Best sounding little-known insturment?

[Archae]

I love the music from the glass armonica.

Not harmonica, armonica.

Rotating glass bowls of different sizes, played with a moistened finger.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

1. Chapman stick

sounds like 20 guitars at once

[MuseRider]

5. YES!

I love it. My kids got into Greg Howard for a while.

[trof]

21. The Swinette

A Short History of the SWINETTE

The "Swinette" is a traditional instrument invented at the turn of the century, by poor southern farmers who could not afford musical instruments.

You simply stretch two horse hairs across a hog's ass and pick it with your teeth!

[ProfessorGAC]

25. Tony Levin

He is incredible on that thing. Uses his hands in both positions, too! (Left fingers low strings, right on high strings, and vice versa.) He says it depends on the rhythm of the song. More rhythmic, he does the former, but more melodic, and contrapuntal, the latter.

The solo he did when i saw King Crimson was the only "bass solo" i ever heard that i was sorry when it was over. (As opposed to that bass puking Michael Anthony, for instance, does.)
The Professor

[Gothic Sponge]

2. I love the sound of Deagan Orchestral chimes

[tjwash]

3. The saw...

...How about the bottle piano?

[Whitacre D_WI]

4. The "guitorgan."

An electric guitar, voiced like an organ. Tres '70s.

When they work (which is rare, as they were built like shit), they really please my ear. Of course, I am known to have an odd ear.

[ClassWarrior]

6. The Theramin.

Spooky. Electronic. What more can I say?

I don't own one, but I do have a djembe which I love.

[burythehatchet]

7. The Duduk

[MercutioATC]

22. I second the Duduk (or Doudouk)

[bif]

23. Aren't those Polish Bagpipes?

[MercutioATC]

26. Nope, it looks like this:

It's an Armenian wind instrument.

[burythehatchet]

30. If you're into spiritual music, close your eyes and listen to a simple

duduk instrumental.

I've never found any music highlighting this instrument, only compilations where one cut or two are.

[bif]

31. I think I have a tape of some of that music.

It's an album by a Gaspar Djivan or something like that. beautiful music.

[Speck Tater]

8. The Sackbut

"A sackbut is a musical instrument. What type of instrument can be explained by pointing out that sackbut is covered by The Oxford Companion to Music in its entry on “the trombone family”. The official definition says that a sackbut is “a bass trumpet with a slide, like that of a trombone, for altering the pitch”. It is a musical instrument of the Renaissance, recently revived in the performances of some early music. And what is the origin of this odd looking word sackbut? Well, the first element in the word (“sack”) is clearly (so say the lexicographers) from an Old Northern French word meaning “to pull or draw”. The source of the second element (“but”) is rather more obscure. However, some scholars connect it with an old word meaning “to push”. In other words, it appears that the name of this instrument was originally “pull-push”, or, in the word of Dr Doolittle, a “pull-me-push-you” – a pretty accurate description of the action of a trombone."

from http://www.abc.net.au/classic/breakfast/stories/s848894.htm

[Loonman]

9. The Celesta

Tchaikovsky had one smuggled secretly into to Russia to use in a ballet score before Rimsky-Korsekov could use it. The name of the ballet? The Nutcracker.


I think it's used in the Harry Potter movie scores, too.

[Richardo]

18. I too like the celeste...

:thumbsup:

[Snow]

37. I sang in a huge symphonic piece that included celesta -

it was either the Verdi Requiem or Mahler's Second. Hmmmm, doesn't Holst's Planets use it too? FOr the Neptune part?

[Richardo]

38. The Planets - yes...can't remember which planet, tho

May have to go home and give it a listen! :thumbsup:

[fortyfeetunder]

41. Yes Holst used celesta in the Planets

But the rocking piece was in the Nutcracker...the big solo of Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies. celesta glissandos....

[Snow]

10. Oboe d'amor.....

the horn of luv. Play it under your sweetie's balcony.

[bowens43]

11. Bowed Psaltery

Love it.....

[GoddessOfGuinness]

39. I have one of those...

Even though the bow is a 20th century thing, the instrument is perfectly suited to Medieval and Rennaissance music. The sound is so pure...

[BiggJawn]

44. That looks like a "Ukelin"

Which I have heard described as a "bowed psaltry with zither chords"

Never heard one played, and I've seen only 2 in my life, and neither were playable.

[bif]

12. The cymbelum and the kim

Anyone know whare those come from or what they are?

[tridim]

13. The tuned PVC pipe drums from The Blue Man Group

They look good too.



