So it's basically a 'fretless' soprano sax! Jokes aside, I just discovered this instrument through this video, and I'm absolutely enthralled! It's like a bassoon in its playfulness. You can bounce around and make jokes with your tonality, but you can be so provocative and beautiful on the same instrument
@@zoltanhegyaljai-boros282 Thank you for your comment, I am happy that you like it. To tell you the truth, I didn't know all about the ancestors when we started our project, I just found all of them when started to make some research. But it seems it was in the air for long time. It started about 500 years ago with Leonardo da Vinci, he has a drawing of a whistle with a gap on it, instead of toneholes. Then the Cleveland King Saxoprano was a similar instrument about 100 years ago, but without the magnetic solution, so I guess it didn't work properly, that's why it didn't succeed. Only a few instruments remained, one is in the largest private saxophone museum of Paul Cohen. Recently Bart Hopkin made an even more similar one, the Moe family. Its strip is magnetic, but there is iron plate along the gap. The Glissonic instruments has two matching magnetic foils, one on the ribbon and another on the body along the gap, so they attract each other stronger and it also helps keeping the position of the ribbon.
i've seen a lot of people call it a fretless saxophone, and i really think that is a great way to describe it, as a trombone and bass player, it really makes sense to me to have it all in one slide. transposing must be really nice on this, and it's probably really intuitive to learn
This is so great ! As an introduction, I'll just say I'm exploring Gerschlauer's microtonal fingerings on the tenor saxophone since 2-3 years, and I'm beginning to be at ease with an approximation of Bohlen Pierce I "made" myself (also found Wendy-Carlos alpha scale but with a too narrow range to have a nice expression). Generally, Gerschlauer's material works well with macrotonal tunings and some specific microtonal sequence on some places, but when facing really small steps it gets tricky for obvious mechanical reasons. So I was dreaming of some saxophone-like instrument with more of a glissando approach, and... you made it :D That's incredible ! I would be really interested in trying the Glissotar, that would open a lot of possibilities in my musical xenharmonic adventure :)
It is impossible because every pitch is flexible. It is for a reason that there are no frets on violins. Also, where the pitch is, depends not only on how you hear it, but also in how big or small your fingers are. It is possible for an individual to draw some chalk markings on the ribbon, just for starters, but you can't see the ribbon when you are playing.
@lenablochmusic lol. That is not accurate. You can definitely do it. There are fretless instruments with lines on them. What do you think a freless electric bass is. Often times beginners will mark where certain notes are especially on violin and cello. This is not a new thing and is definitely doable.
@lenablochmusic also....that is exactly one of the reasons why fretless instruments are so hard to play in the first place. It requires a great ammount of ear training and mustle memory to play the exact note correctly most of the time. Yes every note can be flexible, but that is not necessarily a good thing. I guess its good, if you like playing out of tune...rip. Plus having lines does not mean you can't play "out of tune" on purpose if you want to. There is a difference between "frets" and "lines." A lot of fretless guitars still have lines. I'm not asking them to put "frets" on it...I'm asking for "lines" so we can see where the notes are.
Thank you for your comment! You are right, Bart Hopkin uses a magnetic foil too, as we found out later. He uses it on the strip only, there is an iron plate on the body, while we use a matching magnetic strip on the body too. You can read about it on the "History" part of our website: www.glissonic.com
absolutely, hopkin wrote about this 30 years ago, in what still is one of the only general books on musical instrument design (which you'd think, and probably be right, that anyone attempting to or pretending to invent musical instruments would have read). moreover, he mentions he had found multiple patents over the idea. it's pages 80-81 if you're curious, the early versions of the "glissotar" look exactly like the drawings in the book. hopkin also talks about his slide instruments (which he calls 'moe), and about the glissotar, and patents, on his website. he's a lot more gracious than me. what i personally think is that it's the same story as with the "harpejji", a shameless starrboard copy, patented immediately after the latter's patent expired, literally quoting from it too. but being marketed aggressively as a genius innovation, the clueless masses fall for it and are willing to pay completely unreasonable prices for its fake fame. it's the way of the world.
