Jacques Dudon is a
French
French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to France
** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents
** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
just intonation
In music, just intonation or pure intonation is the tuning of musical intervals
Interval may refer to:
Mathematics and physics
* Interval (mathematics), a range of numbers
** Partially ordered set#Intervals, its generalization from numbers to ...
composer
A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music.
Etymology and Defi ...
and instrument builder. He is best known for developing a series of
photosonic disk () instruments in the 1980s that produced sound from modulated light (a light source shines through painted glass discs; the resulting patterns of light are picked up by
photo cells and converted into a voltage which can then be treated as a sound signal).
The production of synthetic sound in this manner has been used in "optosonic" instruments since the early 20th century (for example the
Optophonic Piano). However Dudon's method is notable for the generation of tone which is produced by the overlapping of two or three discs, and the opportunities this design provides for
timbral
In music, timbre ( ), also known as tone color or tone quality (from psychoacoustics), is the perceived sound quality of a musical note, sound or tone. Timbre distinguishes different types of sound production, such as choir voices and musical ...
shifts by slowing one or more discs manually, thereby altering the waveform.
In the 1970s, he created 150 water instruments called "
aquaphones" (described in his pioneering book ), including a "flutabullum", a system of transforming
flute
The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is a reedless ...
sounds by recording them underwater).
Aquavina
The aquavina was an
experimental musical instrument
An experimental musical instrument (or custom-made instrument) is a musical instrument that modifies or extends an existing instrument or class of instruments, or defines or creates a new class of instrument. Some are created through simple modif ...
created by Jacques Dudon.
[Hopkin, Bart (1996). ''Gravikords, Whirlies & Pyrophones: Experimental Musical Instruments'', . Ellipsis Arts. .]
It was essentially a variant of the
Appalachian dulcimer, but with a metal resonator body partially filled with water. The player would agitate the instrument while playing, resulting in a constant acoustic phasing effect within the instrument's
harmonic
A harmonic is a wave with a frequency that is a positive integer multiple of the ''fundamental frequency'', the frequency of the original periodic signal, such as a sinusoidal wave. The original signal is also called the ''1st harmonic'', the ...
s.
See also
*
Hydraulophone
References
External links
Aquavinaat Windworld.com
recherche.ircam.fr
Living people
French classical composers
French male classical composers
Year of birth missing (living people)
French musical instrument makers
French experimental musicians
20th-century French inventors
Experimental composers
Place of birth missing (living people)
Experimental string instruments
20th-century French musicians
20th-century French male musicians
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