The elements created in the Big Bang, hydrogen and helium, had a signature vibration, or resonance, which continues to this day. Each of the subatomic particles making up these seminal elements has a signature resonance, as do all of their even smaller components. Likewise, every element built from hydrogen and helium has a unique resonance, as does every material built from these elements – inanimate and animate, including our own bodies: the accumulation of tones and overtones produced by the “star stuff” from which everything is made. It should be no surprise then that we humans and our animal cousins, indeed even our surrounding plant life, respond to SOUND. Sound is, however, much more in our brain than pitch alone. Without an organ and neural network that respond to sound, we would be significantly handicapped, most likely unable to survive beyond the single cell or primitive multi-cell organism. Indeed, even these earliest and basic of life forms respond to vibration, in the way we feel a deep base vibration throughout ourselves. Like the drum, the string is likely one of the earliest of intentional “musical instruments” discovered by our hominid ancestors.

Accidental discoveries to be sure: beating on a stiff hide to soften it and the “twang” of a released bow string (although the bow and arrow were not discovered and spread worldwide until relatively recently). Ancient musical instruments of organic materials have not survived in the archaeological record, depriving us of an understanding of how many millennia artificially produced sound – music – has been fundamental to the hominid experience. The musically adept (in tune) of our distant ancestors would have been driven at their core to reproduce and structure these sounds into music, following the example of bird song. This project is the juxtaposition of a few modern stringed instruments – three violins and a cello – to the earth resonance, the background noise (would it be “noise” could we perceive it?) we surely know is faintly there and just below our range of hearing. These man-made instruments do no more, yet in a controlled and artificial way, than the wind producing pleasing harmonies in the trees or the rocks moved by water producing a deep rumbling beat.