Theatrum Instrumentorum An Exhibition of Virtual Musical Instrument Models
Kithara Associates: Oriscus Zauberflote FreeWee Ling
March-June 2015 Linden Endowment for the Arts (LEA27) in Second Life速
Theatrum Instrumentorum An Exhibition of Virtual Musical Instrument Models
Frontispiece to the Theatrum Instrumentorum seu Sciagraphia, 1620, by the German composer and musicologist Michael Praetorius (1571–1621) consisting of 42 detailed woodcuts depicting instruments of the early 17th century, grouped in families and shown to scale. This volume was an appendix to the second volume (De Organographia, 1618) of Praetorius’s important treatises on music titled Syntagma Musicum. This is considered among the most important seminal works in the musicological study of musical instruments.
March-June 2015 Linden Endowment for the Arts (LEA27) in Second Life®
Theatrum Instrumentorum An Exhibition of Virtual Musical Instrument Models
Kithara Associates Virtual Luthiers The Kithara group is involved in research and development of musical instruments in the virtual world of Second Life速. Our intent is to make instruments that are reasonably authentic in appearance in order to enhance the immersive experience of SL as a vir-
tual environment for learning about music and musical cultures. Our work at this time is fully for the purpose of learning and research. While some objects may eventually end up being offered for sale, commerce is not our primary interest. We currently have
no items that we consider to be completely finished (they are primarily lacking quality animations or other features), so we are unable to provide copies except under certain restrictions for research purposes. The Kithara group is currently the work of musicologists FreeWee Ling and Oriscus "Oz" Zauberflote. Some objects are made almost entirely by one or the other of us, but most have been made in close collaboration. We each bring knowledge and skills to the projects and they would not be what they are without our mutual collaboration.
We welcome others who might have special skills to add to our projects in the spirit of learning. We are especially seeking quality animators and prim/mesh sculptors. We are happy to share information with other SL luthiers. We hope this collaboration will further the development of live music making here. For several years we have maintained a small display in a shop in Neufreistadt, a sim within the Confederation of Democratic Simulators. Contact IM Oriscus Zauberflote or FreeWee Ling if you have questions about our projects. We gratefully acknowledge the Linden Endowment for the Arts for granting us an Artist in Residence simulator in Second Life for the first six months of 2015. The instruments depicted in this book were all part of an exhibition we installed on our LEA sim. FreeWee Ling & Oriscus “Oz” Zauberflote April 2015
LEFT: FreeWee Ling, baroque flute, with Pythia Oh, harpsichord, and Oriscus “Oz” Zauberflote, viola da gamba. Harpsichord by Grey Kurka.
Javanese Gamelan There are a few major and many lesser varieties of gamelan, primarily classified by locale, especially the Balinese, Javanese, and Indonesian types. The type depicted here is the Javanese style. The gamelan is not a single instrument, but an ensemble of perfectly matched instruments. All the instruments are part of a set that stays together regardless of who plays them. The music often alternates between hypnotic slow sections and energetic fast passages. The large gong
marks the repeating phrases and the drum commands the section changes and is really the leader of the ensemble. I was fortunate to have been allowed to join a gamelan ensemble for a semester with a group of American percussion students. It looked very much like this. ~ Oz
The 12th Root of 2 This exhibit illustrates the mathematics of the western equally tempered musical scale and the physics of pitch. The square of a number is the number multiplied by itself twice, thus 22=2x2=4 and the inverse of that is the square root (thus the square root of 4=2. Similarly the cube of a number is a number multiplied by itself 3 times (23=2x2x2=8) thus the cube root of 8 is 2. Roots are obviously difficult to calculate, but if we want a number that when multiplied by itself 12 times gives us a value of 2 (the 12th root of 2) we get approximately 1.0594630943592952645, which is slightly more than 18/17 ≈ 1.0588. As of December 2013, its numerical value in decimal has been computed to at least twenty billion digits. What makes this number especially useful in music is in calculating the 12 pitches of the chromatic scale. Because each octave is twice the frequency of the one below it, it's an exponential increase. Octaves are easily calculated by multiplying a given frequency by 2. Thus, on a piano you may have a low A at 220 vibrations per second (called Hertz or Hz), the next A is 440Hz, next is 880Hz, 1760Hz, etc. But calculating the 12 chromatic notes within each octave requires multiplying by the 12th root of 2. The exponential increase in frequency is why the strings on a piano are much longer on the low frequencies than the high ones. In fact, pianos don't normally increase in length as much as they should if calculating frequencies. To avoid having a piano that must be 20 feet long
