Hadrosaur Variations II

Courtney Brown

Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression

Abstract

Hadrosaur Variations II is a work for hadrosaur skull instrument, soprano, and live electronics. A Corythosaurus is a duck-billed dinosaur, a lambeosaurine hadrosaur that scientists hypothesize used its large head crest for sound resonation. The hadrosaur skull instrument is a musical instrument created from a replica of a subadult Corythosaurus skull and nasal passages by myself and my collaborator, Sharif Razzaque. The hadrosaur skull instrument was first created as an interactive exhibition, in which participants give voice to this dinosaur instruments by blowing into a mouthpiece, exciting a larynx mechanism and resonating the sound through the dinosaur’s nasal cavities and skull. Participants know the dinosaur through the controlled exhalation of their breath, how the compression of the lungs leads to a whisper or a roar. In a sense, they fleetingly experience being a dinosaur. The CT scans of the subadult skull fossil and the endocast of its nasal passages and skull were used to 3D model and 3D print the skull. The CT scans and data were provided by Witmer Lab, Ohio University. A mechanical larynx was also created with specifications derived from research on this subadult skull. For instance, by scientists derived estimates of the subadult’s hearing range from measurements of the inner ear fossil, and these guided larynx design. I created this larynx with balloons to mimic the flexible material of vocal cords. I make different timbres and pitches by pulling the strings of the larynx, bending the balloons, and putting pressure at different points of the balloons. In this work, I explore how to mimic the dinosaur with the soprano voice, and vice versa. I became particularly interested in coaxing melodies and distinct pitches from the hadrosaur skull instrument, as this was a challenging exercise.

Citation

Courtney Brown. 2022. Hadrosaur Variations II. Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression. DOI: 10.21428/92fbeb44.fa9fd7a0 [PDF]

BibTeX Entry

@inproceedings{nime2022_music_27,
 abstract = {Hadrosaur Variations II is a work for hadrosaur skull instrument, soprano, and live electronics. A Corythosaurus is a duck-billed dinosaur, a lambeosaurine hadrosaur that scientists hypothesize used its large head crest for sound resonation. The hadrosaur skull instrument is a musical instrument created from a replica of a subadult Corythosaurus skull and nasal passages by myself and my collaborator, Sharif Razzaque. The hadrosaur skull instrument was first created as an interactive exhibition, in which participants  give voice to this dinosaur instruments by blowing into a mouthpiece, exciting a larynx mechanism and resonating the sound through the dinosaur’s nasal cavities and skull. Participants know the dinosaur through the controlled exhalation of their breath, how the compression of the lungs leads to a whisper or a roar. In a sense, they fleetingly experience being a dinosaur. The CT scans of the subadult skull fossil and the endocast of its nasal passages and skull were used to 3D model and 3D print the skull. The CT scans and data were provided by Witmer Lab, Ohio University. A mechanical larynx was also created with specifications derived from research on this subadult skull. For instance, by scientists derived estimates of the subadult’s hearing range from measurements of the inner ear fossil, and these guided larynx design.  I created this  larynx with balloons to mimic the flexible material of vocal cords. I make different timbres and pitches by pulling the strings of the larynx, bending the balloons, and putting pressure at different points of the balloons. In this work, I explore how to mimic the dinosaur with the soprano voice, and vice versa. I became particularly interested in coaxing melodies and distinct pitches from the hadrosaur skull instrument, as this was a challenging exercise.},
 address = {Auckland, New Zealand},
 articleno = {27},
 author = {Courtney Brown},
 booktitle = {Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression},
 doi = {10.21428/92fbeb44.fa9fd7a0},
 editor = {Raul Masu},
 issn = {2220-4806},
 month = {jun},
 title = {Hadrosaur Variations II},
 track = {Music},
 url = {https://doi.org/10.21428/92fbeb44.fa9fd7a0},
 year = {2022}
}