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Various rare musical instruments

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Various rare musical instruments

Hi.

Maybe some of You plays on various musical instruments. Ofcourse, piano, guitar and such instruments are very known. Some instruments are known only for some nation, for example Fujara in Slovakia, Sitar in India, Erhu in China, ETC.

But there are also various unique an maybe rare musical instruments. I sometimes collect those musical instruments. For me unique is Venova from Yamaha, or Steel tongue drum (tank drum) too.

But, which musical instrument is unique for You? I don't think on musical instruments, such as piano, violin, saxophone, or guitar.

Thank You.

5 Replies

Hey @Noguri

 

I remember one of the first exotic, or maybe I should say weird musical instruments I encountered was the theremin. It was invented by Leon Theremin in 1928. This is one of the earliest electronic instruments - it consists of two metal antennas that can sense the positions of the musician’s hands, which control the volume and pitch of the sound. I think you can see it played on YouTube videos, also the British band Portishead uses such sounds in some of their albums.

 

Another one I find very interesting is not quite a musical instrument but rather an exotic composer solution. In 1880 Tchaikovsky wrote the The Year 1812 Solemn Overture, Op. 49 and he used the sounds of artillery cannon fire. 

 

spotify:track:6oWacAPUt8LMXqRkEk2MNg 

 

Cheers! 

I think deep in it but I the cool

Damon Albarn loves to gravitate towards weird instruments and use them in his songs.

Anyway, Blur has one song made on an optigan, an optical organ that makes sound with the help of pre-recorded optical "program" disks where the information is read from. Very degraded sound as a result, but has it's charm.

spotify:track:05SEo3GMZSrYo8nQC28B0m:small 

 

Another very cool instrument is the Omnichord, a little electronic instrument where you can choose between chords and twiddle on the harp-sounding diodes. The thing itself doesn't look like much, but every sound it emits feels like magic. 😄

Amon made use of this instrument on his long Stories album, and I believe a lot of other artists have done that too.
spotify:track:7i2bZi9EjbtOBWulvQikWm:small 

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I play the Sarangi, an very old Indian bowed instrument. This instrument is quite unique, having 38 strings, where 3 of them are played and the rest of them are there for the resonance. It's sound is amazingly sweet and full bodied, but it is also a very hard instrument to play. It took me a year just to learn to tune it. Thanks to my teacher Ustad Faiyaz Ali Khan, I can at least play something pleasant on it. You can listen to one of the tracks I have released: Astralseid: Nishaadi 

The carnyx was a tall, S-shaped trumpet used by the Gauls, especially during battle. Sadly it's the most obscure instrument on this list, and the only song I could find was the original theme used for the Gauls from Civ VI. There are many videos out there with people playing reconstructions of the instrument, which has a rather haunting quality to its sound, somewhat like a bellowing trombone from a prehistoric era.

https://open.spotify.com/track/2eH1s77xSFGI5aeCisTjsz?si=c51b0b32d5b04fa8

 

Better-known is the hurdy-gurdy, a mechanical stringed instrument from the Middle Ages. If you've watched Black Sails or played Witcher III or Sea of Thieves then you definitely know its distinct raw, rustic, and sometimes even wild sound.

https://open.spotify.com/track/5nhaRM1ZqVt67Ot4wYTOMV?si=03082d5773e74858

https://open.spotify.com/track/21uwvdXa5AiYbUOeTmxsaR?si=01f267bf67e24c3ehttps://open.spotify.com/tr...

https://open.spotify.com/track/73Vy4AFozLvZ1stkT0iKED?si=814b2ca1be554924

 

The 'BWAAAAANG' sound made famous from the Inception Trailer comes from a real instrument called a blaster beam. It's a long metal beam with tensed wires and electric guitar pickups, which can be moved to alter the sound. It has also been used in science fiction movies like Star Trek: The Motion PictureThe Black HoleDreamscape10 Cloverfield Lane, and even as a seismic charge sound in Attack of the Clones.

https://open.spotify.com/track/1MMmKHMfsajQKx9fusCDn4?si=c109ece0c73a4081

 

I always thought anvils were an interesting instrument choice, especially when you want to show an industrial scene or high-tense action.

https://open.spotify.com/track/2IahnzP9jC9qpt1BYPgyr0?si=0e6ee6bd223244f7

https://open.spotify.com/track/21D6cTpVlaM7VU6Rb0put7?si=643ca27a4e04453f

https://open.spotify.com/track/2w0BgaghfLj5C9BS3UlEiH?si=347efb831f5a4c01

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