Did you know that Leonardo da Vinci was the first person, who is known to document the concept of a wind instrument that uses a longitudinal slot on the instrument’s tube instead of tone holes? In the famous Codex Atlanticus, which is the largest collection of da Vinci’s works, there is a drawing of two flutes, one with two shorter slots and the other with a long one, as well as the following brief text:
“On these two flutes, the notes cannot be played in intervals, but rather in a way similar to how we produce the human voice. This sound is created by moving the hand up and down, like a trumpet or flute. In this way, 1/8 and 1/16 intervals can also be created, or any other pitch.”
XV. century, Leonardo da Vinci, Glissando flutes, CODEX ATLANTICUS
Find additional references here.
It took centuries till materials and instrument design evolved to a state that allowed for a high quality implementation of the concept. We love the idea of a distant connection to Leonardo and his brilliant mind and would like to invite you to join us to celebrate his birthday on the 15th of April and help to make the story of instruments based on the same concept more complete. We are going to start a series of blog articles about the story of the Glissotar and the history of similar instruments. We would like to encourage every reader of the blog series to send us their feedback and additional fractions to the mosaic of the history of the predecessors of Glissotar.
As part of this initiative, we would like to offer a 20% discount for a limited stock of Glissotars. The discount is valid till the end of April (2024) and applicable to Purpleheart Glissotars only. The retail price of the Glissotar will be 2 400 EUR in this period until stock lasts.
We will produce and ship these Glissotars on a first come first served basis. People who order the first should be able to get their instruments within 2 months. We expect the delivery time to grow as more orders come in.
The wooden Glissotar, made of Purpleheart wood