Hydraulophones

A hydraulophones are musical instruments that uses pressurized hydraulic fluid, such as water, to make sound. They were invented by Steve Mann ( who is perhaps best known for his work in wearable computing). I particularly like the instrument's public art incarnation:


Pachelbel's Canon being played on the hydraulophone:


Overview of the instrument including early prototypes:


A variety of hydraulophone-related videos, photos, & links can be found at Steve Mann's wearcam website.

More Songs About Buildings...

David Byrne building-based musical instrument, Playing the Building, is being installed (in collaboration with Creative Time) at Battery Maritime Building, New York, NY (10 South Street at Whitehall Street).

Playing the building is a sound installation in which the infrastructure, the physical plant of the building, is converted into a giant musical instrument. Devices are attached to the building structure -- to the metal beams and pillars, the heating pipes, the water pipes -- and are used to make these things produce sound. The activations are of three types: wind, vibration, striking. The devices do not produce sound themselves, but they cause the building elements to vibrate, resonate and oscillate so that the building itself becomes a very large musical instrument.

Visitors can play the building organ during the show's run (May 31 - August 10, 2008). I believe the show is only open on weekends, so double-check that before heading to visit it.

This is the installations second outing--it was installed in Stockholm several years ago. A photocam recording from the Stockholm show opening (9 October 2005):

Ewa Berglund playing the building (recorded by Emma Karlsson), Färgfabriken, 29 October 2005:

Beast in the basement

Fighting off a bad cold, so I'm limiting myself to a quick reblogging (via Make) today.

AsSLowASPossible

In 1985 John Cage composed ASLSP, a work for the organ whose directions are to play it as slow as possible. It's first performance lasted 29 minutes... a more recent performance was 71 minutes. But is that really as slow as possible? No!

Since September 5, 2001 there is an ongoing performance of the piece in Halberstadt, Germany that is intended to last 639 years. The significance of the date, location, & duration is that September 5th was the 89th anniversary of John Cage (and the year of the start of the millenium), the organ is located in the birthplace church of the modern organ, and the performance started on the 639th anniversary of the modern organ.

The computer-controlled performance began with 1-1/2 years of silence (due to the work's first initial notes being rests).

http://www.npr.org/programs/pt/features/2003/sep/aslsp.html
http://www.john-cage.halberstadt.de/new/index.php?l=e