Have you ever felt curious, surprised, and excited all at once? Has the sound of a new instrument or an interesting musical technique ever captivated you so much that you thought, ‘everyone must see this’? Well, here at Glissonic, that’s exactly how we feel every day about the Glissotar.
Because the Glissotar is not just an instrument — it offers a completely new perspective on the musical palette, with completely new possibilities. We invite you on a journey to discover how the Glissotar came to be, who the creators are, how they are working to perfect it, and how we work to get it to as many music enthusiasts as possible in every corner of the world.
So, we invite you on a historical, technical, and musical journey. Join us in our multipart blog series!
The Glissonic – Glissotar – What is it all about?
Before we delve into how the idea of the Glissotar was born and its connection to a bus journey in Italy, let’s precisely understand what kind of instrument we are talking about.
The Glissotar is the very first member of the Glissonic instrument family, a revolutionary new instrument that combines the characteristics of a saxophone and a violin. This means it produces both the sound of a simple reed instrument and the characteristic intonation mode typical of string instruments while being played. It’s also unique in that it doesn’t have traditional tone holes; instead, there is a longitudinal slot along the instrument’s tube. There is a magnetic foil on the sides of the slot, covered by another magnetic strip, anchored to the tube at the top and held away from it at the bottom, much like a violin string. This allows the strip to be pressed at any point, completely closing the slot above, thus enabling the production of any pitch within the continuous pitch range. (Its name reflects this: “glissando,” abbreviated to “gliss,” in music refers to the sliding from one pitch to another. The word “sonic” generally pertains to things related to sound.)
Thanks to its design, the Glissotar offers a unique sound and playing experience. So much so that it can be used in repertoires ranging from classical music to modern electronic music.
Due to its special wood and brass components and its design, the Glissotar is not only unique in sound but also aesthetically. The first model is made of Purpleheart (also known as Amaranth) wood, an extremely durable Latin American tropical hardwood. It’s beautifully extravagant, naturally purple in color, but each model is unique due to the wood’s grain pattern.
How Was the Glissotar Born?
Let’s explore how, where, and why this unique instrument came into existence. It’s difficult to pinpoint a specific moment or year to call the Glissotar’s birthday, as it’s the result of long and continuous experimentation. Dániel Váczi and Tóbiás Terebessy have been working together on the development of the instrument family since 2016.
Daniel Váczi, the inventor, who has had several inventions both unrelated and related to music, spoke in an interview published by the SONUS Foundation about what led to the concept of the Glissotar:
“I’ve always been interested in why the instruments we use today are the way they are and whether they could be different, and whether certain very complicated instruments could be made much simpler or whether simple instruments could be created that serve different purposes than existing ones.”
The idea for the Glissotar originated from here. “The very first idea came while I was on the bus, returning from Italy, thinking about instrument ideas. This was in the early 2010s,” Daniel said in an interview with the Hungarian Képmás Magazin.
The idea for the Glissotar didn’t come about as “let’s make a ‘sliding’ instrument similar to a saxophone”! The basic concept was to be able to intonate a note anywhere, even among the chromatic scale notes, but in a simpler way than the complex mechanism of the saxophone.
Daniel Váczi recalls the beginnings:
“100-150 years ago, all the classical instruments we still use in symphony orchestras were already established. But I always felt that there could be many other ways to make instruments besides these. Moreover, with modern technology, it’s becoming easier and easier to experiment. A basic type can be quickly manufactured with 3D printing, for example, and it’s apparent whether the idea can be taken further.
I worked with Tobias Terebessy for the first time in 2015 on another project, and that’s when I told him about my ideas. It turned out he was very interested in instruments, but as a master craftsman, he was more concerned with the details of manufacturing and implementation and already had several sound-producing installations.
So, we started working together in January 2016.
The basic idea for the Glissotar had been in my mind for at least 3-4 years before that, but now we could finally try it out in practice, and it quickly became clear that it worked.
In the first experiment, we cut a slot into a bamboo tube to be flat on both sides, glued a fridge magnet onto it, added another counterpiece, and the mouthpiece of the saxophone. It turned out it really worked; it closed the slot.
I immediately felt that if we could refine this well, it could be something truly fascinating!”
Fortunately, we can now say that this is how it turned out, but the road to today’s Glissotar was still very long from here.
They worked extensively on perfecting the instrument’s manufacturing, method, components, materials, various settings, fastenings; and involved more and more experts: instrument makers, jewelers, contributors to production, such as József Tóth, a master tarogato maker, Endre Pásztor, master flute and lute maker, Tibor Botlik, a master brass instrument maker, Gábor Andréka, master woodwind instrument maker, and Márton Faragó-Thököly, a master violin maker.
Many solutions eventually proved to be dead ends, but they were all necessary for the Glissotar manufactured today.
And where exactly does Glissotar stand today? What has happened to it so far and what history does it have? Stay with us, it will be revealed in the next parts.
The Creators
The creators of Glissonic are Daniel Vaczi and Tobias Terebessy.
Vaczi invented the concept and Terebessy made it a reality.
Tobias Terebessy is the co-founder of Medence Group which is a multidisciplinary design group with projects ranging from fine art to architecture. He has been a part of different music related projects as a designer or constructor.
Dániel Váczi is a saxophone player, composer, inventor and researcher of musical instruments and games. He graduated from ELTE as a biologist and studied at the Jazz Saxophone Faculty of the LFZE. He founded his jazz trio in 2001. He plays world, jazz, free improvisation and contemporary classical music with several other bands. He developed a “Reticular Music System” which is a music theoretical approach as well as a technique for composing and improvising.
He started and participated in a number of music related projects, such as building various music-automatons, researching the augmented possibilities of the organ with computerized MIDI control (at MüPa), dance, animation and intermedia (Organmatrix). He made the concept of the interactive musical installations of the Creative Soundspace at the House of Music, Hungary. He has plans for a new symmetric – dihexatone – keyboard too.
