Two hollow, rotating wooden cylinders are the “sound mills”. They are strung on the outside with well over 100 strings tuned to the same note. If you give a sound mill a little push using the handles at the bottom, it will continue to turn by itself. As the strings touch a plectrum, a moving and complex sound is created: the fundamental tone can be heard, as well as the so-called natural or overtonos.
Overtones | natural tones
When a natural musical instrument is played or when someone sings, overtones are always present. They are often described as the timbre. Overtones build up harmoniously over the fundamental tone. Harmonious means that the vibrations follow physical laws. In the case of overtones, we find the following harmony: the first overtone halves the vibration wave of the fundamental tone. The second overtone divides it into three, the third divides the vibration into the interval 1:4 and so on.
The overtone or natural tone series plays an important role in Toggenburg. For example, cowbells, some of which are in the barn, sound in the overtone or natural tone series – exactly as you can hear them in the sound of the sound mills. The natural yodel or the tones of the alphorn are also based on the natural tone series.
About the artist
Heinz Bürgin, an instrument maker from Lichtensteig, built the sound mill in 2004 together with the Bavarian metal craftsman and music therapist Christof Linhuber. Linhuber, who won first prize as an instrument maker at the 1996 International Instrument Making Competition in Hamburg (for his “Brummbass”) also gives international concerts and performances of his own sound objects, instruments, gongs and other extraordinary sound-emitting objects.
klangkoerper.de ↗
