Aeolian wind flute [Archive]

formlessness

6th September 2007, 06:26 PM

hi all
i am seeking an "aeolian wind flute"
i have seen in the past, plans for a 1 and 2 tone bamboo attachment for kites to "play" musical tones while the wind blows thru them. i believe one was chinese and another was vietnamese???
i'd like any plans y'all can dig up.
there was a post from an "odd instrument" making group, but i lost the link. the directions were in german, but the drawings were in english (joke)
thanks in advance.

harry abel

I was looking for something similar so maybe this will help:

Musical instruments powered by wind ASIDE from wind chimes. Wind flutes, chimes string instruments etc.

The thought popped into my head about a flute and or music interments that can be played solely by the wind because I DO NOT really like the sound so much of wind chimes…

I have enjoyed hearing the wind blow across the trees in the forest, and the wind wiping past a partially cracked window or at the entrance of a cave…

So I thought of something like a wind powered flute and found all kinds of cool stuff, so my goal here is to see if any of you have developed anything like this, also to get the idea more out there, and see if we can Come together and share in light of this information what we are trying and our success with it.. And also if any of you can help me find more how to guides on how to make this stuff.. I ESPECIALLY fell in love with the idea of trying to make a small scale Singing Ringing Tree like the one found in Burnley in which I will provide links and video to below!! (WOW it is SOO COOL) If I could even make small scale one of those I think it would be soo cool.. if it is to difficult then I will try and take the concepts and make something similar. Though I found some stuff to read about the idea I have seen NO instructions on how one might make such a thing, but at least maybe with our heads together we might get some good ideas from the pictures and descriptions we do have gathered.

Some of the other cool ideas below have some instructions though they don't seem very clear or simple to me like the various wind harps you can buy though, but I would rather make it if I can. So if you guys have any simple ideas you have tried or have any ideas from concepts of musical interments you do play then please share.

Okay look below for the awesome videos!!! and other cool stuff. and maybe some of us can make at least some of this stuff...

The Singing, Ringing Tree

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4B0hGyKV9qs

The Singing Ringing Tree up Crown Point in Burnley, Lancashire, England

but not as we know it. Commisioned by a forward thinking Burnley Council, The collection of tubes makes the strangest sounds when the wind blows, which is often round the location at Crown POint, on the moorland overlooking Burnley. Seen in the background is Pendle Hill, famous for the PENDLE WITCHES. Maybe in the sculpture, the myth lives on.

Singing Ringing Tree, Burnley

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QS3ugIfPHRk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rhuFGvXARA

http://www.bdonline.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=453&storycode=3092582&c=2&encCode=00000000013727fa

PICTURE from google
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/204/461467534_3093027354.jpg

Go ahead for singing ringing tree
The Singing Ringing Tree design for Burnley
The sound of the Singing Ringing Tree has been changed
Planners have approved a musical sculpture to be placed on moorland in East Lancashire.

The design for the "Singing Ringing Tree", to be built in Burnley, had to be altered after residents' concerns over the type of noise it would make.

It is part of the Panopticons project which sees a number of sculptures built at prominent landmarks in the county.

It will be made of 300 galvanised steep pipes and with a number of flutes which will sound when the wind blows.

The sculpture is to be sited at Crown Point.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/lancashire/5020720.stm

http://www.panopticons.uk.net/Built2.html

http://www.nwda.co.uk/news--events/press-releases/200601/burnley-mp-welcomes-singing-r.aspx

http://www.visitburnley.com/countryside/SingRing.php

http://www.visitlancashire.com/site/latest-news/singing-ringing-tree-wins-award

http://www.accringtonweb.com/forum/f69/singing-ringing-tree-burnley-26856.html

Sarah Deere-Jones Celtic and Aeolian Harp

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXTRCibYJXQ

Unsound06

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4Yy4-Kxv_E

Tolling of the Aeolian Bell

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFb4RN-BaiY

Aeolian harp, Aeolian flutes, nd otehr wind powered instruments and related

http://www.harmonicwindharps.com/about.htm

http://www.jonroseweb.com/f_projects_great_fences.html

http://www.jonroseweb.com/index.html

http://www.windgallery.nl/projects.htm

Thank you for visiting these pages. Let me introduce you to the world of Wind sounds, created by a bunch of people calling themselves Aeolists, after the God of the Winds. If you want to know more about these instruments, please Email me, or leave a message in my Guestbook.
Visit also the pages mentioned in LINKS, and be amazed by the diversity of shapes and sounds, all played upon or moved by : THE WIND...
For information about the manufacturing of an Aeolian Instrument for your Garden, Balcony or Park, please Email Robert.

