Novel musical instruments *

#1

To give a world a feeling of otherworldliness, it is best to replace some standard, everyday objects by imaginitive replacements. I thought I'd turn to musical instruments as music often defines (or embodies) a culture.

This is just a first idea, feel free to post some more, because I will...

The rangerfolk of Dugamin use huge horns made of hollowed trunks to warn of danger or to celebrate harvest. The trunks are always found dead (who ever heard of a ranger harming a tree to make a musical instrument?) and hollowed by Muglart beetles, all the rangers do is to affix a metal mouthpiece to one end.

ephe!

Novel musical instruments

#2

In the Backbone Mountains, there is a convent of monks. They have a few unique instruments which they use in meditations and rituals.

1. Wind Stones: These large standing stones(picture Stonehedge without the top cross-pieces) are modified by drilling small holes into their sides and etching grooves into the surfaces in intricate patterns. They are then stood up on end near the peak of a mountain or large hill. The wind passing these stones is channeled through the holes and etchings creating a haunting melody as the air whistles past.

2. Saja Rattles: The Saja bean is a plant which grows pods, much like peas. When these pods are dried in the sun, the bean within the pod shrivels into a small, hard ball, which is then left inside the pod and the pod is shaken like a rattle. These are primarily used in group meditation rituals.

Arune Spheres

#3

Arune Spheres are hollow, blue reflective metallic spheres about 25 cm/ 10" in diameter (though some are larger). They are made of a thickish glass mirrored on the inside.

To use, one normally sits in a lotus position, with the sphere in the lap. Two hands lightly grasp its sides. The practioner closes their eyes and concentrates on the flow.

When magical energies are flowed through the sphere, it produces a haunting tone, which can be varied by the type, intensity, and harmonics of energies passed through it. (It sounds like an electronic organ.) If multiple energy flows are generated, multiple sounds can be generated, some of which sound like mundane instruments. Masters of The Craft can replicate almost any sound in their memory with one.

Though originally used as a training tools for those with The Power, it has been adapted to be a musical instrument. All it takes is someone with patience, medative training, and a touch of the Power, to use it. (Thus becoming the favorite instrument of anyone who was tested to the first level of the Craft, but failed to advance).

Novel musical instruments

#4

A bungurz is a drum ... of sorts. Used by a few savage tribes for music and communication, it resembles a mushroom of sorts - a semispherical construction covered in leather, with faces of different size and thus different sound, with a hollow tree trunk attached for resonance. Within, smaller pieces of wood that resonate as well are attached too. The tone is rarely clear, consisting of several overlaping tones.
A true master drummaker can craft a bungurz that has a tone harmonic and full, while a newbie, or an awful musician, will make the bungurz sound like a landslide.
Being a good bungurzer earns quite a bit respect from the tribesmates.

Novel musical instruments

#5

Kept up by the Monks of Monthan the Montan Water Wheel is still working to this day.

On the water wheel, each bucket is created so that only a small sliced portion of it collects water. Each bucket is unique about the section of which it collects water. This water is then dumped into a corressponding gutter of water that takes it to one of many sections of free swinging bamboo. The water fills the top of the bamboo forcing it over dumping the water which allows the bamboo to swing back and strike another bamboo striker creating a hollow yet melodic quick series of tapping.

The water released from the buckets interacting with the bamboo creates a hypnotic, soothing pattern that many from all around venture to witness. It is used by some sick as therapeutic, by the holy as hypnotic and centering, and by the curious as, well, curious.

((In many Japanese gardens the bamboo waterfalls and striking of bamboo together is pretty popular and really does sound cool. A small sample of it is in Kill Bill....well, you know the part.))

Novel musical instruments

#6

In the Fourth Kingdom there is a cliff as tall as a cathedral. It is called the Cliff of the Thousand Birds, for here the birds nest in their thousands and such a terrible noise, a squawking mess, has never been heard anywhere else.

And so displeased was the Emperor with this unholy sound that he summoned to him his wisest mages, asking their advice. So it was that Relevi, wisest of the wisest mages, decided to cast his magics over the birds of the Cliff of the Thousand Birds and instil in them some sense of rhythm and melody.

He still stands there, conducting the birds as they sing their long symphony, as they will for as long as the Earth is here. Like a vast cathedral organ the Cliff of the Thousand Birds resounds to the mighty chorus of its denizens, and such a glorious sound has never been heard anywhere else.

ephe!

Caatjun Instruments

#7

Caatjun music is made with long, wooden staves called thraakartimeek, of various lengths, which the musicians thwack against the ground, trees, other staves, and such, to create a rythm.

It is sometimes accompanied by huge drums made from animal skins (aarp'raamjo) stretched over wide racks, which are kicked by the drummer.

Long wooden instruments much like an Australian aboriginal didgeridoo, called mjnaa'olee, are also played. Caatjun singing is considered pleasant; it is done by female children of the tribe, who warble fluting, quivering melodies sounding much like birdsong.

Musical instruments

#8

After just having visited a museum of musical instruments, I've thought of a few things to put here.

General comments
Remember the huge number of instruments that have existed in the real world. Serpents (wind instruments which actually had serpent's heads carved in them), brass instruments with huge numbers of loops, triangular violins and so on. Also, in many periods, instruments were so expensive that they were a work of art - quite literally, not just in the time and skill which went in to their construction. Pianos would have elaborate paintings (as good as any which would go on the walls) painted on the back or in the bit under where the strings go.

