Monday, May 04, 2009

Rolls Royce of Wind Chimes

Since boyhood, I've enjoyed the works of Joseph Needham, and as I grew older (and as he published more and more), I came to regard them as friends. One of my best friends is his Volume 4 in the Science and Civilization in China series: the book on physics and physical technology. If you ask what appeals to me most about this volume, I can answer quickly: the section on tuning bells by means of pipes (the section entitled "The cosmic tide in buried tubes"). 

Thus it is, that another (flesh and blood) friend introduced me to the works of Larry Roark, of Austin, Texas (where they have more musicians per square mile than anywhere else on the planet), who makes the finest wind chimes in the world. These are the "Music of the Spheres" chimes, and today I had my first opportunity to hear them. That is Mr. Roark you see in the photograph above, with his largest creation (no, that is not trick photography). He refers to this as "acoustic sculpture," which is actually quite a thriving field of creative interest. When you visit his site, you can hear his chimes and come to understand what he is doing.

How lovely they are, you know? You might enjoy investigating them. What is wrong with listening to the dralas?

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