H2Organology: Hydraulic Instruments

Musicians and inventors have been using water to produce sound for centuries. One of the first organs, the Greek/Roman hydraulis from the 3^rd century BCE, used pressurized water from a waterfall or hand pump to drive air into tuned pipes. The American inventor and statesman Benjamin Franklin, expanding on the musical wine glass principle, came up with the novel glass harmonica, a set of moistened, tuned bowls played with the fingers that attracted attention from such musical bigwigs as Mozart. As this post will demonstrate, hydraulic instruments are still around and being actively developed.

Students of organology (the study of musical instruments) would tell you that a "hydraulophone" is any instrument that uses some form of water to produce a sound. So then, a calliope - which uses steam to force air through pipes - and a pagophone - essentially a xylophone made of ice blocks - would be lumped into this terminology. To the layperson though, a hydraulophone is a distinct instrument invented by an eccentric Canadian engineer.

Steve Mann (pictured at left), better known for his forays into wearable computing and recent legal battles with McDonalds, is credited with inventing the hydraulophone. These instruments consist of a large metal tube with 12 to 45 holes (referred to as "jets" while playing); water is pumped through the tube and expelled from the holes. When a hole is covered by a finger, a tone is emitted based on the sound-emitting properties of water. While large versions of these instruments have been built for public use, I find the hot tub versions (balnaphones) infinitely more intriguing. They've also been applied as sensory exploration tools for visually impaired individuals.

The waterphone probably fits best in the "I've heard this sound in a movie but have no idea what produced it" category. Invented by Richard Waters (convenient name, if ever I've heard one) in the 1960s, the waterphone consists of a metal bowl with a cylindrical neck (also serving as its handle) and bronze rods around its rim. The rods can be struck with a rubber mallet or played with a violin bow. The waterphone's unique tone is accomplished by filling the bowl with water so that playing the rods affects the movement of the liquid. The resulting ethereal reverberations may sound familiar because of this instrument's use in many movie and TV soundtracks, including Aliens, The Matrix, and 24.

The Blackpool High Tide Organ is a very cool sculpture I came across while researching this entry. It stands around 15 meters high and was built in 2002 by Liam Curtin and John Gooding. Constructed of steel and copper sheet, it also includes 18 metal pipes which are attached to eight larger pipes leading to Blackpool's sea wall. When the high tide ebbs and flows, water enters the pipes and forces air into the sculpture causing the smaller pipes to sound. The High Tide Organ falls in with what we call aleatoric instruments, in that its tones are essentially determined by natural causes.

And, technically, the underwater image above is also considered "hydraulic music"…I have to wonder what it sounds like down there.

(Underwater Music Festival image via thevsky.com | Steve Mann image via Interaction Design)