# Be Wary of the Török ! (with list of rare instruments used)



## Tatiana Gordeeva (Sep 22, 2022)

In this latest piece I look back on a favorite theme of mine: the current delicate balance of our world. It was proposed to me to use the famous so-called _Mechanical Turk_ chess player as a metaphorical starting point.

Wow! A _Mechanical _Turk?? What is that?, I asked myself... 

_The Turk,_ or _*Török*_ in Hungarian, as it was called in its 18th century heyday, was a robotic automaton that was able to play chess and win over the best players of the time including Napoleon Bonaparte and Benjamin Franklin. It travelled with its Hungarian owner von Kempelen and was demonstrated all around the world. A sort of robotic artificial intelligence well before our times. Amazing!

This extraordinary, but true, story brought to my mind the sounds of a delicate mechanism, of gears turning slowly, responding to the opponent moves with apparent logical regularity, but progressively, slowly revealing the ugly truth behind: the faint heartbeat of the human player who was the real brain hidden inside the machine. Indeed, it was a hoax designed to fool people...





A cross-section of the Turk from Racknitz, showing how he thought the operator sat inside as he played his opponent. 
Racknitz was wrong both about the position of the operator and the dimensions of the automaton.​
While composing this piece I could not escape drawing a parallel between this _Mechanical Turk_ manipulated secretly from the inside, the real controlling mind hidden well behind the scenes, with the current events where the fragile equilibrium of our World is also being manipulated from behind and its delicate mechanisms are broken progressively by forces unseen to most of us.

What you _get_ is definitely not from what you _see_ nowadays...
Be wary of the machine my friends! Stay vigilant! _*Be wary of the Török !*_



In my piece you will be able to hear a strange and eerie combination of unusual and very rare instruments spread over 30+ different tracks half of which are glass instruments part of the marvelous Soniccouture's Glass-Works library. They're meant in my piece to symbolize the fragile mechanical equilibrium of our highly interconnected modern world.

For more information about _The Turk_ check here and here.
There's even a few books written about it!

The automaton was not able to fool the sharp mind of Edgar Allan Poe who also wrote a book about it. It also brings to mind Poe's famous_ Tell-Tale Heart_ story. Can we hear the signs of the crime?


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## creativeforge (Sep 22, 2022)

Always interesting stories...  The machine finally got a spot on SoundCloud, eh... Will have to check the library closer.

Well done!


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## Tatiana Gordeeva (Sep 22, 2022)

creativeforge said:


> Always interesting stories...  The machine finally got a spot on SoundCloud, eh... Will have to check the library closer. Well done!


Thank you for listening and for your kind words! ❤️

The Turk has a really unusual history that I was trying to convey into my music. There's also a big part of subtext behind as usual if you know my music... 

I will soon post a list of the other strange and rare instruments used in the track. It is a really eclectic collection imho.


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## creativeforge (Sep 22, 2022)

Tatiana Gordeeva said:


> the other strange and rare instruments used in the track. It is a really eclectic collection imho.


Well, this is the place to do that. A lot of creators here are on the lookout for unusual and unique sampled instruments. 

BTW, have you ever considered being a music history teacher?? Or have your own YouTube channel to share these richly provided background stories?


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## Tatiana Gordeeva (Sep 23, 2022)

creativeforge said:


> Well, this is the place to do that. A lot of creators here are on the lookout for unusual and unique sampled instruments.


I thought that it might be interesting to others. I will try to make it interesting. 


creativeforge said:


> BTW, have you ever considered being a music history teacher?? Or have your own YouTube channel to share these richly provided background stories?


I used to teach music but not specifically its history. Of course some was part of it but there are experts on this subject. I don't pretend to be one of them. 

I have a little YouTube channel for some of my tracks as some of you here might know. The videos there are mostly meant as occasional illustrations for my music.

Otoh I love to create a narrative or backstory for my pieces as often the inspiration for them comes from found or suggested links to other subjects, historical facts or even current events, as is the case here. I believe that it creates a context for the music, its origin, and enhances it somehow by letting the listener create his/her own visuals and associations while listening.

It also makes the experience multi-sensorial without having to invest too much time into creating other media on the side of my music which frankly I would not have the time nor the talent to do properly.

It also sometimes creates a focal point for a brief spontaneous mini-community discussing the theme or backstory used like it was recently the case for my piece *Cosmic Pan-O-Rama* where people came and discussed their own personal stories about UFOs. That was really cool.


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## Pier (Sep 23, 2022)

Very nice Tatiana!

What other libraries did you use besides SonicCouture's Glass-Works?


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## antret (Sep 23, 2022)

This is quite the sonic adventure!


