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Le Cristal Baschet
The Cristal Baschet or 'Le Cristal' was designed in 1952 by Bernard and François Baschet. It consists of about 4 octaves of chromatically tuned glass rods, which are rubbed with wet fingers. The vibration of the glass is passed to a heavy block of metal, which itself is tuned and in fact determines the final pitch. The entire mechanism is amplified by a large steel plate called the “flame”. There are also three small fiberglass cones that amplify the higher frequencies.
These pictures show the glass rods connected to the metal tines. Sound is produced by rubbing a wet finger on the glass - hence the bowl of water.
The Baschet brothers specialize in creating sculptures that can be "played" to produce music. They also invented the inflatable guitar and the aluminum piano, and created an "educational instrumentarium" for exposing young people to musical concepts. The instruments are still in production - see their website here.
Glass Armonica
The glass armonica, also known as the glass harmonica, bowl organ, hydrocrystalophone, or simply the armonica (derived from "harmonia", the Greek word for harmony), is a type of musical instrument that uses a series of glass bowls or goblets graduated in size to produce musical tones by means of friction - rubbing a wet finger along the edge of the glass, as one might with a wine glass.
The instrument was invented by Benjamin Franklin, who called his invention the "armonica" after the Italian word for harmony. On Franklin's treadle operated version 37 bowls were mounted horizontally on an iron spindle. The whole spindle turned by means of a foot pedal. The modern version uses a silent electric motor. Over time limescale build-up gives the instrument a frosted appearance, like a rare crystal or stalactite.
L > R : Limescale build-up on the glass; Blochs new Armonica with clear glass; recording the Armonica.
Cloud Chamber Bowls
The Cloud Chamber Bowls are Soniccoutures recreation of an instrument built in the 1950s by maverick American composer Harry Partch. It consists of hanging “bowls” which are sections of 12-gallon glass carboys. Both tops and bottoms of the carboys are used. Partch had 14 (later 13) bowls hanging from a large wooden frame he called a “tori”. The name “Cloud Chamber Bowls” arose from the fact that Partch found the original tops and bottoms at a Radiation Laboratory at UC Berkeley in 1950. The bowls were originally used for cloud chambers used in tracing paths of subatomic particles.
The original pitches of the bowls are basically random, as were Partch’s (“It has been impossible for me to tune the bowls - I must accept what I get.”).The varying thickness of the carboys and unpredictable overtone structure make it pretty much impossible to cut a carboy to an exact pitch. For our Cloud Chamber Bowls kontakt instrument we have included a full chromatic tuning of the bowls, for convenience.
The Soniccouture Cloud Chamber Bowls were painstakingly cut and drilled by glass-working artisans, and the substantial wooden frame constructed as a custom order for the recording of Glass / Works.
Glassworks is a Kontakt Player 3 instrument.
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