windgallery@hotmail.com

http://www.harpmaker.net/windharp.htm

Thinking of building your own?

The link below will lead you to a web site with some interesting drawings on basic Aeolian harp construction, and they should help you get started in your efforts to build your own Aeolian harp.

www.art-robb.co.uk/aeol.html

http://www.abc.net.au/arts/adlib/stories/s873159.htm

The Aboriginal people have their own way of stirring the air. Their sacred bullroarer (kalligooroo) is kept with other Tjuringas. They are carved wooden totemic artifacts with aerodynamic properties. Swung around the head by a string they produce quivering vibrations in the air and have particular significance for initiation rites.

In Ros Bandt's sound art work Mungo, her pentatonically tuned Aeolian harp was actually oriented North-South-East-West so that the four triangular sets of strings (nylon fishing line) radiating from a central pole, might catch whatever breeze prevailed. Erected high on the wind-etched dunes of the Lake Mungo Lunette the harp (first built for the Mildura Sculpture Triennial, 1988) howled eerily throughout the night and whenever a breeze stirred during the day.

PLANS

http://www.cscomps.on.ca/#harp

CS Harps plans include all the steps for producing your harp, materials lists, detailed illustrations and drilling guides, all for only $19.95.

We're not set up for e-commerce yet, so snail-mail us your name and full address and a cheque or money order for $19.95 (+ G.S.T. if you are in Canada) to

CS Computer Services
2 - 125 Limeridge Road West
Hamilton ON Canada L9C 2V3

and we'll mail your complete plans. Please allow two to three weeks for delivery.

??? PLANS???

http://regexp.bjoern.org/archives/000164.html

http://botsmaker.blogspot.com/

WIND DIRECTION:
The author with the aeolian harp
of the tower's North side

http://members.aol.com/woinem1/index/eolsharf.htm
For listening to the harps in summer, days with good winds from North to East are favourable, in foliage-free seasons you'll find good conditions with winds from North-West to East.

At a warm summer day in early July 2001, I had the pleasure to pass an unforgettable afternoon on Weibertreu castle together with Mr. Schmidt, who is the actual restaurator of the windharps, Mr.Manfred Wiedmann, a member of the Kerner-Verein and the two good spirits of the castle - the fearless castle-guard Mr. Stäbler, who knows all the old castle-stories and the castle's mother with her good cakes (!), Mrs. Betz.

LISTEN
http://www.waldenwinds.com/sounds/Wind-Harp.mp3

http://home.comcast.net/~botronics/windharp.html

http://www.sonicarchitecture.com/catalogue/Aeolian.html

http://www.sonicarchitecture.com/frm_htm.htm

the cement. Click for a larger image - Click BACK to return to this page
3. The instrument is complete and has twelve bamboo organ pipes, 3mtr. long, with altogether 127 sound holes, positioned in a spiral around the tubes, so that no matter the direction of the wind, there are always a few notes to be heard

Sound Producing Aeolian Instruments for Kites and other purposes
sounded and powered by the natural wind;
Drachen-Musik-Instrumente und andere Aeolsinstrumente,
Musiques Éoliennes pour Cerfs-Volants et autres applications.

made by Uli Wahl (about the author, postal address, workshops, wind-music-gardens?)

"The bamboo kite is lifting more pleasure per pound than any other human construction...

