Sounding the Universe

This durational chamber performance invokes the sonic remnants of the Big Bang with which the universe resonates to this day: a B flat 57 octaves below middle C.

According to scientific research, the Big Bang—the origin of our universe—created a shock wave that now registers as cosmic microwave background radiation. If humans wanted to listen to the universe today, this waveform variation in energy would have to be amplified 100 septillion times. Sounding the Universe transposes this sound of outer space into the audible spectrum.

Chamber music, because of its intimacy, has been described as “the music of friends” and is often played by amateur musicians. The emergence of chamber music marks a historic moment when music left its sacred framework and entered private homes—of initially mostly noble, but later increasingly common people—but before this secular form of making music grew into an orchestral, and more public, format.

Images show Aaron Lumley (bass) and Nick Storring (cello) during a performance at Gallery TPW in Toronto, October 2015.