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The first primitive musical instruments appeared in ancient times, because people have always strived for music.
Once upon a time, bull strings were pulled on a wooden board, so the first instrument appeared. An ordinary barrel, on which a peeled donkey skin was pulled, became a drum.
But with each century, the instruments became more complex and interesting, and specially trained people were required to play them.
In the 16th century, the violin or “viola” was born, it gave the world amazing masters who created masterpieces – Amati, Stradivari, Guarneri. In the 17th century, a keyboard instrument appeared – the harpsichord, which can be called the father of the piano and grand piano.
But along with these well-known instruments, absolutely amazing, unprecedented instruments appeared, which now can only be seen in museums or read about them in books. We bring to your attention a list of the strangest and most unusual musical instruments.
10 pyrophonic organ
This organ has another name – fiery, explosive, was invented and created in the 19th century by French physicist and mathematician Georg Eugen Kastner and musician Albert Lavignac.
Kastner was fond of science from a young age, and most of all he was interested in the “singing flame” that appears at the moment of gas combustion in glass tubes of various lengths.
In 1875, Kastner demonstrated his invention and also published a small pamphlet entitled Singing Lights. The first who managed to learn how to play the fire organ was Henri Dunant, we all know him as the founder of the international organization of the Red Cross.
The first pyrophone was assembled from glass tubes of various lengths attached to the keyboard, and the keys themselves controlled the flames in them. But one of the first pyrophones exploded during a public performance, injuring the musician and frightening the audience.
Currently, pyrophones are not produced or used, they can only be seen in museums, for example, in Lancashire in a panopticon.
9. Waves of Martenot
This musical instrument, invented in 1928, was named after its “father” Maurice Martineau. At first sight this musical instrument is similar to the clavichord.
But this is a synthesis of keyboard and bowed instruments. The performer plays the keys with his right hand (here 7 octaves), and with his left hand he works with a potentiometer, changing the volume and timbre of the sound.
The creator first demonstrated his offspring in 1928 at a concert, where he performed a “symphonic poem” by D. Levidis specially written for that day. In the 70s of the twentieth century, the instrument became semiconductor and in the 90s – digital.
8. Toiletphonium
The usual small and often found in symphony orchestras, the euphonium is not at all a strange musical instrument, although many people have never even heard of it. While watching military parades, we can see a musician playing this tuba-like instrument.
But Franz Spiegel from Liverpool created an amazing a tool made from euphonium and an ordinary painted toilet bowl. This instrument functions well and makes sounds not only possible for wind instruments, but also extremely unusual, made by water pouring out in a faience bowl under strong pressure.
7. Glass harmonica
There are a huge number of varieties of harmonies in the world, but the glass harmonica is a very special, unique instrument.
It is created from several glass hemispheres of different sizes., all mounted on a metal axle, which is mounted in a resonator box filled with diluted vinegar. The hemispheres rotate when you press the pedal and make gentle, caressing sounds.
The glass harmonica should not be considered a modern invention. This instrument has been known since the middle of the 17th century. It is known that in some European cities laws were even issued prohibiting its use.
It was believed that the sounds of this harmonica frighten animals, destroy peace of mind, cause miscarriages, and can even drive you crazy.
6. barrel organ
You will be surprised, but the name of the familiar instrument hurdy-gurdy is translated from German as Beautiful Katarina. It is a mechanical musical instrument. A metal roller with spikes rotates in it, which controls the organ pipes. Usually the hurdy-gurdy plays only a few tunes.
In the 17th and 19th centuries, street musicians walked around with hurdy-gurdies, who thus earned their living. Sometimes barrel-organs were used in temples, psalms and solemn hymns were performed on them.
5. Ybahar
In Turkish, the name of this instrument sounds like Yaybahaj. It was created by German-born Turkish musician Heinrich Shen in 2014.. This strange instrument successfully combines the properties of bowed and percussion instruments.
It’s probably hard to believe, but Ybahar is a completely acoustic instrument. The vibrations of the strings are generated by twisted compressed springs tied to a wooden membrane, and the born sound, repelled from the membrane, is again given into the springs and generates new strange vibrations.
The instrument is quite large and requires a lot of skill to produce harmonic sounds.
4. Picasso guitar
The appearance of a guitar usually will not surprise anyone, this instrument has become so firmly established in our lives. But in 1984, a Canadian master named Linda Manzer created a special kind of guitar for him by pairing it with a harp., for jazz guitarist Patrick Bruce Metheny.
This instrument has four necks, two resonator holes and as many as 42 strings. Of course, the name of the instrument surprises. But they began to call him that because of the resemblance to some of the figures in the paintings of the famous cubist artist Pablo Picasso.
It took the master two whole years to create this unique instrument.
3. Bonang
Bonang is played in Indonesia. These are bronze gongs mounted in a row on a wooden stand. The sound is extracted with a wooden stick wrapped in natural cloth when striking bronze. Sometimes clay hemispheres are hung over the gongs as resonators. The sound of the bonang trembles in the air for a long time.
2. Hydralophone
Even people who are not familiar with foreign languages can understand that hydro is water, and the background is sound. This means that this instrument, unknown to the general public, is somehow connected with the sounds made by the water stream.
Indeed, the hydrophone is amazing. a musical instrument created by converting fluid vibrations into sound.
In this tool, there are usually several holes through which a stream of water pours under pressure. When one of the streams is blocked, there is a sound generated not by air, but by water.
The hydrophone was not created by a musician, but by Canadian engineer Steve Mann. The largest hydrophone in the world is in the Canadian Museum of the Ontario Science Center.
1. cat piano
No one has ever seen such an instrument in reality, but it is described in some works of the 19th century, and there are also illustrations depicting the Cat Piano.
The description of this tool belongs to the German scientist Athanasius Kircher. According to this description the tool consists of an average chain length of 10-12 crampons, which are firmly fixed in the bottom position, and their tails are tightly connected to the piano keyboard.
Animals are selected according to the pitch of the sounds they can make. When the keys are pressed, the animal feels severe pain and begins to scream.
Probably, the name of the piano or pianoforte is not quite correct, because in 1657, when the book was published, these instruments did not yet exist.