Tritare

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A tritare is a guitar (invented in 2003 by Samuel Gaudet and Claude Gauthier of the University of Moncton) of a family of stringed instruments which use Y-shaped strings, instead of the usual string-shaped strings; Y-shaped strings can produce sounds which are harmonic integer multiples, but also nonharmonic sounds more akin to those produced by percussion instruments. The Y-strings create, when tuned correctly, Chladni-patterns. Gaudet contends this allows for greater possibility [1] (although the value of this greater possibility is questioned [2]). The current model uses 6 strings.

[edit] References

  • "String Trio: Novel instrument strums like guitar, rings like bell"; Science News, Week of June 3, 2006; Vol. 169, No. 22 , p. 342
    • ^  "Depending on how each note on a tritare is played, the sound can include a few or many nonharmonic ingredients, Gaudet says. So, he adds, the instrument offers 'a richer sound than does a classical stringed instrument.'"
    • ^  "The branched string is really a simple analogue of the more complex structures found in things like plates and curved shells--bars, cymbals, bells, and gongs... [but] to my ears [the tritare] just sounded like a badly out-of-tune instrument."

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