Playing The Wind

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/science/playingthewind.shtml
Playing The Wind

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeolian_harp

Kite Musical Instruments, Aeolian Instruments, Drachen-Musik-Instrumente, Musiqu
Aeolian Musical instruments. Sound Producing Aeolian instruments for Kites and other purposes Whistletype instruments like the "Aeolian flutes" or Kite Whistles/ Kite flutes

http://www.windworld.com/

Welcome to all who have an interest in musical instruments with an emphasis on the out-of-the-ordinary,

Experimental Musical Instruments is an information outlet for interesting and unusual musical instruments of all sorts. Here you’ll find how-to materials on instrument making, as well as books and CDs featuring the work of the most inventive instrument makers worldwide. We have all the back issues of the late, great Experimental Musical Instruments quarterly journal available – a real treasure trove of information and ideas. We also carry pickups, zither pins, fretwire, and other specialized hardware for instrument makers.

All of these items are available through our catalog, and many are available nowhere else. So please click on one of the links above or below to get to what interests you most. Or click here to learn more about Experimental Musical Instruments.

Some Successful Designs for Inexpensive PVC Flutes
by Pete Kosel

http://www.cwo.com/~ph_kosel/designs.html

RELATED:
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/6494161.html

Tea kettle flute

United States Patent 6494161:
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/6494161.html
Abstract:
The present invention is a novelty musical kettle that plays a song when liquid inside the kettle is heated.

LANGUAGE PROBLEM

with many of the links:

http://perso.nnx.com/dferment/orgue.htm

http://72.14.205.104/search?q=cache:qDifopW4OeUJ:members.aol.com/woinem1/index/litratur.htm+%22Aeolian+flutes%22&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2&gl=us&client=firefox-a

Part A: Aeolian Musical Instruments on flying (tethered) Kites

Part B: other Aeolian Instruments powered by natural wind; Aeolian Harps/-flutes etc.

Part C: things around kites, Bamboo, Papermaking, Ropemaking , Knots, Rosin etc.

Only the best articles/ books I found so far with good, detailed descriptions etc., are listed here.
Most modern/ old kite books contain passages with short descriptions of more or less simple kite musical instruments, mostly musical bows.

In the following three articles on organ pipe acoustics:
Backus, J; Hundley, T.C.
Wall vibrations in Flue Organ Pipes and their Effect on Tone
Journal of the American Acoustical Society No.39; 1965; pp.936-945

Boner, C.P.; Newman, R.B.
The Effect of Wall Materials on the Steady-State Acoustic Spectrum of Flue Pipes
Journal of the American Acoustical Society No.12; 1940; pp.83-89

Coltman, J.W.
Sound Radiation from the mouth of an Organ Pipe
Journal of the American Acoustical Society No.46; 1969; p.477

Fischer, Hans
Schallgeräte in Ozeanien
Aeolsflöten: Bau und Spieltechnik - Verbreitung und Funktion
Éditions P.H.Heitz/ Verlag Heitz GmbH., Strasbourg, Baden-Baden,; 1958; p.53
(Aeolian flutes mentioned, made of bamboo tubes, with slits carved into the internodes. No pictures.)

Aeolian Harp (Bonner, Stephen; Series Editor) (out of print!)

1. Mansfield, Jonathan
Volume I : The Design and Construction of an Aeolian Harp
Bois de Boulogne, 59 Moorfield Road, Duxford; Cambridge, England; 1970

2. Bonner, Stephen
Volume II : The History and Organology of the Aeolian Harp
Part 1: Text; Part 2: Folio of Illustrations
Bois de Boulogne, 59 Moorfield Road, Duxford; Cambridge, England; 1970

3. Brown, Andrew
Volume III : The Aeolian Harp in Literature 1591-1892
with additional material by Nicholas Boyle
Bois de Boulogne, 59 Moorfield Road, Duxford; Cambridge, England; 1970

4. Webster, Adrian and Bonner, Stephen
Volume IV : The Acoustics of the Aeolian Harp
Bois de Boulogne, 59 Moorfield Road, Duxford; Cambridge, England; 1970

Codrington, R.H.
The Melanesians
Oxford, 1891
("Bamboo organs", i.e. bamboo with slits in the internodes acting as aeolian flutes)

D'Angelo, Paolo
Arpa Eolia
See http://www.newcom.pr.it/filosofia/arpa.htm
(A most comprehensive online-article on the Aeolian Harp in Italian language. Recommended!)