Yes, here is the latest, free improvisation: danielvaczi.bandcamp.com/album/d-niel-v-czi-glissonic-trio-interplanetary-posts microtonal psychedelic pop: decolonizeyourmind.bandcamp.com/album/a-second-invitation-to-an-uninterrupted-katabatic-lens contemporary classical compositions and improvisations: open.spotify.com/album/5qr9TmYpNOwf9oWuAphqX2?si=B_CEkhhUTmSjufplt1OcXA multiple albums by Etienne Rolin: etiennerolin.bandcamp.com
This is so magical, makes me want to play it, and i was never serious interested in wind instuments, because they seem really complex to play, but this one seems a lot more intuitive! It's just a shame that I'll probably never see one, since I'm in Brazil, and to ship one of those to here would be an amount of money i can't afford, let alone the complete wage imbalance between euro and real
Thank you for your comment! We are aware of Bart Hopkin's work, and in fact, we are in contact with him as well. We've written more about this here: glissonic.com/2024/05/21/part-3-similar-instruments-to-the-glissotar-in-the-past-and-present/ The main difference is that he used a magnetic foil attached to an iron plate, instead of another matching magnetic foil, as we have developed. He has created the Moe instruments for experimental and educational purposes and never made commercial products of them as far as we are concerned. After we contacted him, he wrote about us in his blog: barthopkin.com/more-moe/
So it's basically a 'fretless' soprano sax! Jokes aside, I just discovered this instrument through this video, and I'm absolutely enthralled! It's like a bassoon in its playfulness. You can bounce around and make jokes with your tonality, but you can be so provocative and beautiful on the same instrument
The fretless soprano sax is such an apt description. First thing that came to mind for me too! hahahahhaah
Technically all saxophones are fretless. But I know exactly what you mean. Its the same concept as a fretless but on a woodwind.
I'm a string-instrument-person, but i have to say: this is awesome!
A huge invention, and great sound.
Congratulation!
Ok, I just found out this is not a new invention, it's almost 100 years old - but it's still awesome :)
@@zoltanhegyaljai-boros282 Thank you for your comment, I am happy that you like it.
To tell you the truth, I didn't know all about the ancestors when we started our project, I just found all of them when started to make some research. But it seems it was in the air for long time.
It started about 500 years ago with Leonardo da Vinci, he has a drawing of a whistle with a gap on it, instead of toneholes.
Then the Cleveland King Saxoprano was a similar instrument about 100 years ago, but without the magnetic solution, so I guess it didn't work properly, that's why it didn't succeed. Only a few instruments remained, one is in the largest private saxophone museum of Paul Cohen.
Recently Bart Hopkin made an even more similar one, the Moe family. Its strip is magnetic, but there is iron plate along the gap.
The Glissonic instruments has two matching magnetic foils, one on the ribbon and another on the body along the gap, so they attract each other stronger and it also helps keeping the position of the ribbon.
Would like to hear a tenor version
i've seen a lot of people call it a fretless saxophone, and i really think that is a great way to describe it, as a trombone and bass player, it really makes sense to me to have it all in one slide. transposing must be really nice on this, and it's probably really intuitive to learn
I love the use of the elasticity and bounce of the band to generate trills and stutters.
Magnificent! Simple principle but difficult to implement.
Wow I’m really looking forward to hear how jazz implements this new instrument.
Fantastic musical possibilities. I want to hear more.
Congratulations on the Guthman musical instrument competition.
Thank you!
Finally something worth playing Hot cross buns on!
This is fantastic!
Thank you, this is a great honor from you. I have been following the Continuum for long, they are truly great instruments.
This is so great !
As an introduction, I'll just say I'm exploring Gerschlauer's microtonal fingerings on the tenor saxophone since 2-3 years, and I'm beginning to be at ease with an approximation of Bohlen Pierce I "made" myself (also found Wendy-Carlos alpha scale but with a too narrow range to have a nice expression). Generally, Gerschlauer's material works well with macrotonal tunings and some specific microtonal sequence on some places, but when facing really small steps it gets tricky for obvious mechanical reasons.
So I was dreaming of some saxophone-like instrument with more of a glissando approach, and... you made it :D That's incredible ! I would be really interested in trying the Glissotar, that would open a lot of possibilities in my musical xenharmonic adventure :)
Thank you, Bazil! You should contact us on the Glissonic website:
www.glissonic.com
Amazing! Nothing else to say!!!
(Except thanks for the effort and for sharing!)
This is genius!
This is a big deal. I hope you make something similar with either a flute embochure or a whistle/recorder type mouthpiece!
Yes, our next plans include the development of flute and recorder versions.
why no markings for where traditional notes are? Seems like an obvious thing. Put markings on the ribbon/strip.
