HISTORY OF SOUND BLOGPOST EXERCISE
WHOAH – THAT MOVIE ON THE HISTORY OF SOUND ART WAS PRETTY STRANGE!
Whenever I see a new machine or device that interests me, one of the first things that I think is “Could I make one of those?” The Luigi Russolo intonarumori machines were pretty intriguing, and later on in the video Luciano Chessa recreates some of them – so I immediately put that idea on the desk. The sounds/noise (what’s the difference I wonder?) that the machines made were unusual, nice and brutal compared with the rather idyllic pastoral sound pictures typically seen in some of the other videos we’ve seen in class and this was a good contrast and relevant to one of my project ideas – which will be much more strident – looking at the build-up towards a war or conflict. I have an old djembe drum which I could fix a sting to and then figure out some sort of cranking device – let’s see…..
Then along came the good old Theremin. I was pretty familiar with these having been emailing back and forth with an old school chum from 45 years ago who shares an interest in weird musical instruments – after all he plays the traditional French bagpipes – and he had sent me a few videos about a year ago. I in turn sent him a kit to make a hurdy-gurdy. Looking up Theremin kits on Amazon there are a couple of cheap ones out there, but according to the reviews they are pretty crappy and don’t make a great sound, to buy anything half decent you’re looking at $350 – and for the real thing a couple of thousand . I have a lottery ticket – so who knows. In the meantime I’ll close with my bagpipe joke:
What’s the definition of a gentleman???? Someone who knows how to play the bagpipes but choses not to..
For fun I’m posting a video of my favorite hurdy-gurdy tunes. One of the best comments posted on YouTube which describes this video was
In reality, I’m sitting at my computer watching this video. In my mind, I’m riding on my horse through a moonlit field where an ancient battle was fought. Though the battle and the war in which it was fought have been lost to memory, I hear the sound of armies marching, drums beating, and the battle cries of warriors as I gallop along. Armies of phantoms abound & the sounds of battle fill the chill night air. I urge my horse to go faster so that we don’t get caught amidst the clashing armies, and though I know they are but ghosts, their cries are terrible..