Sunday, February 1, 2015

LEGO harpsichord

I sometimes wonder how people get inspired for creating certain things. Isn’t it wonderful that at some point of your life you may get ‘hit’ by some crazy idea and find it embodied in real life after a while? I truly respect people who have courage and strength for both developing an idea and fulfilling it.

 Here’s an amazing example of how a guy called Henry Lim created a most beautiful harpsichord from as many as a hundred pieces of LEGO.  I’ve always found some special charm about harpsichords and that’s why this caught my eye. As you probably know, the harpsichord had two ‘birth times’. The original harpsichord era is the 18th century, when it could be heard in all courts and could boast of having a great patron – Bach, who loved it a lot and thus scored a lot of music works for it.

Unfortunately, by the 20th century harpsichord completely gave way to it more popular follower – the piano. And it seemed to have faded for quite a long time until Mrs. Landowska brought back to life again. And I’m glad we have it back, really! With the amount of music compositions for harpsichord that are abundant today, I’d definitely consider possessing one myself. And especially if it’s as original as Mr. Lim’s creation.

The most beautiful thing about this LEGO instrument is that it’s actually fully PLAYABLE! Considering that it’s fully made from those tiny LEGO pieces (well, but for the strings, of course), it’s a little miracle to me. There are, surely, a few tricks used to make it possible (like covering some pieces with special resonant tiles), but we are to face the fact: it cost a lot of effort, time and it works!


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