Constance Mary Demby (née Eggers; May 9, 1939 – March 20, 2021) was an American musician, composer, painter, sculptor, and multimedia producer. Her music fell into several categories, most notably

new age New Age is a range of spiritual or religious practices and beliefs which rapidly grew in Western society during the early 1970s. Its highly eclectic and unsystematic structure makes a precise definition difficult. Although many scholars conside ...

, ambient and

space music Space music, also called spacemusic or space ambient, is a subgenre of new-age music and is described as "tranquil, hypnotic and moving". It is derived from ambient music and is associated with lounge music, easy listening, and elevator music. ...

.Wright, Carol. She is best known for her 1986 album ''

Novus Magnificat ''Novus Magnificat: Through the Stargate'' is a 1986 album by American musician Constance Demby, with additional contributions by composer Michael Stearns. The album sold over 200,000 copies worldwide.Phoenix, Robert (2007)"Constance Demby: Heavy ...

'' and her two

experimental musical instrument An experimental musical instrument (or custom-made instrument) is a musical instrument that modifies or extends an existing instrument or class of instruments, or defines or creates a new class of instrument. Some are created through simple modif ...

s, the sonic steel space bass and the whale sail.

Early life

Demby was born in

Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...

in May 1939.

ASCAP The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) () is an American not-for-profit performance-rights organization (PRO) that collectively licenses the public performance rights of its members' musical works to venues, broadca ...

(2009)
"Works written by: Demby Constance Mary, CAE/IPI No. 127.53.77.66"
database of the

American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) () is an American not-for-profit performance-rights organization (PRO) that collectively licenses the public performance rights of its members' musical works to venues, broadca ...

After the family moved to

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...

, Demby began classical piano lessons at age 8, and soon became confident enough to perform solo and in a group. She continued with her music studies, during which Demby also took to painting and sculpture and received an Excellence in Art award for her work from

Pine Manor College Pine Manor College (PMC) was a private college in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1911 and was historically a women's college until 2014. It currently serves fewer than 400 students, many of whom live on the 40-acre campus. Origin ...

Wellesley, Massachusetts Wellesley () is a New England town, town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. Wellesley is part of Greater Boston. The population was 29,550 at the time of the 2020 census. Wellesley College, Babson Col ...

. Demby studied sculpture and painting at the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

Ann Arbor Anne, alternatively spelled Ann, is a form of the Latin female given name Anna (name), Anna. This in turn is a representation of the Hebrew Hannah (given name), Hannah, which means 'favour' or 'grace'. Related names include Annie (given name), ...

, where in 1960, she received a Highby Award for excellence in art.

Career

1960–1978: Early career

In 1960, Demby quit her studies and moved to

Greenwich Village Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village ...

in New York City. She continued to work as a musician and sculptor, combining these disciplines with her first

sheet metal Sheet metal is metal formed into thin, flat pieces, usually by an industrial process. Sheet metal is one of the fundamental forms used in metalworking, and it can be cut and bent into a variety of shapes. Thicknesses can vary significantly; ex ...

sound sculpture Sound art is an artistic activity in which sound is utilized as a primary medium or material. Like many genres of contemporary art, sound art may be interdisciplinary in nature, or be used in hybrid forms. According to Brandon LaBelle, sound art ...

s, built in 1966. She had been torching a sheet of metal in her sculptural practice when she noticed the low tones and unusual sounds that the vibrating metal produced, which subsequently led to the development of her first handmade instruments. In 1967 Demby used these sculptures in a series of

happening A happening is a performance, event, or situation art, usually as performance art. The term was first used by Allan Kaprow during the 1950s to describe a range of art-related events. History Origins Allan Kaprow first coined the term "happen ...

-style events at the Charles Street Gallery named A Fly Can't Bird But a Bird Can Fly, owned by

Robert Rutman Robert Rutman (15 May 1931 – 1 June 2021) was a German visual artist, musician, composer, and instrument builder. Best known for his work with homemade idiophones in his Steel Cello Ensemble, Rutman is regarded as a pioneer of multimedia perf ...

