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CRISTAL BASCHET
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Thomas Bloch with his cristal Baschet
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  • The cristal Baschet in brief...

     The principle of a glass bow and a metal rod fixed to a heavy metal block, which could be seen in laboratories during the 18th century but had never been used before to make a musical instrument, was revived in 1952 by Bernard and François Baschet, who also invented the inflatable guitar, several original instruments (piano BAschet, tole à voix...) and an educational instrumentarium which is widely used in music schools today.


Bernard Baschet, Thomas Bloch
Thomas Bloch and Bernard Baschet in Saint-Michel-sur-Orge factory (France)


     The cristal Baschet (sometimes called Crystal Organ and in English, Crystal Baschet) is composed of 54 chromatically tuned glass rods, rubbed with wet fingers. So, it is close to the Glassharmonica. But in the Cristal Baschet, the vibration of the glass is passed on to the heavy block of metal by a metal stem whose variable length determines the frequency (the note). Amplification is obtained by fiberglass cones  fixed on wood and by a tall cut out metal part, in the shape of a flame. "Whiskers", placed under the instrument, to the right, increase the sound power of high-pitched sounds.


jeu sur cristal Baschet
jeu dessous cristal Baschet

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     Born at the same time as «musique concrete»  (Pierre Schaeffer, Pierre Henry…), electro-acoustic music and early synthesizers (Bob Moog…), the Cristal Baschet is their close relative, but completely acoustic, without any electric amplifying-device. The Baschet brothers’ aim was to get closer to the new tones born in the early fifties.



cristal Baschet face
crsital Baschet close
cristal Baschet dos







Thomas Bloch (cristal Baschet), Elise Lorraine (voice, piano)
and Hein Pijnenburg (bass clarinet)  an excerpt from "Stamina"
(music by Henk van der Meulen) during a TV program
(VARA / Holland)
 


Thomas Bloch shows the cristal Baschet to Marianne James,
Charlélie Couture and Cyril Hanouna
during a TV program (in French)
(France 2 / France)
 



  • Works for cristal Baschet (excerpt)
The cristal Baschet is used in a lot of fields :
ballet-music, songs, movie music, theater-music, jazz, rock, improvisation, tales, contemporary music...

Among other composers, we can mention : Damon ALBARN, François BAYLE, Thomas BLOCH, Vincent-Marie BOUVOT, David COULTER, Michel DENEUVE, Luc FERRARI, Arthur H, Teddy LASRY, -M-, Henk van der MEULEN, Jean-Jacques PALIX, Michel REDOLFI, Guy REIBEL, Etienne ROLIN, Philippe SARDE, Emilie SIMON, Toru TAKEMITSU, Olivier TOUCHARD, Tom WAITS...




cristal baschet détail
Thomas Bloch Manu Dibango cristal Baschet
Thomas Bloch (cristal Baschet)
et Manu Dibango (saxophone)
cristal Baschet détail







Thomas Bloch (ondes Martenot, glassharmonica, cristal Baschet),
Damon Albarn (Blur, Gorillaz) and David Coulter
during "Monkey: journey to the West" preparation
(BBC - Endemol / England)
 



Bernard Baschet et Thomas Bloch

Thomas Bloch and Bernard Baschet
contact     to write to Thomas Bloch