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## Bollen (Sep 23, 2022)

So, so good! 💕


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## Tatiana Gordeeva (Sep 23, 2022)

Pier said:


> Very nice Tatiana!
> What other libraries did you use besides SonicCouture's Glass-Works?


Thank you so much for listening and commenting so nicely! ❤️

About the libraries: I'm preparing a few posts giving details about the instruments used, etc. Stay tuned as they say...


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## Tatiana Gordeeva (Sep 23, 2022)

antret said:


> This is quite the sonic adventure!


Thank you so much!! ❤️ It was indeed  including for myself. (Re)discovering some of these rarely used instruments was really fun and inspiring while serving my musical goals here. I plan to do it more often. I have tons of libraries of rarely used instruments from different manufacturers I have yet to explore...


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## Tatiana Gordeeva (Sep 23, 2022)

Bollen said:


> So, so good! 💕


So nice of you to say! ❤️ Indeed I thought this piece would suit your eclectic taste. Glad you like it!!


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## RemyB85 (Sep 23, 2022)

Always like your inspirational sources when creating art , the track itself describes perfectly what you mean about "mechanical equilibrium of our highly interconnected modern world" but with a touch of creepiness which I like a lot!


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## Tatiana Gordeeva (Sep 24, 2022)

RemyB85 said:


> Always like your inspirational sources when creating art , the track itself describes perfectly what you mean about "mechanical equilibrium of our highly interconnected modern world" but with a touch of creepiness which I like a lot!


Wow! Thank you so much for this! ❤️ Very kind of you to say!! And yes, there is a bit a creepiness or eeriness in it, on purpose of course


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## Bollen (Sep 24, 2022)

Tatiana Gordeeva said:


> So nice of you to say! ❤️ Indeed I thought this piece would suit your eclectic taste. Glad you liked it!!


You know me so well... 💕


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## Gerald (Sep 25, 2022)

Very nice Tatiana, and thank you for the story!


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## Tatiana Gordeeva (Sep 25, 2022)

Bollen said:


> You know me so well... 💕


Well, as they say, it takes one to know one, but in a good way


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## Tatiana Gordeeva (Sep 25, 2022)

Gerald said:


> Very nice Tatiana, and thank you for the story!


Thank YOU Gérald for listening and for your kind words! Much appreciated as always! ❤️

In my upcoming posts people will be able to learn about some of the rare instruments I used in this piece, including a few from some French very prolific inventors...  Fascinating story!!


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## Tatiana Gordeeva (Sep 25, 2022)

As promised in the following posts I will go into more details about some of the rarest and most unusual instruments used in this piece. These follow-up posts will be brief enough to just give interested listeners the incentive to learn more about these marvelous instruments.

If anyone has composed for, or even played, these instruments, real or virtual, or want to add anything to my admittedly very short introduction please feel free to do so here. Would be very cool as I'm surely not alone eager to learn more about them! 

Some of you might have already recognized that the first one, the one playing the main motif which was repeated exactly 12 times during the piece, is a *glass harmonica*. Not the rarest of the instruments I used here but one often forgotten in modern music with the advent of synthesizers. It gives the whole piece its eerie sound which I love and that some of you have noted.

The *glass harmonica*, also known as the *glass armonica*, *glass harmonium*, *bowl organ*, *hydrocrystalophone, *is an instrument invented in the mid 18th century by none other than *Benjamin Franklin* (like he had some free time just before signing the U.S. Declaration of Independence ).

It is best described as a set of rotating tuned glass bowls dipping in water set in motion by a pedal and played by placing fingers on their edges to create sound. The experience is what you get when you wet your finger to make a wine glass "sing", i.e. a friction idiophone.





Source​
It was called by some people _*the World's most dangerous instrument*_ and they went as far as to claim that the eerie sounds emanating out of it can drive you crazy or even kill you:

_Critics said it overstimulated the brain; performers blamed it for dizziness, hallucinations, and palsy. In 1799, doctor Anthony Willich argued that the instrument deserved to be condemned, saying it caused “a great degree of nervous weakness.” In 1808, people attributed the death of armonica virtuoso Marianne Kirchgessner to the instrument’s eerie tones. Some psychiatrists went so far to say it drove listeners to suicide._

The dire warning apparently did not scare famous composers as many of them used or composed for the instrument. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wrote his 1791 K. 617 and K.356 (K.617a) for the glass harmonica. Ludwig van Beethoven used the instrument in an 1814 Leonore Prohaska. Other famous composers who were fans of the "glass harp" as it was also known include none other than Saint-Saëns and Richard Strauss.

