“The hills are alive with the sound of music…”

This wall-mounted rolling ball sculpture was commissioned to actually play the opening notes of “Do-Re-Mi” from The Sound of Music. Getting a rolling marble to play recognizable musical notes turned out to be quite a challenge.

The marble has to strike each xylophone key and bounce away immediately. If it rolls across the key, it deadens the vibration and kills the note. That meant carefully shaping and positioning the track so the marble hits each note quickly, jumps away, and continues to the next.

The sculpture has two separate tracks: one plays the melody, while the other is purely for the fun of watching the marble move. I fabricated the musical elements myself from sheet metal and the same stainless steel rod I use to build the tracks.

This is one of my older rolling ball sculptures, and the lift motor is considerably louder than the motors I use today. The wooden wall—and the camera—make it sound even louder in the video. The mechanics may be from an earlier generation of my work, but the idea remains one of my favorites.

Handmade in the USA from 100% stainless steel and TIG welded.