A glass violin

[theweaselking]

From silmaril, here:

Only two of those exist in the whole world. He didn't name the company that made them, although he said they are currently working on a glass cello. The arrangement was: He had to promise he would never sell the instrument, but give it back to the makers if he wanted to get rid of it for whatever reason, and he would never tell how much he paid for it. The strings are normal violin strings; it's tuned to the same octave, although to a somewhat lower pitch, than a wood violin. He plays with an ordinary bow. Of what you can see in the picture, only the tuning pegs and chinrest are plastic and the bridge is wooden; every other bit of the instrument is glass. So that it can withstand the string tension, especially the fingerboard is quite thick glass; it weighs more than a wood violin.

He played a slow Japanese tune first, and it sounded like the instrument had been made for that song, until he played O'Carolan's "Farewell to Music," at which point it sounded like the instrument had been made for that song. The first single word that comes to mind to describe the tone is "keening." Somewhere beyond bagpipes---because it's got the purity and beauty of a violin tone somewhere in there---and somewhere different than an oboe---because it has none of the breathiness of a wind instrument. There is a bit of a metallic touch, too, but not like that of an hardinger fiddle---no sympathetic strings; I think the way the glass soundboard oscillates simply brings out the metal of the strings more. I don't know how it would sound playing a happy tune. As it was, its sound was weeping tears.

Comments

[anivair.livejournal.com]

outright wow.

[cmseward.livejournal.com]

The glassblower in the Chemistry Department here at UCD has made a number of very cool things out of glass, one of which was a glass trombone, complete with slide. Unfortunately, it is currently broken (at the place where the slide joins the main bit), but he said that it sounded identical to a proper trombone when it was whole. It looked pretty nifty, anyway.

[texas-tiger.livejournal.com]

Holy WOW...