The weirdest musical instruments

Next month, visitors to the Inside 3D Printing conference at the Javits Center in New York City will have the chance to see – and hear – one of the most radical musical instruments ever created. Or should that be ‘printed’? The two-string Piezoelectric Violin is the brainchild of architects Eric Goldemberg and Veronica Zalcberg of Miami’s MONAD studio, in collaboration with multi-instrumentalist Scott F Hall, who has been dreaming up ways to fabricate exotic instruments since the 1990s.

"Our desire to create unusual instruments emerged when we realised the aesthetic and technical issues we were facing as architects did not differ much from those of musicians and composers,” Goldemberg tells me. He and Zalcberg were interested to explore a "new conception for violin core functionality”, and the instrument – which will be exhibited alongside other curious sonic specimens including their take on the cello, a ‘hornucopia’,and Hall’s ‘monobaribasitar’ – is the result of "intense research on design and computation, leading to direct engagement with musicians, luthiers, composers and interactive artists of different kinds”.

I ask him if the two-string violin is still, at its heart, a violin. Could anyone play it? Yes, he maintains. "With each of our original instruments, a certain functionality and ergonomic structure is preserved: this is why we can call our violin a violin, our cello, a cello, and so forth. There is a certain physical standard of componentry which must be maintained.” And what will they sound like? "Quite similar to what one expects,” Goldemberg says. "More or less like classical bowed strings. On the other hand, they do have a character all their own as a result of the materials and methods in which they are formed. Consider the tonality of classical guitar against that of the Les Paul electric guitar: they do sound the same in a sense, yet also quite different.”

Sound aside, with its "aggressive sci-fi looks”, the Piezoelectric Violin might seem as though it belongs in science fiction rather than a symphony hall, but it is part of a long tradition of unusual instruments that have pushed at the boundaries of engineering, science, music and magic. "Veronica, Scott and I are definitely preserving enough of the history of the violin and other instruments as we venture forth into new designs,” says Goldemberg. "Innovation in instrument design is a balancing act of paying homage to history and tradition while at the same time looking forward boldly into the future.”

Here are some of the Piezoelectric Violin’s most intriguing predecessors…

(BBC)