HARMS HISTORICAL PERCUSSION

91 NM Branch Road
New Marlborough, MA 01230 , USA
Phone (413) 229-7720; Fax (413) 229-2983
 

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ELEMENTS DRUM (Éoliphone)

In 1974 the French composer and Christian mystic Olivier Messiaen came to New York to oversee rehearsals for the premier of his composition From the Canyons to the Stars ("Des canyons aux étoiles’), about an experience set in Death Valley, California. He brought with him an unusual instrument to be played during the piece: an éoliphone, which is constructed like a large hand drum with skins on both ends. Inside it are hundreds of small particles which are rolled around slowly on one of the heads. Messiaen used this to imitate the sound of shifting sands. It also sounds like waves on the ocean, or wind going through pine needles on top of a mountain. The particles alone create a very special mood; the Elements Drum can also be played like a hand drum.

ELEMENTS DRUM

Wood frame, 2 skin heads, "Elements"

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