The ‘Interstellar’ theme on one of the world’s weirdest musical instruments is spine-tingling
5 January 2021, 13:10
Watch this Mesmerising Interstellar Theme
Hans Zimmer’s masterpiece – in an unexpected, but mind-blowingly beautiful, version...
A musician has played Hans Zimmer’s beloved Interstellar theme on an unexpected instrument.
It’s not the version that you hear in the original theme score. Nor is it played on the organ or the piano. It’s not even this incredible hydraulophone version we discovered last year.
No. In this video (watch above), the Interstellar theme is played on Cristal Baschet.
Cristal Baschet? Yes, we didn’t know either. Read on, dear friend...
A Cristal Baschet (caps deliberate) is a metal and glass organ of sorts – usually 3.5 to 6 octaves, with a total of 56 chromatically-tuned glass rods. The metal frame hosts the rods, and they’re played with the fingertip – which is dipped in water beforehand (some of you may recall dinner parties attempting to produce a ‘tone’ from a wine glass. Similar principle.)
The instrument was developed in 1952 by modernist pioneers Bernard and François Baschet, who experimented with new instruments and musical techniques in the mid-1900s.
The resultant sound has a stunningly eerie, totally mesmerising, and rather fluid-like metallic timbre (i.e. texture the sound makes) – perfect of Zimmer’s awe-inspiring score for the 2014 film.
The performer here is Marc Chouarain – check out Marc and others’ work on the SFL Studio Féerique Live YouTube Channel here. We’re very impressed!