Also, my own invention I call a gravity guitar.. It's just a normal electric guitar with steel rods (tuning rods from a snare drum) placed in the high strings in such a way that they bounce and resonate on the other strings while I play. It sounds simple, but the sounds I can make are out of this world and sound like no other instrument. If I turn up the volume on the amp and let it feedback, it plays itself, making random and bizarre "bouncing ball" resonating rhythms.

[PragMantisT]

14. Billy Mure - Supersonics in Flight

Hard to find. Released in 1958. Well ahead of its time. Worth a listen if you get the chance. Multi-layered guitar instrumentals.

[Wilber_Stool]

15. The Glass Harmonica

http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=Glass+Harmonica

[Beware the Beast Man]

16. The Clavinet

Prevalent in 70's soul/funk music...sort of sounds like an electric piano bass. Can be heard in "Jungle Bookie" and the Band's "Cripple Creek"

[GumboYaYa]

17. The pandeiro.

It is a tambourine like instrument from Brazil that is used in Samba music. Unlike a tambourine it is tuned. Charlie Hunter plays one sometimes.

[Richardo]

19. The guitarron...

The foundation of any mariachi band. More mellow than a bass, with a nice thrumming tone...

[phaseolus]

20. chitarrones and theorbos

While previous posts in this thread reminded me of some other instruments I like (like the Brazilian berimbau, or the cornett (an instrument often played with sackbuts, not to be confused with the modern cornet,)) I really like these guys -- They're a sort of Bass Lute, often used for continuo in early Baroque music. They usually have a bunch of long strings off to the side of the fingerboard, each tuned to a different note, plus the usual courses of strings that you would play like a normal lute. These instruments add an incredible solid 'body' to the music. And they're often gorgeous to look at --




Second choice -- vihuela, a Spanish plucked-string instrument that had its own repertoire in the 16th century when the Lute was popular elsewhere in Europe.

p.s. great topic, Arch!

[TrogL]

24. tabla and tamboura

[Dogmudgeon]

27. Txistu

(Pronounced CHEE-stu or CHEE-shtu.)

The Basque flute. Several specimens over 15,000 years old have been found in and near cave dwellings, establishing a cultural thread with the cave artists who left their mark in Lascaux, Altamira and recently-discovered Chauvet Pont d'Arc. The txistu is flared like a clarinet so it has a "richer" sound owing to the presence of more even harmonics. To the uninitiated, it sounds somewhat spooky.

Txistu (original page)

This is most likely the first musical instrument unique to the Basque Country. It is like a flute, only with four holes, which is held and played by the left hand. The right hand holds a drum-stick with which to strike the tamboril or drum which is suspended from the left arm.

Investigators believe the original txistus to have been constructed of animal bones, most likely the bones of oxen. Later, versions were made of wood, and recently metal and nylon have been included. One fossil remain of a txistu has beed dated to be over 27,000 years old.

After centuries of technical perfection and experimentation, it is now common to see txistu bands of four musicians. The first txistu, the second txistu and the silbote, or larger size version of a txistu, all play differnt melodies. They are accompanied by the atabal or drum.

For English-language information on all things Basque, check out Buber`s Basque Pages.

--bkl

[ArkDem]

28. pan flute

[mitchum]

29. I was going to say glass armonica when I saw your thread title

[flamingyouth]

32. The harmonium

I own one and play it. :-)

[Canuckistanian]

33. That's what I was going to say

We hada demonstration of a Harmonium when I was in grade 3. It was quite impressive.
Is it hard to prepare? Don't you have to apply rosin or something?

[flamingyouth]

35. No, it's actually very easy

I polish it often, because I have it out in my living room for all to see. It makes a nice conversation piece too. :-)

[NewHampshireDem]

34. Does the human voice count in Tuvan throat singing?

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=00080AA2-BA32-1C73-9B81809EC588EF21&pageNumber=1&catID=2


http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0000059U3/qid=1085607343/sr=8-4/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i4_xgl15/104-1582023-3460734?v=glance&s=music&n=507846

[Mrs. Venation]

36. Dulicmer

or hammer dulcimer. Two different instruments, two different sounds, both beautiful.

[AspenRose]

40. Alto or Bass Flute

[Eye and Monkey]

42. Ar-hoo.

Chinese string instrument played with a bow. Plaintive, it is.

[SmileyBoy]

43. The Holophoner.

(Futurama reference)

[BiggJawn]

45. The Hurdy-Gurdy...

A Lifetime to tune, 3 minutes to play....

Not to be confused with the hand-cranked organ that goes by the same name, this one has the strings.

[digno dave]

46. skin flute

aa