Other
Experimental Instrument Builders
The
first time I was introduced to experimental instrument building was in 1991
when I read the biography of Glenn Branca in the 1986 edition of the Dutch Pop
Encyclopaedia. The text mentioned a wrong description that Branca had built
several table string instruments based on the harpsichord. This appeared to be
slightly wrong I discovered afterwards. His instruments were string tables with
rods inbetween and he hammered on it with drumsticks. I read his biography
because this was around the time I discovered Sonic Youth at the age of 18. I especially
liked the first albums that have this clear link with Branca. I found a few cds
of Branca in de the cd store but all I could find were two or three long
distance images of the instruments. Even up until now IÕve never seen them on
closer pictures. His work in photographically very poorly documented strange
enough. Cees of Zoppo went to New
York with his school class and on a corner somewhere in New York he 
ran into this street musician who had a weird two
legged table string instrument where he was drumming on. The two string fields
had rods placed between the strings and whil hitting the strings he moved the
positions of the rods changing the pitch of the played strings. Around this guy
young kids with Pavement t-shirts were watching fascinated. Cees bought a cd
and thatÕs how I got introduced to Bradford ReedÕs work on his Pencilina. A few
years later I read the Dutch VPRO television guide I read a small article about
an obscure classical composer who had made instruments with 43 keys tones
instead of 12. I couldnÕt really follow very well what extraÕs this maintained
and forgot about him.
I
had prepared guitars for many years but was 100% unhandy until I bought the
comic book store in 1998. Because store furniture is pretty expensive I was
forced to built some closets myself and as soon as I started I noticed I was
pretty handy and after a few years of furniture practise where I also built all
the furniture in my own house I was ready to finally take the step of building
a more appropriate string instrument than the guitar allows for what I like to
receive from a string instrument. This was the black box with the movable metal
ring shaped bolts underneath the strings. Many more instruments followed and
when time passed I became more and more informed about other experimental
builders. I discovered the totally wild website oddmusic.com which covers almost all
excisting experimental builders. Bart Hopkin had a magazine in the ninties
where many of those builders and their work were also described and he
afterwards started the EMI-website, now called windworld.com. Hopkins website
is equal in importance to oddmusic, but visual less spectacular, because of the
absence of the extended gallery. There are a few other websites like
noisejunk.eu and atlas of plucked instruments, but when you surf on the links
of all the above mentioned pages you soon notice experimental instrument
building is a very obscure phenomenon. The list of dead links mentioned on all
pages is endless, sadly enough. Many came and have allready been disappearen
apparantly, which points out how unknown this all is even up to today.
Wikipedia covers some of the instruments but most are not incorporated or
moderators simply erase it, regarding some of the instruments not relevant
enough for an article on their site.
Microtonal
research and Experimental Building
One
of the most well known experimental builders is Harry Partch and
for the second time I got introduced with his work on oddmusic. Partch was the
composor with the 43-tone scale mentioned in the VPRO TV-guide and when I dived
more into research for the development of the Moodswinger I got introduced in the field
of science called microtonality and the works of Partch were the fundament to
that. He didnÕt invent it, but reintroduced science into the nature of harmonic
music. Ivor Darreg is a similar name attached to this and he also made some
instruments based on large microtonal scales. Partch wrote an important
musicological book about his works called Genesis of a Music. When I first got the book it was unreadable for me,
but the 20 pictures of his instruments are even worth buying the book very
much. It is a nightmare to read for non-mathmatical trained people and because
of the English text I also only can understand some parts, but by far not all
while IÕm pretty good at maths. But buy the book for the pics, you wonÕt regret
it if you are interested in some good visual arts. As soon as you go deep into
experimental instrument building you become aware of the importance of microtonality.
This field of science is very related to it. There is quiet some information on
the internet about microtonality, just intonation, and all kinds of related
subjects like resonance, harmonic overtone series, fourier analyses, Chladni
patterns, cymatics and western and non-western musical theory and scaling
systems. For people not involved with music theory, building or math addicted a
totally boring field of research, but for my work very relevant and I trained
myself the past few years to understand most basics of it. Since IÕm a trained
chemical analist it is for interesting enough to dive into, but understandable
most people donÕt listen to me when I talk about it for 10 minutes. Of the
websites on the Internet the Chrysalis Foundation probably has the most extended
database of information. Tonalsoft also covers a lot of information, but both
go a bit too deep for me even. Other microtonal information centres are Music
Research Development, Anaphoria, Clatterbox and the in my opionion very pleasant
readable Sonic Arts with extended easy readable information about Partch and
Darreg. I purposely donÕt link any of the websites mentioned above, because of
the many dead links on it. It would only lead to a boring and annoying surfing
for you.
Other
experimental builders
Partch, Darreg, Reed and Branca are for me personally the
most intriguing builders. There are many more of course. Some other instrument
builders are Jeff Bunting, Ken Butler, Mark Deutsch (Bazanthar), Neil Feather,
Denny Genovese, Buzz Kimball, the band Neptune, Yuichi Onoue, Hans Reichel (Daxophone),
Steven Rowat (Analude), Iner Souster (Bowafridgeaphone), John Starrett (Starr
Board). A selection of other objects can be found in the list of experimental instruments
built by other inventors
Electronic
Experimental Musical Instruments
IÕm
also typically fascinated by Luigi Russolo who is probably the first
experimental instrument builder of the modern age. His work is electronic as
far as I can see. There is not very accurate information about his noise boxes,
but the pictures of him and his work are of true beauty itself. Some other very
early electronic musical instruments are also quiet fascinating. The Theremin
is the most famous example, but there are many more and the beautifull site
120years.net covers a wide extended source of information about this subject.
Because I mainly focus on electric instruments instead of electronic
instruments (synthesizers) IÕm not going any deeper on this subject.
120years.net is much better about that. Oddmusic also covers a lot of
windblowing instruments and other akoustic instruments for people interested in
experimental instruments apart from the string instruments I disguss widely.
Instruments
based on the Springtime, Moonlander, etc.
Some
people have mailed me to inform me about instruments based on my works as for
instance Micheal LevyÕs Springtime copy
and I found this one on internet, the Winslanirian. Another nice home-made
instrument I found is The Well-Prepared Guitar.
Go to list of experimental instruments
built by other inventors
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