Bocarina™ part I : A South African Ferrari

It's quite rare to attend the birth of a new nose flute. For us, lovers of this small instrument, it's a real event, and that is what is happening now. Mr Chris Schuermans, craftsman and designer from Pretoria, South Africa, is launching the Bocarina^™, a new hi-end plastic nose flute.

Well, Mr.Schuermans is not a 2011 newcomer in nosefluting : he began creating those instruments 4 years ago, after having read about them. As a potter, he first hand-shaped his first models, then created moulds. The first shape evolved to new models, leading to the beautiful current Bocarina^™. During these years, Chris Schuermans thought also of developing a plastic production, in order to satisfy greedy mass-customers and lessen the fabrication costs.

It took Chris Schuermans around a year to achieve the final specifications of the plastic Bocarina^™, using simultaneously his designing and nose flute playing skills, with the help of a 3D modelling software. It has been a very precise work to refine the fipple specs, dimensions, angles...
Finally, a first series of 2000 pieces were produced, in ABS plastics, according to 5 different colors, pure black, Delft blue, coral red, plain orange, and milky pink.

The first feeling comes from a visual appreciation. Indeed, the object is stunningly well designed, with beautiful curves but character, very equilibrated. It could have been designed by Pinninfarina for Ferrari... producing a mixed sensation of sweetness and power.

Taking the Schuermans' flute in the hand is another cool sensation. ABS is a very good quality of plastics, smooth, rather dense and solid. The Bocarina^™ is thick. Nothing comparable with the other well-knowned thin polystyren instruments. The Bocarina^™ is not made of a sheet of plastics curved to get the 3D shape, with rough edges. The South African flute was originally conceived as a volume, as a sculpture. Let's remember Chris Schuermans is a potter...
There are no angled edges on the Bocarina^™ - excepted where needed (labium) - and even the border edges are rounded, giving a pleasant feeling in the hand or on the face, as a light and concave pebble would. And the thickness increases from the edges (~2mm) to the center (up to 4 mm).



The Bocarina^™ is made with 2 parts : the biggest one, let's call it the shield, and a small piece, the duct cover, clipped onto the shield in order to close and form the air duct. This small part features a nose scoop, and is perfectly adapted to european noses. Quality of the ergonomics may be subject of individual appreciation, fitting more or less a face shape. In my own case, the Bocarina^™ fits tightly my anatomy, providing a very good hermeticism. No air leaks, and a nice playing comfort.
Anyway, the fact the nose scoop is located on the so small duct cover could lead to have optional clips adapted to different nose shapes...

The mouth cap is huge, falling down to the chin, and allowing quite a wide open mouth position without air leak. With this feature, it is possible to play a wide range of notes even without touching the instrument with the mouth, which is very peculiar and surely practical for many mouth shapes.
The labium is double angled, but asymetrical, with a rather flat angle on the front, and a more open one on the inside (approx. doubling the slope). The mouth hole is quite narrow, just a bit less than 4 mm (~19 mm wide). The air duct, rounded, is as thin as 1.x mm at the air exit, while it is larger and ergonomically shaped at the entrance.

On the playability side, the Bocarina^™ needs a very little time to accustom to, and almost immediately shows its great sound abilities. The sound is powerful, thanks to the ABS rigidity, the technical design and the absence of air leaks, with a beautiful texture.
While it is a bit difficult to reach the very high notes with a regular mouth position (they can be reached by shaping the tongue in L, almost touching the palate), the Bocarina^™ ability to reach bass notes with easyness is absolutely stunning.
This is clearly the flute in my possession with which I get the lowest tones, and with loudness (not an out-of-blow bass, but a frank note).

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Has Mr. Schuermans reached a "plastic Grail" with the Bocarina^™ ? Well, I would say this nose flute is very near perfection. Now, I have to find some flaws to show I'm honest. Indeed, there are, but very minor...

- First, we could dream of a better or easier ability to reach the very high notes without loosing the bass range.
- Then the way the duct cover is moulded leads to have a junction along the nose scoop, and the plastic artefact there is not pleasant. We would have prefered to have a nice rounded border there, for better comfort (since, I smoothed the joint line with very soft grain sanding paper).
- The Bocarin^™a is not hand free, and it could be very easy to change that for the pleasure of ukulelists or fiddlers...
- The color choice is not wide enough (so easy to broaden!) and currently not well adapted to the european market.

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Here are some sound samples. I made the first one (i'm not a good player, sorry...) to show the range, and particularly the easyness to get the basses. Both next ones by Birdy Kuck (they were really first Birdy's tryings with the Bocarina^™) some scales or so, to show the abilities, then Somewhere Over The Rainbow.







Here is a technical doc of the Bocarina^™ :

And here, a presentation video by Mr. Chris Schuermans :

And here, a video with the Bocarina^™ by the great Nosefluter :

--- On the same topic, you can read : Bocarina^™ part I : A South African Ferrari Bocarina^™ part II : The clay original Bocarina^™ part III : A player's report - by Birdy K. Bocarina^™ part IV : Chris Schuermans' interview Bocarina^™ part V : The Ones you'll never have... Bocarina^™ part VI : The Ancestors Bocarina^™ part VII : Experiments 1 Bocarina^™ part VII : Experiments 2 --- Where to get a Bocarina^™ Brionski Ebay store Dan Moi online shop Grothmusic online shop And for larger quantities, for sure : Chris Schuermans 95 Farnham Rd. Lynnwood Manor Pretoria, 0081 RSA (South Africa) Cell phone no. +27 83 954 3224 Telephone no. +27 12 361 4659, email : chris[at]schuermans[dot]org ---

Video : Jan Ruijg & the Bonduelle band

Here is a video signaled to our attention by JobTePas. Jan Ruijg plays a very special nose flute : a metal early-Humanatone shaped flute, stuck to the handle of a crutch !
The crutch itself is drilled with holes, like a recorder, but it seems to me they are not functional, just theatrical (how can them be, since the the air does not enter the crutch?)

Another interesting video by Jan Ruijg here :
youtube.com/watch?v=IAnBteQINO4

A German metal Nasenflöte

There was (at least) one German metal flute which appeared in the end of the 20s or the beginning of the 30s. Very comparable to the original Humanatone, with very minor differences (the length of the mouth cap, the shape of air-duct wings and their fixing system, and the shape of the nostrils hole).

We can find it in several catalogs. Here, respectively, in the Gebrüder Schuster (ca. 1924-29), Matthias Hohner A. G. (ca. 1923-35), Meinel und Herold 1930, Meinel und Herold 1932, Vogtlandsperle (ca. 1923-35) and Max Adler (ca. 1929-32).

Here is the Gebrüder Schuster page :

If you look closely at the Max Adler picture (the last of the 6-series), it will appear to you that something seems to be written on the base of the mouth cap.
The flat part of the air duct cap seems shorter than on the other drawings.

So, are there two different German nose flutes ?

Well, I have two old flutes which correspond exactly to the drawings. The first one, with no stamp on the mouth cap was sold to me in Danemark as "a german flute". The second one, shows a stamp "Made in Germany" and comes from USA.

I took all the measurements possible, and can affirm those 2 nose flutes are absolutely superimposable, on any point, except the stamping "Made in Germany".
I don't know if one is a later model, or if the stamped one was destined to abroad market...

Review : the Nasiphone / Mellibrou

I discovered the Nasiphone in Larigot (#29 & #30), the bulletin published by ACIMV, searched for Mr. Mellier in the phonebook, and called him to discuss and order Mellibrous.

Mr. René Mellier is now in the beginning of his eighties, and began making his nose flutes when retired. He also built small size barrel organs, and was interested in wind instruments physics and acoustics. It was at the IRCAM where he was following a course, that he was shown the book Instruments à vent, by Henri Bouasse, 1929, and was particularly interested in the little tin plate "toy" sold by "carnies", depicted in the following pages :

Mr. Mellier decided to build a small instrument following the same principle, and after several attempts, created the Nasiphone.
Later, René Mellier was asked to present the instrument in a TV show. But the TV producer got afraid by the instrument name, because it sounded like "nazi-phone" (!!)... So, for the circumstances, a new name was found, the Mellibrou, by concatenation of the beginning of Mr. Mellier's name with Brou, which is the village where he lives.

There are two models of Nasiphones : one large for adults, and a smaller one for children. I ordered both, and received them packed in a rolled user manual.

The Nasiphone is made of zinc plate, plus a wooden nose rest. The zinc part is a sandwich made of 3 plates : a long central one, in which is cut the mouth hole, soldered to two shorter and angled ones, fixed on the wood part by brass nails. They form a very thin air duct, as thin as the central plate is thick (0.65 mm - 1/4"on my palmer). This is a very easy and simple, but clever way to set the duct thickness...

The wooden nose rest is cut with a more or less 100° scoop to fit occiental nose conformation, and drilled of 2 holes as air passageway. Obviously, on the chid size, the drillings are smaller in diameter and squeezed together (very cute!).

The Mellibrou profile is interesting too, notably the way it is angled :

Well, the Nasiphone is not chiseled like a silversmith piece, but its roughness, rusticity and simplicity are parts of its appeal. Each Mellibrou is stamped with Mellier's initials, plus the year of making.

I wouldn't say the Nasiphone is the most comfortable flute I ever tried, neither the most beautiful, nor the best sounding... But it works, with a large range of notes from basses to sharps, and exhales a real character of authenticity and friendliness.

The only real flaws are the formation of condensation (probably because of a Z shape of the beginning of the air duct), which imposes to dry the flute (with a hard blow in the nose holes) after 15 minutes of playing, and a tendency to "over whistle" (some stridents unwanted sounds, maybe due to a flat labium).

Here is a sound sample :



Mr. Mellier stopped making the Nasiphone...and told me he is out of stock now.
So, it has become a collector's object.
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Video : Berlin's Extraordinary People

Here is an excerpt of a documentary movie filmed in Berlin by Hajo Rubbert. Karl O. at the bandoneon, Bauchladen Berny at the nose flute and a third fellow at the barrel organ. Beautiful music, but unfortunately, the nose flute is difficult to hear, masked by the organ.

An interesting organization : the ACIMV

Founded in 1987, and thus ready to celebrate its 25 years of existence, the french Association des Collectionneurs d'instruments de musique à vent (ACIMV) is an non-profit organization which goal is to gather wind instruments collectors and enthusiasts, and to introduce « french instruments making and increasing knowledge on this subject ». But no chauvinism, since the organization is also interested in foreign instruments and collections...
His founder and president, Mr. Bruno Kampmann, told me that a third of the members are spread around the world, even as far as New Zealand.

The ACIMV has a blog with nice pictures of stunning instruments, and publishes a biannual paper bulletin called « Larigot » (from the name of an organ stop, coming itself from an old small flute name), plus an annual special catalog.

Checking the contents of Larigot past issues, I found four short articles dealing with nasal flutes :

- Larigot #27, Aug. 2001 : Le Vociphone : un gadget instrumental..., by Jacques Cools, which was the inaugural text dealing with nose flutes in Larigot and mainly exposed the belgian Vociphone (about which we'll post later).

- Larigot #29, Jul. 2002 : Les Flûtes nasales (suite), by Jeremy Montagu, trans. by B. Kampmann, which began to draw an inventory of modern nose flutes (with some tiny mistakes :) [Read a related article by J. Montagu published in English in FoRMHI bulletin (P. 7-9)]

- Larigot #30, Dec. 2002 : Les Flûtes nasales (suite), à propos du Mellibrou, by Jacques Cools, dealing mostly with a french contemporary nose flute called Mellibrou or Nasiphone, built by René Mellier (about which we'll post later).

- Larigot #34, Oct. 2004 : Les Flûtes nasales (suite), à propos du Cello-Phone, by Jacques Cools, and exposing a stunning swan-neck nose flute.

With a very kind generosity, Mr. Kampmann authorized us to publish those whole pages, and provided the original files, with the color pictures. Thanks a lot to him, to the ACIMV, Larigot and the authors.

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From Larigot #27 (All rights reserved, ©2001, J. Cools & ACIMV/Larigot) :

From Larigot #29 (All rights reserved, ©2002, J. Montagu & ACIMV/Larigot) :

From Larigot #30 & #34 (All rights reserved, ©2002 & 2004, J. Cools & ACIMV/Larigot) :

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ACIMV : c/o B. Kampmann - 136, Bd de Magenta - 75010 Paris - France
tel/fax : +33 148 787 009
e.mail : acimv[dot]larigot[at]free[dot]fr

ACIMV blog : http://acimv.blogspot.com

Subscription : Active member : 30€ / Benefactor : 40€ +
(includes Larigot bulletins)
contact : claribole59[at]yahoo.fr

Larigot past issues (#1 to #46) : 8€ per copy, 15€ per 3 copies.
Special issues : 10€ per copy, 20€ per 3 copies.

