WATERFALL

The Waterfall’s long, floppy steel bands can be played with lightweight, hard beaters such as ping pong ball mallets. Each band produces a wide range of frequencies, but the lower frequencies are scarcely heard because the bands, being narrow, do not project the lows into the air very effectively. As a result, the sound that reaches our ears is mostly the sizzle frequencies. With bands in this length range, one of those frequencies happens to stand out enough among the many to provide a sense of pitch.

Two versions of Waterfall are pictured on this page. The walk-through version in the smaller photo, built more recently, was created as part of the Paul Dresher Ensemble’s travelling exhibit, Sound Maze.

The In the audio clip, Waterfall is joined by Mild Steel and Dual Slide Whistles.