or more, manufacturers compensate for shortening the bass strings by making them more massive. If you look inside a piano you will see the bass strings are really quite thick and are overwound with wire to add mass without making the string too stiff. The same principle is evident on the neck of a guitar. When the string is fretted, the fret pattern precisely follows the 12th root of 2, becoming progressively closer together as the note is higher. If you want to keep the same length of string, but have it give a different pitch, such as on the strings of a guitar, you increase the mass of the string to get a lower pitch. This is normally done by using thicker or overwound strings. All else being equal (e.g., you are comparing plain steel strings), you would take the area of a string’s cross-section and multiply by 2 to get a string with twice the mass. But if you wanted something other than an octave difference, you would use the 12th root of 2. And similarly, organ pipes are often made in giant sizes because you can't make heavier air to blow through them. In order to get a low pitch on an organ (or any wind instrument) you have to increase the volume of air set in motion. And that volume of air is determined by the 12th root of 2. ~ FreeWee NB. The guitar in this exhibit was made by Magnum Yoshikawa
Carillon A carillon is a musical instrument that is typically housed in the bell tower (belfry) of a church or municipal building. The instrument consists of many cast-bronze, cup-shaped bells. A traditional manual carillon is played by striking a keyboard — the sticklike keys of which are called batons — with the fists, and by pressing the keys of a pedal keyboard with the feet. The keys mechanically activate levers and wires that connect to metal clappers that strike the inside of the bells allowing the carillonneur to vary the intensity of the note according to the force applied to the key. The bells of a carillon are often extremely heavy. The largest bell ever cast is 18 tonnes and is the bourdon (the bell that strikes the hour) in the Riverside Church carillon in New York. The virtual carillon you see here is playable. Simply touch any of the keys. Due to issues with loading the sound files for each pitch, it's best to start by just touching all of the keys to let the sounds load for you.
One of the most awesome and terrifying experiences of my life was climbing the bell tower of the Rockefeller Memorial Chapel in Chicago to see the carillon. It was a seemingly endless spiral staircase that opened into the dark space between the church's inner domes and the roof. There was a long and shaky catwalk that ran to a small shack containing the magnificent carillon keyboard and a dozen or so small chairs. We did not get to hear a full performance, but the carillonneur did demonstrate the instrument. We could see the wires that went to the clappers. I don't know the size of the bells, but the player stood on the pedal that's supposed to move the clapper on the largest bell and it barely moved. He was not heavy enough to even move the clapper. I did most of the building on this, but FreeWee did the scripting. ~ Oz
Kithara The kithara is the ancient Greek lyre of Apollo. It was commonly considered a "professional" instrument, perhaps due in part to its complex and, presumably, expensive construction, but also because it was a difficult instrument to master. It was used to accompany epics, odes, and dances.
And there are large C-shaped parts just below which appear to be springs that would allow the entire upper structure to flex. Furthermore, there are large discs on either end of the cross member that may be intended to add weight and serve as some kind of damping system for the springs.
While no actual example has survived, there are many illustrations in both kylix paintings and 3D sculptures showing very consistent details of its structure. But it's such a peculiar structure that there remains a lot of discussion about just why it was designed this way.
