| Invented and patented by multi-media
artist, musician and kinetic sculptor Richard Waters,
the Waterphone is a unique instrument that blends the
principals of a Tibetan water drum, a kalimba and a
16th-century nail violin.
Waters developed the Waterphone in
1967 and has also applied the use of water to other
percussion instruments, including gongs, quicas, drums
and chimes. Initially used for special-effects sounds,
the instrument also had an unexpected function, as related
by Waters in a 1984 Percussive Notes article:
'Shortly after I invented the waterphone,
Jim Nollman, a drummer working for Greenpeace, took
a Bass Waterphone to Hawaii where he called a pod of
whales which circled him as he played and was kept afloat
by the waterphone. Since that time, several whale conservation
groups both here and abroad have utilized waterphones
for interspecies communication with whales and other
cetaceans.'
The Waterphone consists of a bowl
that holds the water, a resonator tube or handle, and
metal rods of varying length and size. The rods are
tuned to a combination of microtonal and diatonic pitch
relationships. The rods are struck by mallets, plucked
by fingers or bowed. As the player strikes a rod and
turns the instrument, the water in the bowl moves, shifting
the shape of the resonating chamber, creating pitch
changes and bends, glissandi and water echoes.
Waterphones have been used in recordings
by Miles Davis and George Marsh, and on film and television
soundtracks, including Poltergeist, Star Trek: The
Movie and The Man Who Skied Down Everest.
 Donated
by Florence Manne
This instrument uses a cooking pot
for a water chamber and a Ford hubcap as the chamber
lid. The inventor, Richard Waters, describes this
design as a "pre-waterphone."
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