. In one piece called "The Thing", Rutman wore a white cardboard box and banged on Demby's sheet metal creation with "a rock in a sock." Demby conceived a multimedia environmental experience called Space Mass, which featured a 24-foot altar, temples, and sculptures that acted as moving screens to project abstract films. Demby welded a curved metal sheet to several steel rods which she played as a

percussion instrument A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

. Rutman later remarked, "We thought it would sound good as a

xylophone The xylophone (; ) is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars struck by mallets. Like the glockenspiel (which uses metal bars), the xylophone essentially consists of a set of tuned wooden keys arranged in the ...

, but it didn't." Throughout the decade Demby exhibited her work in solo and group settings in New York City, Boston, and Maine. In 1968, she held her first major solo show in New York City, combining her paintings, sculptures, and light and sound displays, by which time she had explored

electronic music Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroac ...

for the first time. After moving to Maine with Rutman, in 1971 the duo formed the Central Maine Power Music Company (CMPMC), a multimedia sound and light group influenced by their previous Space Mass exhibit. They used uncommon eastern instruments combined with electronic music with video and laser light projections. They toured the eastern US extensively, with the group ranging from 6 to 20 members at any given performance. Among the guest musicians involved was

hammer dulcimer The hammered dulcimer (also called the hammer dulcimer) is a percussion-stringed instrument which consists of strings typically stretched over a trapezoidal resonant sound board. The hammered dulcimer is set before the musician, who in more trad ...

player

Dorothy Carter Dorothy Carter (born New York City, 1935, died June 7, 2003 in New Orleans) was an American musician.Billboard - 1998 8 8 " ... in Berlin in 1996. While there, she hooked up with MEDIAEVAL BAEBES Dorothy Carter, an older woman ..." Carter performed ...

and video artist

Bill Etra William Etra (March 27, 1947 – August 26, 2016) was a live video pioneer and the co-inventor (with Steve Rutt) of the Rutt/Etra Video Synthesizer. Etra was born in Manhattan and raised in Lawrence, Nassau County, New York. Etra worked briefly as ...

. The band toured the East Coast, playing at

planetarium A planetarium ( planetariums or ''planetaria'') is a theatre built primarily for presenting educational and entertaining shows about astronomy and the night sky, or for training in celestial navigation. A dominant feature of most planetarium ...

s in

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

, as well as

Lincoln Center Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (also simply known as Lincoln Center) is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It has thirty indoor and outdoor facilities and is host to 5 millio ...

, the

World Trade Center World Trade Centers are sites recognized by the World Trade Centers Association. World Trade Center may refer to: Buildings * List of World Trade Centers * World Trade Center (2001–present), a building complex that includes five skyscrapers, a ...

, and at the United Nations Sculpture Garden in New York City. Demby's co-founder told a reporter in 1974: In 1976, the CMPMC disbanded and its founders moved to

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, ...

. While Rutman went on to pursue directions in contemporary classical and

industrial music Industrial music is a genre of music that draws on harsh, mechanical, transgressive or provocative sounds and themes. AllMusic defines industrial music as the "most abrasive and aggressive fusion of rock and electronic music" that was "initiall ...

with the sheet metal instruments that they had created, Demby headed down a quieter path. She studied

yoga Yoga (; sa, योग, lit=yoke' or 'union ) is a group of physical, mental, and spiritual practices or disciplines which originated in ancient India and aim to control (yoke) and still the mind, recognizing a detached witness-consciou ...

with Ajaib Singh and, in 1977, co-formed the Gandharva Performing Arts Company, a duo featuring the flute, tabla and

dulcimer The word dulcimer refers to two families of musical string instruments. Hammered dulcimers The word ''dulcimer'' originally referred to a trapezoidal zither similar to a psaltery whose many strings are struck by handheld "hammers". Variants of ...

with Robert Bennett.

1978–2017: Studio albums

By the late 1970s, Demby had become a multi-instrumentalist who was proficient in

musical improvisation Musical improvisation (also known as musical extemporization) is the creative activity of immediate ("in the moment") musical composition, which combines performance with communication of emotions and instrumental technique as well as spontaneous ...

, vocals,

hammered dulcimer The hammered dulcimer (also called the hammer dulcimer) is a percussion-stringed instrument which consists of strings typically stretched over a trapezoidal resonant sound board. The hammered dulcimer is set before the musician, who in more trad ...

koto Koto may refer to: * Koto (band), an Italian synth pop group * Koto (instrument), a Japanese musical instrument * Koto (kana), a ligature of two Japanese katakana * Koto (traditional clothing), a traditional dress made by Afro-Surinamese women * K ...

