PART6: The Hills Are Alive With The Sound Of Music..

..The Worlds First Automatic Instrument.

Now, parts of this episode will probably strike you as cynical but, hear me out I think I have a point.

In the previous few parts we have been exploring the amazing inventions from undisputed visionaries. Most who find out about these amazing inventions created in antiquity are pretty impressed.

Well I believe this next invention  is important and should be included in our series on the evolution of electronic music. ( if not you wouldn’t be reading this entry would you?)

But.

This invention just doesn’t bowl me over with it’s ingenuity and after much thought I think I’ve worked out why.

But before I tell you, et me introduce to you today’s star..

The Greek Aeolian Harp (or wind harp).

Named after Aeolus the Greek God of the wind.

It was made from a long box or sounding board that had a bridge at each end and strings stung over them from end to end.

The box was put in front of a window or in a windy place, where the wind would cause the strings to vibrate, creating random music.

The strings were all of the same length and tuned to the same pitch, so in order to achieve different pitches and harmonies, the strings were made from different thicknesses.

Depending on the strength of the wind, the sound can change very dramatically, from a unison drone to a high pitch singing and even shrieking.

The sound is actually created by the Von Karman Vortex. Von Karman Vortext , this alternating vortex causes the strings to vibrate, there is a good chance you have heard the same thing from overhead powerlines, washing lines and the rigging on sail masts.

Historians cannot quite pin down when the Aeolian Harp was invented, but it seems to have been created sometime between the 4^th and the 2^nd century BC.

The instrument has captured the imaginations of many over the years, and enjoyed a re-emergence during the 17^th and 18^th centuries in England and Germany, where they were placed in castle openings and caves.

In 1785 Italian scientists even tried to use them for “scientific purposes” to predict the weather!!?

You ca imagine how that conversation went…

“what’s that thing you’ve got stuck in you window?

“that is the latest in weather technology..”

“wow, what does it do?

“it tells us hard the wind is blowing by how loud  a noise it makes…”

“…Oh… right…. Couldn’t you just stick your hand outside the window? It certainly would be a a lot quieter..”

“er ..no … because…. Er…. That just wouldn’t be scientific would it…just shut up will you!”.

By the 1800’s it had become a favorite with the romantics..

Samuel Taylor Coleridge worked for years (that’s poets years), on his poem ‘The Aeolian Harp’, he wrote;

Methinks, it should have been impossible
Not to love all things in a World like this,
Where e’en the Breezes of the simple Air
Possess the power and Spirit of Melody!

But lets keep 2 things in mind,

1. When a poets says he worked for years on something, his/her definition of work is a little different from the norm.
2. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, was probably high on opium.

So baring this in mind it is probably safe to say that the Italians would have been better served putting the harp in a public place and using it to detect poets and those under the influence..

On a more contempary note, Australian Artist Alan lamb has created and then recorded quite a few very large-scale Aeolian harps.

Also the Sound was used in the Horror Flick the Exorcist recorded from a 30 ft Aeolian harp on top of hill in Chelsea.

So as you can see this simple instrument has had an impact on our musical history, and is important in the evolution of electronic music.
Not only because it once again redefined how we thought of music, gave us strange sounds that would then be emulated in synthesizer’s thousands of years later, but also because it was the first automatic instrument.

Wow that’s swell.

But it’s not as mind blowing as the previous posts and I think it’s simply because of this.

It’s a pretty simple technology, that’s motivated by laziness.

The Aeolian Harp is simply set and forget, there’s no practicing to get better – there’s no detailed compositions.
Just install and walk away.

Lazy people will often spend a lot of energy trying to avoid doing work.

So I think it’s no surprise that this instrument was invented so long ago, the motivation is so much nearer to the everyday needs of the idle..  I believe it was used as a kind of muzak for Ancient posh people.

So we tip our metaphorical hat to Aeolus the God of flatulence, err I mean wind.

And from here on also known as the god of elevator music.

Next episode we look at one of the most influential fathers of modern thinking. A man also responsible for many kids  concentration headaches! CLICK HERE

CLICK HERE for the previous chapter

CLICK HERE for the INDEX of  the History Of Electronic Music