As far as we now, there has been 4 concertos composed for nose flute:
Concerto for Nose Flute and Muted Saxophone (1926?)
George Antheil (1900-1959), performed by Edmund Dulac (1882-1953)
George Antheil was a very famous composer in the Avant-Garde years. When in Paris, he was used to frequenting James Joyce, Ezra Pound, Man Ray, Erik Satie, Fernand Léger and many other. His most famous work is
Ballet Mécanique.
Edmund Dulac was a french (British naturalised in 1912) famous illustrator. Besides his orientalist drawing and paintings for books, he also created stamps, notably
the ones with king George VI effigy or
this great one to commemorate the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. But Edmund Dulac was also a nose flute player, who performed in many occasions. Unfortunately for us, it appeared quickly in our research that Mr. Dulac was used to playing traditional kinds of nose flutes, notably from Malay Archipelago.
In June 1926, Mr. Dulac performed the
Concerto for Nose Flute and Muted Saxophone, composed by George Antheil. We didn't find the music sheet.
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Gross Concerto for Divers Flutes (1961)
Peter Schickele (born in 1935), with the pseudonym P.D.Q. Bach
Peter Schickele is the famous American composer who invented the fictional and humorous character of
P.D.Q. Bach, alleged last J.S. Bach's son. The whole P.D.Q.'s story has been published in 1976 by Schickele, in a hilarious book:
The Definitive Biography of P.D.Q. Bach
In the book, the nose flute is said to appear in P.D.Q.'s musical life through Thomas "Peeping Tom" Pollex, a young nose flute virtuoso. Soon after, Bach's "only forgotten son" composed the
Gross Concerto.
In the section dedicated to P.D.Q.'s works, a double page exposes the
Gross Concerto history and the "divers flutes" used to perform it. And at the right bottom corner of the picture, we can see a plastic Humanatone.
And in the book glossary, a small article describes the nose flute with a certain dose of humour:
But as usual in Peter Schickele's work, while P.D.Q. Bach's story is fictional, the
Gross Concerto is real. It is a real concerto composed in 1961 and performed many times (and at least until 1993) by Schickele's ensemble, with the composer playing himself the "divers flutes".
I have not been able to find a recording of one of those performances, nor a video. In the DVD
The Abduction of Figaro (by P. Schickele), the bonus contains very short excerpts of the
Gross Concerto, but none with the maestro at the nose flute. But then, the bonus features a 1972 interview of Peter Schickele by Gordon Hunt for his TV program
Hour Glass (Canadian Broadcasting Corp.).
A real archive, with Peter Schickele presenting the nose flute principle, with a shiny red Humanatone in his hand.
Note that the Gross Concerto is not the only work featuring a nose flute in Schickele's work. At least another piece, from the CD
Portrait of P.D.Q. Bach (Vanguard ed.), named
Angus Dei (no typo there:) is played with many instruments including nose flutes. Anyway, I was not able to clearly discern their notes in the ensemble.
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Concerto for Bassoon and Nose Whistle (1966)
Warrick L. Carter (born in 1942)
This is the most mysterious nose flute concerto: I don't know nothing about it. Its composer, Dr. Warrick L. Carter made a great career. Starting with musical teaching and composing at University of Maryand in the late 1960's, Dr. Carter successively became Dean of Faculty and Provost at Berklee College of Music, Director of Entertainment Arts at Walt Disney Entertainment, President of Columbia College in 2000, among many other functions.
According to
his biography published on Answers.com, Warrick Carter composed a
Concerto for Bassoon and Nose Whistle in 1966. I tried to reach Dr. Carter to get more info, but nobody answered my requests to be put in touch with him...
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Concerto Pomposo (2000)
Ulrich Nehls (born in 1959), with the pseudonym Jean-Marie Hottetotte
I will not much say about this concerto since I already did
in this post.
Let's just say that the Concerto Pomposo is the most documented concerto for nose flute. Indeed, not only Ulrich Nehls generously published
the sheets on imslp.org (and thus in public domain), answered all of our questions about this work, but the concerto was performed by the Brethren Bass ensemble, but also by Kentucky T. Dutchersmith and the Maple City Chamber Orchestra:
