Hundreds of pieces of wood for a surprising result. In recent days, the video showing a huge xylophone built in a forest in Japan in 2011 has been making the rounds on social media. A moment of calm and poetry much appreciated by Internet users, while the Covid-19 pandemic continues to worry. Seen more than 4.5 million times on Twitter, the video in question is taken from an advertisement for a large Japanese mobile operator, which at the time marketed a phone with a wooden shell.
The giant xylophone, designed in particular by the Japanese artist Kenjiro Matsuo, had been installed in the heart from a forest on the island of Kyushu, in southern Japan. The instrument worked perfectly and produced music thanks to a ball rolling on its many wooden blades, each of which corresponded to a note. It took four days to adjust the pieces of wood so that the instrument could replay the famous Cantate BWV 147, by German composer Johann Sebastian Bach.
From this installation, Kenjiro Matsuo has created other amazing instruments working on the same principle, such as the circular xylophone exhibited in 2016 during the Milan Triennial. This unusual work replayed the same Bach cantata, which addresses hope and joy, feelings that many would like to rediscover at the end of the year marked by the health crisis.
–
