On Air Now
The Full Works Concert with Rob Cowan 8pm - 10pm
The Vegetable Orchestra
Turnip the volume for the vegetable orchestra! Take a look at these musicians who've bid farewell to their flutes and violins in favour of carrots and courgettes.
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1. Vienna Vegetable Orchestra
The Vienna Vegetable Orchestra (or, Das erste Wiener Gemüseorchester) is the first orchestra of its kind, founded in 1998. Since then, a number of vegetable orchestras have sprouted throughout the world for impromptu concerts and events.
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2. Playing the parsnip
Performing on carrots, parsnips, cabbages, celery, peppers, and more, these performers specialise in creating unique instruments from fresh veg. Just like more traditional woodwind instruments, the larger the vegetable, the lower the sound.
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3. Creating a vegetable orchestra
Leeks, carrots, courgettes and peppers - just some of the vegetables being transformed into instruments. Just like a traditional orchestra, there are three main instrumental families: percussion, woodwind, and brass.
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4. Carrot percussion
As well as being edible, vegetable instruments are more versatile than their traditional orchestral cousins. Carrots can be carved into woodwind instruments, or drilled and hit with a stick to create different percussion of different pitches.
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5. 40kg of vegetables
A concert or studio performance like this uses about 40kg of veg. And as vegetables don't stay fresh for long, the players have to re-fashion their instruments ahead of every performance.
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6. Carving the instruments
It's not often we'd advise instrumentalists to drill into their pride and joy before heading out on stage. But these performers do just that - this courgettist is hollowing out the vegetable so it becomes a wind instrument. The Vienna Vegetable Orchestra even use the drills and tools on stage to add to the range of sounds they can make.
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7. Playing the leek
It's not just woodwind instruments in a vegetable orchestra: this leek is being used as a violin, complete with a leek bow.
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8. A variety of instruments
These skilled players are performing with three different vegetables, taking to the stage with a leek and carrot and a tuber. (Not to be confused with a tuba.)
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9. Cabbage quartet
Hollowing out carrots and blowing through courgettes is just one way of making music in a vegetable orchestra - rustling leaves or crunching up herbs also creates interesting musical textures used by the performers.
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10. Pumpkin percussion
It might look easy to play, but creating a pumpkin drum is a labour of love. Exactly the right amount of flesh needs to be carved out to ensure the instrument plays at the right pitch - and if it's carved too thinly, it'll just collapse when hit.
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11. Courgette trumpet
As well as being instruments in their own right, carrots provide a useful mouthpiece for larger instruments. Played like a trumpet, covering the holes in this hollow courgette will change the pitch, while the bell pepper on the end amplifies the sound - just like a real trumpet.
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12. Recycled instruments
Once the vegetables have been peeled, carved, hollowed and cut, they only last around 24 hours - long enough for one concert, or one session in the studio. Luckily, they're a lot easier to recycle than more conventional orchestral instruments.
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13. Carrot mouthpiece
After transforming a simple carrot into a fully functional woodwind mouthpiece, it can be used to play variety of different vegetables. Joining two carrots together creates an instrument similar to a recorder.
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14. Pepper trumpet
After a bit of careful drilling and scooping, this pepper has been transformed into a trumpet-like instrument, with a mouthpiece and even a mute.
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15. Hard at work
Not a sight you'd see before an LSO concert: the orchestra are hard at work, drilling into their instruments. Even the slightest difference in the width of the holes has an impact on the pitch and tone of the vegetable.
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16. Courgette clarinet
An unusual instrumental hybrid, this courgette-pepper-carrot is played like a recorder with a trumpet mouthpiece. And surprisingly, it sounds a bit like a clarinet.
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17. Woodwind and brass
It might look like both these performers are playing the same instrument, but these two carrots have actually been carved quite differently. One is played by blowing a raspberry into the mouthpiece, much like a brass instrument, and the other is played like a recorder.
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18. Vegetable Orchestra 2
While some instruments need a carrot mouthpiece, others can be played by blowing a raspberry into the hollowed-out tube. The bell pepper on the end amplifies the sound.
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19. Extended parsnip techniques
Just like a trumpet, this performer is covering the end of the instrument to change the sound. It's a technique known as 'hand-stopping', creating a wah-wah effect.
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20. The end of the concert
While traditional orchestras take great care of their instruments after a concert, it's a lot easier for a vegetable orchestra to down tools and head to the bar. The veg sounds best when it's fresh, so there's little point in keeping it; may we suggest a couple of healthy stew recipes?
