Notes on a short musical piece - ``Baliset'' scene in Dune

One of the scenes cut from the theatrical release of the movie Dune is one in which Gurney Halleck (played by Patrick Stewart) is shown playing a complicated guitar/sitar-like string instrument. In the novel this instrument is called a "baliset", although I don't think the film states this. It's actually an instrument called a Chapman Stick that's had a bunch of decorations added to it.

In any case, I have a Sun audio format (.au) file of this short musical selection, sampled from the version of Dune occasionally shown on TV (which David Lynch has disowned), for your listening pleasure. The piece was written and recorded by Emmet Chapman, designer of the Chapman Stick, and appears on his album Parallel Galaxy under the title ``Backyard''.

(Many thanks to Steven Burnett for info about the Chapman Stick!)

Updated November 15, 2006 - Erich Schneider - erich@caltech.edu