Bridge Music

As anyone who lives near a bridge will tell you, they make noise. But listen to the sound of the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Bridge, often called the Mid-Hudson River Bridge in Poughkeepsie, New York. Composer and musician Joseph Bertolozzi embarked on an audacious plan to turn the monumental bridge into the world’s largest percussive instrument.

With the help of the New York State Bridge Authority, sound engineers, mallets, steel shot, and a herd of true believers, he recorded hundreds of sounds on the bridge’s surface to make "bridge music."

The ten-movement suite is available on CD, and a sound installation launched over the weekend to mark the 400th anniversary of Hendryk Hudson’s voyage up the river that is now his namesake. There are listening stations surrounding the bridge and a dedicated radio frequency for the public to hear tracks like "Bridge Funk." And Joseph Bertolozzi is on the line to tell us about what we’re hearing.

(Photo by Spencer Ainsley for The Poughkeepsie Journal)