Music will float from cistern to the heavens

This concert might be reason enough to head to Port Townsend, because once you’re there, you’ll feel like you’re floating among the stars.

That’s because this concert will be unique in both its delivery and its effect, with music derived from the heavens.

The free concert Aug. 22 will be on the upper hill at Fort Worden State Park and feature musician Stuart Dempster, a man of many instruments. Not only does Dempster’s talent run the range from didgeridoo to trombone, for this concert he’ll play inside a cistern. That’s right, an enormous water tank.

Dempster will perform John Cage’s “Atlas Eclipticalis” inside the Dan Harpole Cistern.

Nearly 200 feet in diameter and 14 feet deep, the cistern was originally built as a water supply system when Fort Worden was a military base. Now, the empty cistern’s 45-second reverberation time is popular among recording artists.

And the cistern provides the perfect vessel for playing the “Atlas Eclipticalis.” To compose the work, Cage used the Atlas Eclipticalis, an atlas of the stars published in 1958 by Czech astronomer Antonín Becvár. Cage then superimposed musical staves over the star charts in the atlas. The brightness of the stars was translated into the size of the notes in the composition. The work was completed in 1962 and comprises 86 instrumental parts.

With all those instruments, Dempster will need some help. He’ll be joined by percussionist Matt Kocmieroski, cellist Walter Gray and bassoonist Seth Krimsky. Dempster will play trombone, conch shell, and, as he described it, “assorted musical mayhem.”

The audience won’t be sitting in the cistern but will be listening on the lawn above the tank. Speakers will lift the music up to the audience. To get there, volunteers will guide listeners to the cistern. Disability access also will be provided.

In June 2007, the Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission named the water tank the Dan Harpole Cistern in honor of Harpole’s life and work in the arts. Harpole had tried to get the cistern designated as “Washington’s Official Instrument” because of its unique acoustic properties. That legislation never passed, but musicians still were able to navigate government red tape and today can record inside the cistern safely.