The instrument had a more recent revival of sorts and finds its way in modern concerts on many occasions notably by Thomas Bloch, a musician specializing in exotic and rare instruments. It can be beautifully ornate like this one:





Source
Shown above is Dennis James. His interesting story here.​
Not having the luck to have one handy in my studio at the moment  I went with the next best thing: a beautifully sampled version of one as part of the marvelous Soniccouture Glass-Works library. They went to Paris to record Thomas Bloch playing it and the result was their very expressive instrument simply called *Glass Armonica*.

I loved their version so much that it greatly inspired me to compose this piece and make it the star of it. 

Soon I will be back to describe another _even stranger_ instrument that I used in *Be Wary of the Török !*


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## kgdrum (Sep 25, 2022)

Dearest Aunt Tati,
Another beautiful piece of music,bravo 👏


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## kgdrum (Sep 25, 2022)

btw my one gripe with this beautiful piece of music,during the last Soniccouture sale I went all in and got the bundle of 10 libraries for $399 and (a real life drummer joke!) I didn’t buy Glassworks,lol 

So my Dearest (evil) Aunt Tati,
We both know which Soniccouture library I’m going to buy during their Holiday sale.

😘


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## Tatiana Gordeeva (Sep 25, 2022)

kgdrum said:


> We both know which Soniccouture library I’m going to buy during their Holiday sale.


Haha! Thank you for listening and commenting Kenny! ❤️ I'm not sure you'll be able to resist until then after my next post which will be about another one of their wonderful instruments that I used here...


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## kgdrum (Sep 25, 2022)

Well I already have most of the Soniccouture libraries that I want,all told about 20+ libraries so I’m well covered with Soniccouture.
Somehow Glassworks eluded my hoarding tendencies.
Not to worry I will patiently wait for the next sale and rectify this crime against sample library commerce.
All kidding aside imo Soniccouture is truly one of the best sample library developers in the VI world, it’s remarkable how consistent they are with developing & releasing great libraries.


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## Tatiana Gordeeva (Sep 25, 2022)

kgdrum said:


> All kidding aside imo Soniccouture is truly one of the best sample library developers in the VI world, it’s remarkable how consistent they are with developing & releasing great libraries.


Absolutely agree!


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## Tatiana Gordeeva (Sep 25, 2022)

This post will be about another rare instrument that I used in this piece. It might very well be the absolute rarest around: the *Cristal Baschet *aka *Glass Organ*. As I promised @Gerald it is one of many instruments here that were created by French inventors, les frères Baschet.

The instrument itself is very difficult to describe but its tone is absolutely marvelous. Played by itself it conjures images of Heaven. Seriously! It looks like this:





Source​
It was developed in the 1950s by two brothers inventors, Bernard & François Baschet, following a long period of experimentation and fine tuning. The brothers developed many very unusual acoustic instruments and sound sculptures during their long life. They both died within a year or two of each other in their 90s.






Another view of the instrument​
Although more recent than the glass harmonica I discussed previously it was used by many composers such as Jean-Michel Jarre, Pierre Henry, Tom Waits and incorporated in their act by many performers such as Manu Dibango and... (for @doctoremmet) Daft Punk!

The description of its functioning cannot even begin to match the listening experience. According to Wikipedia:



> _Metal rods are embedded in a heavy plate to form the elements. Each metal rod is accompanied by an attached glass rod. The metal rod's length, weight and position at the equilibrium point determine the sound's pitch. The glass rod is gently stroked with a wet finger to produce sound. The vibration of the rod with greater amplitude and weaker pressure is transmitted into the metal fitting. This causes a transformation in the vibrations and the shape of the wave produced. The vibrations propagating through the metal have a high pressure and a weak amplitude. This amplification in pressure is the result of fiberglass cones that are fixed in a wood frame alongside a tall, cut-out metal part in the shape of a flame. "Whiskers," placed on the side of the instrument, amplify high-pitched sounds._



Get it?  Didn't think so  Hear it instead played solo by (again) master Dennis James:



or if you prefer the full version:


or here:


My own version was again from the Soniccouture Glass-Works library! A must have imho!

If you are one of those types who likes to _really_ understand things (I married one ) you can read this article about the physics of this instrument. And as always you are welcome to contribute your own experience and stories related to the instrument!


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## Bollen (Sep 26, 2022)

I was aware and have used the Glass Harmonica several times (I use the VSL version), but I was not aware at of the Cristal Baschet at all. What a marvellous discovery...! I would love to hear it in person!


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## Tatiana Gordeeva (Sep 26, 2022)

Bollen said:


> What a marvellous discovery...! I would love to hear it in person!


Yes, same here! Stay tuned for my next "weird" instrument...


