single numbers generated off the overtone
series of F or as ratios based on A. Bracketed groups are to be played by one hand, from either the left or right bank of strings. Vertical lines
separate chord changes. Diagonal lines direct the performer’s movement either closer to or further from the resonator. Circled numbers
reference those placed on the fl oor under the strings at every meter. Graphic icons indicate articulation. (© Ellen Fullman)

feel something is not working I stop and
tune, and I fi nd it always helps. Over the
years of working with Anita, I witnessed
the resonance in my voice grow through
a commitment to practice, practicing
even when I was not pleased with how
my voice sounded. Practicing on my in-
strument and with no tradition to follow,
I discovered a new sound.

When measuring the waveform pro-
duced by the Long String Instrument using
a spectrum analyzer, it can be seen that
every upper partial of the fundamental
tone is represented strongly up through
Di 35,000 Hz (Fig. 5). Just intona-
zione, a natural tuning system generated
off the overtone series, lends itself to a
contemplation of precise alignments of
resultant relationships among the upper
partial tones. In 2003 my precision in
tuning took a giant leap forward when
Jörg Hiller introduced me to Peterson
strobe tuners, with precision to the tenth
of a cent. (In equal temperament, a cent
È 1/100 of a half-step.) I admit I am un-
able to discern 1/1000 of a half-step, Ma
I am able to sense alignments of partials
when playing a chord—and walking.
When the tuning is really clean, it is as if I
am running a giant mechanically geared

clock, each string like an individual gear
of larger or smaller diameter, rotating at
its own rate in relationship to the other
gears in an overarching system that is
aligned to eventually repeat.

COMPOSITIONAL APPROACH
In the late 1980s, I conceived of a graphic
notation format in which timing and co-
ordination of parts are determined by
distance walked. This system still func-
tions as the basis for scoring my work to-
day. Numbers placed on the fl oor under
the suspended strings at metric intervals
are used as reference points indicated in
the score. Transitions can be coordinated
based on the time it takes to arrive at
predetermined locations, thereby “cho-
reographing” repeatable events to occur
at specifi c locations. My notation func-
tions like a roadmap for the performer,
aligning musical events in time and space
to coincide with specifi c upper partial
content. Strings vibrate in mathematical
subdivisions of the total string length,
simultaneously vibrating in multiple
modes at once. The performer’s rosin-
coated fingertips pass through these
subdivisions or nodal points unfolding

in a cascading spectrum, dampening the
string and sounding partials associated
with each passing location (Fig. 6).

My process of composing has been
infl uenced by experiencing this instru-
ment as an acoustic feedback system. IO
have observed that the upper partial
spectrum of strings being played can be
highly infl uenced through sympathetic
resonances. With an introduction of a
new tone into an existing chord, either
from another instrument or on the Long
String Instrument, previously unheard par-
tials can be triggered to sound, and con-
tinue to sound, even when the triggering
tone is no longer playing. Like puffs of
wind blowing at a candle fl ame, the in-
strument responds fl uidly to manipu-
lation and then rights itself into a new
alignment of overtone projection. Dopo
seeing the spectrum analysis of the Long
String Instrument, this does seem possible;
since every partial is represented, there
must be frequencies closely aligned to
any pitch (see Fig. 5).

I have the sense that my instrument is
an open system, responsive to frequen-
cies being played by other musicians and
by the resonance of the room itself. When
another musician’s sound reinforces my

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tuning, I can even feel a buzzing energy
driving my strings to resonate using very
little pressure from my fingertips. A dead
room is very unflattering to the sound of
my instrument. The Long String Instrument
is complemented by a resonant room,
unlike a cello, Per esempio, which has a
self-contained resonance and beauty of
tone within its own body that a resonant
room merely enhances. The artifacts that
my instrument produces are at the core
of my work. I find myself feeling lost in a
dead room; I do not know how to move.
It is as if my instrument itself has disap-
peared like a phantom, because I think I
am actually playing the resonance of the
room. What may seem so difficult for me
to pin down as an artist is actually measur-
able and can be defined. I am sure that a
system can be designed to give me more
reliability in my performing environment
through sound reinforcement or even
through defining audience proximity to
the resonators.