A comprehensive presentation of these issues is shown in this fascinating video by Cypriot researcher Michalis Georgiou: http://vimeo.com/69801992
Structurally we have a lower resonating chamber, a pair of vertical supports, and an anchoring cross member, all as you would expect for any type of lyre. But you can clearly see that the upper members are connected to the lower ones by only a very small area.
This example was built in part as a decorative object for a recent installation about Nietzsche for the “Philosophers Stone� exhibition at LEA organized by Pixels Sideways in 2014. ~ FreeWee
Kamancheh The kamancheh is an Iranian "spike fiddle," meaning that the strings are born on a continuous shaft of wood that extends from the head, through the body, and beyond. This particular example was modelled after an instrument I saw in the collection of the Cincinnati Art Museum. (The museum had an exhibition of their musical instruments in 2012 following an extensive renovation of the collection.)
Fiddles of this kind are very common throughout the Middle East and variations are seen across Asia (see the Chinese erhu and Mongolian morin khuur, also in this exhibition). It is believed that the origins of using a bow to activate the strings of an instrument came to Europe from Mongolia, from whence the idea spread across the Middle East and North Africa, and then into Spain and beyond. ~ FreeWee
Kamanche from the Cincinnati Art Museum
Kamanche and ney (flute) in a photo I took while attending a week-long workshop on the life and practice of the Dervishes.
Recorders The recorder is a European end-blown flute classified as a "fipple flute." A fipple is a plug in the head of the instrument that directs the airflow towards the sharp edge, thus setting up the vortex of air within the body to cause sound. Other fipple flutes include pipe organ, whistles, flageolet, fujara, penny whistle and ocarina. Some fipple flutes, such as the Native American flute, use an external block, while others, like the Japanese shakuhachi and Andean quena, substitute the lower lip or jaw for the fipple or otherwise just use the mouth (embouchure) to direct the air. Whistle-type flutes are among the oldest of musical instruments, with examples found in caves and made of bird or animal bone that are as much as 42 thousand years old. (http://goo.gl/3PqO29) Recorders are seen in Gothic church gargoyles back to the 11th century and likely predate those by quite a long time. By the 16th century the technology was available to make instruments that were precisely tuned so they could be played polyphonically together.
Simple key mechanisms were added to the larger instruments to extend the reach of the fingers. Recorders come in many sizes ranging from the tiny sopranino to the rare subcontrabass — basically an organ pipe with keys that stands nearly twice the height of an adult player. The image you see in the top picture is from the Syntagma Musicum of Michael Preatorius (1609), one of the most important documents of renaissance/early baroque music. I was privileged to have been asked to write an article on a different type of fipple flute — the Song Flute or "Flutophone"— for the New Grove's Dictionary of Musical Instruments. This modern plastic school instrument is a sort of simplified hybrid of recorder and ocarina. ~ Oz
Archlute or Theorbo The archlute is a large bass lute with an extended range. The harp extension on the head adds several more strings that are played open (i.e. not fretted). There is a similar instrument called "theorbo" that has a longer extension — the entire instrument measuring up to 2 meters or more. The primary function of these instruments is to provide a "figured bass" or continuo accompaniment to solo voices or instruments or ensembles. Lutes are remarkably light weight and are prone to collapsing under the tension of the strings. It's a remarkable bit of engineering that allows something like an archlute to survive.
Sitar The sitar is a well-known instrument ever since George Harrison introduced it to the world on the Beatles "Rubber Soul" album. Harrison famously traveled to India to study the instrument under master musician Ravi Shankar.
There is often a second gourd attached to the back of the head of the instrument to provide additional resonance. This secondary resonator has an opening at the back, but otherwise the sitar has no sound holes as you would normally find in western stringed instruments.
Sitars developed in India from the 16th-18th centuries to the form that is commonly seen today. They typically carry 19 strings, including 12 that run beneath the frets and are not normally played, but ring sympathetically. The highly arched frets allow the player to "bend" the note up to a major third by pulling the string to the side. Curiously, despite the many strings, in normal practice only the first string is used to play the melody, the rest being drones or sympathetic strings.
