Experimental Musical Instruments
Composing by building
Ensemble Robot - robotic musical instruments
[http://www.oddmusic.com/gallery/om24550.html] - sea organ in Croatia
KMB208 Experimental Musical Instruments Brendan Moore
“For millennia humans have been manipulating objects to create patterns of sound. We now call this music, and our universal fascination with it over this time has prompted the appearance and continual growth of an incredibly large, diverse and intricate collection of methods for physically creating, arranging and layering sound waves in ways that please and provoke” (Ensemble Robot)
All instruments were once experimental. The piano once was a spinet and harpsichord, the clarinet and eighteenth century novelty, the trombone was the serpent and the trumpet came from the sackbut. Robert Moog, in the 1960s, invented the “Moog” synthesizer, which has been instrumental in many compositions past this date.
Instrument designs have usually had inspiration from non-western, non-modern, and existing instruments. Rarely is a new sound generating method produced. The designs were often the bridge between the artist and the audience. Since they did not need a great deal of technique to play, the artist strives for creativity.
The main categories of experimental musical instruments can be describes as follows. Strings attached to resonating bodies (strings, pianos), membranes stretched over air chambers (the membranophones), pulsating air stream introduced to an enclosed air column (aerophones) and rigid vibrating bodies, where sound is produced by striking, plucking or friction (the idiophones).
The introduction of new musical instruments creates a set of interrelated musical parameters. The instruments are often different in nature to one’s inherited music culture and there is a new range of possibilities of sound. If new instruments were never build, the sounds which exist today would never have been created.
Harry Partch was a very important figure in the development of experimental musical instruments. By 1969, the year he recorded “Delusion of the Fury”, he had designed twenty-seven new instruments. He usually used just intonation as a tuning system, as opposed to equal temperament. Just intonation uses the overtones to determine where the pitches lie, while equal temperament divides an octave into 12 equal semitones. He often used non-western scales.
Partch was a great believer in corporeality, the physical presence of instruments. He says that we owe the nature of instruments to their physical makeup, and the instruments call for particular gestures and give rise to characteristic musical patterns.
Partch once stated “Performers should do it all-play music, dance, play basketball (as happened in “The Bewitched”), strip half naked “and I don’t care which half”. (American Public Media). He composed on his instruments using a storyline. This produced composition titles such as “A Hobo’s Journey to Chicago”, “Ulysses being Arrested for Vagrancy”, and “The Intelligentia Gaining Enlightenment at a Cocktail Party”.
“Partch would suggest that you at least take your socks off, whistle mysteriously, attach your mask firmly, throw a bindle over your shoulder, cast your eyes to the Gods, and thumb for a ride as you “rape and caress these instruments”. Your life and humanity depend on it” (Preston Wright, American Public Media). Partch talks on corporeality and his instrument building in this recording.
[ http://musicmavericks.publicradio.org/features/rafiles/partch/talk_corporeality_building_instruments.ram ]
“Ensemble Robot”, a collaboration of American composers, make robots which make music without interaction from a human source. The robots are designed to incorporate the time-tested technique of traditional western instruments with the potential of “electronic musical control systems”. (Ensemble Robot) The robots are intended to mimic human musicality. Here is a link to an audio file for robot “Heliphon”, Blobot, Beatbot, Balinese gamelan, electric guitar, violin, bass, and lyricon. [ http://www.kotekan.com/music/heavymetal_concert.mp3 ]. Many more links to recordings can be found below.
Circuit bending is the creative use of an electronic short circuit, which makes sound. The sound that is produced is usually alien in sound, interface and design. The interface/design aspect to the device which is used is often a children’s musical toy, such as a talking dinosaur or simply an electric keyboard. The inner workings of the device are short-circuited, to achieve a desired sound. Note: if you are to attempt this yourself (it is quite a simple process), DO NOT use a device that is connected to two hundred and forty-Volt power! Use a nine-Volt or better still six-Volt powered device.
Music Concrete, as a musical device, was once very experimental, although now is much more common. John Cage, in 1960 and Stockhausen in 1964 were the first to use live electronic music in real time. They used electronics as an experimental musical instrument.
The instruments that I build show that with a bit of creativity and a local hardware shop, new instruments can be created easily. My bugle shows there is no real need to spend thousands of dollars on brass instruments to learn the fundamentals of the bugle. The panpipes can be adapted to wind chimes or adapted to make it possible for one player to play them all. Figure one shows the bar length calculator I used to create the panpipes, and figure two shows the resulting calculations. This program can be used to calculate bar length size for other instruments such as marimbas. The sample bar length is how long the tonic pipe/bar is, and I used 11 semitone steps up the scale from the tonic, before choosing the appropriate semitone steps for my scale. For a major scale, one would choose to use the sample bar length, bar two, four, five, seven, nine, and eleven. The tin whistle can be tuned to any key or scale wanted.
