Jean-Francois Charles

Looking for the studio album? Visit www.electroclarinet.com Here is the live recording of Electroclarinet 4 , performed with Andrew Bentley on December 1st: Messiaen Synthesizer You can see on a previous post the schematics for the synthesizer : it is building on the tradition of the no-input mixer . I call it the Messiaen Synth not just because the piece is an homage to Olivier Messiaen: the synth itself is related to some of Messiaen's visions - it creates music out of thin air, and with two ring modulators, it is more about symmetrical harmony than about root-based harmony.

Double-bell trumpets have a long history, dating back to the 18th century. I've been interested in this instrument for a while, until I decided to use it in a composition. I'll let you know more about this new piece soon... Schiller Instruments' version of a double bell trumpet. Musical examples Herb Alpert playing It's Only a Paper Moon : In the United States, the double bell trumpet may be called a Shewhorn, at least when you are talking about Bobby Shew 's horn: More recently, Matthias Höfs creates a piece with extended symphony orchestra: Trumpeter Marco Blaauw performs the music of Georg Friedrich Haas : Below, Marco Blaauw presents his instrument: not only a double-bell, but also a quarter-tone trumpet. P.S. : on this page about the history of brass instruments during the romantic period , you will see a picture of Adolphe Sax's 7-bell instrument!

Rehearsed yesterday with my new percussion stand. Here are a couple of pictures: Not far from the blueprint ...

On Thursday, November 30th, took place the School of Music Audition Day, when High School students visit and audit to enter the School in next August. For the occasion, we performed with our guest Andrew Bentley and doctoral students Carlos Toro-Tobon and Carlos Cotallo-Solares. Here are excerpts from our Audition Quartet : Instruments Andrew Bentley plays a synthesizer made of guitar pedals (including the discontinued Pigtronix Mothership and Way Huge Ringworm ). The three other instruments have been built by the musicians around the axoloti DSP platform . Carlos Toro-Tobon's recycled guitar pick-up can be played with a drill: Carlos Cotallo-Sorales and I worked on the guitar pedal format: