Program Note

For many years I have tried to find ways to focus sounds. Sound waves especially long ones (low sounds) spread out roughly in concentric three-dimensional circles. One way to focus them is to make an acoustical lens by filling a sphere with a thin membrane of heavier-than-air gas. As a sound wave passes through the sphere it slows down more in the center of the sphere than on the sides, flattening out the wave as it flows out the other side. – Alvin Lucier