I've owned two sitars by the same maker. I sold both, in their time, because they are simply too cumbersome to store and move. I never really learned to play authentic sitar music properly, but I knew how to hold the instrument and the correct basic technique. I could fake it for anyone who doesn't actually know Indian music.
The sitar body is made of a large calabash (gourd) that is artfully cut and covered with a wooden soundboard.
This sitar is one of the first and most complex instruments we built in SL, starting back in 2007. It continues to be revised every time we it put on display. ~ FreeWee
Erhu The erhu ("ar-hoo") is a Chinese spike fiddle (i.e., the neck extends through the body and carries all the tension). It is among the more popular instruments in China, being highly expressive for both ensemble and solo music. There is no fingerboard -- the strings are merely touched in mid-air while the thumb wraps around the neck as a guide and support. As with most non-Western bowed instruments, the bow is normally held under-handed. The bow actually passes between the two strings, thus requiring the player to lift the bow to play the upper string. The body is a hexagonal box with a snakeskin sounding membrane.
A small glob of melted rosin is sometimes put on the top of the body in a position that the bow can glide over to keep a continuous supply. I was fortunate to have been able to take a few lessons on erhu with a visiting Chinese ethnomusicologist and I do own an instrument. I didn't continue studying, but I did learn a couple of traditional tunes and also learned how to read the peculiar tablature notation used. ~ Oz
Pipe Organ The organ you see is a replica of the McGilvray organ in Winthrop Hall on the campus of the University of Western Australia. The inspiration for this emerged from the “Music” themed art competition I organized as part of the “UWA Artists Choice” series in 2012. I had created an enormous set of pipes in the gallery just for ambience, but JayJay Zifanwe told me it looked like the organ in Winthrop. This led to recreating a complete replica of the interior of the main hall of the building. JayJay provided floor plans and many high-resolution pictures, some of which became textures I used. As part of my fellowship at UWA in spring of 2015, I had the opportunity to at last see the building and the organ first hand. I was even allowed to play the instrument briefly when they had a technician there to tune it. I had hoped to be able to spend time with it and to get recordings and video, but there just wasn’t time. I knew enough about organs to know that they are very complex, very expensive instruments and those in charge of them rarely allow amateurs to play with them, so I was thrilled to have what little time I could get with it.
The organ is a three manual and pedal instrument designed and built for Winthrop Hall in 1965 by the English firm of JW Walker Ltd. In 2008 the organ was completely restored and upgraded by the South Island Organ Company of New Zealand. The rebuild included an aesthetic redesign of the trumpet real and replacing the old electronic system with a state of the art MIDI-capable controller capable of recording and reproducing performances. Replicating the organ has presented numerous challenges. The complexity required the use of many parts, so I combined as many as I could into sculpted prims. For example, the pedal board keys are made of two prims—one for the sharps and one for the naturals. The pull stops are also sculpted, which has made it difficult to label them as I should, but I hope to render them in mesh at some point. The model has two tunes programmed into it that are activated by touching a stop on either side. On the right is a rendition of the Australia national anthem, and on the left is the final bars of “Inna gadda da vida.” ~ FreeWee
Vielle (Medieval fiddle) The use of a bow to activate the strings on a musical instrument likely crossed into Europe via the Spanish Moors around the 10th-11th centuries. Early representations of bowed fiddles are common in Gothic decoration. There are virtually no surviving examples of instruments from medieval times, but the rich iconographic resources give a very clear depiction of how they must have looked and been used. This model is based on an example from the cathedral in Oloron-Sainte-Marie in southwest France.
