Savart's Wheel

Musician Bart Hopkin of Point Reyes has been the director of Experimental Musical Instruments for 18 years. He has made many different instruments, and his new CD Instrumentarium Hopkinis spolights many of them, such as "The Open Siren", a siren capable of playing musical scales, and "Disorderly Tumbling Forth", an instrument loosely based on the toy piano.

But one instrument stands alone: Savart's Wheel. Hopkin describes it as making "the most obtrusive, obnoxious and irritating sound imaginable."
Having seen many claims for instruments over the years such as the ability to create "any sound imaginable" etc, I had my doubts, but this instrument really delivers! The sound sample of the wheel playing the melody for "Baby Please Don't Go" reminds me more than anything else of a chicken in distress yet singing. Or maybe musical screeching brakes. Totally appropriate for the mood of that song, it had me in tears of laughter by the end of the sample. Deliciously obnoxious!

Don't be scared, just click here to hear what I'm talking about. If it scares you, just hang in there, the whole thing is only about 20 seconds long.