ext_1990 ([identity profile] ellen-fremedon.livejournal.com) wrote in [personal profile] neotoma 2007-06-24 08:15 pm (UTC)

Though if you've got the technology to terraform from the ground up, then we can assume you've also got the tech for workarounds to some of the materials problems-- if you've got a good precision metal shop, fr'ex, you can turn out keyed metal flutes, maybe even a simplified saxophone if your hydroponics bay is growing reed canes. And steel strings for metal- or plastic-bodied instruments, maybe an all-steel dobro or a steel hammered dulcimer. Hell, if you've got electronics people and steel wire for strings, you can make electric guitars-- you might develop a whole classical tradition built on electronic and synthesized music.

And if you've growing bamboo, which you'd be silly not to, then you've got more than reed flutes-- you have the marimba, you have the shawm, you have the digeridoo. You might make something that would technically be a clarinet, though the Klangfarben would probably be pretty far off. If you've got some kind of cane and a small metal shop, you could reinvent the saroussophone family, though I don't know why you'd want to. You might also be able to use thin strips of bamboo, or some kind of bamboo laminate, in the bodies of stringed instruments-- lutes, mandolins, maybe even the guitar. No fiddles, though-- I agree with that. Anything where the response of the wood is more important than the shape of the resonator is going to have to wait for actual wood.

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