Left-to-right:
Solid, Liquid, Gas, Plasma, and Idea (direct brainwave interface
using Thought Technology).
These five states-of-matter correspond to the five Classical Greek Elements:
Earth (solid), Water (liquid), Air (gas), Fire (plasma), and Idea (informatics)
The concerts explored all five states-of-matter immersed in liquid (water)
as well as in air. By categorizing musical instruments according to
the state-of-matter of the initial sound production mechanism,
a wide range of new musical instruments were invented, designed, built,
and demonstrated by way of concert performances.
Solid ("Earth").
Instruments such as the guitar (chordophone) or cymbal (idiophone),
pictured above, produce sound by matter in its solid state.
Most idiophones such as the cymbal, or Franklin's glass harmonica,
will operate immersed in air or in water;
Liquid ("Water").
A new category of instruments called hydraulophones
produce sound by matter in its liquid state.
These instruments work well immersed in air or in water;
Gas ("Air").
(Download)
Instruments such as the flute, work only in air.
To get them to sound underwater requires a surrounding of air
around the fipple mechanism and at least some air in the resonant cavity.
The organflute ("florgan"), a newly invented musical instrument
(invented, designed, built, and played by by S. Mann),
combines the user-interface of the flute (played by blocking finger holes)
with the sound of the pipe organ.
Plasma ("Fire").
The plasmaphones, another newly invented category
of musical instruments, produce sound by matter
in its fourth state, namely plasma.
Informatics ("Idea").
Plato and Aristotle postulated a fifth state-of-matter, which they
called "Idea" or "Quintessence" (from "quint" which means "fifth").
This covers thoughts, mathematics, algorithms, and the like.
A direct brain-machine interface was used in the Tuesday evening
performance by the
States-of-Matter Quintet to represent the fifth state-of-matter.
Solid
Liquid
Gas
Plasma
Informatics
Cymbal
H'phone
Organflute
Plasmaphone
Synthesizer
("Earth")
("Water")
("Air")
("Fire")
("Idea")
Some audience members immersed in water; some in air:
Most of the audience members sat around the circumference of the 320
foot (100 metre) pool, but some immersed themselves for the full
experience.
Immersed Solid, Liquid, and Gas
Solid instrument immersed in liquid:
Wind chimes in water. Wind chimes are idiophones (instruments that make
sound from bulk three dimensional solid matter).
During the Tuesday evening concert the wind chimes were immersed in water.
The sound could be heard by audience members willing to immerse
themselves in the water as well.
Liquid instrument immersed in liquid:
(Download a longer version)
Excerpt from video of "Clarinessie", a single reed hydraulophone
(water clarinet). This instrument is connected to a source of
pressurized water. Regardless of whether it is operated in
a surrounding medium of air or water, it still functions as a
hydraulophone.
Fluids like air are highly compressible, whereas fluids like water are
less compressible, thus giving rise to the "reustophone", an
instrument that run on a fluid which may be gas or liquid (e.g.
air or water).
The flute/organ ("florgan") hybrid is a flute that can play more than one
note at the same time.
You play chords by covering up more than one finger
hole at the same time. The instrument has 12 mouths, and embouchure
control is affected by inserting one or more fingers into the instrument's
mouths.
Vandkulturhuset
"Vandkulturhuset" means "Water culture house" in Danish ("Vand" means "Water").
Reflection in the pool at sunset...
Audience members were invited to play on the instruments after the concerts:
The States-of-Matter Quintet ended Tuesday night's concert by having a fun
informal improvisation with some circus performers in the DGI-byen deep pool,
playing Walking in the Air on a water instrument (hydraulophone),
and a playful attempt to immitate the child's voice in song:
(Download)