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## jben (Sep 26, 2022)

Thanks for sharing all these stories and knowledge. And your music. 👏🏻👏🏻


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## Tatiana Gordeeva (Sep 26, 2022)

jben said:


> Thanks for sharing all these stories and knowledge. And your music. 👏🏻👏🏻


Thank YOU for listening and commenting so nicely! ❤️

More stories to come in a few minutes...


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## Tatiana Gordeeva (Sep 26, 2022)

​
This is a *Miago Trod,* another instrument that I used in *Be Wary of the Török !*, an instrument that I used before (for ex. in *Serengeti* and _*La Valse Triste*_) and that I absolutely love!  Its tone is absolutely marvelous! You can hear it starting at around 0:35, then 0:57 and many other places.



​
The *Miago Trod* is part of the *Bart Hopkin Instrumentarium*. Bart has been designing and constructing dozens of unique musical instruments since 1974.

*Miago Trod* is a set of 22 threaded rods up to 42” long, mounted in a frame, tuned chromatically and played by percussion. The main mounting pieces are two heavy steel bars, and each rod passes through its mounting bar with a shorter playable segment above and a longer playable segment below. The segments are long enough that the fundamentals are subsonic, and the tone that you hear is that of various overtones. The range of rod lengths is chosen so that one overtone is strong enough to stand out as the defining pitch, while other overtones contribute to a reasonably coherent blend enhanced by the addition of a well placed weight located partway along the rod to deliberately modify the overtone relationships. The lower segments are pitched an octave below the upper segments, and when either is struck, the two parts interact to further enrich the tone.

It is a giant resonating *lamellaphone* created by master instrument inventor *Bart Hopkin*. It stands over five feet tall, with 22 threaded rods of varying lengths in two rows. The rods are tuned chromatically and played percussively. Part of the special character of this experimental device is found in the relative tuning of the upper and lower segments. They are long enough that the fundamentals are subsonic, and the tone is of various overtones. The range of rod lengths was chosen so that in the upper, shorter segments, one overtone is strong enough to stand out as the defining pitch, while other overtones contribute to a coherent blend. Meanwhile, the longer lower segment has similar sets of overtone relationships with a predominant pitch an octave below the upper segment. When either the upper or lower segment is struck, the two parts interact to further enrich the tone. The final result is a mysterious bassy and metallic timbre.

In this piece I have used the version sampled by *Soundiron* (for which my piece _*La Valse Triste*_ mentioned above is an official demo) as well as a few other sampled Bart's instruments such as *Times & Echoes* and *Rattletines* (*Serengeti *is an official demo).

More weird instruments will follow soon...Stay_ tuned..._ (get it?)


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## Bollen (Sep 26, 2022)

Tatiana Gordeeva said:


> The segments are long enough that the fundamentals are subsonic, and the tone that you hear is that of various overtones.


Say what???? 



Tatiana Gordeeva said:


> More weird instruments will follow soon...Stay_ tuned..._ (get it?)


Oh you...!


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## Tatiana Gordeeva (Sep 27, 2022)

In my piece I "forced" French and Russian inventors to "collaborate" on some melodic lines... The fact that both are dead made it easier... 

As I promised @Gerald earlier, I have involved another French inventor of early electronic instruments: Maurice Louis Eugène Martenot (1898-1980), a professional cellist who became a telegrapher during WWI. Of course he is the inventor of the famous *Ondes Martenot* (aka *Ondes Musicales*) in 1928 and spent the following decades improving it.






Source​
It is, in many ways, the precursor of several very modern instruments. It is composed of a special _suspended _keyboard part that can create a vibrato (a bit like a ROLI Seaboard) and a finger ring used to create portamento and glissando (like a ribbon strip) called "jouer au ruban" 





Source​
as well as different types of diffusers (speakers) that create different colors using springs, strings (harp shape) and gong for a more metallic tone.









​
Many 20th century composers incorporated it in their repertory such as Honegger, Jolivet, Messiaen among others and it also found its way in many media productions.

In 2012 there was a Quebec documentary film entitled _Wavemakers_ (original French title _Le chant des ondes_) about this famous instrument.

Associated with it in my piece is one of my favorite instruments: the famous *Theremin *aka *ætherphone / etherphone, thereminophone, termenvox / thereminvox*, an invention of Russian Leon Theremin (Lev Sergeyevich Termen) that needs no further introduction. A nice article about him can be found here where Bob Moog explains how the Theremin helped launch his company.





Theremin playing his instrument





A modern Moog Etherwave​
I used a combination of both tones to soften a bit of the more nasal tone of the Ondes Martenot adding the Theremin to finish notes with a bit of vibrato.

Used here were Soniccouture's Ondes and Soundiron's Theremin+, both digital products having capabilities extending _well beyond_ their traditional counterparts.


