Odd musical instruments

Hi, well I am still wandering around the deeper and odder depths of Youtube to see what I might stumble upon, and this time I have come up with a rich haul of musical oddities, well, not so much musical oddities as odd musical instruments, which of course means that the music is also rather odd.

I enjoy finding musical instruments that people invent for one reason or another, mainly I suppose because they desire a particular sound that no existing instrument is capable of giving them, and some of them are truly weird.

The first one is an enormous instrument called The Earth Harp, which is the invention of a curious bloke called William Close, obviously a man with one hell of a broad vision to life. I shall offer you two videos of this instrument, the first being from that tedious show called “….. Has Talent”, as in this video he gives a short explanation of the instrument, and then plays it to universal acclaim. The second video is someone else playing the Earth Harp at a TEDeX talk, so the instrument is properly explained, mostly in the “about under the video window if you watch the video on Youtube, rather than the somewhat showy approach used in the “America Has Talent” version.

I apologies for the long run in before we actually hear the instrument, but such is the way of such shows… Also for some reason whoever uploaded the video changed the format, so everyone is short and fat.. odd.

So here we go…………….

https://youtu.be/C_2HVZvQOXI

So, now you know roughly what it is all about, here is a different person playing it at a TedeX talk…

Continue reading “More Curious Musical Instruments For Your Pleasure”

Every so often, strange and twisted people sit down and invent a new and frequently totally insane musical instrument. So I thought it might be fun to have a look at some of the weirder examples of this particular human quirk.

From what I can see, these seem to fall into two broad types, the first being instruments that can be played and used with other musicians playing on more traditional instruments, and the second type are those devices that are played by the wind, water or other non-human forces.

I thought I would have a look at a couple of creations that are “played” by the wind or water first, just to start us off before I head off into the truly strange world of instruments intended to be played by humans.

The Zadar Sea Organ.

So, to begin with, here is a rather beautiful concept, a sort of organ that is played by wave action. This is what Wikipedia has to say about it…

The Sea organ (Croatian: Morske orgulje) is an architectural object located in Zadar, Croatia and an experimental musical instrument, which plays music by way of sea waves and tubes located underneath a set of large marble steps.

Actually, it says rather more, but the main points are in the quote above. Now to listen to the rather pleasing noise it makes as the waves go in and out. I would love to hear what it sounds like in a real storm, when the waves are huge… but I can find no recordings of that, sadly.

Beautiful and haunting isn’t it? I could happily sit on that sea-front all day simply listening to the sound of the actual waves and the sound they generate in those tubes…. What a wonderful concept!

The Singing Ringing Tree.

The next one is visually beautiful too, and the noise (music?) it makes has much the same ethereal quality as the sea organ, but yet it has a very individual voice, that is for sure.

So, for both your aural and optical pleasure, here is the Singing Ringing Tree from near Burnley in the English Pennines.

Isn’t that the most amazing and peaceful sound you have ever heard? Can you imagine standing near to that construction, gazing out over the beautiful views of the Pennines with that calm music surrounding you….

Continue reading “Musical Oddities – Weird Instruments”