Recently, a young acquaintaince and I were playing with allen wrenches. If you hold one wrench, and drop the other so it falls across the first, striking it, the falling wrench will ring on the way down. Different wrenches ring differently.

I propose a pachinko-like fountain in which different sized wrenches fall across fixed rods and ring. Each sized wrench has its own chute corresponding with the note produced. After falling the wrenches are recycled back up from the bottom with a hidden system. One opens each chute with keys as on a piano. If not being actively played, the fountain will drop wrenches in various chords, playing background music with a sparkling wrench display.
-- bungston, Aug 09 2006

Pipe dream http://video.google...ream+animusic&hl=en
Instruments that play themselves. [Freefall, Aug 11 2006]

Croissant. But I think they should fall onto marble, rather than each other.
-- DrCurry, Aug 09 2006


Bun for the title. Quite possibly the best string of seemingly unrelated words I've heard in years. And the idea could be quite nice sounding as well.
-- Hunter79764, Aug 09 2006


//a good allen-gory or metal- pour nonetheless// Groan! ;) Considering a bone for inspiring such wrench-ed puns.
-- zen_tom, Aug 10 2006


Fantastic!
-- calum, Aug 10 2006


Would the "hidden system" be noisy? How would it work? Also, how many times could the same note be played in a row?
-- xrayTed, Aug 11 2006


"BungCo regrets to announce that our CEO fell in the company fountain this morning, while wrenching his organ. He is expected to make a full recovery."
-- ConsulFlaminicus, Aug 11 2006


The experience of listening to the FWOF would be different for listeners situated above or below the FWOF because the sound source (the ringing wrench) is falling, and also accelerating, and so will be Doppler-shifted by a certain amount and sound lower for listeners above the organ and higher for listeners below it (note that listeners below it will need protection from falling wrenches). Moreover, the Doppler-shift will increase throughout the period of each 'note' so, for example, notes heard from above the organ will decrease in pitch throughout the length of the note. Therefore I forsee the listening position being a matter of personal choice in concert hall recitals using the FWOF - "Would you like to be seated above or below the organ sir? - or do you prefer a neutral position?" - "Above please, I always feel Bungstonovich's music was meant to be heard with downward pitch cadences"
-- hippo, Aug 11 2006


I'm still waiting for someone to build an actual ball-bearing circular xylophone, similar to the one seen in the Animusic video "Pipe dream". See link.
-- Freefall, Aug 11 2006



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