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## Tatiana Gordeeva (Sep 27, 2022)

Pier said:


> Very nice Tatiana!
> What other libraries did you use besides SonicCouture's Glass-Works?


As your can see Pier I didn't forget your question as I expand on my list of instruments used. More to come...


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## doctoremmet (Sep 27, 2022)

Very cool stuff Tati. Apparently Bernard Herrmann was fond of the Ondes Martenot as well, Spitfire sampled one in their BH Composer Toolkit.


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## kgdrum (Sep 27, 2022)

Tatiana Gordeeva said:


> In my piece I "forced" French and Russian inventors to "collaborate" on some melodic lines... The fact that both are dead made it easier...
> 
> As I promised @Gerald earlier, I have involved another French inventor of early electronic instruments: Maurice Louis Eugène Martenot (1898-1980), a professional cellist who became a telegrapher during WWI. Of course he is the inventor of the famous *Ondes Martenot* (aka *Ondes Musicales*) in 1928 and spent the following decades improving it.
> 
> ...


Aunt Tati is a great musical history teacher! 👍


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## Tatiana Gordeeva (Sep 27, 2022)

doctoremmet said:


> Very cool stuff Tati. Apparently Bernard Herrmann was fond of the Ondes Martenot as well, Spitfire sampled one in their BH Composer Toolkit.


Thank you Doc for listening and posting this! ❤️

Yes, the Ondes are a very cool instrument. I'm no "ondist" for sure but some people here have called me _The_ _Thereminator_


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## Tatiana Gordeeva (Sep 27, 2022)

kgdrum said:


> Aunt Tati is a great musical history teacher! 👍


Thanks Kenny! It's a lot of fun to present these strange instruments. The stranger the better!


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## kgdrum (Sep 27, 2022)

Of course your showcasing one of the other great libraries from Soniccouture that I still don’t have…..brrrrrr

😂


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## Pier (Sep 27, 2022)

Tatiana Gordeeva said:


> As your can see Pier I didn't forget your question as I expand on my list of instruments used. More to come...


Thanks Tatiana! So much detail!

🙌


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## Tatiana Gordeeva (Sep 28, 2022)

Next in my exotic lineup of weird instruments are *Cloud Chamber Bowls *which are apparently not so strange being just a bunch of...glass bowls!



​
*BUT* what is strange is their origin... In the 1950s a maverick American composer *Harry Partch* decided to hang “bowls” (13 or 14) which are sections of 12-gallon glass carboys from a large wooden frame he called a “tori”. Both tops and bottoms of the carboys are used.

English not being my mother tongue I wondered... What the h... is a "carboy"? Well as always Google is your friend: "The term "carboy" (aka a "demijohn") originated in the 1700s. It derives from an ancient Persian word "_Qarabah_", which means large flagon." Well, what do you know!





Harry Partch in 1957 with the resulting instrument looked like this (source)​Stranger still is where he found the bowls. The name “Cloud Chamber Bowls” arose from the fact that Partch found the original tops and bottoms at a Radiation Laboratory at UC Berkeley in 1950. The bowls were originally used for cloud chambers used in tracing paths of subatomic particles.

Well I didn't know what a "cloud chamber'' was so I turned to my physicist hubby for an explanation. The part of it that I understand and remember goes like this: (in the older times) when you wanted to see what subatomic particles are created and where they go you make them travel through a container with some "cloud" of gas (like smoke) where they leave a trace which you can photograph. It looks like this.





Source​
"The spirals are created when you have charged particles (positive or negative) in the presence of applied electromagnetic fields. Depending on charge they turn in one direction or another."
See... So simple! 

Here's a video about Harry Partch and his bowls:


Now, as I was out of "cloud chamber bowls" in my kitchen, I used again the marvelous *Soniccouture Glass-Works* library that offers a full assortment of struck and bowed bowls each with their very distinctive unique color that you can hear throughout *Be Wary of the Török !*


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## MeloKeyz (Sep 28, 2022)

Tatiana Gordeeva said:


> This post will be about another rare instrument that I used in this piece. It might very well be the absolute rarest around: the *Cristal Baschet *aka *Glass Organ*. As I promised @Gerald it is one of many instruments here that were created by French inventors, les frères Baschet.
> 
> The instrument itself is very difficult to describe but its tone is absolutely marvelous. Played by itself it conjures images of Heaven. Seriously! It looks like this:
> 
> ...



I wonder if David Gilmour used this in one of his Shine On Your Crazy Diamond performances. Absolute gorgeous!


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## Tatiana Gordeeva (Sep 28, 2022)

MeloKeyz said:


> I wonder if David Gilmour used this in one of his Shine On Your Crazy Diamond performances. Absolute gorgeous!


Maybe he was more of a Glass Armonica type guy?


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## Tatiana Gordeeva (Sep 28, 2022)

MeloKeyz said:


> I wonder if David Gilmour used this in one of his Shine On Your Crazy Diamond performances. Absolute gorgeous!


And thank you very much for listening and making this interesting connection! ❤️


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## MeloKeyz (Sep 28, 2022)

Tatiana Gordeeva said:


> Maybe he was more a Glass Armonica type guy?



Good catch


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## Tatiana Gordeeva (Sep 28, 2022)

MeloKeyz said:


> I wonder if David Gilmour used this in one of his Shine On Your Crazy Diamond performances. Absolute gorgeous!


And actually you are right! According to Wikipedia the original recording session was entitled "Wine Glasses" and they did use a Glass Harp.


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## MeloKeyz (Sep 28, 2022)

Tatiana Gordeeva said:


> And thank very much for listening and making this interesting connection! ❤️


You're most welcome, I enjoyed your music actually and thanks for sharing these talents with us


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## Tatiana Gordeeva (Sep 29, 2022)

doctoremmet said:


> Very cool stuff Tati. Apparently Bernard Herrmann was fond of the Ondes Martenot as well, Spitfire sampled one in their BH Composer Toolkit.


Indeed! On a similar _note_ I just found this interesting list of movies with a score using a Theremin or Ondes Martenot compiled (up to 2020) by someone on the IMDB site: https://www.imdb.com/list/ls059121815/

Does anyone know of a similar, possibly more complete, list?


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## Tatiana Gordeeva (Sep 29, 2022)

In the keys department I used mainly two instruments. Maybe not so exotic as some of the ones mentioned previously but still considered unusual by most people.

Part One

The first keyboard instrument is a *bentside spinet *aka *spinetta*. The spinet is a "home friendlier" version of the similar harpsichords and virginals. What is different between them is the angle between the strings and the keyboard.

In most harpsichords the strings are perpendicular to the keyboard like in a piano. In a virginal they are parallel to the keyboard. In a bentside spinet they are at about 30 degrees to the keyboard. A lot of innovation was happening in that period.





(Source)​
The *bentside Spinet *derives from *spinetta*, a word used for all quilled instruments in 17th-century Italian. The spinet was a preferred household keyboard since it took up less room than the harpsichord, produced a dark & quiet tone, and was aesthetically stunning. As one of the precursors of the pianoforte, the oldest artifact is dated 1490, but started to gain popularity around 1631. By the 18th century, bentside spinets were found all over Europe and were used for daily home entertainment and musical instruction. The instrument shape resembled a harp laid horizontally, with the keys in the position of the sounding-board. As a result, the spinet produced a rich and sustained timbre, but darker and less brilliant than the harpsichord. It had a five octave range with natural keys re-covered with ebony and ivory topped accidentals, giving it a strikingly memorable look.





A gorgeous spinet built in 1765 by Johann Heinrich Silbermann. Germany. (source)​
In my piece here I used *Soundiron's Bentside Spinet* for which I made a fun demo track a while back entitled _*Oblique References*_.



(Part 2 of this post is coming up...)


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## doctoremmet (Sep 29, 2022)

Tatiana Gordeeva said:


> In the keys department I used mainly two instruments. Maybe not so exotic as some of the ones mentioned previously but still considered unusual by most people.
> 
> Part One
> 
> ...



So many spinets have entered my space this past week! ❤️ @Rudianos you paying attention?


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## Tatiana Gordeeva (Sep 29, 2022)

Part Two

The other keyboard instrument I used here is a little more unusual in its modernity as it is a digital hybrid combination of two conventional keyboard instruments: a piano(forte) and a harpsichord. This is the keyboard instrument you can mostly hear in my piece, the spinet described in Part One of this post playing mostly a secondary role.

The first part of this hybrid instrument is a *Carl Bechstein piano* which I love for its romantic but still bright percussive qualities. Many composers and players used Bechsteins for these qualities, for ex. Brahms, Liszt, Debussy, Grieg, Ravel, Bartók and Scriabin among others. The one I used is a modified sampled version of the D 282 concert grand.



​
The other part of my hybrid is a *Carlo Grimaldi harpsichord* that I added mainly for color given its somewhat limited range of 57 notes (G0-C5). Its original design has been copied many times but very few (3?) originals still exist today. Originals were very beautiful and ornate like this one now at the Nuremberg, Germanisches Nationalmuseum:





(Very interesting source)​
The one I used was sampled from a less ostensible version  but still beautiful that looked a bit more like this:















(Source)​
The final sound that you hear in *Be Wary of the Török !* has been created by my custom recipe or blend of the two instruments above using the newish "Morphing and Layering" feature of the physical modeling platform offered by *Modartt's Pianoteq Pro*.


