• Carola Bauckholt
  • divining rod (2025)
    (for E-Guitar and samples )

  • Henry Litolff’s Verlag GmbH & Co. KG (World)

Commissioned by Southbank Centre and dedicated to Sean Shibe

  • egtr +
  • Electric Guitar
  • 15 min
    • 10th January 2026, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room, Southbank Centre, London, United Kingdom
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Programme Note

A divining rod is a traditional tool (typically a forked branch or two metal rods) used forradiesthesia, a practice of sensing subtle energies or veins of water. The rod is said to swing in the hands of the seeker as soon as such a hidden source is located. Scientifically, this effect has not been proven; culturally and symbolically, however, the divining rod is considered an instrument of intuition, a tool for sensing the invisible. 

What is an electric guitar? A rod strung with strings that reacts with extreme sensitivity to touch. Fingers, hands, and aids feel their way along it that, in a mysterious manner, capture, extract, distill and set musicality flowing.