Video: Absolutely Remarkable Giant Self-Playing Xylophone

Okay, that title may have sounded confusing, but this thing is freaking amazing. It’s a super long xylophone, created from handmade and tuned blocks that plays its entire tune just by rolling down a wooden egg.

As the always awesome Bob Boilen points out, “Fellow humans never cease to amaze me. I’d love to have been in that meeting where someone said, “ok look…we build this giant delicate xylophone in the forest that plays the final chorus of Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring, by J.S. Bach. Oh and instead of a person playing it, we’ll have a wooden egg that rolls down the suspended giant of a xylophone and each piece of wood will be a note in the score that will sound as the egg rolls from wooden slat to wooden slat, with the speed determined by gravity. It’ll be great.”

Yeah, it’s an ad to sell wooden cell phones, but who cares? Someone had to finance it.

via All Songs Considered