Engineering:List of fictional musical instruments
A list of musical instruments referenced in fiction which do not exist in reality:
Animal instruments
The Cat Organ is a hypothetical musical instrument that consists of a line of cats fixed in place with their tails stretched out underneath a keyboard so that they cry out when a key is pressed. The cats would be arranged according to the natural tone of their voices. The Piganino is a similar instrument, that employs pigs for the same purpose. Marvin Suggs, a character from The Muppet Show plays an equivalent Muppaphone, while the fictional character Ken Ewing performs with his Musical Mice in a Monty Python sketch.
Baliset
In the Dune universe, the baliset is a very long nine-stringed zither. In the 1984 film Dune, the baliset role[clarification needed] is filled by a cosmetically[clarification needed] altered Chapman stick.[1]
Gaffophone
The Gaffophone is an instrument invented by Gaston Lagaffe in André Franquin's eponymous comics series. It looks like a giant harp with a large horn attached to it and is known for making atrocious noise that makes people and animals run away and buildings collapse. Franquin used it in numerous gags.[2]
Glübalübalum
The glübalübalum is an instrument invented by Tonker Cassands in Margery Allingham's Campion novel The Beckoning Lady.[3] Made from perspex with rubber bladders it is described in the book as "a very long tube with an immense horn at one end and a cork at the other. In between there were, so to speak, digressions."
Harolina
In the Redwall series of fantasy books, the harolina is a type of stringed instrument played by the anthropomorphic hares of the series.[4]
Holophonor
In the animated series Futurama, the holophonor, played by Fry, is based on the Visi-Sonor[citation needed] and appears in episodes "Parasites Lost" and "The Devil's Hands are Idle Playthings"
Ressikan flute
In the Star Trek universe, the ressikan flute is a musical instrument played by Captain Picard. The instrument is an artifact discovered on a probe sent out by the former residents of Kataan.[5]
Visi-Sonor
The Visi-Sonor appears in the Isaac Asimov book, Foundation and Empire. The fictional musical instrument stimulates brain cells and causes imagined lights, sounds and emotions directly:
"His long fingers caressed softly and slowly, pressing lightly on contacts with a rippling motion, resting themselves momentarily on one key then another – and in the air before them there was a soft glowing rosiness, just inside the range of vision."
With the Mule's great power, the Visi-Sonor became a killing device later in the book.[6]
References
- ↑ "Jazz Times". 2005. https://books.google.com/books?id=TpIJAQAAMAAJ&q=baliset+chapman.
- ↑ "UN FABULEUX INVENTEUR". https://www.lefigaro.fr/lefigaromagazine/2006/10/27/01006-20061027ARTMAG90411-un_fabuleux_inventeur.php.
- ↑ Winks, Robin W; Corrigan, Maureen, eds (1998). Mystery and Suspense Writers: The Literature of Crime, Detection, and Espionage, Volume 1. p. 8. ISBN 0-684-80492-1.
- ↑ The Bellmaker. By Brian Jacques, Allan Curless. Philomel Books, 1995. ISBN:0-399-22805-5, 978-0-399-22805-6. p. 266.
- ↑ The Star trek encyclopedia: a reference guide to the future. By Michael Okuda, Doug Drexler, Debbie Mirek. Edition: 3, illustrated. Pocket Books, 1999. ISBN:0-671-53609-5, 978-0-671-53609-1. p. 408.
- ↑ Isaac Asimov: The Foundations Of Science Fiction. James Gunn. Rowman & Littlefield, 1996 ISBN:0-8108-5420-1, 978-0-8108-5420-8. p. 27
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