Frequency Ratios/ Bar Lengths
Number of tones per octave/6
Sample Bar Length/ 18
Number of steps to
Calculate up the scale/ 11
Figure 1: Bar length calculator (Windworld)
An interactive version of this program can be found at http://www.windworld.com/tools/freebar/index.html
Bar/ Length of Bar
Sample Bar 18
1/ 16.98974
2/ 16.03618
3/ 15.13614
4/ 14.28661
5/ 13.48476
6/ 12.72792
7/ 12.01356
8/ 11.33929
9/ 10.70286
10/ 10.10216
11/ 9.53517
Figure 2: Bar length calculations (Windworld)
Audio files:
Belle Labs (2006, 20") by Evan Ziporyn. For Heliphon, Clarinet, and Violin.
http://www.ensemblerobot.com/audio/bellelabs.mp3
Premiere performance at Boston Museum of Science, January 25, 2006. Todd Reynolds (violin), Evan Ziporyn (clarinet)
Heavy Metal (2006, 18") by Christine Southworth. For Heliphon, Blobot, Beatbot, Balinese gamelan, electric guitar, violin, bass, and lyricon
http://www.kotekan.com/music/heavymetal_concert.mp3
Premiere performance at Boston Museum of Science, January 25, 2006. Gamelan Galak Tika, Eddie Whalen (guitar), Todd Reynolds (violin), Blake Newman (bass), Erik Nugent (lyricon).
Anthropomorphic (2005) by Ramon Castillo. For Heliphon, Beatbot and keyboard/accordian
http://www.ensemblerobot.com/audio/anthropomorphic.mp3
Marc Chan (keyboard) with the Heliphon and Beatbot at the Boston Museum of Science, January 25, 2006.
Jamu (2002/05, 10:30) by Christine Southworth. For electronic gamelan and robots
http://www.ensemblerobot.com/audio/jamu_eg_2.mp3
http://www.ensemblerobot.com/audio/jamu_eg_3.mp3
©2005 by Christine Southworth and Eric Gunther, ASCAP, all rights reserved
Ashley Salomon (choreographer) with dancers, JAMU, May 2005 @ Boston Cyberarts Festival
Zap! (2004, 45" ) by Christine Southworth. For Van de Graaff Generator, flutes, voices, guitar, cello, bass, percussion, piano, robots and electronics.
http://www.kotekan.com/music/Zap1-PowerOn.mp3
http://www.kotekan.com/music/zap2.mp3
http://www.kotekan.com/music/Zap3-currentconsumption.mp3
http://www.kotekan.com/music/Zap4-charged.mp3
http://www.kotekan.com/music/Zap5-attraction.mp3
http://www.kotekan.com/music/Zap6-static.mp3
http://www.kotekan.com/music/zap7.mp3
©2004 by Christine Southworth, ASCAP, all rights reserved
Harry Partch and corporeality and his instrument building
http://musicmavericks.publicradio.org/features/rafiles/partch/talk_corporeality_building_instruments.ram
Partch, H (2006) American Public Media
Harry Partch introduces the instruments used in “The Bewitched”
http://musicmavericks.publicradio.org/features/rafiles/partch/talk_intro_bewitched.ram
Partch, H (2006) American Public Media
Hall, B (1995-2005) Gallery of Ceramic Musical Instruments, retrieved July 29, 2005, from http://www.ninestones.com/begallery.html
Bibliography:
American Public Media (2006) “Americans Mavericks, Harry Partch’s Instruments,” retrieved July 29, 2006, from http://musicmavericks.publicradio.org/features/feature_partch.html#
Wright, P (2003) “Harry Partch’s World, ” American Public Media, retrieved July 29, 2006, from http://musicmavericks.publicradio.org/features/essay_partchworld.html
Harry Partch (1947) “Original Preface to “Genesis of Music””, University of Wisconsin, retrieved July 29, 2006, from http://musicmavericks.publicradio.org/features/archive_genesis.html
Ensemble Robot (2003-2006) “Concept,” retrieved July 29, 2006, from http://www.ensemblerobot.org/robots.shtml
Ghazala, Q (1999) “What is Circuit Bending, anti-theory and clear-illogic?” Experimental Musical Instrument, vol. 14, no. 4, retrieved July 29, 2006, from http://www.oddmusic.com/illogic/illogic.html
Hall, B (1995-2005) Gallery of Ceramic Musical Instruments, retrieved July 29, 2005, from http://www.ninestones.com/begallery.html
Giddings, D “Experimental Musical Instruments,” Pipeworks, Common Grounds Confluence, retrieved July 29, 2006, from http://www.colander.org/gallimaufry/Instruments.html
Oxford University Press (2006) “Electroacoustic and electromechanical techniques,” retrieved July 29, 2006, from http://www.grovemusic.com.ezp02.library.qut.edu.au/shared/views/article.html?from=search&session_search_id=309327320&hitnum=55§ion=music.08694.4.6.1
Hopkin, B (1991) “Trends in New Acoustic Musical Instrument Design,” retrieved July 29, 2006, from http://www.jstor.org.ezp02.library.qut.edu.au/view/09611215/ap050001/05a00050/0?currentResult=09611215%2bap050001%2b05a00050%2b0%2c7F&searchUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.jstor.org%2Fsearch%2FBasicResults%3Fhp%3D25%26si%3D1%26Query%3Dexperimental%2Bmusical%2Binstruments
Windworld (2006) “Free Bar Calculator,” retrieved July 29, 2006, from http://www.windworld.com/tools/freebar/index.html
Study is fun-check out this page for a 19th century engraving showing how not to prepare a piano. http://www.colander.org/gallimaufry/Instruments.html (Giddings)
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