It is impossible because every pitch is flexible. It is for a reason that there are no frets on violins. Also, where the pitch is, depends not only on how you hear it, but also in how big or small your fingers are. It is possible for an individual to draw some chalk markings on the ribbon, just for starters, but you can't see the ribbon when you are playing.
@lenablochmusic lol. That is not accurate. You can definitely do it. There are fretless instruments with lines on them. What do you think a freless electric bass is. Often times beginners will mark where certain notes are especially on violin and cello. This is not a new thing and is definitely doable.
@lenablochmusic also....that is exactly one of the reasons why fretless instruments are so hard to play in the first place. It requires a great ammount of ear training and mustle memory to play the exact note correctly most of the time.
Yes every note can be flexible, but that is not necessarily a good thing.
I guess its good, if you like playing out of tune...rip.
Plus having lines does not mean you can't play "out of tune" on purpose if you want to. There is a difference between "frets" and "lines." A lot of fretless guitars still have lines. I'm not asking them to put "frets" on it...I'm asking for "lines" so we can see where the notes are.
Great, now when can I buy one? Simply fantastic ❤
Thank you! You can contact us on the Glissonic website, we accept preorders.
www.glissonic.com
@@glissonic6830 Oh wow! Thank you!
I'm almost certain Hopkin uses a magnetic rubber strip in a similar way for one of his instruments! Great work nonetheless!
Thank you for your comment! You are right, Bart Hopkin uses a magnetic foil too, as we found out later. He uses it on the strip only, there is an iron plate on the body, while we use a matching magnetic strip on the body too. You can read about it on the "History" part of our website: www.glissonic.com
absolutely, hopkin wrote about this 30 years ago, in what still is one of the only general books on musical instrument design (which you'd think, and probably be right, that anyone attempting to or pretending to invent musical instruments would have read). moreover, he mentions he had found multiple patents over the idea. it's pages 80-81 if you're curious, the early versions of the "glissotar" look exactly like the drawings in the book. hopkin also talks about his slide instruments (which he calls 'moe), and about the glissotar, and patents, on his website. he's a lot more gracious than me.
what i personally think is that it's the same story as with the "harpejji", a shameless starrboard copy, patented immediately after the latter's patent expired, literally quoting from it too. but being marketed aggressively as a genius innovation, the clueless masses fall for it and are willing to pay completely unreasonable prices for its fake fame. it's the way of the world.
I would like to buy it ! but i cant finding any link
www.glissonic.com
@@glissonic6830 Im still no find the way to buy it
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd77oxflGGwuNWlF72sLnThdPrtyQqjbYdD-06mWFt7YlUR-g/viewform@@SamuMusical-Aprendatocar
Any recordings of this instrument? Would love to hear it in different contexts.
Yes, here is the latest, free improvisation:
danielvaczi.bandcamp.com/album/d-niel-v-czi-glissonic-trio-interplanetary-posts
microtonal psychedelic pop:
decolonizeyourmind.bandcamp.com/album/a-second-invitation-to-an-uninterrupted-katabatic-lens
contemporary classical compositions and improvisations:
open.spotify.com/album/5qr9TmYpNOwf9oWuAphqX2?si=B_CEkhhUTmSjufplt1OcXA
multiple albums by Etienne Rolin:
etiennerolin.bandcamp.com
The opening work make me think of a harry partch performance.
WoW
IDK, inside would be 100 X better than the current outside as a demo. Straight ahead melody
This is so magical, makes me want to play it, and i was never serious interested in wind instuments, because they seem really complex to play, but this one seems a lot more intuitive! It's just a shame that I'll probably never see one, since I'm in Brazil, and to ship one of those to here would be an amount of money i can't afford, let alone the complete wage imbalance between euro and real
No, given the demonstration of fast fingering clearly breaks down beyond about five notes.
Bart Hopkins beat you to this idea. Google the 'moe flute and the 'moe sax.
Thank you for your comment! We are aware of Bart Hopkin's work, and in fact, we are in contact with him as well. We've written more about this here:
glissonic.com/2024/05/21/part-3-similar-instruments-to-the-glissotar-in-the-past-and-present/
The main difference is that he used a magnetic foil attached to an iron plate, instead of another matching magnetic foil, as we have developed.
He has created the Moe instruments for experimental and educational purposes and never made commercial products of them as far as we are concerned. After we contacted him, he wrote about us in his blog: barthopkin.com/more-moe/
@@glissonic6830 nice