Specific unusual instruments from the museum
- A glass harmonica (about the size of a small keyboard instrument) which was designed by Benjamin Franklin.
- The "lyroharp", basically like 3 guitars (18 strings in total) fused at the base. The two side "necks" went up at about 30 degrees on either side of the centre neck; a curving piece of wood then connected all three necks at the top.
- Pochettes, 18th century violins small enough that music teachers could carry them in their pockets.
- The Nest of Serpents: 12 serpents (i.e. long, wide curved wind instruments with heads carved like serpents) put around a central decorated column (about 5 ft high). Each serpent was separate (musically) from the rest though it was all joined together in a physical sense. Required 12 people to play.

Instruments inspired by it (but that weren't actually there)

Dragon Horns
The dragon horns of the dwarves of the Amra mountains are amongst the most difficult instruments to play in the world, due to the amount of breath that they demand. These huge, wide horns are heavy enough that they require 6 dwarves to carry; the front of it is carved in to a ferocious dragon's head and the rest of it ornately decorated as well. All six dwarves must blow and play in unison in order to produce a good sound. The dragon horns are played twice a year, at the Spring and Autumn Equinoxes in large festivals to ward off the forces of evil. The playing of the horns is meant to invoke the protective dragon spirits of the Amra dwarfs (the dwarfs believe that the dragons in the Amra mountains are their guardians (whether they are or not is up to you)). Each horn is a family heirloom and it is an honour to be selected to be one of the six horn players.

Psiltaria
The fisherfolk of the Idril coast use many simple instruments to make music; amongst them is the Psiltaria, or "fish player." This small stringed instrument is shaped like a fish and has three strings. The strings are played by hitting them with small sticks.

Wind stones (continued from Alec_Shadowkin's post
Perhaps the stones, as well as emitting the haunting melody, are fashioned such that occasionally, in a strong wind at just the right speed, the stone will resonate producing a very loud, low booming noise (sort of resembling humpback whale sounds).

Fire Tails

#9

Colorful streamers are often attached to Dragon Saddles and Wing Clips on Kerren for special occasions and the introductory lap at tournies. To make them safer (for the dragon), they have slight weights at the end. These streamers are called Fire Tails.

These often become musical instruments because the slight weights are the ends are barrel whistles. These are small round items, with a central spinning piece that produces the whistle as air flows through it.

Well prepared wings can "sing" the first seven notes of a song as they fly back.

Some Ryders have bells along the lengths of Fire Tails just to add more noise.

The Lizard

#10

The Lizard (tenor cornett)
This is a real world musical item, but it is so "out of most people's experience" that nobody realizes it.

The tenor of the zink family (also known as lysard or lysarden) has the peculiar curved shape of a flattened letter s. Besides giving the instrument its name, this shape helps the player cover the finger holes on this longer zink. The holes for each hand happen to be in the portion of the curves which are closest to the player. The lizard's tone is pleasing, yet rather foggy. It blends well with voices and plays on one of the inner voices of an ensemble. A Lyserden is listed in the waits' band of Exeter in 1575 and a lysarden appears in the inventory made in 1602 of the instruments at Hengrave Hall, Suffolk, that belonged to Thomas Kytson. Refer to the serpent page to see the bass of the cornett family.

Cool Link and you can see a picture of this thing
http://www.music.iastate.edu/antiqua/lizard.htm

The Organetto

#11

The Organetto Yes this is a real world musical item, but it is so "out of most people's experience" that nobody realizes it.

There are easily manageable organs which are portable and are pumped and played by the same person, who also sings either the soprano or tenor part.

The organetto was one of the most popular instruments of the thirteenth through sixteenth centuries. Relatively light in weight, the instrument, when equipped with a sling, could be carried about and played in religious processions. The player provides his own wind supply by pumping a bellows made of sheepskin and wood with his left hand while playing a button type keyboard of approximately two octaves with his right hand. Because of its limited air supply, the organetto could only play one note at a time. Thus it was used for monophonic dance music, or a single part in a motet, chanson, or other polyphonic work.

Pipes are arranged in two rows and have a high lead content. The key action is mechanical: depressing a key allows air from the bellows to enter the appropriate pipe. Although the organetto is tuned in Pythagorean temperament, other temperaments are possible by pushing harder or more lightly on the bellows.

http://www.music.iastate.edu/antiqua/organeto.htm

The Rebec

#12

The use of a bow on stringed instruments probably originated in central Asia during the ninth century, spreading through Islamic and Byzantine territories and later reaching western Europe in the tenth to twelth centuries. Bowing may have developed in an attempt to create an instrument which could imitate the voice. Bowing gave stringed instruments the sustaining power necessary to play a continuous melodic line. Nevertheless, the status of these bowed instruments and their players remained low. The rebec was definitely an instrument of the lower classes, not the court.

The rebec (rebeca, rebecq, rebet, ribeca, rebecum, rabel, or rebequin) came from the Arabian rabob. It has been known in Europe since the 10th century but their use in art music was chiefly during the Middle Ages and Renaissance. The rebec's rounded pear-shaped body is carved from a single block of wood and tapers in such a way that there is no visible distinction between the body and the neck. The fingerboard is a raised part of the soundboard or is fixed to it from above, but this does not change the frontal outline of the instrument. Early rebecs had no soundpost and the pegholder is flat. As with most early instruments, rebecs came in many sizes and pitches and although the number of strings on early rebecs varied from three to five, the three-stringed rebec seems to be the most popular.

http://www.music.iastate.edu/antiqua/rebec.htm

Singing Bowl

#13

These bowls are used for medatative purposes, rather than entertainment. These bowls should be made of traditional seven metals: gold, silver, mercury, copper, iron, tin, and lead. The bowls are normally six to seven inches wide and about five inches deep. A rod (of the same metals) is rolled around the lip of the bowl to create a sound. The bowl is normally empty It creates a harmonic, free-floating sound based on untuned vibration.