Comment:
Stuff He Made for Acustica
Castanette-Keyboard
with a scale of diameters from 1 4/5" to 7 1/5" which can be "tuned" by means of double-bass pegs in the action-tention (with the result that even deep-sounding castanettes will sound clearly when played extremely quickly); two sets of Bull-Roarers (one with an aerodynamic profile, the other out of plain pieces of wood), which are wielded by hand and worked by twisted rubber band.
Nail-Violin
a form of the idiophonic friction-instrument invented in the mid-18th century, with 16 iron rods of equal width but of different lengths (between 2 1/25 and 16 4/5"; temperature 15√8) which vibrate transversally when played with a cello or double-bass bow.
Roundpeg-Violin
a version of the nail-violin (9 wooden sticks between 3 23/25" and 3'; temperature 8√9);
Scabella
clapper-sandals worn by Ancient Roman choir-leaders, but fitted with a hinge in the middle of the sole, so that the performer can achieve audible results with the minimum of effort;
Hinged-board (Crepitacolo),
a flat piece of wood with various handles attached which the iron parts hit according to the force with which it is shaken back and forth ( a new version of the original church bell);
Five-Tongued Ratchet
with common crankshaft, the cogwheel frequency of which is tuned in five stages, so that the loudness of the noise can be influenced by altering the tongue-setting;
Pick-ups and Diaphragms
in as many forms as possible (other than the usual ones), in order to explore the devious route to higher sub-fidelity: e.g. plastic funnel and knife-feather and ukelele, sandpaper and drawing pin, matches with and without box
Cross-blower
for the timbre-modulation of the pages of a book;
Balloons
as resonators for wind instruments and as (regained) air-supply in the production of oral processes;
Pipe-branch
a piece of narrow hose approx. 130' long with connections (on the ends of which organ pipes [mixtures] and penny-whistles are attached), which is fed by a compressed-air cylinder of 27 cubic feet capacity (an "aerophone" for collective use, where only generously-minded players can play together: should one of the performers divert the air-current for himself alone, all the others will be made silent);
Gas blow-lamp
to produce vibrations in pipes, the fundamental frequency of which is reached by altering its total length;
Mutes for wind instruments with built-in loudspeakers
which permit a perfect diaphony with the simultaneous playback from the tape recorder of the blown notes;
Megaphones
likewise with built-in loudspeakers (also to be used by contestants, in which case power-saving cassette-recorders are switched on to drown the puny volume of the official side);
Humming-loudspeaker
(the German term "Summenlautsprecher" derives both from "Summe" = sum and from "summen" = to hum), the diaphragm of which is worked on with various articles during the performance (so that the loudspeaker becomes more of an instrument than an actual loudspeaker).