THE CHALICE SYMPHONY

A designer and indie band, Cold War Kids, has collaborated with Stella Artois to create fully-functioning musical instruments out of the beer’s famous ‘Chalice’.

Mother New York has introduced the “Chalice Symphony”, a collaboration between Stella Artois, MIT sonic inventor Andy Cavatorta and Cold War Kids.

Andy Cavatorta is a New York-based designer and inventor focusing largely on interactive design, robotics and film. He is a graduate of the MIT Media Lab and over the past year, Cavatorta has passionately pored over hundreds of the iconic Stella Artois Chalices.

The result is the craft four fully-functional music instruments inspired by elements of the iconic glassware: the Hive, the Pryophone, the Star Harp and the Violina. For a limited time, the instruments are on display in a gallery setting on Manhattan’s Lower East Side.

Incorporating the unique sounds from these instruments, indie band Cold War Kids has written a new song, “A Million Eyes,” performed using the Chalice Symphony instruments.

Image: [Left] Set design by Andrea Lauer. Photo by Jenny Long. [Right] "The first Pyrophone was invented by Georges Frédéric Eugène Kastner sometime in the late 1800′s," explains Cavatorta.

“When Matt Nolan and I were separately asked by Stella Artois to brainstorm ideas for the Stella Artois Chalice Symphony, we both had a pyrophone on our list,” says Andy Cavatorta. “Partly because it fits the requirements and partly because we were each really excited to build one!”

“The Pyrophone uses the shape of the inside of the chalice much like a singer’s mouth. We’ve added it to the ends of long glass tubes to change the timbre of vibrating column of air. And a flame provides the vibration, much like the reed of an organ pipe.”

You can explore more of the instruments on the Stella Artois Global Chalice Symphony YouTube channel.

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