Bernard Baschet

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The sound sculptor Bernard Baschet (of the Baschet Brothers was born in Paris in 1917. He studied engineering and works with his brother Francois Baschet.

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 Francois BASCHET, who also invented the inflatable guitar and an educational instrumentarium.

The Cristal Baschet (not Cristal Bachet, but 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.

Born at the same time as «musique concrete» (Pierre SCHAEFFER, Pierre HENRY…), electro-acoustic music and early synthesizers (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.

[edit] REPERTOIRE

The Cristal Baschet is used in a lot of fields : ballet-music, songs, movie music ("The March of Penguins" played by Thomas Bloch), theater-music, jazz, rock (Tom Waits, played by Thomas Bloch), improvisation, tales, contemporary music.

Among other composers, we can mention : Francois Bayle, Thomas Bloch, Michel Deneuve, Luc Ferrari, Guy Reibel, Etienne Rolin, Toru Takemitsu, Michel Redolfi...