From the beginning, I have wanted
to create a variety of techniques for the

Long String Instrument to be played by en-
semble. I have explored rhythmic tech-
niques for many years but have never felt
them to be successful until I designed the
box bow tool on my Deutscher Akade-
mischer Austauschdienst residency in
Berlin in 2001. The box bow, homage
to the harmonica, is a hand-held, hollow
wooden box made of Sitka spruce with
a curved lower surface. I made a rough
prototype and then worked with Berlin
instrument builder Stefan Beck to build
them (Fig. 7). Just as a violin bow can
affect the timbre of the violin, I feel that
the material, design and resonance of the
box bow affect the timbre of my instru-
ment. Techniques based on hand drum-
ming inform the articulations of this
tool used to strike groupings of strings
tuned to chords. My Memphis roots hold
a strong influence on my musical taste,
and I have always wanted to embrace
sounds from folk music in my composi-
zione. With the box bow, I have satisfied
this desire while exploring more abstract
concepts at the same time. I found that I

am even able to achieve the wind-blown,
vowel-like vocalization of the harmonica
when the three string chordal groupings
are tuned to fundamental, fifth and oc-
tave. Thus far I have defined nine distinct
articulations with the tool, represented
by graphic icons in my notation. In my
piece Through Glass Panes (2010), various
combinations of these articulations are
used in repeated phrases and juxtaposed
to form hocketed patterns. Two box bow
performers play standing face-to-face at
a double-sided resonator (Fig. 8).

This instrument has functioned as
my personal music school. As I have ab-
sorbed musical concepts, my music has
changed. In my earliest pieces I worked
with an ensemble playing walking drone
parts on my instrument. At the time the
only way I knew how to get the strings to
speak well was to play full-on as loud as
possible, keeping the tonal content sim-
ple and including a lot of doubling up
in the parts. In retrospect I can see that I
used these approaches to achieve more
resonance. As time went on, I became

Fig. 10. Ellen Fullman performing with Okkyung Lee at Muziekgebouw, Sonic Acts Festival, Amsterdam, 2012. (Photo © Bernd Wendt)

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Fullman, A Compositional Approach 9

dissatisfied with the lack of articulation in
my ensemble sound and I decided to take
time to work alone. In Event Locations, my
most detailed piece to date, composed in
2007, I focused on making minute deci-
sions in articulation, inch by inch, E
writing them down (Fig. 9). I now feel I
am ready to take what I have learned and
apply it to multiple-part works. I recently
put out a call to interested graduate stu-
dents at Mills College, Oakland, CA, E
have found a fascinating crew to help me
bring ensemble performance on my in-
strument to a new level.

What began as a raw exploration of
sound many years ago has evolved into
an articulated and unique musical lan-
guage, occupying a space that one en-
ters. Listeners and performers alike feel
surrounded by this sound. My music
functions on multiple levels, existing
as temporal compositions, as sound in
space and indeed as sculpture (Fig. 10).

With my research, I hope to illuminate
the physical nature of sound and the ge-
ometry of harmonic space.

Ringraziamenti

Special thanks to Genine Lentine, Denah Bookstein
and Theresa Wong for proofing and suggestions.
Thanks to all of the artists who have inspired me,
especially Arnold Dreyblatt, Deborah Hay, Alvin
Lucier, Phill Niblock and Pauline Oliveros, and to
the engineers who have helped me along the way,
including Stefan Beck, Keith Cary, Rob Dennis and
Stephen Wise.

References and Notes

1. Vedere .

2. Chris Bohn, editor of The Wire, wrote of the Long
String Instrument, “Listening to it, you feel like you
are inside some cyclopean subterranean grotto . . . its
bejewelled walls glistening with an alien luster (E)
sounding like something that shimmers, iridescent
shapes bend conventional pulse-based time and im-
pose their own paradoxical temporality, where con-
stant movement teems within a vast stasis.” The Wire,
Issue 291 (2008) P. 55.

Bibliography

Doty, David. The Just Intonation Primer, .

Helmholtz, Hermann. On the Sensations of Tone
(Dover Publications, 1954).

Lucier, Alvin. Reflections: Interviews, Scores, Writings
(Musiktexte, 1995).

Manuscript received 2 Gennaio 2012.

Ellen Fullman has been developing her in-
stallation, the Long String Instrument,
for nearly 30 years; exploring the acoustics of
large resonant spaces with her compositions
and collaborative improvisations. She has
recorded extensively with this unusual instru-
ment and has been the recipient of numerous
awards, commissions and residencies. Releases
include: Through Glass Panes (Important),
Fluctuations, with trombonist Monique Buz-
zarté (Deep Listening) and Ort, recorded
with Berlin collaborator Jörg Hiller (Choose
Records).

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