Hear the first music composed for Bridge
(#18 on the Billboard Crossover Chart)

Watch the NY Times video story here

Click here for directions

Joseph Bertolozzi's Bridge Music is a site-specific sound art installation created for the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Bridge (The Mid-Hudson Bridge), a suspension bridge spanning the Hudson River at Poughkeepsie, New York. The installation consists of two components: [1] audio speakers mounted at two Listening Stations on the bridge's towers that play Bertolozzi's original music on-demand at the touch of a button, and [2] an FM stereo transmission 24 hours a day on 95.3FM within the parks surrounding the bridge.

To create this ten-movement composition, Bertolozzi used various mallets to strike the bridge's surfaces (guard rails, spindles, girders, suspender ropes, etc.), and sampled them into a computer. The resulting sounds were categorized by location and note/sound value and then digitally linked to music notation software files. As Bertolozzi composed the music, these notation files were used to trigger the sampled sounds upon playback, turning the bridge into a virtual instrument. The music contains no other sounds than those of the bridge itself.

The project was unveiled during the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson's voyage up the Hudson River, June 6, 2009.

FINAL NOTE
The bridge’s designer, Ralph Modjeski, was a highly skilled pianist (he was a classmate of the famous Polish virtuoso Paderewski). He ultimately chose engineering as his profession and became one of the 20th century’s greatest bridge designers. Both as a pioneering engineer and a musician who loved the music of his own time, he would be intrigued to experience this boundary-shattering synthesis involving his beloved bridge and the music of our time.

MAP & DIRECTIONS
(free download)

DIRECTIONS

FROM THE WEST for Listening Stations and Park Radios

• NY State Thruway to Exit 18
• Head east on NY 299 to Poughkeepsie
• Right onto US 9W
• Left onto Haviland Road & Johnson-Iorio Park, just before the bridge exit. 

FROM THE EAST for Listening Stations

• Taconic State Parkway to exit for Poughkeepsie/NY 55 West
  
• Exit onto US 9 just before the bridge
• Immediately merge onto US 9 North and take exit for Main St.
• Left onto Main St, left onto Rinaldi Boulevard
• Right onto Gerald Drive, end at sign for Bridge Music 

FROM THE EAST for Park Radios

• Taconic State Parkway to exit for Poughkeepsie/NY 55 West
• Exit onto US 9 just before the bridge
• Immediately merge onto US 9 North and take exit for Main St.
• Left onto Main St. to Waryas Park. Radio broadcasts can be heard from the circle at the bottom of Main St. to the parking lot at North Water St.

FROM NEW YORK CITY by Rail

• Take Metro-North Railroad from Grand Central Terminal to the Poughkeepsie station
• Head towards Main St, immediately adjacent to the station and follow signs for Listening Stations, or walk toward the river for the Park Radios