The Vegetable Orchestra (also known as , The First Vienna Vegetable Orchestra or The Vienna Vegetable Orchestra) is an Austrian musical group who use instruments made entirely from fresh vegetables.

History

The group was founded in February 1998 in

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

and consists of ten musicians, a cook, and a sound technician. All of the members of the ensemble are active in various artistic areas (for example trained musicians, sound poets, sculptors, media artists, designers, and architects) and have worked together conceptualizing and carrying out their project. The interdisciplinary approach is a crucial factor in researching and further developing vegetable music. The intention is to create a sonorous experience which can be perceived with all senses. Musical concepts of the

Fluxus Fluxus was an international, interdisciplinary community of artists, composers, designers, and poets during the 1960s and 1970s who engaged in experimental performance art, art performances which emphasized the artistic process over the finishe ...

movement, for example compositions from

John Cage John Milton Cage Jr. (September 5, 1912 – August 12, 1992) was an American composer and music theorist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and Extended technique, non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one ...

could be considered as a source of inspiration for the unique orchestra. Their distinctive repertoire also seems to have deep roots in

sound art Sound art is an artistic activity in which sound is utilized as a primary Time-based media, time-based Artistic medium, medium or material. Like many genres of contemporary art, sound art may be interdisciplinary in nature, or be used in Cross-genr ...

in addition to

experimental An experiment is a procedure carried out to support or refute a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of something previously untried. Experiments provide insight into cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome occurs whe ...

and

electronic music Electronic music broadly is a group of music genres that employ electronic musical instruments, circuitry-based music technology and software, or general-purpose electronics (such as personal computers) in its creation. It includes both music ...

because they play unheard-of interpretations of

Igor Stravinsky Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ( – 6 April 1971) was a Russian composer and conductor with French citizenship (from 1934) and American citizenship (from 1945). He is widely considered one of the most important and influential 20th-century c ...

, the German electronic band

Kraftwerk Kraftwerk (, ) is a Germany, German Electronic music, electronic band formed in Düsseldorf in 1970 by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider. Widely considered innovators and pioneers of electronic music, Kraftwerk was among the first successful a ...

, or the

Austrian Austrian may refer to: * Austrians, someone from Austria or of Austrian descent ** Someone who is considered an Austrian citizen * Austrian German dialect * Something associated with the country Austria, for example: ** Austria-Hungary ** Austria ...

band

Radian The radian, denoted by the symbol rad, is the unit of angle in the International System of Units (SI) and is the standard unit of angular measure used in many areas of mathematics. It is defined such that one radian is the angle subtended at ...

as well as their own compositions. All of the pieces feature various forms of graphical notation and are exclusively composed for live performance.

Members

The ensemble consists of Jürgen Berlakovich, Verena Fuchs, Susanna Gartmayer, Barbara Kaiser, Matthias Meinharter, Jörg Piringer, Ingrid Schlögl, Ulrich Troyer, Stefan Voglsinger, and Martina Winkler.

Instruments

The instruments are made of carrots, celery, peppers, squash, zucchini and other raw vegetables prior to the performances. Their sound is amplified with the use of special microphones. After the performances, the leftover vegetables and off-cuts are cooked into

soup Soup is a primarily liquid food, generally served warm or hot – though it is sometimes served chilled – made by cooking or otherwise combining meat or vegetables with Stock (food), stock, milk, or water. According to ''The Oxford Compan ...

for the audience. As of March 2019, since the band's inception, more than 150 types of instruments had been invented and include carrot xylophones, radish bass flutes, pumpkin drums, leek violins, onion maracas, and many others.

Influence

The group performs and average of 20-30 shows a year and have toured

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

, the United States, and

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

, playing gallery openings, exhibitions, community events, and headlining their own shows. They received a

Guinness World Record ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a British reference book published annually, listi ...

for "Most concerts by a vegetable orchestra", for 77 performances by a group of musicians playing with instruments constructed out of vegetables, having performed in venues worldwide from April 1998 to September 2012. According to the BBC, they inspired the formation of similar ensembles like the

London Vegetable Orchestra The London Vegetable Orchestra is a British musical ensemble that fabricates and subsequently plays musical instruments made out of vegetables. It is understood to be the only vegetable orchestra in the United Kingdom. The orchestra was founded c ...

and the Long Island Vegetable Orchestra.

Discography

Albums

* ''Gemise'' (1999) * ''Automate'' (2003) * ''Remixed'' (2008) * ''Onionoise'' (2010) * ''Green Album'' (2018) ''Gemise'' means ''Gemüse'' in Bohemian dialect. In Vienna at the time of the

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe#Before World War I, Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military ...

monarchy, a cooking homehelp or housekeeper often came from

Bohemia Bohemia ( ; ; ) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. In a narrow, geographic sense, it roughly encompasses the territories of present-day Czechia that fall within the Elbe River's drainage basin, but historic ...

and contributed to Viennese cuisine until today. ''Automate'' is certainly a play on words with tomate (= tomato). The core of the

portmanteau word In linguistics, a blend—also known as a blend word, lexical blend, or portmanteau—is a word formed by combining the meanings, and parts of the sounds, of two or more words together.) Israeli שלט ''shalát'' 'remote control', an ellipsis ...

of ''onionoise'', ...ionoi... is a

palindrome A palindrome (Help:IPA/English, /ˈpæl.ɪn.droʊm/) is a word, palindromic number, number, phrase, or other sequence of symbols that reads the same backwards as forwards, such as ''madam'' or ''racecar'', the date "Twosday, 02/02/2020" and th ...

. The second part of Gemise is named ''Ogludschda'', which is Viennese dialect for Abgelutschter, or English sucked off, in the second meaning–in

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

–for a music piece which has been played too often.Das erste Wiener gemüseorchester (Gemise)
amazon.de, retrieved 2020-10-21.

EPs

* ''Remix Trilogy (Volume One)'' (2004) * ''Remix Trilogy (Volume Two)'' (2005) * ''Remix Trilogy (Volume Three)'' (2005) * ''Remix Conclusion'' (2008)

References

External links

*
The Vegetable Orchestra Literally Plays with Their Food
–

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

video published by

Great Big Story Great Big Story is a media company producing micro-documentaries based in London. Launched in October 2015 by CNN, the company created 2,600 videos, being published on various websites such as Facebook and YouTube. Videos produced by the company ...

Who says you can't play with food? The Vegetable Orchestra at TEDxVienna
– YouTube video published by

TEDx Talks TED Conferences, LLC (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is an American-Canadian non-profit media organization that posts international talks online for free distribution under the slogan "Ideas Change Everything" (previously "Ideas Worth Sprea ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vegetable Orchestra, The Orchestras in Vienna Musical groups established in 1998 Vegetable organizations