5 things you probably didn't know could make music
Antje Binder eg
June 13, 2017
Musical people know: producing sound is possible with nearly anything. Musical instruments are made of all sorts of materials, for instance, from ice.
Image: AFP/Getty Images
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5 things you probably didn't know could make music
Musical people know: producing sound is possible with nearly anything. Musical instruments are made of all sorts of materials, for instance, from ice.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Instruments made of ice
The sound of the ice is very unique, with lots of overtones. Many describe the timbre as warm. Thousands of visitors enjoy the beauty and sound of ice music each year at the Ice Music Festival. Artists work up to 12 hours building the instruments, but whether or not they last through the concert is often a matter of luck.
Image: DW
Compositions with everyday objects
His schtick is the rhythmic cut: Scottish video artist James Provan calls himself "Gir2007" on YouTube. With his unusual instruments, his clips have gotten over 17 million clicks. In his video "House Beat," for instance, he's turned his parents' entire house into a musical instrument.
Image: DW
Songs from a diskette drive
Polish tinkerer Pawel Zadrozniak uses eight computer hard drives, several disk drives and two scanners to make music. He programs the buzzing, vibrating and chattering of the devices to swirl together to create little symphonies. He calls his instrument the "Floppotron." It can play a cover version of Nirvana's "Smells Like Nerd Spirit" particularly well.
Image: DW
Marble melodies
Swedish musician Martin Molin worked for 14 months on his marble machine - a wooden music instrument the size of a weaving loom. Two thousand steel marbles roll through a system of tracks until they fall onto various percussion instruments. The machine quickly went viral on the internet - with more than 40 million people having watched the video.
Image: Martin Molin
The sound of vegetables
How does a carrot become a flute? With a paring knife and a drill! The Viennese Vegetable Orchestra turns a pumpkin into a drum, celery into a guitar and bell peppers into horns. To actually be able to make music, the vegetables have to be fresh. The orchestra has been giving concerts around the world since 1998. After each show, the vegetables are cooked into stew for the guests.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
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A peculiar music festival takes places in the idyllic small Norwegian town of Geilo at the first full moon in January. Music enthusiasts encounter bands and solo artists here, much like at other festivals around the world.
But there is one distinctive difference: the instruments are made of pure ice. Xylophone, horns, harps and string instruments - all of them are made from ice from surrounding lakes.
Created by two Geilo residents, Pal K Medhus and Norwegian ice music pioneer and jazz musician Terje Isungset, the festival has taken place since 2006. The two were the first to experiment with instruments made of ice.
Nowadays, some 3,500 visitors come to the festival in Geilo each year.
The instruments - carved from blocks of ice with chain saws - are not created until the day of the concert. Then the fine-tuning of the instruments begins. The sound of the music can vary depending on the weather in that particular winter and the quality of the ice.
Even though the temperatures are far below zero, the instruments begin to melt quickly through their playing by warm human hands. The pitch also begins to change. So rather than much rehearsal, it's all about artistic improvisation on stage. The stage itself is likewise made of ice, as is the auditorium. Thus, music and nature melt together to form a unique symphony.
You'll find other unusual music instruments in our High Five ranking in the gallery above.
