Cristal baschet
Encyclopedia
Chromatic scale
The chromatic scale is a musical scale with twelve pitches, each a semitone apart. On a modern piano or other equal-tempered instrument, all the half steps are the same size...
-tuned glass rods. The glass rods are rubbed with moistened fingers to produce vibrations. The sound of the Cristal Baschet is similar to that of the glass harmonica
Glass harmonica
The glass harmonica, also known as the glass armonica, bowl organ, hydrocrystalophone, or simply the armonica , is a type of musical instrument that uses a series of glass bowls or goblets graduated in size to produce musical tones by means of friction The glass harmonica, also known as the glass...
.
The vibration of the glass rods in the Cristal Baschet is passed to a heavy block of metal by a metal stem whose variable length determines the frequency produced (i.e., the note). Amplification is the result of fiberglass
Fiberglass
Glass fiber is a material consisting of numerous extremely fine fibers of glass.Glassmakers throughout history have experimented with glass fibers, but mass manufacture of glass fiber was only made possible with the invention of finer machine tooling...
cones fixed in a wood frame and a tall cut out metal part, in the shape of a flame. "Whiskers",
placed under the instrument to one side, amplify high-pitched sounds.
The Cristal Baschet was created in 1952 by the French
French people
The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...
instrument makers and artists Bernard and Francois Baschet
Baschet Brothers
The Baschet Brothers are two French brothers named François Baschet and Bernard Baschet who collaborate on creating sound sculptures and inventing musical instruments, such as the cristal Baschet. François Baschet is a sculptor and Bernard Baschet is an engineer...
. The Baschet brothers specialize in creating sculptures that can be "played" to produce music. They also invented the inflatable guitar and the aluminum piano, and created an "educational instrumentarium" for exposing young people to musical concepts.
The Cristal Baschet was developed at the same time as musique concrète
Musique concrète
Musique concrète is a form of electroacoustic music that utilises acousmatic sound as a compositional resource. The compositional material is not restricted to the inclusion of sounds derived from musical instruments or voices, nor to elements traditionally thought of as "musical"...
(the avant-garde musical style introduced by Pierre Schaeffer
Pierre Schaeffer
Pierre Henri Marie Schaeffer was a French composer, writer, broadcaster, engineer, musicologist and acoustician of the 20th century. His innovative work in both the sciences —particularly communications and acoustics— and the various arts of music, literature and radio presentation after the end...
and Pierre Henry
Pierre Henry
Pierre Henry is a French composer, considered a pioneer of the musique concrète genre of electronic music.-Biography:...
), electro-acoustic music and early Moog synthesizer
Moog synthesizer
Moog synthesizer may refer to any number of analog synthesizers designed by Dr. Robert Moog or manufactured by Moog Music, and is commonly used as a generic term for older-generation analog music synthesizers. The Moog company pioneered the commercial manufacture of modular voltage-controlled...
s. The Cristal Baschet produces music similar in style to these other musical forms, but it is completely acoustic, without any electric amplifying-device.
Repertoire
Composers who have used the Cristal Baschet include François Bayle
François Bayle
François Bayle is a composer of Musique concrète or acousmatic music.In the 1950s he studied with Olivier Messiaen, Pierre Schaeffer and Karlheinz Stockhausen. In 1960 he joined the Office de Radiodiffusion Télévision Française, and in 1966 was put in charge of the Groupe de Recherches Musicales...
, Thomas Bloch
Thomas Bloch
Thomas Bloch is a classical musician specializing in the rare instruments ondes Martenot, glass harmonica, and Cristal Baschet....
, Michel Deneuve, Luc Ferrari
Luc Ferrari
Luc Ferrari was of an Italian heritage but French born composer, particularly noted for his tape music.-Biography:...
, Cliff Martinez
Cliff Martinez
Cliff Martinez is an American film score composer and former drummer.-Biography:Cliff Martinez was born in the Bronx, New York. Raised in Columbus, Ohio, his first job composing was for the popular television show Pee Wee's Playhouse...
, Guy Reibel, Etienne Rolin, Toru Takemitsu
Toru Takemitsu
was a Japanese composer and writer on aesthetics and music theory. Largely self-taught, Takemitsu possessed consummate skill in the subtle manipulation of instrumental and orchestral timbre...
, and Michel Redolfi.
Recent compositions for the instrument have been written by Sir Roger Steptoe, Alain Voirpy, Alain Labarsouque, Jean-Michel Hasler, Jean Philippe Calvin, Frederic Bousquet, Marc Antoine Millon.
External links
- (http://www.youtube.com/user/hopensemble?feature=mhum) videos from the HOPE ensemble, Marc Antoine Millon et Frédéric Bousquet, contemporary music and classical adaptations with Cristal Baschet
- Site officiel de la société Structures Sonores, qui développe les recherches des frères Baschet.*Les Sculptures Sonores, Official website of the Baschet brothers
- Sound Structures EURL – Atelier BOUSQUET, Official Website of the Cristal Baschet Manufacturer
- Association Structures Sonores Baschet et Pédagogie, a Baschet official website
- Thomas Bloch's website, a prominent cristal Baschet player (also ondes Martenot and glass harmonica) - facts, videos, pictures, biography, discography, contact...
Video
- (http://www.youtube.com/user/hopensemble?feature=mhum*Cristal baschet video
- Gorillaz leader Damon Albarn using the cristal Baschet and other rare instruments played by Thomas Bloch
- Cristal Baschet during a popular French TV program