200 Local Vintage Street Lamps

200 Local Vintage Streetlamps. Scored for a trio of Alto Flute, Viola, and Harp, this is a mercurial and fleeting response to the memory of the glittery and shiny effervescence one feels while experiencing the iconic exterior sculpture exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

In his 2008 piece “Urban Light”, artist Chris Burde places two hundred and two restored cast iron antique street lamps in a cluster of walk-around art that is one of the most magical sights in Los Angeles after dark. While the two hundred street lamps all painted a neutral grey draw the viewer’s eye to the differences in the cast iron decorations, differences in the imperfect grid the lights are arranged to create different angles and arrays for the viewer as he moves.

The composition makes use of translucent special effects in the Viola and Alto Flute while utilizing unstable and fluidly changing harmonies. The Harp adds supporting metallic sparks of sounds that give off color and ephemeral light in this sparsely lit and brief piece that breathes and undulates, rises and falls, and truncates phrases almost as quickly as they are made, suggesting the same temporal space that the art installation itself inspired.