Acting on an Ottawa musician's dream, Guelph woodworker creates instrument that makes people 'tear up'
CBC
For musician Jesse Stewart, the Fron2 is a dream come true.
Stewart, who heads the music program at Carleton University in Ottawa, began dreaming of creating a completely new and unique instrument 30 years ago.
All he needed was someone who could actualize his vision: an experienced woodworker who shared his love of music.
Then, one day, a chance meeting between Stewart and clock maker, woodworker and artist Fron Reilly, who's from Guelph, Ont., led to a once-in-a-lifetime collaboration to create a wooden instrument the world has never seen before: the Fron, named after Reilly.
After some improvement in the design, Reilly also created a second version, called the Fron2.
"He improved on the concept in every conceivable way," Stewart said. "Sometimes people start crying — people tear up because they think it's [the music] so beautiful."
The Fron2 is a cylindrical instrument with a frame drum suspended in the centre of 10 strings. To play it, you have to turn a crank handle to make the instrument spin while using a bow or wand to vibrate its strings.
Stewart describes the instrument as a cross between a steel pan and an Indonesian gamelan instrument.
The sound is a futuristic, meditative, acoustic symphony that could work well as the soundtrack for a galactic odyssey.
After Reilly made the Fron2, he uploaded a YouTube video of himself playing the instrument that has since racked up about 1.8 million views. Dozens of admirers from around the world have asked Reilly to make them a version of the unique instrument.
"I think Fron has made an original and important contribution to the field of new musical instrument design," Stewart said, adding it's unusual to see innovation in acoustic instruments.
"This was a sound that I had in mind 30 years ago and it continued to resonate for me for all that time. I'm really thankful I found somebody to make that instrument for me."
WATCH | Fron Reilly plays his instrument, the Fron2:
Reilly's fascination with physics began when he took apart an alarm clock as a child.
A Chilliwack, B.C., mother was killed by a falling tree while visiting a local park with her kids Monday afternoon, police say.
Summerside Coun. Justin Doiron said he regularly interacts with city residents on social media.
Michael Vandell has been re-elected as chief of Deh Gáh Got’ı̨ę First Nation in N.W.T., defeating former Dehcho MLA Ronald Bonnetrouge.
A Canadian military counter-intelligence operative, accused of passing sensitive information to a foreign entity, was having conversations with a representative of Ukraine, CBC News has learned.
The Alberta Serious Incident Response Team has been called in to investigate an incident at the Dalhousie LRT station in which a Calgary police officer shot a man who was “acting erratically and carrying a knife.”
Around 40 people have been temporarily displaced after a building fire in O’Leary, in P.E.I.'s Prince County.
The price of the benchmark North American crude blend known as West Texas Intermediate, or WTI, slid to a four-year low on Tuesday, dipping to $55 US a barrel after starting the year off around $80.
The young man accused of being impaired and behind the wheel at the time he slammed into a Toronto family’s van, killing three children, has pleaded guilty in the case.
Gavin McKenna knew the haters would be ready to pounce.
Despite a deal to push government bills through their final stages before the House of Commons rose last Thursday, two pieces of priority budget and border legislation, C-4 and C-12, can't become law until at least February.
Skate Canada says it will no longer host major events in Alberta following a review of the province's legislation on the participation of transgender athletes in women's sport.
A surge of influenza among school-aged kids is linked to the recent deaths of multiple Ontario children, prompting calls for Canadian families to get vaccinated as medical experts brace for a worsening wave of infections across all age groups.
A London family doctor is not allowed to practice medicine for 10 months after being found guilty of professional misconduct.