Here are just a few items that caught my attention lately.
Visit the Symphonic House.
Play the virtual Hapi drum. (Just click the notes to play.)
See The Saw Lady.
Take a tour of this collection of unusual instruments.
Read about Five Intriguingly Unique Musical Instruments.
The modern piano keyboard, with twelve keys per octave, has become so commonplace that we aren't used to seeing alternative versions. The modern keyboard is simple and efficient, but it is far from the only possibility. Imagine practicing scales on this keyboard with thirty-six keys per octave, spread over two manuals.
Archicembalo
The above picture is a modern version of Nicolo Vicentino's sixteenth century extended meantone harpsichord, the archicembalo. It is just one example of the various keyboards that had more than twelve keys per octave, so the performer could choose intervals that were more purely tuned for the key he was playing in. (Our modern twelve tone equal temperament uses equally spaced intervals that are different from purely tuned intervals to make it easier to modulate from key to key.)
This tradition has continued to the present. Computers and electronic keyboards make it easier to experiment in microtonal(anything other than twelve tone equal temperament) tunings, ranging from the historical to the exotic to the highly experimental. Alternate keyboard layouts for acoustic instruments also continue to be made as can be seen in the following pictures.
22 Key per Octave Just Intonation Harpsichord
Enharmonic Pipe Organ
See also:
The Instrument Gallery page at H-Pi Instruments
My microtonal music blog
What in the world is a lituus? Apparently, it's an instrument, but we don't have any surviving examples of it. We don't even have any pictures of it. About all we know is that Johann Sebastian Back called for two of them in his cantata, “O Jesu Christ, meins lebens licht”. Well, that isn't good enough for some people. The lituus has been recreated with the help of some advanced software. Click here to read the story and to hear the lituus in performance.
"A drain pipe suffering from intestinal disorder." -Willi Apel
"The instrument gave a fresh zest to Gregorian Plainsong." -Canon Edme Guillaume
Opinions vary about the serpent. Not all of them are complimentary. It's an unlikely looking instrument with a mouthpiece like a brass instrument and side holes like a woodwind. It gets its name from its snakelike shape, not from its ability to play scales.
Here's a video of a Serpent.
See also The Serpent Website including its photo gallery and the quotes and anecdotes page.
The langspil is a simple bowed dulcimer from Iceland. It only has two or three strings and is relatively easy to play.
