World’s weirdest musical instruments

As a radical new two-string violin goes on display in New York, Clemency Burton-Hill looks at some more odd instruments, from the octobass to the theremin, reports BBC News.

Next month, visitors to the Inside 3D Printing conference at the Javits Center in New York City will have the chance to see – and hear – one of the most radical musical instruments ever created. Or should that be ‘printed’? The two-string Piezoelectric Violin is the brainchild of architects Eric Goldemberg and Veronica Zalcberg of Miami’s MONAD studio, in collaboration with multi-instrumentalist Scott F Hall, who has been
dreaming up ways to fabricate exotic instruments since the 1990s.


“Our desire to create unusual instruments emerged when we realised the aesthetic and technical issues we were facing as architects did not differ much from those of musicians and composers,” Goldemberg tells me. He and Zalcberg were interested to explore a “new conception for violin core functionality”, and the instrument – which will be exhibited alongside other curious sonic specimens including their take on the cello, a ‘hornucopia’,and Hall’s ‘monobaribasitar’ – is the result of “intense research on design and computation, leading to direct engagement with musicians, luthiers, composers and interactive artists of different kinds”.


With its “aggressive sci-fi looks”, the Piezoelectric Violin might seem as though it belongs in science fiction rather than a symphony hall, but it is part of a long tradition of unusual instruments that have pushed at the boundaries of engineering, science, music and magic.

“Veronica, Scott and I are definitely preserving enough of the history of the violin and other instruments as we venture forth into new designs,” said Goldemberg. “Innovation in instrument design is a balancing act of paying homage to history and tradition while at the same time looking forward boldly into the future.”