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Listen to Music Underwater

Posted in: Live Music by SharifaMcFarlane on December 8th, 2009 | 0 Comments

The concert took place in a pool and was a part of the New Interfaces for Musical Expression Conference.

A plasmaphone is a musical instrument that was first introduced to the public in 2007, when it was played along with a hydraulophone in a concert in New York. It makes sound underwater via a plasma probe inserted into the water. The concert took place in a pool and was a part of the New Interfaces for Musical Expression Conference.

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A plasmaphone was used underwater in a performance at ICMC (International Computer Music Conference), 2007. The theme of ICMC, 2007, was Immersed Music. The Immersed Music concert explored the elements of air, fire, water, ideas and earth in water and air.

Water-based musical instruments that let you play water are called hydraulophones, from hydraulics-for water and phone-for sound. They resemble traditional wind instruments such as the pipe organ or flute but replace the air with water. The Ontario Science Center has a circular pipe organ made of two consoles. Each console is a hydraulophone. When the water running through one of the jets is blocked, it produces sound.

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Children can have a lot of fun learning about music and playing with water when playing a hydraulophone. They just put their fingers over the flute-like finger holes to stop the jets of water and make music. By blocking many multiple jets they can play chords. The jets correspond to musical notes from A to G.

Hydraulophones are played using the three middle fingers of each hand.