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## Rudianos (Sep 29, 2022)

doctoremmet said:


> So many spinets have entered my space this past week! ❤️ @Rudianos you paying attention?


Fascinating post and a very good use of elegant instruments.


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## Tatiana Gordeeva (Sep 30, 2022)

Rudianos said:


> Fascinating post and a very good use of elegant instruments.


Thank you for listening and commenting so nicely!! Very kind of you! ❤️

These instruments are indeed very elegant and very inspiring. I'm sure that others are ready to try some of the lesser known ones (e.g. Cristal Baschet) now.


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## Rudianos (Sep 30, 2022)

Tatiana Gordeeva said:


> Thank you for listening and commenting so nicely!! Very kind of you! ❤️
> 
> These instruments are indeed very elegant and very inspiring. I'm sure that others are ready to try some of the lesser known ones (e.g. Cristal Baschet) now.


I had to look up what that is lol... Soniccouture has a Cristal Baschet in Glassworks? I have that! Need to spend more time exploring! Have you tried Realsamples English Spinet? Find it very nice too.


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## Tatiana Gordeeva (Sep 30, 2022)

Rudianos said:


> I had to look up what that is lol... Soniccouture has a Cristal Baschet in Glassworks? I have that! Need to spend more time exploring!


Haha, yes we end up with so many instruments that we lose track. Happens to me all the time! Embarrassment of riches, as they say. 


Rudianos said:


> Have you tried Realsamples English Spinet? Find it very nice too.


Yes, also very nice!


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## creativeforge (Oct 1, 2022)

Tatiana Gordeeva said:


> Maybe he was more of a Glass Armonica type guy?



I had seen this before, where Gilmour hired a guy off the street in Venice... happened to be raining hard the night of the concert... Love it!


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## Tatiana Gordeeva (Oct 1, 2022)

creativeforge said:


> I had seen this before, where Gilmour hired a guy off the street in Venice... happened to be raining hard the night of the concert... Love it!


Wow, such a cool story! If he didn't know who he was talking to in the street I can only imagine the surprise of that guy when he learned about the venue where he would be playing and saw the stage!!  

Thanks for sharing this very cool story! ❤️


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## Tatiana Gordeeva (Oct 1, 2022)

In this final post about instrumentation I will be giving "en vrac" the list of the other, _maybe _less exotic, instruments that I used in my piece.

First the ethereal voices you can hear behind come from a granular synth engine that I love, *NI Pharlight*, with its interesting human textures and organic vocal timbres. So many possibilities!... Don't you love these granular synths? 

Here and there you can hear a flute peeking from behind. It's as simple as I wanted it and comes straight from *NI's Symphony Series - Woodwind*. I must have 50-60 flutes from different libraries in my studio but why make it complicated when it can be kept simple? I tend to use instruments for themselves, for what color they can add without focusing too much on their fancy tech features or abilities. It comes from working with real players I guess 

For a different color I introduced some gamelan ensemble parts that came from the very nice *Soniccouture Balinese Gamelan *library. Simply gorgeous! 

For the violin part I needed a simple but expressive violin. Here again multiple choices were available but I went with the *NI Stradivari "Vesuvius 1727" Violin* that sounded perfect for the job to my ears.

To add a bit of spice I needed a few notes of electric guitars so I went for *Spitfire Labs Electric Guitars*. Nothing fancy of course but again, just what I needed here. 

For added tuned percussion I used again one of *Bart Hopkin's Instrumentarium* creations sampled in *Soundiron's Tines & Echoes* library which offers many surprisingly versatile sound options.

And finally, to create the heartbeat crescendo that you can hear at the end of my piece symbolising the human behind the machine, both in reality and metaphorically, I simply used some tweaked path from *Heavyocity Damage*.

That's it! The rest is just a question of layering, mixing, etc. to get the sound that I had in mind when I started to compose *Be Wary of the Török !
*
If you followed this thread up to this point *THANKS YOU!*
Thank you @Pier for asking about libraries and others for contributing!
And of course, as always, *thank you all for listening and commenting!! *
Much appreciated!!! ❤️
Tatiana


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## Cass Hansen (Oct 2, 2022)

Always late to the party but what a special and provocative (as in exciting, not angry) piece of music. Just love it!! I mean really, who needs Wikipedia when we have Tatiana!!

Love the amalgamation of these unique instruments creating a sonorous ecstasy which it truly is.

While growing up, I can’t tell you how many wineglasses I broke of my parents trying to create the glass harmonica. Even in college I continued the futile effort of making the wineglasses sing. I look at it this way, breaking my wineglasses probably saved me from becoming an alcoholic.

