Leonardo da Vinci was recently confused with Leonardo DiCaprio on national TV.
Fox News anchor Shepard Smith made a little bit of a news faux pas earlier this week, mixing up Leonardo da Vinci and Leonardo DiCaprio.
Smith credited DiCaprio, not da Vinci, as the painter of the Mona Lisa during a segment about the search for who modeled for the legendary painting. Unfortunately for Smith, DiCaprio and da Vinci are not one and the same. Via GQ
Assuming you know the difference between the two, you probably know that da Vinci was a complete genius whose artistic specialties continue to marvel us today. One of them is a musical instrument that few if any of us would even dare imagine.
Good thing da Vinci put this particular imagination on paper, because 500 years later, Slawomir Zubrzycki, an instrument-making genius, brought the viola organista to life.
A bizarre instrument combining a piano and cello has finally been played to an audience more than 500 years after it was dreamt up Leonardo da Vinci.
Da Vinci, the Italian Renaissance genius who painted the Mona Lisa, invented the ‘‘viola organista’’ – which looks like a baby grand piano – but never built it, experts say.
Take a bow: The viola organista’s strings are played in the same way as a cello. Photo: Tomasz Wiech/AFP
The viola organista has now come to life, thanks to a Polish concert pianist with a flair for instrument-making and the patience and passion to interpret da Vinci’s plans. Via SMH
The viola organista is both a mechanical and musical work of art made up of numerous steel strings and spinning wheels.
‘‘This instrument has the characteristics of three we know: the harpsichord, the organ and the viola da gamba,’’ Zubrzycki said as he debuted the instrument at the Academy of Music in the southern Polish city of Krakow. Via SMH
Even with da Vinci’s drawings, the construction of the instrument required a lot of Zubrzycki’s own genius. Although they were fairly precise, the drawings demanded a lot of technical reinterpretation by the constructor.
This reinterpretation should take into account the entire context, in which the instrument was created. I also had to decide whether the instrument would be used to play the music from the times of Leonardo, or the music from later periods. The fact that the viola organista was rejected and forgotten, but every now and then someone returned to it, and then it fell into oblivion again, was extremely motivating for me.
In my reconstruction work, I followed three clues. The first was an idea about its sound; the second – an idea about the potential repertoire, which would have to be almost completely recreated. Only then could I think about the structure of the instrument. Via Viola Organista
Zubrzycki also toyed with a couple of names for the instrument: claviolin, bowed string piano, hunched piano, Geigenwerk, Bogenclavier. ‘Bowed string piano’ was actually going to be its name, but once he started to play the instrument, Zubrzycki found that ‘viola organista’ perfectly characterized its sound. This also happened to be the name da Vinci had coined for it.
A golden spruce lines the flat bed of the instruments interior, and in the same fashion as that of a baby grand, there are 61 gleaming strings of steel that run across it.
Each string is connected to the keyboard, which in typical fashion includes smaller black keys for flats and sharps. However, instead of the hammered dulcimers that you’ll find in a piano, the organista has four spinning wheels covered in horse-tail hair that look like violin bows.
So how is it played?
To turn them, Zubrzycki pumps a pedal below the keyboard connected to a crankshaft. As he tinkles the keys, they press the strings down onto the wheels, emitting rich, sonorous tones reminiscent of a cello, an organ and even an accordion.
Viola organista made by Sławomir Zubrzycki
The effect is a sound that da Vinci dreamt of, but never heard; there are no historical records suggesting he or anyone else of his time built the instrument he designed.
…‘‘I have no idea what Leonardo da Vinci might think of the instrument I’ve made, but I’d hope he’d be pleased,’’ said Zubrzycki, who spend three years and 5000 hours bringing da Vinci’s creation to life. Via SMH
The viola organista’s fame is not about to die out anytime soon. Together with its constructor, it will feature in Icelandic musician Björk’s acoustic version release of her popular album Vulnicura.
Romanians also get a chance to see and hear Zubrzycki play this extraordinary instrument at the 10th edition of the Bucharest Early Music Festival.
i don’t understand why people always say that the mona lisa is leonardo da vinci’s best work. i really liked his role in titanic. — Georgia (@smokingkiIls) October 20, 2015
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Campaign underway for first recording of Leonardo da Vinci’s viola organista
A campaign on crowdfunding site Kickstarter has launched in an effort to fund the first ever recording of music played on the viola organista, an instrumental hybrid invented by Leonardo da Vinci.
Da Vinci made many sketches of the instrument, which can be found in his Codice Atlantico. The keyboard is used to press strings against moving wheels wrapped in horse hair (functioning as bows), producing a sound which combines properties of the viola da gamba, organ and harpsichord. Via Classical Music Magazine
The da Vinci sound – Viola Organista first recording
Viola Organista, the Leonardo’s invention, got its voice after centuries of silence. Sławomir Zubrzycki is recording its first album.
Recording: in progress
We haven’t posted for a while, but keep calm, we are still working on the album! Very soon we will show you the cover of CD.
In the meantime Sławomir Zubrzycki cooperated with one the biggest singer in the world! Now you can hear Viola Organista on new Bjork album “Vulnicura”. Enjoy! Via KickStarter
Björk is releasing an acoustic version of Vulnicura this November
She uses the only ‘viola organista’ in the world — it’s a Leonardo da Vinci design Between releasing a celebrated, harrowing new record and taking over the MoMA with a career-spanning retrospective, it’s been a busy year for Björk — and she’s capping it off with another new release. Vulnicura Strings (Vulnicura: The Acoustic Version) is an acoustic reinterpretation of Vulnicura, which isn’t even a year old yet; it’ll be released digitally and on disc November 6th, with a vinyl release a month later, on December 4th. Björk also shared one of the album’s reworked songs today, a strings-and-vocals version of “Lionsong” that manages to retain much of the original’s dramatic sweep. Via The Verge
Fox News anchor Shepard Smith made a little bit of a news faux pas earlier this week, mixing up Leonardo da Vinci and Leonardo DiCaprio.
A campaign on crowdfunding site Kickstarter has launched in an effort to fund the first ever recording of music played on the viola organista, an instrumental hybrid invented by Leonardo da Vinci.
Viola Organista, the Leonardo’s invention, got its voice after centuries of silence. Sławomir Zubrzycki is recording its first album.
Between releasing a celebrated, harrowing new record and taking over the MoMA with a career-spanning retrospective, it’s been a busy year for Björk — and she’s capping it off with another new release. Vulnicura Strings (Vulnicura: The Acoustic Version) is an acoustic reinterpretation of Vulnicura, which isn’t even a year old yet; it’ll be released digitally and on disc November 6th, with a vinyl release a month later, on December 4th. Björk also shared one of the album’s reworked songs today, a strings-and-vocals version of “Lionsong” that manages to retain much of the original’s dramatic sweep. Via The Verge
