Sound bed: the playable side

The sound bed as a music instrument

The playable side of the sound bed is turned into an individual music instrument—similar to a luxurious polychord—with 60 strings offering unlimited possibilities for experimentation and producing sounds.

Thirty of the 60 strings are tuned to the same tone (shown in the right of the illustration). While the player strokes across these strings with his hands, the fascinating world of overtones slowly evolves from the initially uniform sound.

There are six bass strings in the center of the instrument.

The remaining 24 strings can be tuned individually to any desired scale with movable bridges (shown in the left of the illustration).

Thanks to the curved playing surface, the strings may also be played with a bow.

The different curvatures of the upper resonance board and the ribs are constructed to reflect cosmic proportions. They are scaled to represent the radii of the sun, earth and moon.