Philomel (musical instrument) Philomel (musical instrument) Philomel (; or "Stahlgeige" ) is the name of a musical instrument similar to the violin, but having four steel, wire strings. It has been invented around Monaco di Baviera in the middle of the nineteenth century and has got some similarities with the Bowedmelodion also known as Streichmelodion The philomel has a body with incurvations similar to those of the guitar; therefore, without corner blocks, the outline of the upper lobe forms a wavy shoulder reminiscent of the viols but more ornate and fanciful. The peg-box sometimes terminates in a fancy head instead of a scroll.
Experimental musical instrument available sizes are played by a small but growing number of professional clarinettists in Canada, the US, Germany and Estonia, with two more sizes under consideration. Starting in 2006, Ice Music Festival celebrates musical instruments made of ice. In 2010, composer Alexis Kirke and technologist Tim Hodgson turned the University of Plymouth's Roland Levinsky Building into a form of musical instrument to be played by the rising sun, as part of Peninsula Arts Contemporary Music Festival. Light sensors were placed across seven floors of the building and fed by radio network into a computer music instrument analogous to a Mellotron.