, tamboura, and various keyboards and

synthesizer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

s. She made her studio recording debut on

's debut album, ''Troubadour'' (1976). Demby's first solo album, ''Skies Above Skies'' (1978), comprised devotional prayers set to music featuring hammer dulcimer, ch'eng, tambura, synthesizer, cello, piano, organ, and voice reciting lines from the

Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...

scripture, and the ''

Popol Vuh ''Popol Vuh'' (also ''Popol Wuj'' or ''Popul Vuh'' or ''Pop Vuj'') is a text recounting the mythology and history of the Kʼicheʼ people, one of the Maya peoples, who inhabit Guatemala and the Mexican states of Chiapas, Campeche, Yucatan and Q ...

''. After a

pilgrimage A pilgrimage is a journey, often into an unknown or foreign place, where a person goes in search of new or expanded meaning about their self, others, nature, or a higher good, through the experience. It can lead to a personal transformation, aft ...

to India in 1979, Demby settled in

Marin County, California Marin County is a County (United States), county located in the northwestern part of the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the population was 262,231. Its county seat and ...

, just north of San Francisco. She founded the record label Sound Currents to release her second album, ''Sunborne'' (1980), inspired by The Emerald Tablets, an ancient script by

Hermes Trismegistus Hermes Trismegistus (from grc, Wiktionary:Ἑρμῆς, Ἑρμῆς ὁ Τρισμέγιστος, "Hermes the Thrice-Greatest"; Classical Latin: la, label=none, Mercurius ter Maximus) is a legendary Hellenistic figure that originated as a Syn ...

. Her hammer dulcimer-oriented album '' Sacred Space Music'' (1982) followed on the

Hearts of Space Records Hearts of Space Records is a record label owned by Valley Entertainment. The label represents several sublabels, including Hearts of Space, Hearts O'Space, Fathom, RGB, and World Class. History Hearts of Space Records was founded in 1984 as an ...

label. Demby performed at the Alaron Center in

Sausalito Sausalito (Spanish for "small willow grove") is a city in Marin County, California, United States, located southeast of Marin City, south-southeast of San Rafael, and about north of San Francisco from the Golden Gate Bridge. Sausalito's p ...

, spawning her ''Live at Alaron'' (1984) album which displays themes the in her definitive studio album, ''

'' (1986). In 2000, Demby left California for Spain, eventually settling in

Sitges Sitges (, , ) is a town about 35 kilometres southwest of Barcelona, in Spain, renowned worldwide for its Film Festival, Carnival, and LGBT Culture. Located between the Garraf Massif and the Mediterranean Sea, it is known for its beaches, nightspot ...

near Barcelona. It was here where she recorded ''Sanctum Sanctuorum'' (2001), a reworked version of ''Faces of the Christ'' (2000) with added keyboard parts and choral and

Gregorian chant Gregorian chant is the central tradition of Western plainchant, a form of monophonic, unaccompanied sacred song in Latin (and occasionally Greek) of the Roman Catholic Church. Gregorian chant developed mainly in western and central Europe durin ...

. Demby returned to the US in 2004, touring the West Coast presenting concerts and healing workshops. Her Sound Currents label subsequently released ''Sonic Immersion'' (2004), a vibrational

sound healing Music therapy, an allied health profession, "is the clinical and evidence-based use of music interventions to accomplish individualized goals within a therapeutic relationship by a credentialed professional who has completed an approved music th ...

attunement through use of the Space Bass.

Instrument design

In addition to her studio albums, Demby is best known for creating two

s: the Whale Sail and the Sonic Steel Space Bass. These 10-foot-long sheet metal

idiophones An idiophone is any musical instrument that creates sound primarily by the vibration of the instrument itself, without the use of air flow (as with aerophones), strings (chordophones), membranes (membranophones) or electricity ( electrophones) ...

are played with a bass bow to create low resonating tones.

George Lucas George Walton Lucas Jr. (born May 14, 1944) is an American filmmaker. Lucas is best known for creating the ''Star Wars'' and ''Indiana Jones'' franchises and founding Lucasfilm, LucasArts, Industrial Light & Magic and THX. He served as chairm ...