There were many variations on this instrument, but most were simply carved out of a solid block of wood and then a flat soundboard attached. They might be played on the knee, as in this picture, against the chest, or under the chin similarly to a modern violin. They may be fretted or unfretted. I have played vielle since about 1984. The early music group I play with performed a concert of medieval music in Italy and I played the vielle in a 12th century church. ~ Oz
Portativ Organ The portativ (sic) is, as the name suggests, a portable organ. The name differentiates it from the "positiv," a larger stationary organ (though still self-contained as opposed to the large organs installed as part of a church's architecture). The portativ is played with one hand while the other operates the bellows pump (though sometimes an assistant might be enlisted for that purpose). Portativs range in size from a small lapsized instrument to something requiring two hefty individuals to lift. Our instrument has two ranks of pipes, one in wood and one in metal, which can be played separately or coupled. The bellows is operated by a lever on the side. There is a reservoir of air to keep a constant flow, similar to the bag on a bagpipe. The early music group I play with uses an instrument very similar to this. Due to the ease with which recursive objects can be made, this model took a remarkably short time to build—something on the order of about 90 minutes. ~ Oz Depiction of a woman playing a portative organ (detail from a painting in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich).
Serpent The serpent's name is obviously derived from its serpentine form. It is a low horn with a cupped mouthpiece and is related to the cornetto, which is also a simple horn with finger holes.While sometimes made of brass, the serpent is normally assembled out of wood sections and then covered in thin leather. It has a brass mouthpiece extension. The utility of the shape is apparent if you imagine it stretched out straight. By curling it up the finger holes are actually accessible.
1811—Paris, France: A print published by Aaron Martinet in his series Troupes Françaises depicts a military serpent player.
Straight horns are known from biblical times (e.g. the shofar) and before, probably going back to prehistory. While the addition of finger holes might seem an obvious and intuitive development, the serpent as you see it here did not come into being until the late 16th century and was developed as a serious playable wind instrument suitable for loud ensemble playing. It had quite a long period of use, especially in military bands, with the addition of keys in the 19th century.
5-String Banjo Originally an African slave instrument with a simple neck and calabash body, the banjo enjoyed a revolution in design and popularity in the late 19th century. Among its most obvious improvements are the drumlike construction with an adjustable tensioning hoop, mechanical tuners, and steel strings, all lending to an instrument capable of being heard in dance halls with fiddles and guitars or competing in hard-driving bluegrass bands, but also allowing for delicacy and nuance when the occasion calls for it. The 5th string is a throwback to African influences with it's insistent pitch center regardless of key.
I took this amazing picture of Lee Sexton (born 1928, in Letcher County, Kentucky), a true old time bluegrass player from Appalachia. Lee was a coal miner for much of his life. His right hand was injured when a raccoon bit him, which caused him to develop a style of playing called "drop thumb." ~ Oz
Viola da Gamba
The viola da gamba looks superficially similar to a modern cello, but is really more closely related to the guitar. It is fretted and has 6 strings tuned similarly to a guitar. The name refers to an instrument played on the legs (gamba) as distinguished from the violin family which were called violas da braccio (arms). Often simply called "viols," the viola da gamba family had many sizes, but were most common in the treble, tenor, and bass, with the bass by far the most popular. In the 17th-18th centuries, the bass viol might be played with a set of other viols (called a consort or a chest of viols), as a bass instrument doubling the bass
line of baroque music (the continuo), or as a virtuoso solo instrument, most famously displayed by the French musician and composer Marin Marais. In England the viol was sometimes held sideways (called a "lyra viol" or "viol played lyra-way") like a guitar and played polyphonically by arpeggiating chords or simply strumming the strings like a lute. In any case, the bow is held under-hand (opposite to the cello) which is a natural position, but the overhand grip of the violin family is more powerful, allowing the weight of the arm to transmit its inertia into the stroke. Today the viol is played primarily in early music revival performances, but a large version evolved from this into the modern orchestra's double bass viol. (There are two types of orchestral bass — the bass viol and the bass violin. The viol is the more common and you can see the differences quite clearly if you compare it to the cello. The bass viol has a flat back, sloping shoulders, and C-shaped sound holes. I have played bass viola da gamba for over 35 years, but I am still a rank amateur player since I only play occasionally. The belly and back textures used on this model are photographic manipulations from the actual instrument I play in real life. =Oz
Viol heads were often carved with a human head, or sometimes an animal head. I happen to have this nice dragon head made by Ayuki that I could adapt, though such a beast would not really be common on a traditional viol.
