The term hydraulophone refers to a musical instrument that is played by direct physical contact with hydraulic fluid (typically water) in which sound is generated or affected hydraulically. Typically the sound is produced by the same hydraulic fluid that is in direct contact with the player's fingers.
Two people playing "House of the Rising Sun" on the hydraulophone (water pipe organ flute which is the fountain outside the Ontario Science Centre).
Ryan Janzen's Suite for Hydraulophone, Movement II, played in the Great Hall, as recorded by an underwater video camera (gets in close to the water sprays near the end)
Dangerous use of the hydraulophone... Playing the George Gershwin lullaby "Summertime", on hydraulophone, in a canoe :)
The invention of musical instruments that make sound from vibrating water has created a category of musical instruments that do not fit into any of the previously existing classification schemes. Therefore a physics-based organology was introduced, in which the top-level category is the state-of-matter of that which initially produces the sound in the instrument.
This system includes the possibility of instruments that make sound in all three states-of-matter: solid, liquid, and gas. A fourth category for instruments that make sound from high-energy states such as plasma, is also included.
The first three-categories of the Hornbostel Sachs system fall under the first category of the physical organology system, as they all produce sound from matter in its solid state.
This physical organology is as follows:
1 Gaiaphones (Earth/Solid), instruments in which the initial sound-production medium is by matter in its solid-state, e.g. the piano.
1.1 Chordophones: sound produced by solids that are essentially 1-dimensional (having a cross-section much smaller than their length, i.e. strings), e.g. violin, guitar, electric guitar, electric bass, etc.;
1.2 Membranophones: sound produced by solids that are essentially 2-dimensional (much thinner than their surface area) membranes, e.g. drums;
1.3 Idiophones: sound produced by bulk 3-dimensional solid matter, e.g. crystallophone, glass harmonica, xylophone, metallophone, etc., regardless of whether the instrument is operated underwater or in air;
2 Hydraulophones (Water/Liquid): sound produced by matter in its liquid state; instrument itself may be played underwater or played in a surrounding medium of air, with water supplied only to the internal workings of the instrument:
3 Aerophones (Air/Gas): sound produced by matter in its gaseous state, e.g. woodwind instruments and "brass" instruments;
4 Plasmaphones/Ionophones (Fire/Plasma): sound produced by matter in a high-energy state such as plasma, e.g. plasmaphone, etc.;
5 Quintephones (Quintessence/Idea): sound produced informatically, by electrical, optical, mechanical, or other computational/algorithmic means
Two people playing "House of the Rising Sun" on the hydraulophone (water pipe organ flute which is the fountain outside the Ontario Science Centre).
Ryan Janzen's Suite for Hydraulophone, Movement II, played in the Great Hall, as recorded by an underwater video camera (gets in close to the water sprays near the end)
Dangerous use of the hydraulophone... Playing the George Gershwin lullaby "Summertime", on hydraulophone, in a canoe :)
The invention of musical instruments that make sound from vibrating water has created a category of musical instruments that do not fit into any of the previously existing classification schemes. Therefore a physics-based organology was introduced, in which the top-level category is the state-of-matter of that which initially produces the sound in the instrument.
This system includes the possibility of instruments that make sound in all three states-of-matter: solid, liquid, and gas. A fourth category for instruments that make sound from high-energy states such as plasma, is also included.
The first three-categories of the Hornbostel Sachs system fall under the first category of the physical organology system, as they all produce sound from matter in its solid state.
This physical organology is as follows:
1 Gaiaphones (Earth/Solid), instruments in which the initial sound-production medium is by matter in its solid-state, e.g. the piano.
1.1 Chordophones: sound produced by solids that are essentially 1-dimensional (having a cross-section much smaller than their length, i.e. strings), e.g. violin, guitar, electric guitar, electric bass, etc.;
1.2 Membranophones: sound produced by solids that are essentially 2-dimensional (much thinner than their surface area) membranes, e.g. drums;
1.3 Idiophones: sound produced by bulk 3-dimensional solid matter, e.g. crystallophone, glass harmonica, xylophone, metallophone, etc., regardless of whether the instrument is operated underwater or in air;
2 Hydraulophones (Water/Liquid): sound produced by matter in its liquid state; instrument itself may be played underwater or played in a surrounding medium of air, with water supplied only to the internal workings of the instrument:
3 Aerophones (Air/Gas): sound produced by matter in its gaseous state, e.g. woodwind instruments and "brass" instruments;
4 Plasmaphones/Ionophones (Fire/Plasma): sound produced by matter in a high-energy state such as plasma, e.g. plasmaphone, etc.;
5 Quintephones (Quintessence/Idea): sound produced informatically, by electrical, optical, mechanical, or other computational/algorithmic means