Skywalker Ranch Skywalker Ranch is a movie ranch and workplace of film director, writer and producer George Lucas located in a secluded area near Nicasio, California, in Marin County. The ranch is located on Lucas Valley Road, named for an early-20th-century la ...

licensed the sounds of the Space Bass for use in their film scores, and

The Discovery Channel Discovery Channel (known as The Discovery Channel from 1985 to 1995, and often referred to as simply Discovery) is an American cable channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav. , Discovery Channe ...

filmed the Space Bass in Gaudi's

Park Güell Parc Güell ( ca, Parc Güell ; es, Parque Güell) is a privatized park system composed of gardens and architectural elements located on Carmel Hill, in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Carmel Hill belongs to the mountain range of Collserola – t ...

in Barcelona for one of their specials. The Space Bass is also featured on the soundtrack for the IMAX film ''

Chronos Chronos (; grc-gre, Χρόνος, , "time"), also spelled Khronos or Chronus, is a personification of time in pre-Socratic philosophy and later literature. Chronos is frequently confused with, or perhaps consciously identified with, the Tit ...

'' (1985), directed by

Ron Fricke Ron Fricke (born February 24, 1953) is an American film director and cinematographer, specializing in time-lapse photography and large format cinematography. He was the director of photography for ''Koyaanisqatsi'' (1982) and directed the purely ...

and featuring music by

Michael Stearns Michael Stearns (born October 16, 1948) is an American musician and composer of ambient music. He is also known as a film composer, sound designer and soundtrack producer for IMAX, large format films, theatrical films, Documentary film, document ...

. The International Space Science Institute commissioned Demby to create a score for the film ''I AM'', and Demby's album ''Spirit Trance'' (2004) features four selections from the film. The track "Legend" on the same album was composed for Alan Hauge's film ''James Dean – An American Legend'', but due to complications with the James Dean Foundation the project was shelved.

Personal life and death

In 1961, Eggers married David Demby and they had one son, Joshua. The marriage ended in divorce in 1974. Demby died from complications of a heart attack in Pasadena, California, on March 20, 2021, at age 81. Demby's nephew is writer, editor, and publisher

Dave Eggers Dave Eggers (born March 12, 1970) is an American writer, editor, and publisher. He wrote the 2000 best-selling memoir ''A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius''. Eggers is also the founder of ''Timothy McSweeney's Quarterly Concern'', a lite ...

Discography

Studio albums * ''Skies Above Skies'' (1978) * ''Sunborne'' (1980) * '' Sacred Space Music'' (1982) * '' Novus Magnificat: Through the Stargate'' (1986) * ''Set Free'' (1989) * ''Æterna'' (1995) * ''Faces of the Christ'' (2000) * ''Sanctum Sanctuorum'' (2001) * ''Spirit Trance'' (2004) * ''Sonic Immersion: A Vibratory Tonal Attunement'' (2004) * ''Ambrosial Waves – Healing Waters'' (2011) * ''Ambrosial Waves – Tidal Pools'' (2013) * ''Novus Magnificat: Through the Stargate – 30th Anniversary Edition'' (2017) Live albums * ''Constance Demby at Alaron – Live Concert Recording'' (1984) * ''Attunement: Live in Concert'' (2000) * ''Live in Tokyo'' (2003) Compilations * ''Light of This World'' (1987) Appearances *

– ''Troubadour'' (1976) *

– ''Chronos (Original Soundtrack Recording)'' (1984) * Stephen Coughlin – ''Breeze at Dawn'' (1989) * Various Artists – ''

Polar Shift The cataclysmic pole shift hypothesis is a pseudo-scientific claim that there have been recent, geologically rapid shifts in the axis of rotation of Earth, causing calamities such as floods and tectonic events or relatively rapid climate chang ...

'' (1991) * Arjuna Ardagh and Constance Demby – ''Awakening Coaching Audio 3: The Heart Meditation'' (1998) * Arjuna Ardagh and Constance Demby – ''Awakening Coaching Audio 4: The Beloved'' (1998) * ''Guided Meditation – The Journey Home'' * Eterna and Constance Demby – ''The Master Healing Ray''

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Demby, Constance Mary 1939 births 2021 deaths 21st-century American composers 21st-century American women musicians 21st-century women composers Ambient musicians American women composers American women singer-songwriters American multi-instrumentalists American women in electronic music New-age synthesizer players Singer-songwriters from California University of Michigan alumni People from Oakland, California