At any rate, when I see a new composition of yours posted I know I’m in for a treat and I always listen to it first before I read your post, don’t want to be swayed by commentary (replies) and your own narrative before I can create my own emotive response.

It hit me immediately as an allegorical piece about the fragile state of affairs and quagmire we now find ourselves in. The glass equipped instruments creating the fragility of the piece (and world) while the out-of-tune aspects creating the uneasiness and troubling overlay. The clocklike rhythm and punctuation of the piece trying to show everything is in sync but then the piano (spinet, not sure what you used) downward atonal unwinding of the spring (again, world) until the end when humanities heartbeat is all you hear and then ending in only one beat as if to say, that’s it folks!

A very powerful piece of music, at least to me and so well thought out. I too believe we are being manipulated by just a few unseen people pulling all the strings and unfortunately lot of these people are wackjobs. Fortunately, I’m inherently optimistic in nature and still hope we’ll get our act together sooner than later.

Thanks so much for all the info on the instruments used Tatiana, such an education. This piece contains more libraries that I even own! You truly are a gem, so glad you’re on this forum!!!

Cass


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## Tatiana Gordeeva (Oct 2, 2022)

Cass Hansen said:


> Always late to the party but what a special and provocative (as in exciting, not angry) piece of music.


Wow! Cass with such posts you can never be late!  You can even review all my pieces from years back if you want! 


Cass Hansen said:


> Just love it!! I mean really, who needs Wikipedia when we have Tatiana!!


Haha, thanks! I always try to make it enjoyable _and _informative, if I can.


Cass Hansen said:


> Love the amalgamation of these unique instruments creating a sonorous ecstasy which it truly is.


Thanks! Yes, I (re)discovered many of these rare ones with great pleasure and they served my purpose here perfectly: showing the strangeness, the surreal quality in all of it...i.e. the Török backstory and the current world events.


Cass Hansen said:


> While growing up, I can’t tell you how many wineglasses I broke of my parents trying to create the glass harmonica. Even in college I continued the futile effort of making the wineglasses sing. I look at it this way, breaking my wineglasses probably saved me from becoming an alcoholic.





Cass Hansen said:


> At any rate, when I see a new composition of yours posted I know I’m in for a treat and I always listen to it first before I read your post, don’t want to be swayed by commentary (replies) and your own narrative before I can create my own emotive response.


So kind of you to say... and wise... 


Cass Hansen said:


> It hit me immediately as an allegorical piece about the fragile state of affairs and quagmire we now find ourselves in. The glass equipped instruments creating the fragility of the piece (and world) while the out-of-tune aspects creating the uneasiness and troubling overlay. The clocklike rhythm and punctuation of the piece trying to show everything is in sync but then the piano (spinet, not sure what you used) downward atonal unwinding of the spring (again, world) until the end when humanities heartbeat is all you hear and then ending in only one beat as if to say, that’s it folks!


Perfect analysis!! So perceptive!!  I could not have said it better myself! Yes, the heartbeat behind, revealing the perpetrator of the scam. The piano you heard was the hybrid harpsichord-piano created in Pianoteq and described in one of my posts above. Normal confusion. Deception, and more deception...  But there was also a bentside spinet involved at certain moments. 


Cass Hansen said:


> A very powerful piece of music, at least to me and so well thought out. I too believe we are being manipulated by just a few unseen people pulling all the strings and unfortunately lot of these people are wackjobs. Fortunately, I’m inherently optimistic in nature and still hope we’ll get our act together sooner than later.


Hopefully but I cannot agree more with your description!!! We are being driven down the primerose path while running on fumes... literally! 


Cass Hansen said:


> Thanks so much for all the info on the instruments used Tatiana, such an education. This piece contains more libraries that I even own! You truly are a gem, so glad you’re on this forum!!!


A huge thank you again Cass for listening and for your always well-written and thoughtful, insightful comments about my little piece here. Highly appreciated!! Stay tuned for other upcoming tracks... 

Best, Tatiana ❤️


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## Bollen (Oct 3, 2022)

creativeforge said:


> I had seen this before, where Gilmour hired a guy off the street in Venice... happened to be raining hard the night of the concert... Love it!



I actually had the same thing happen to me when I was busking in Barcelona back in the day... Except I didn't want to play with the guy.... (who should remain nameless).


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## Tatiana Gordeeva (Oct 3, 2022)

Bollen said:


> I actually had the same thing happen to me when I was busking in Barcelona back in the day... Except I didn't want to play with the guy.... (who should remain nameless).


Hey, exact same thing happened to me!! I was walking down La Rambla there and some guy approached me mumbling something about "money". Before pushing him away I took his photo, you know, just in case...



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