{"id":20621,"date":"2020-06-17T12:52:15","date_gmt":"2020-06-17T19:52:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/independentlens\/?post_type=blog&p=20621"},"modified":"2023-09-19T13:48:06","modified_gmt":"2023-09-19T20:48:06","slug":"six-unusual-instruments-and-how-they-work","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/independentlens\/blog\/six-unusual-instruments-and-how-they-work\/","title":{"rendered":"Six Unusual Instruments and How They Work"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Ade D. Adeniji<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Stacy Tenenbaum\u2019s film <\/span>Pipe Dreams <\/span><\/i><\/a>features four young organ players competing in the prestigious Canadian International Organ Competition, held every few years in Montreal. What\u2019s striking is that each musician has a completely different approach to playing the quirky instrument; Nick Capozzoli is all about playing obscure modern music, whereas Alcee Chriss III draws upon his gospel and jazz roots\u2014turning our notion of the solemn instrument often found in churches on its head. <\/span><\/p>\n

The pipe organ has origins that date back to ancient Greece and Rome, while the unusual glass harmonica dates back to Colonial Era America, but there are plenty of more modern quirky instruments that can share a place alongside them. Join us for a look under the hood of the organ, as well as other eclectically zany instruments us humans have crafted through the years, with this six-instrument primer.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Pipe Organ<\/b><\/p>\n

The earliest pipe organs can be traced back to ancient Greece. Inventor Ctesibius of Alexandria\u2019s instrument was driven by a hydraulics mechanism, where the air supply was maintained through water pressure \u2013 cracking the riddle of how one person could play more than one wind instrument at a time. A few centuries later, organs began to be blown by bellows, an apparatus by which the air is collected, compressed, and propelled through the channels of an organ for redistribution among the pipes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Today, conventional pipe organs consist of four main parts: keyboard(s) and other controls, pipes to produce the tone, a device to supply wind under pressure, and a mechanism connected to the keys for admitting wind to the pipes. Organs usually possess several sets of pipes (also known as stops, or registers), playable from several keyboards and a pedalboard. Under their control are various ranks of wooden and metal pipes of different lengths and shapes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Glass Harmonica<\/b><\/p>\n

The inventor of the lightning rod and bifocals, Founding Father Benjamin Franklin also created the mechanical glass harmonica\u2014or armonica\u2014 in the 1700s. A series of glass bowls rotates while the musician touches the bowls with wet fingers to create the desired notes. And because of its unique design, multiple notes can be played at once. The likes of Mozart and Beethoven arranged pieces to include the glass harmonica, and though the instrument is far from its heyday, maybe this is just the thing to kick of a quarantine-era dance party.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n