@Truean - That's fantastical. Absolutely fantastical.
Today the Physics II class (including myself) got to finalize our plans for a second-semester final project. A friend and I are both making instruments to investigate harmonics and the physics of sound, while simultaneously planning to use our finished products for a Science Olympiad competition. From what I saw last year, the standard duet was some kind of horn for the treble and a shitty-to-average xylophone for the bass part.
Last year, he made a pretty good wooden ocarina, and I made a horrendous PVC xylophone, nicknamed 'The Golly G'. The Golly G was so named because we were surprised it made any recognizable notes, much less the G# scale it was intended to play. My partner is a really talented musician, and so was his original partner. Then his partner dropped out of the whole shebang without warning two days before the competition, not having made anything for his instrument. During school the next day, I gathered three of my friends from Physics to make something that could play the requisite 8 notes. We found a shitload of rectangular tri-section PVC pipe, calculated the right lengths to get the natural frequencies we needed for the notes, and went at it with a rusty hacksaw in a supply room for three hours straight. When we emerged, we had the most ridiculous looking xylophone I have ever seen. I'm no percussionist, so I wrote the names of the notes on the 'keys'. 'Good Golly it's G#!' and 'Holy F, Batman!' among them. The keys hung from some old twine threaded between the outer partitions of each key and duct taped to a broom handle up top. The mallets were glass stirring rods with rubber stoppers on the ends.
This year, I resolved to make an instrument that sounded more like an instrument, instead of smashing rubber on PVC at particular frequencies. I'm making a goddamn bagpipe, and it will be glorious! I've already made the chanter, and am working on the drones now. My partner is making a PVC french horn. We are going to rock the socks off of the creativity division. The piece we'll be performing will be Ride of the Valkyries by Wagner. I've convinced my brother to come along to film this if he can. It will be glorious.