Glass Harmonica

Is a type of musical instrument that uses a series of glass bowls or goblets graduated in size to produce musical tones by means of friction (instruments of this type are known as friction idiophones).
Because its made of glass, is a crystallophone. The phenomenon of rubbing a wet finger around the rim of a wine goblet to produce tones is documented back to Renaissance times.

The Irish musician Richard Pockrich is credited as the first to play an instrument composed of glass vessels by rubbing his fingers around the rims , he performed in London on a set of upright goblets filled with varying amounts of water. His career was cut short by a fire in his room, which killed him and destroyed his apparatus

The glass harmonica consists of a series of glass plates or bowls of different sizes superimposed and aligned horizontally, crossed by an axis connected by belt to a pedal that rotates them while playing, in the manner of an old sewing machine. It is played by wetting the fingers slightly and touching the plates while they rotate, which produces a crystalline sound.

In some places it was prohibited because it was considered harmful. It was said to cause cancer in those who touched her; although today it is known that the real cause was the lead with which the crystals were formerly made and that it could also be a cause of saturnism, which is why its use is again increasingly frequent, yes, with manufactured harmonics of lead free crystals.

Nowadays it is a little used instrument, although some musicians have used it to expand its sound.

Due to the problem of lead in the crystals that once existed (it produced poisonings in musicians), it was replaced by flutes. Since the 80s of the last century, it has been reused in certain versions of the famous scene of the madness of the opera Lucia di Lammermoor, by Donizetti.

Resuming of the Blog

As you know, I have been inactive for a very long time, because of my studies, music and different things. I hope I can post more things in the near future. Thanks for your understanding

The Theremin

It is one of the first electronic musical instruments that is controlled without the physical contact of the interpreter or thereminist with the instrument. Its name derives from the westernized version of the name of its Russian inventor Léon Theremin (Термен), who developed it in 1920 and patented it in 1928.
The instrument is formed by two metallic antennas that detect the relative position of the hands of the thereminist and the oscillators to control the frequency with one hand and the amplitude (volume) with the other. Theremin electrical signals are amplified and sent to a speaker.
The theremin was included in soundtracks of films such as Remember and Days Without Footprint composed by Miklós Rózsa, as well as in Bernard Herrmann's Earth Ultimatum. It has also been used in themes for television shows such as the ITV series The Midsomer Murders. This has led to its association with disturbing situations. Also, this instrument is used in classical music, especially experimental music and contemporary classical music of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries; as well as in genres of popular music such as rock.
consists of a box with two antennas. It is executed by moving the hand away from each one of the corresponding antennas, without touching them. The right is usually straight and vertical. It serves to control the tone or frequency: the closer to it the right hand is, the sharper the sound produced will be. The left antenna is horizontal and shaped like a loop. It serves to control the volume level, which will be lower the closer it is to the left hand.The timbre of the theremines resembled something between a cello and a human voice. Its inventor, as well as a physicist, was a cellist

Organ 2/ASLSP

Organ² / ASLSP (As SLow aS Possible) is a piece of music composed by John Cage and is the slowest and longest lasting music performance ever made. It was written in 1987 for organ, originally adapted from the previous work ASLSP of 1985 at the suggestion of the organist Gerd Zacher. A regular interpretation of the piano piece lasts between 20 and 70 minutes.1 In 1985, Cage chose to omit the detail of "exactly how slow the piece should be played".The current interpretation of the piece in the church of St. Burchardi in Halberstadt, Germany, began in 2001 and is scheduled to last for 639 years, ending in 2640.The performance really began in the church of San Burchardi on September 5, 2001 with a pause that lasted until February 5, 2003. The first chord was played for two years: from then until July 5, 2005. On 5 In January 2006 another new chord was performed, which ended on July 5, 2012. It was a chord of three notes: la3, do4 and fa♯4.The last musical event of the organ is a new chord (do4-la ♭ 4). On July 5, 2008, the weights that maintained the pedals of the organ were changed giving rise to the sixth change of chord (do3-re ♭ 3) .4 Two more organ tubes were added that same day to make the tone more complex . A machine, called an electric bellows, provides a continuous flow of air that keeps the tubes playing all the time.5 The sound that is currently playing can be heard on the website dedicated to this event.6The interpretation will last until September 5, 2640.Sound changes [edit]The piece began with a silence of seventeen months, on September 5, 2001, commemorating the 89th anniversary of the birth of composer John Cage.6 The first audible sound emerged on February 5, 2003. The following changes are listed below.July 5, 2004July 5, 2005January 5, 2006May 5, 2006July 5, 2008November 5, 2008February 5, 2009July 5, 2010February 5, 2011August 5, 2011July 5, 2012October 5, 2013September 5, 2020

Orchestrion

An orchestrion is a generic name for a machine that plays music that is designed to sound like an orchestra or band. It is therefore a complex mechanical instrument, very popular especially from the mid-nineteenth century to the early twentieth.
Built inside a showcase, inside it was placed the mechanism of reproduction of the songs, which usually consisted of a fixed cylinder (as in a music box) or a roll of music, and less often a music book.
The sound is usually produced by tubes (although they sound differently than those found in a pipe organ), and by percussion instruments such as hammers that hit bells, drums, triangles, etc ... Many contained a piano as well, and even a system of bows that rubbed strings to make string instrument sounds.
The orchestrion reached its zenith in Germany during the 1920s with the advent of the Jazz Age. German manufacturers such as Weber, Hupfeld, Philipps, Popper, etc. adapted and redesigned the instrumentation of their orchestras to play sophisticated syncopated popular jazz songs that came from Berlin and the United States. Many of the boxes were modernized to reflect Bauhaus designs. The adaptation of the music combined with the design of mechanisms and the furniture produced a synergy that gave rise to some of the most spectacular music machines ever built.

The Baritón

The baritón or baryton is a rubbed string instrument of the viola da gamba family, commonly used in Europe during the 18th century. It fell into disuse due to its great difficulty of interpretation. Its size is similar to that of the cello; It has six or seven gut strings that are rubbed with the bow, plus between nine and twenty-four sympathetic strings (usually twelve) that are pressed by the musician's thumb to create a tonal contrast and which give great resonance to the sound of the instrument.
  The baritone is rarely touched today. It can also be called, in different languages, baryton, bariton, barydon, paradon, paridon, pariton, viola paradon, viola di bordoni, viola di bardone or viola di bordone.

The Roli Seaboard

The Seaboard recreates the keyboard of the piano through a smooth, continuous and sensitive to the touch surface in which you can play any type of sound. Musicians of all types have discovered a new way of expressing themselves with the award-winning Seaboard.
Seaboard Block
The Seaboard Block is a powerful portable controller that works independently and connects with other Blocks of the BLOCKS modular system.
Seaboard RISE
The Seaboard RISE is a MIDI controller of last generation. Wireless, portable and available in two models, it is ideal to accompany you on stage or in the studio.
Seaboard GRAND
The Seaboard GRAND redefines the idea of a synthesizer. With an integrated sound engine Equator, this is a premium instrument for the most avant-garde musicians.