Geophone (musical instrument) Geophone (musical instrument) The geophone is a percussion instrument, invented by the French composer Olivier Messiaen for use in his large composition for piano and orchestra entitled "Des canyons aux étoiles…" ("From the canyons to the stars…"). It consists of a drum filled with thousands of small lead pellets, and is played by swirling it around slowly so that the noise of the pellets resembles the sound of dry shifting earth. Messiaen commissioned a Parisian instrument maker to construct one to his design, and he carried this instrument worldwide to early performances of the piece (which was given its first
Herbert Flam in 1950, beating Bill Talbert and Gardnar Mulloy before losing to Arthur Larsen.. At Wimbledon 1951 Flam beat Frank Sedgman before losing to Dick Savitt in the semi finals.. In 1952 Flam beat Mulloy and Vic Seixas before losing in the semis to Jaroslav Drobny.. In the 1956 Australian Championshops, Flam beat Ashley Cooper before losing in the semi finals to Ken Rosewall.. At the 1957 French championships Flam beat Mervyn Rose in a five set semi final before losing easily to Sven Davidson in the final.. At the U. S. championships, Flam beat Seixas before losing to Cooper in