Leonardo Da Vinci's wacky piano is heard for the first time, after 500 years

[graywarrior]

Linky linky
http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/music/leonardo-da-vincis-wacky-piano-is-heard-for-the-first-time-after-500-years-20131118-2xpqs.html

#t=197


UPDATE:
http://tygodnik.onet.pl/zmysly/the-da-vinci-tone-in-english/qw5s9

[JimboBillyBubbaBob]

1. Wow,

that's some Renaissance space music!

[NaturalHigh]

2. Very cool.

[RKP5637]

3. Interesting sound, sort of piano + harpsichord + organ sound ... n/t

[mainer]

4. Wow, it sounds like a super-fast cello!

not like a piano or harpsichord at all.

[valerief]

11. You nailed it! nt

[Tuesday Afternoon]

5. beautiful instrument ... interesting sound ... I like it. Thanks, gw !! K&R

[Baitball Blogger]

6. The first synthesizer!

[emsimon33]

7. Cool! Doesn't sound like a piano but more like an entire orchestra

Thank you for sharing.

[JNelson6563]

8. Ok, this is really cool.

Wow! I am amazed this gentleman, Mr. Zubrzycki, was able to build it! And it works! It's beautiful to see & listen to. What a great story.

To Mr. Zubrzycki!

Julie

[Historic NY]

9. Amazing you can hear what sounds like many instruments playing together..

that clever Leonardro, but even more the craftsman that made it.

[Overseas]

10. K&R. Quite fascinating!

[treestar]

12. Sounds like a string quartet

[secondvariety]

18. That's what I thought.

Mr. Zubrzycki is amazing.

[SleeplessinSoCal]

13. Thanks so much for sharing this!

Play a game with friends and play the sound and ask if they can identify the instrument. It sounds like several at once.

[Ferretherder]

14. So Leonardo invented a sort of renaissance 'mellotron'!

That old dude was WAY ahead of his time! (ya' think...duh!)

Way cool that someone had the ingenuity and skill to build it, too! Sounds wonderful.

[FredStembottom]

29. Shoot!

I was gonna compare it to a mellotron!

Ok... So I will call it the World's First Optigan, instead.

Take that, ferretherder!

[Ferretherder]

36. Ya' got me, Fred...

...I don't know what that is! Enlighten me, bro!

[FredStembottom]

41. The Optigan was more a toy than a true instrument.

It played samples of real instruments like the mellotron but these samples were on optical sound discs. A brilliant idea that should have been developed more, I think.

[Ferretherder]

44. Wow! How come I never heard of this?

Cool demo. About what time period is this - I'm assuming its use of optical discs puts it in the 1990's/early 2000's, huh?

Anyway, thanks for the info!

[FredStembottom]

48. A 1970's item.

Not that kind of optical. Not digital optical like came along in the 90's but old analog film optical sound from the 1930's.
It was too lo-fi for professional use and too expensive for a toy so they were only made a few years.
BTW they were actually made by Mattel toys.

[Ferretherder]

52. Wow, again! This is fascinating stuff!

Still can't believe I never heard of it. Thanks much for the description.

By the way, I got a trivia question for you, Fred ole' boy...what is a 'Chamberlin'?

[FredStembottom]

54. Sorry to reply so late.

Got caught up in holiday stuff.

A Chamberlain is a Mellotron competitor that was supposed to work quite a bit better. More reliable. Better sound, too.

[Ferretherder]

58. You're good, Fred!

Actually, the Chamberlin (this is the correct spelling - looked it up!) was invented way back in the early 1950's! One of the 'salesmen' for the early tape-drive keyboards ran off to England with one of the instruments and shopped it around to the highest bidder as his OWN creation, that just needed a little better mechanics to be a really marketable keyboard instrument. A company took over the 'project' and the result was the Mellotron 400.

[FredStembottom]

59. Thanks!

Didn't know the details you supplied.
At some point Chamberlins were available as their own product competing with the Mellotron. One of the prog rock keyboardists swore by them. Patrick Moraz, maybe?

[Ferretherder]

60. I have to admit that I don't know if Moraz was a devotee, or not.

I do know that some prog-rock albums would list Chamberlins in the instrument credits, though.

[Warren DeMontague]

42. or a pre-computer MIDI.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIDI

[Warpy]

15. Better adagio than allegro

and I can think of a lot of things I'd like to hear on it.

Then somebody brought a hammered dulcimer from China into the mix and the piano was born. Well, the harpsichord.

Still, it's interesting to think about what might have been written for this instrument had the idea not been replaced so quickly.

[mainer]

17. It probably can't sustain a note, so adagio would be hard

if it's built like a harpsichord, it may be impossible to do more than pluck or hit a string for a short-term burst.

