What is distance music and what is so special about this piece ?
Distance Music defies conventional descriptions. It’s not just a music event, but an interactive journey, akin to a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG). By meticulously arranging where instruments are placed in a large outdoor space, I create a space-time environment where distant sounds assemble unique rhythms at every location in the concert space, akin to exploring different realms within a virtual world – by walking and listening.
Like all Distance Music compositions, “The Flower of Life” employed a special measurement called a “primary interval” [PI] at its musical root. The radius of each of the seven circles that build a Flower of Life figure of 271 feet requires 236 milliseconds for sound to cross (at a temperature of 85˚F). 236ms is also the duration of an eighth-note in 4/4 meter at a tempo of 127 bpm. Because all sound sources were placed a primary interval (or a multiple of) apart, when an audience member stood at a point that also shared the interval, all sounds re-assembled with the same beat as they pass by.
The intersection points of the ancient seven-circled geometric pattern celled “The Circle of Life” became the locations of all of the instrument groups and sound apparatuses. Three pairs of MIDI controlled train horns piggy-backed with a glockenspeil bar, called “Sounders”, were placed equidistantly on the primary circle. The Brass Band of Central Florida was split into three septets and placed on the inner circle at intersection points. Radio telemetry allowed the sounds coming from each point to maintain the same beat. At the center point, the train horns’ sounds arrive an 8th note late and the brass bands a 16th late. By delaying the brass groups an additional 16th note, the music arrived with the original beat, intact, just later in time. As attendees walk from the center in every direction, the instruments to which they neared moved ahead in rhythm and the instruments that became farther away shifted later. When they walked onto points of intersection within the circle of life, then the rhythm subdivisions lined up: at those points the distances to every other geometric point shared simple number relationships, musically perceived as perfect rhythmic subdivisions. Walking outside of these ten geometric points resulted in rhythmic chaos. A sonic playground full of new music!


In essence, “The Flower of Life” is not just a musical event; it represents a more expansive view of what music is; not just created for its emotional power, but to be something more: music of the spirit, music that celebrates and therefore benefits from the universal truths of geometry, space-time, form, and harmonic relationship.
Learn more about Distance Music and how it works:
Distance Music Technology
A Distance Organ comprising of six Sounder apparatuses.
Each apparatus is built on a wheeled cylinder dolly and houses one pitch of a Nathan AirChime train horn and, new for this event, one bar of an antique Leedy orchestral glockenspiel (thanks go to Mark Goldberg, percussionist with the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra, who is loaning me the needed bars).
Each sounder is over 9 feet tall and weighs over 200 lbs
Train Horns are powered by 304 cu. feet of Breathable Air (80/20 N2/O2) stored in a steel cylinder at 2500 psi
After being regulated to 75psi, gas is allowed to enter and sound the train horn through a Parker Pneumatics N-Poppet solenoid valve.
The glockenspiel is fastened to the apparatus with a 3D printed frame and sounded by the piston of a push/pull solenoid tipped with a brass ball.
Both of the solenoids and the telemetry circuitry are powered by a 12v lithium-ion battery
The custom-designed Pribusin Telemetry for each sounder uses an ISM band of digital radio, transmitted from a master radio mounted in the composer’s backpack, also powered by a Lithium-Ion battery. The system boasts a 2 mile range and responds in 10 milliseconds or less.
A hex code is broadcast by the composer containing all ON/OFF instruction data for the radios in real time.
That code enters the radio via USB from a Mac laptop containing two applications: Logic Pro notation and Max8. At the concert, the laptop, with the Logic sequence plays the data to Max through an internal bus. Max programming interprets the MIDI and converts it into serial data instructions for the remote radio receivers.
The music sequence is composed in Dorico Pro which realizes playback through NotePerformer/VSL and a home-built Unity game environment by Christopher Lay to allow the design, testing and play-through of sounder placements.
Sounders and musicians are accurately placed at the concert location using Trimble Catalyst DA2 GPS/GNSS hardware and software using latitude and longitude numbers from the design stage using a Unity-based simulation application created by Christopher Lay.