Photon Clarinets are played without touching. Waving a hand over the
right-hand sensor steps the pitch through arbitrary rising or falling
notes, as in an alien keyboard; a hand over the left-hand sensor smoothly
sweeps the notes, as in a theremin.
Photon Clarinet circuitry contains a number of components whose values,
usually, are set to establish a wide-range instrument with a particular
tonality. As would follow, changing the values of these key circuit
components changes the instrument's responses significantly.
The Deep Photon Bassoon is a Photon Clarinet whose variable components
have been brought forward for the musician to adjust. Not only are tone
and range adjusted here, but also the possibilities of envelope shaping
and arbitrary scale divisions (how many pitches might occur between
octaves).
More from Reed's EMI article on the Photon Clarinet:
"Part of the (elementary) school's yearly program involved bringing
an unusual music act to the stage. All sorts of instruments were demonstrated,
many chosen to mystify young school children. The musical saw, singing
water glasses, thunder sheets... but to watch as the musician waved
hands around a silvery metal loop stemming from the top of a mysterious
box, and to hear in response what sounded like an operatic woman's voice
singing from within hit me in a way that left me somewhat stunned for
the rest of the week.
"While the playing technique of the Theremin is certainly unusual, its
main voice is simply that of an oscillator caused to smoothly glide
across its range due to interference imposed by the musician's body.
Using light, one of the two sensors of my modern Photon Clarinet does
the same: as the musician's hand shadow varies upon this sensor the
pitch of the instrument falls from very high to super low.
"It is the second sensor that is responsible for the more unexpected
music that the Photon Clarinet creates...
"When a hand is waved over this second sensor, the pitch steps rather
than sweeps between notes, as if the player is riffing upon a fretted
or keyed instrument. Each sensor will allow the pitch to travel its
entire range, from high to so low that only clicking pulses are audible.
In use, the player generally modulates the light falling upon the 'sweep'
sensor with the left hand, and the 'step' sensor with the right. What
this does, in effect, is to rather strangely replicate the process of
playing a keyboard... left hand on the pitch-bend wheel and right hand
on the keys.
"Today's Photon Clarinet contains, along with a line-output and the
two sensors mounted in various bases, LED's for both power and envelope,
a focus switch which compresses and filter-sweeps the signal (creating
a second voice), an initialize control which steps through a series
of pitches and establishes the free note that the unmodulated instrument
will return to, plus an internal monitor speaker with cut-out switch.
"Many different effects can be achieved by playing the instrument as
described before. In addition to simply riffing with the right hand
and modulating with left, careful movements over the step cell will
cause filter and loudness shifts over the shadow-span of a single note,
before the light threshold necessary to change to the next note is reached.
This allows the right hand over the step cell to induce tremolo (volume
fluctuation) as the left hand over the sweep cell controls vibrato (pitch
fluctuation).
"While the stepped notes of the Photon Clarinet scales don't follow
intervals we are familiar with, a practiced musician can bend the pitches
thereby persuading enough conformity from the device to allow accompaniment
of traditional musics. Personally, I see no more reason to demand this
of an instrument than I would a songbird. The abstract calls of nature,
blind to the logic of musical semantics, are emotionally powerful, descriptive
sound-forms, and I feel that even instruments entirely restricted to
such voices stand upon equal ground with the rest."
The Deep Photon Bassoon includes:
Two built-in light sensors (oversized cadmium sulfide photo resistors,
played with hand shadows, one for sweeping the pitch and the other for
stepping).
Two sensor inputs, for using remote sensors (additional, to player's
specs).
Three body contacts (touch to add various precise vibratos to notes).
Dial for main pitch (sets the note the instrument will return to when
no shadow falls upon the sensors).
A dial each for sweep and step (these controls are interactive and change
many aspects of tone, range, cell response and scale division).
Dial for phasing the tone envelopes (for choosing from a range of subtle
"phasing" effects).
Volume dial, internal speaker with switch, headphone output, power switch,
gold-plated RCA output, blue LED power indicator and red envelope light.
Housed in an unusual aluminum casing (recycled floor polisher with wonderful
deco lines), the pictured instrument is finished in deep purple with
lime green shading, the paints filled with prismatic powders to glint
the entire spectrum when placed in direct light. Knobs are vintage bakelite,
refinished in crackled black and green.
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