Morin Khuur The most ancient music with bowed instruments likely comes from the nomadic people of Mongolia. They relied on horses for transportation, food, shelter, and many of their day to day needs. It is no wonder that they would discover the usefulness of tail hair rubbing against a taught sinew string.
Today the morin khuur is used both as a common solo folk instrument and for serious art music in orchestral ensembles. It comes in various sizes, but the most common is this larger cello-sized instrument. As you can see from the picture, the bow is held under-handed similar to the viola da gamba.
Violoncello (AKA "Cello") The cello is a favorite instrument both for solo and ensemble music. It is clearly the bass member of the modern violin family developed in northern Italy in the 17th century. Its size is necessary to resonate the lower tones. This is one of the earliest and most difficult instruments we have tried to build. The limitations of prims make the curves nearly impossible to render, and they are still far from perfect. The intent from the beginning was to make an instrument that was an improvement over others that were already
available. Most had very blocky bodies with photographic texture on flat prims for the top and back. Almost no one knew how to make a scroll with normal prims. We made many compromises in order to give our cello dimensionality, and in the end the result was not up to our desired standards. Meanwhile other makers have created much better instruments using mesh modelling, so we have abandoned trying to improve this beyond its current edition. The painting shown is "The Cellist" by Paul Gaugin. There is speculation that it may be a self portrait.
Appalachian Dulcimer The dulcimer emerged from the Appalachian region of the US in the early 20th century. It is likely derived from similar European predecessors, but developed the familiar waisted shape in what may have been an inspired marketing move by a certain early maker. The main characteristics of this class of lap zithers is the diatonic fretting scheme and the use of open drone strings. I've built six dulcimers in real life. In 1969 I guessed I was one of the best dulcimer players on the planet, but there were only about a dozen of us at the time. The picture is a photo of Jean Ritchie, born in 1922 in the hills of eastern Kentucky. I have been fortunate to have seen and heard Ritchie perform a few times in my life, but the first time I heard her voice
was back in the early 60s during the US folk music craze. Her trademark song "Shady Grove" was on a compilation record that my family had acquired somehow. Aside from her simple mountain voice, I was struck by the instrument she played. It was one of the first times I became aware that there were instruments in the world besides the standard band and orchestra instruments, guitars, etc. My curiosity about this is what set me on a lifelong inquiry into the world of musical instruments. I had the opportunity once to have Jean Ritchie sign a CD at a concert. I mumbled something incoherent about how her music had a profound influence on my life, but I'm sure she thought I was either stupid or crazy. ~ Oz
Guitarzan “Guitarzan” is a fictional musical instrument designed to be carried as an ornament. Functioning rather like a beauty queen’s tiara, but in this case slung over the back like a traveling troubadour. It has knobs that look like tuners at the top, but no strings are attached. The handles at the base of the neck are inspired by the kora, an African harp with a similarly shaped resonator made of a calabash. The large whisker-like tentacles have no purpose other to lend “presence.” ~ FreeWee
Fantastic instruments In an Italian Painting
Perseus Frees Andromeda, by Piero di Cosimo (1461-1521). Uffizi Gallery, Florence. This unusual rendering of a popular scene from mythology shows the hero Perseus slaying the sea monster, thus freeing the fair Andromeda. The musical instruments in the foreground have sparked speculation among musicologist
about whether they could have been depictions of real instruments the artist had seen; or were they entirely a fantasy of the artist’s imagination? It’s clear from the models that the objects could have been constructed in real life, but they both seem impractical at best.