Unusual / Rare Instruments
- stiofan
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Unusual / Rare Instruments
I've been finding myself perusing an out of the way corner of the interwebs dedicated to 'rare and strange instruments' and thought the CFPP would be a good place to see what other sound or noise making devices pique our collective fancy. Now, I realise there's a certain cultural (or even generational) subjectivity to what qualifies as an unusual or rare instrument, but here goes.
I'll start with the Glass Armonica, 'invented' by the one and only Ben Franklin (although apparently there were forerunners to Franklin, including Irishman Richard Pokrich), a curious instrument comprised of a number of glass bowls spun around and touched with dampened fingers to produce tones, akin to how sounds are made on the rim of a wine glass.
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/b ... s-armonica
Sounds of a Glass Armonica: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEKlRUvk9zc
Okay, what are some of your favorite unusual/rare/unknown/eccentric music-making devices?
I'll start with the Glass Armonica, 'invented' by the one and only Ben Franklin (although apparently there were forerunners to Franklin, including Irishman Richard Pokrich), a curious instrument comprised of a number of glass bowls spun around and touched with dampened fingers to produce tones, akin to how sounds are made on the rim of a wine glass.
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/b ... s-armonica
Sounds of a Glass Armonica: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEKlRUvk9zc
Okay, what are some of your favorite unusual/rare/unknown/eccentric music-making devices?
- Mr.Gumby
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Re: Unusual / Rare Instruments
Not totally obscure, I thought. Mozart wrote for it. See, for example : Mozart Adagio K 617a for glass armonica
Not a long way from singing wine glasses, just a bit more organised set up.
Not a long way from singing wine glasses, just a bit more organised set up.
My brain hurts
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Re: Unusual / Rare Instruments
Douçaine, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2ygi9grejU. Until they recovered the Mary Rose, douçaines were pretty much mythical beasts.
The Masters thesis of Aage Bent Nielsen describes how he went about reproducing the instrument, https://scholarworks.boisestate.edu/td/142/.
The Masters thesis of Aage Bent Nielsen describes how he went about reproducing the instrument, https://scholarworks.boisestate.edu/td/142/.
- Peter Duggan
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Re: Unusual / Rare Instruments
The flute obbligato in the 'mad scene' from Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor was also originally written for it and is increasingly performed on it again now.Mr.Gumby wrote:Not totally obscure, I thought. Mozart wrote for it.
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Re: Unusual / Rare Instruments
I'd like to get hold of a Stroh guitar
or a stroh violin
They probably sound awful
I've always wanted to try a Howe-Orme guitar, which has a cylindrical arch on the top, along with an adjustable neck
https://youtu.be/eC4espq-65c
or a stroh violin
They probably sound awful
I've always wanted to try a Howe-Orme guitar, which has a cylindrical arch on the top, along with an adjustable neck
https://youtu.be/eC4espq-65c
- Mr.Gumby
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Re: Unusual / Rare Instruments
The fiddles sound a bit tinny but not downright terrible. The early Coleman's were rtecorded on one. And ofcourse, Julia :They probably sound awful
(below a snap of Gerry Harrington with her's):
I started scouring fleamarkets during my mid teens, I came across perhaps not proper 'Stroh' instrumetns but similar, probably cheaper, one or two stringed fiddles and plucked/strummed ones (although not proper guitars).
A man I used to play with had a Stroh fiddle and they are not too hard to find for sale (I looked into them some years a go out of curiosity).
This one is sitting on ebay, again not a 'proper' Stroh one but it has a horn.
My brain hurts
- Nanohedron
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Re: Unusual / Rare Instruments
53 valve tuba:
"If you take music out of this world, you will have nothing but a ball of fire." - Tribal musician
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Re: Unusual / Rare Instruments
I had no idea Strohs were use in ITM!
- Mr.Gumby
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Re: Unusual / Rare Instruments
Well, they were a necessity for the early recordings, Coleman and other fiddlers hated them. Julia Clifford was the outlier if you like. She played it 'out' when she felt she needed the extra volume. There's a lovely photo of her sister Bridie with her's in Jill Friedman's book. Gerry Harrington used it for some tunes on the CD with Julia's son Blilly. I took the snap in the RnaG mobile studion when they were launching it.PB+J wrote:I had no idea Strohs were use in ITM!
A few people have them but they're not exactly common.
If you really want tinny, go for the brass fiddles.
(Michael Kelleher playing one below:)
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- Peter Duggan
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Re: Unusual / Rare Instruments
Most, or all, of which are floating above the tube and wouldn't work how we're meant to believe even if they weren't!Nanohedron wrote:53 valve tuba
- Nanohedron
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Re: Unusual / Rare Instruments
I'm not one to say, having no familiarity with brass instruments. But its apparent owner, Dale Hale, says it's the bees knees:Peter Duggan wrote:Most, or all, of which are floating above the tube and wouldn't work how we're meant to believe even if they weren't!Nanohedron wrote:53 valve tuba
http://www.dalehale.com/CoolTubas/manyvalvetuba.htm
"If you take music out of this world, you will have nothing but a ball of fire." - Tribal musician
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Re: Unusual / Rare Instruments
That thing had me thinking of the old C&F home page.Peter Duggan wrote:Most, or all, of which are floating above the tube and wouldn't work how we're meant to believe even if they weren't!Nanohedron wrote:53 valve tuba
If I wasn't so lazy I'd set to work in Photoshop
- Nanohedron
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Re: Unusual / Rare Instruments
Oh, well. Looks cool, anyway.david_h wrote:That thing had me thinking of the old C&F home page.
If I wasn't so lazy I'd set to work in Photoshop
"If you take music out of this world, you will have nothing but a ball of fire." - Tribal musician
- chas
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Re: Unusual / Rare Instruments
My absolute favorite is the rackett:
https://unholyrackett.com/2017/09/12/al ... -racketts/
It's a predecessor to the bassoon. It's not long, but there are nine bores in the main body. I'm gonna make one one of these days.
https://unholyrackett.com/2017/09/12/al ... -racketts/
It's a predecessor to the bassoon. It's not long, but there are nine bores in the main body. I'm gonna make one one of these days.
Charlie
Whorfin Woods
"Our work puts heavy metal where it belongs -- as a music genre and not a pollutant in drinking water." -- Prof Ali Miserez.
Whorfin Woods
"Our work puts heavy metal where it belongs -- as a music genre and not a pollutant in drinking water." -- Prof Ali Miserez.
Re: Unusual / Rare Instruments
Speaking of making:chas wrote:My absolute favorite is the rackett. . . I'm gonna make one one of these days.
If I read the narrative correctly, one of them uses a single narrow bore coiled 9 times in the *small* wooden cylindrical body.
Just think: a Low-D coiled into a little can, shorter than a soprano D !
trill