The pagophone makes sound from ice (i.e. from H2O in its
solid-state). It forms one of the four sections of the
H2Orchestra.
(Pagophone performance)
(Explanation of pagophone and context with H2Orchestra)
The pagophone makes sound from ice (i.e. from H2O in its
solid-state), when struck, rubbed, or manipulated, usually with rubber
mallets.
"Pago" is Greek for ice, and "phone" is Greek for "sound", so "pagophone" means "ice sound", in much the same way that "xylophone" means "wood sound" ("xylo" is Greek for "wood").
This instrument was invented by Steve Mann, who
also coined the term "pagophone" to describe it, based on proper
Greek etymology.
It is intended to add a unique musical texture to the
other H2O-based instruments
that he invented, such as the
hydraulophone.
There are two main preferred embodiments of this invention:
In one embodiment, sound transducers (acoustic pickups)
in one or more pieces of ice pickup sound when the ice is
struck by mallets, rubbed, or otherwise manipulated;
In another embodiment, the electrical pickups are mounted
in the mallets or ice scrapers themselves, and a separate input device,
similar to a guitar effects pedal, is used to post-process the
ice-generated sound. Typically the separate input device is a
musikeyer connected to a wearable computer that does the
effects processing.
Typically (in the Canadian tradition)
the ice-scrapers are ice skates, and the instrument is played
by skating and the sound is typically produced by gliding,
scraping, stomping, or otherwise moving around on a skating rink.
Pagophone: H20 in its various Skates-of-Matter:
Christina (age 5) builds a pagophone for her skates:
In addition to skating and banging on ice blocks,
another favorite Canadian tradition is soaking in a hot tub
and "snowdiving", "swimming" or rolling in the snow in our bathing suits:
