Four Part Canons

by Eli Kesler

Inspired by Bach’s four point writing for chorus (Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Bass), Four Part Canon uses sonic verticality to disperse audio among four speakers across the nine story half-land staircase.  Melodic fragments of Canons in both forward motion, retrograde and inversion are interspersed with city sounds, construction and resonating objects that sweep across the space. Viewers walk through sounds vertically, while the sonorities move and progress horizontally across time. The music steps in tempered pitch as in Bach’s writing, as the viewer walks the stairwell in intervallic steps.

About the Artist

Eli Keszler is a New York based artist, composer, and percussionist. Keszler’s music, installations, and visual work have appeared at the Whitney Museum, Lincoln Center, MIT List Center, 67 Ludlow, Victoria & Albert Museum, Sculpture Center, The Kitchen, South London Gallery, Hessel Museum, Harvard’s Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Luma-Foundation, Barbican-St. Lukes, Walker Art Center, LAX Art, and MoMA PS1. He has released solo records for Shelter Press, Empty Editions, ESP-DISK’, PAN and REL Records.  As a composer, Keszler’s commissions include: the Icelandic Symphony Orchestra, ICE Ensemble, Brooklyn String Orchestra and So Percussion. Keszler has collaborated with Oneohtrix Point Never, Laurel Halo, Kevin Beasley, Rashad Becker, Laure Prouvost, and David Grubbs among others.