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Playing reconstructed ancient instruments: a new challenge for musicians and researchers |
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Recreating instruments of the past, not existing anymore and playing them in a professional ensemble is a wonderful challenge for historians, archaeologists, physicists, engineers, computer scientists.
The main motivation of running such a project is using from the scientific result of the ASTRA project with a purely artistic approach. The ASTRA project uses advanced research networks (like GEANT2 and EUMEDCONNECT) to bring experiences, scientific knowledge together with pure computation and modelling, having results available for a large community of users.
The benefits of the ASTRA collaborative approach are far reaching. Research data and sound samples can be shared around the world, made available for students and musicians, making it a truly multi-disciplinary international project.
The purpose of the Lost Sounds Orchestra is playing the ASTRA sounds, involving musicians, artists, collaborating with real players, instrumentalists and singers, to enjoy together a heritage lost in the past.
The ASTRA project started four years ago working with an advanced sound synthesis technique called Physical Modelling.
The first instrument simulated was the Monochord, an ancient musical instrument played by Pythagoras. The word "monochord" comes from the Greek and means literally "one string." In the monochord, a single string is stretched over a sound box. The string is fixed at both ends while a moveable bridge alters pitch. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monochord, picture available here: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/53/Monochord.jpg
ASTRA researchers built a real monochord in their labs and they checked that the model was correctly reproducing the sound of the physical instrument. After a whole year of software improvements ASTRA moved to more complex instruments like the Epigonion.
We had the first set of Epigonion sound ready on September 2008 (http://www.geant2.net/server/show/ConWebDoc.2867) |
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