2005:The Overtone Violin

The pursuit of novel interfaces for new music performance is a very interestingangle from which to approach the design of a musical instrument, but without theproper perspective the result can be hard to differentiate between a musically usefuldevice and a simple gadget. There is of course the typical industry approach ofbuilding electronic instruments in the likeness of an existing (acoustic) instrument,and while this can be useful, such imitation lacks the creative effort that can lead tonew innovations. However, ignoring the background and not building on an existingtradition can be hazardous as well, as it can either be too far ahead of its time or endup being merely a gimmick. Although the evolution of most acoustic instruments hasstagnated, there are recent examples of hybrid instruments (Bongers 1994; Burtner1994; Machover 1992) that augment traditional instruments with additional gesturalcapabilities. The Overtone Violin fits into this category.