[0rganism]

26. not like a harpsichord -- more like a bowed keyboard instrument

read the article, it's a very unique beast

[FredStembottom]

31. Very likely the opposite.

The strings are bowed by spinning wheels so most likely can sustain indefinately.

Just sayin'

[2naSalit]

38. Thanks for pointing that out

I wasn't sure about that. Instantly brought to mind the stringed instruments that are featured at the House on the Rock in Spring Green, WI that has several "rooms" of instruments that play themselves. The whirling bow technique is used on the stringed instruments.

This is an entirely different critter, but I love the sound.

[FredStembottom]

47. This is a more controlled version...

...of the House on the Rock gimmick, yes.

[2naSalit]

53. It sure is.

It's so amazing to think that this idea came to fore, so to speak, that long ago. I wonder what mechanism actually drives the whirling part of those rotating (I guess) bows. I think it's an instrument that deserves some publicity and future inclusion in orchestral, chamber and solo works. It's a marvelous sound, full and clean yet velvety. I certainly couldn't play one, not an instrumentalist but a musician all the same... I would love to see and hear much more of this instrument. I hope it catches on.

[FredStembottom]

55. As Mineral Man points out down thread...

It's really 4 hurdy gurdys clamped together, basically.
Now I need to know if the hurdy gurdy was contemporary to DaVinci's time.

[2naSalit]

57. Me too

but I also have to review the workings of hurdy gurdies! That has to wait for next week, I'm volunteering at a huge ski event this week, tomorrow's the last day and I'll be resting my sunburned face and eyes for a day or two before I spend too much time reading.

Ta ta for now,

2na.

[Ferretherder]

37. Think...

...Adagio for Strings!

Barber's masterpiece.

[QuestForSense]

16. I thoroughly enjoyed the concert. Thanks so much for posting!

The sound is exquisite. The instrument is capable of producing a wide variety of colors from tonal palette, and the inscription by St. Hildegard inside the lid is poetry of the highest order.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

19. Do classical gas!!!

[loudsue]

25. Oh! Mason Williams would love that, dontcha know!

It is beautiful!

[Spitfire of ATJ]

28. Probably would sound like it was written for this instument.

[FredStembottom]

32. Wow. I think Class Gas

... Would actually sound really, really good on this.

[stage left]

20. Loved hearing it!

Thanks, Gray Warrior.

[Tab]

21. Excellent

Wish I had one

[Hamlette]

22. Hard to see from this picture, but google it and see Leo's drawings and how it works.

including this random thing
http://www.idakoos.com/images/makeimage.aspx?prd=000WH0000&nlg=002382424240374VRREBL&px=12&py=12&tn=476&tl=476&j=1&z=165&idm=A

Sorry, I've forgotten how to post pictures.

[trof]

23. K&R. JFA:

Just Fucking Amazing.
Thanks.

[graywarrior]

24. JFA !

Love that!

[Hestia]

27. Awesome! Totally Awesome!

[progressoid]

30. Indeed so. Most indeededly

[loudsue]

33. I'm speechless. What an amazing experience that was!

Bravo!!!

[beac]

34. Cool.

Thanks for posting!

[Igel]

35. Harpsichord meets hurdy-gurdy.

Or perhaps a clavichord meets hurdy-gurdy.

Sort of sounds like a bunch of viols. Hence "viola."

Sounds fairly equally tempered to my tin ear. Pity.

[2naSalit]

39. Totally awesome!

Thanks for sharing that! It is truly a delight to hear... and to know that it was Da Vinci's design. Amazing.

[nyquil_man]

40. I don't see what's so wacky about it. It's quite beautiful. nt

[Warren DeMontague]

43. Sure- Setting the standard until Einstein rewrote the rules of music with his Electric Violin.

That, of course, was before he destroyed his brain sniffing drainpipes.

[MineralMan]

45. Interesting. It's really just four hurdy-gurdy type instruments

played with a keyboard. The hurdy-gurdy existed in many forms. This one's very cool, and much more elaborate than smaller hurdy-gurdies.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurdy_gurdy

[FredStembottom]

49. The Winner!

Of course.... Hurdy gurdy x 4.
Thanks Mineral Man. That's the exact comparison.

[Octafish]

46. Incredible!

Thank you graywarrior. The sound it makes is like being with Da Vinci and hearing him speak again.

[Tigress DEM]

50. Coolness! nt

[Hoyt]

51. One could while away a lot of time on that instrument. Beautiful.

[KoKo]

56. K&R! Fun.

[Tabasco_Dave]

61. The beatles could have used this

one of the reasons they stopped touring was because they needed a string section for songs like Eleanor Rigby.