Inventing a new instrument

25 November:

Developments on this project

So we added a marimba key and a bridge to see what would happen. The string here is tuned to an E an octave higher on the shorter side than the longer side and the marimba key is tuned to the same pitch (the higher E). The result - a warmer tone, definitely, compared to when the note is played while the marimba key is dampened, but the difference isn't big enough to get me doing flick flacks across the ceiling or anything like that. Next step is to see what happens with a good microphone. There is also another idea of making a movable bridge that zooms up and down the string changing the pitch. This project is on pause at the moment while Tormod concentrates on more pressing work. 

14 october:

This is what happens when you have a composer and an instrument maker working in the same house.

It is the first prototype of a new kind of string instrument for an upcoming composition. It's very simply the longest, deepest double bass string strung up to explore the deeper vibrations, frequencies which Tormod, my violin playing composer colleague feels have been missing from his life. Quite understandable, that. We started it yesterday afternoon and strung it up today, in time for a grant application that should be in tomorrow.

It has no resonance body as such at the moment. The idea, inspired by the architecture of the wooden buildings here at Nääs, is to eventually use something very big, like floors and walls to amplify the sound. Until then it'll be electrical. What is interesting for me is that this design allows considerable freedom to explore the accoustical properties of bass strings. One experiment I want to try is to replace the traditional resonating body of a double bass with a resonating bar - a marimba key tuned to the same pitch as the forcing frequecy of the string. The string will pass its vibrations to the marimba key via a sound post/ bridge hybrid. Marimba keys are struck, strings can be struck, plucked or bowed but I'm not aware of the two ever having been combined, so I'm very curious. I'm also interested in placing a bridge at different points along the string, something that traditional instruments just don't allow for. And we'll have to see what Tormod has got up his sleeve - so watch (and listen to) this space.