A very veggie orchestra

The Vienna Vegetable Orchestra gives the term “organic instrumentation” a whole new meaning.

Austria, the same nation that has given rise to musical greats such as Beethoven and Brahms, now boasts an experimental ensemble that seeks not to imitate but to explore a new musical realm — in this case what kind of instruments it uses.

Before each show, vegetables are whittled, molded and scraped to form instruments. One such creation is the “cucumberphone” — an alternative to the saxophone — which uses a hollowed-out cucumber with a bell pepper on one end and a narrow carrot “reed” on the other. If these instruments break during the show, no harm done — there are always backup vegetables waiting to be played.

After the show, the orchestra makes soup — vegetable soup, naturally — and gives it to the audience.

Members of the orchestra say that audiences at times expect comedy; sometimes, they expect Mozart played with eggplant and squashes. The 11 Vienna Vegetable Orchestra members maintain that their experiment is not to be mocked.

In their continuing search for new sounds, the orchestra composed a third album, Onionoise, was released in the United States last week. The group also kicked off it’s U.S. tour on Monday in New York City.