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The Haunting Sound of a Waterphone

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pic_waterphoneHave you ever wondered how some of the sound effects in the movies are being done? Trust the waterphone. I know you’ve seen this instrument before. It has been played in a wide variety of genres: Rock, Classical, Folk and even Pop . This is the info I dug from the web:

Waterphones are stainless steel and bronze monolithic, one-of-a-kind, acoustic, tonal-friction instruments that utilize water in the interior of their resonators to bend tones and create water echos.

The rods can be played with superball mallets, by hand or with a bow. When the tonal rods are sounded some of the fundamental tones and/or harmonics are sympathetic to the bottom & top diaphragms.

Sounds  very techie to me. But read further here

Or you can watch the actual demostrations here and also here

Visit the waterphone homepage for more pictures and sounds.

Dalla: Cornwall’s Answer to Celtic Music

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DallaWindow


Dalla is Cornwall’s answer to Celtic music. If we have Clannad from Ireland and Capercaillie from Scotland, then Cornwall has Dalla. The music is a combination of lively almost latin beats traditional airs. The music is Celtic but also distinctively Cornish.There is an ethereal quality in  Hilary Coleman’s voice . Now explaining would not do any good without an audio sample. So you better visit their official MySpace page to hear some of the songs. And don’t forget to bookmark their official website which gives another detailed infor about the band.

A Taste of Cornish Music

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logoNow before we all get headaches from too much information, let us first get to know Cornwall through this link The musical culture of Cornwall is not so different from that of Brittany due to its geographical proximity. There is this radio station that plays music exclusively in Cornish. But what exactly is Cornish if you may ask? Learn more here

So are you ready to hear Cornwall’s own brand of folk music?

Just click on this link

The main podcasting blog is here:

http://kernewegva.podbean.com/

Now let me warn you that it’s in Cornish.

Crwth: A Welsh stringed Instrument.

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271px-Crwth_remLike you guys I have just stumbled upon this. My fetish for unique musical instruments led me to this one. It’s called the Crwth (pronounced like “krooth”) It’s actually a now archaic Welsh medieval instrument. In my previous post I opened a topic about the Celtic music of Wales. Most of the folk music of Wales was suppressed due to the Act of Union which promoted the English language and also the rise of Methodist church. .More detailed information can be found here.

Anyway my interest was piqued so I search for videos available in You Tube and found this video by violinist Rachel Barton Pine. She talks to this crwth-maker Hank Taylor. Check out the video to learn more. Here’s another one. This is a challenge to other Celtic musicians out there. Would you be including the Crwth in your recordings soon?

The Hurdy-Gurdy

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Hurdy-Gurdy

Hurdy-Gurdy

You might have noticed this peculiar instrument feature on a Denez Prigent performance which I linked on my last blog .It was about about Breton music. This instrument is no other than the hurdy-gurdy. A lot will be said about this instrument if you click on the name link. It dates back to the 12th century and has been associated with medieval music. It has however become ‘fashionable ‘among musicians who make World Music. A Loreena McKennit video called The Mummer’s Dance also features the hurdy-gurdy.Now just in case you want to know how it really sounds like as a solo instrument, then check this out.