Dearstyne, Howard
Material Compiled on the Subject of the Aeolian Harp from Various Sources
Williamsburg, VA: Colonial Williamsburg, Inc., 1954
(didn't read it yet. Anyone who could make/ send me a copy, please?)

Phillips, O.M.
The Intensity of Aeolian Tones
Journal of Fluid Mechanics, vol.1, 1956, pp607ff

Relf, E. F.
On the sound emitted by wires of circular section when exposed to an air-current
The London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Philosphical Magazine and Journal of Science, Vol. 42, No. 47, 1921, pp173-176, .

Rofail, A.W. and R. Tonin
An Exploration of Wind-Noise in Buildings
8th AWES Workshop, Perth, 10-11 February, 2000

Wassef, W.A.; Bassim, M.N; Housny-Emam, M; tangri, K.
Acoustic Emission Spectra due to Leaks from Circular Holes and Rectangular Slits
Journal of the Acoustic Society of America; vol 77 n.3, 1985, pp.916-923

Moyle, Richard
Tongan Music
Auckland University Press, Auckland; 1987; ISBN 1 86940 007 0; pp.107-108
(Sounding holes bored into the bamboos of round enclosures being formerly built as stores for vegetables. Sounds acting against animals and birds. Also another aeolian instrument made of a coconut shell)

http://www.ventcourtois.com/flute_plastique/pg_flute1.htm

lonediver

30th January 2008, 04:34 AM

formlessnes ,

That was one whale of a lot of information , I am going to have to come back a few more times to absorb the benefit of it all .

That singing rain tree is pretty cool . Video does not play well on my computer so I only got a bit from the youtube link . In the still pictures I could not tell where the flutes were attached .

We'll get back to that later .

I had found an attraction to aeolian harps and I aquired one for my garden . Doing a little bit of homework I found a great many sites , some of which you posted such as wind gallery and Uli's site . But really nowhere had I found clear cut instructions on the fabrication of PVC or bamboo aeolian flutes . People talked about it them but little if any instructions . You had a link on the making of a traditional flute in PVC that I could probably modify thier instructions . Also why does there not seem to be any sites that sell anything but aeolian harps ?

In any case I decided to attempt to build a project on my own . I also have a fascination with wind spinners or kinetic art . So I rationalized at why not attempt to marry the two together .

My dream was to make 3 octoganal globes out of PVC pipe of graduated size .One 2 foot dia. , one 3 foot dia. , one 4 foot dia. . the smallest mounted on an axis within the middle size , the middle size mounted on a different axis 180 degrees from the small globe then the middle size mounted 180 degrees from that .

The effect sought is to have a globe spinning within a globe within a globe within a elevated tower frame . All the globes mounted on a different 180 degree different axis different than the one that it is directly mounted to . Now this means that the small globe and the large globe will be on a similar axis at some point in thier movement . However there will be a formed propellor blades mounted on these globes so the the wind is to spin the globes . The large and the small will have thier blades mounted in counter directions so one is to spin clockwise and one counter clockwise . those two will be spinning from a vertical mounted axis with the middle one spinning from a horizontal axis .

Are you with me so far ?

I have the tower frame and the globes made/fabricated as I speak but I am something of a computer dummy and I have not been able to figure how to get the pics from my file to this site .

Any how once I have the globes attachment points figured out because what I have is the basic structures of which I spoke without being put together yet as I laid out above .

I wish to attach aeolian flutes to these whiling , spinning globes .

I had also located inner tube valve caps made for childrens bikes that have a strobe light effect , some of which only work at night being not activated in the daytime due to a solar switch built in . The strobing effect being motion activated by the rotation of the wheels .

So my end desired effect is to have;
1 - the wind creating motion making the globes spin
2 - the wind creating sound through aeolian flutes/organs
3 - strobing lights at night that are activated by motion from the spinning globes propelled by the wind .

Motion , light , sound all activated by essentially the wind .

I joined this board essentially to talk to you , i was rather impressed by your post . But on your profile you left no way to contact you through e - mail so I trust that you will visit this board in the near future .

I will be checking looking for you .