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Techno : vibratos, tremolos and trills

What makes a nose flute playing beautiful ? Probably the same criteria usually applied to whistling or maybe singing.

The most important one is probably the interpretation itself, i.e. the way a player appropriates the music he plays, incarnates it, in a coherent manner adapted to reveal its character and beauty. This is a matter of pure art, and we won't deal with it here and now.

The second important point is the beauty of the voice/sound itself, its purity and texture. In the case of the nose flute, this mostly depends on the instrument itself. But also on the voice ambitus (the range of accessible notes) and the breath length, which are really important in nosefluting. Master Mosurin seems to have infinitely deep lungs...

Another point we won't discuss here is the perfect pitch. This is as a matter of "ear" as a question of being accustomed to a specific nose flute, and being able to provide a real time perfect mouth/tongue move.

Finally, the ornaments. There are many kinds of ornaments in music playing, but the most adapted to nosefluting are the vibratos, tremolos and trills, which are often confused all together.

A Tremolo/tremolando (meaning tremble/trembling in italian) is an ornament in which the intensity (amplitude) of the note periodically varies around an average value.

A Vibrato (meaning vibrate in italian) is an ornament in which the sharpness (tonality) of the note periodically varies around an average value.

A Trill is an ornament in which the note rapidly alternates between to adjacent notes.

The classic and common plastic Humanatone provides a little airhole besides the mouth hole, that many people say themselves to be curious about. In the Humanatone patent (see here), Ernest Davis called it a "true tremolo" hole.

In fact, using this feature by alternatively closing and releasing the little hole, provides a kind of mix of a vibrato and a trill. Indeed, it is not a "true vibrato" since it provides an alternation between 2 notes (and not a variation "around" a note), and it is not neither a "true trill" since the gap between the 2 notes produced depends on the pitch of the original note : the gap is much bigger if the note is sharp (up to one tone), and almost not audible with a bass note. So, the gap is not controlled, and corresponds even less to a specific scale. Using this feature certainly provides a "trembling effect" though.

Now, what are the ways of producing tremolos, vibratos and trills with a nose flute ? There are 4 available means, more or less difficult to achieve :

- Breath control
- Moving the flute
- Moving the mouth
- Moving the tongue

Breath control is not easy. Being able to blow rapidly and alternatively strongly and weakly is difficult and needs a lot of practice. The Nosy Diva Miss Birdy Kuck is able to, as she masters the other following techniques... (so jealous I am!) Just check her crazy Valkyrie cover, or her Queen of the Night ... Well, breath control provides a "true tremolo".
Contrarywise, it's rather easy to alternatively blow-and-stop (air/no-air), thus provoking a hashed and discontinuous note.

Moving the flute is much easier. It needs some practice in order to get a rather smooth and regular action. It consists in pressing and releasing quickly and alternatively on the base of the flute. This technique provides a "true vibrato".
You can check a well performed sample of that finger technique in this video.

Moving the mouth : with this technique, the player alternatively pulls forward and backward his chin, pushing by that way the base of flute, and provoking the same effect than with "moving the flute", but by another physical mean.

Moving the tongue : the tongue can be moved according to several actions. Back and forth, or left-right-left... or up-down-up... applying different types of trembling effects. The 2 last moves (L/R and U/D) are really easy to perform widely, and provide a kind of "bird call" vibrato, with a huge gap between the bass and sharp notes. It's more difficult to avoid this large range, and to master a tiny and subtle vibrato.

Well, there is a subsidiary way, which is to alternately block and release the mouth hole with a finger, partly or entirely, but it provides no tremolo or vibrato, but a discontinuous note (pretty efficient for Morse code ?).

Trills ? They are produced with a typical tongue move (some kind of inflating it...) coupled with a soft breath control ... Impossible for me to describe precisely, since I do not master this technique. We need the Nosy Diva to reveal her secrets...

Weird : hanabue vending machine !

Japan is a paradisiac country, where you can find Humanatone vending machines ! In case of an urgent need to whistle, just drop ¥300 (a bit less that $4) and soothe your will to play, whenever your urge springs up.

Source : hanabue.emix-express.com/

Urbina & Maria : a contemporary Basque flute

Here is a spanish patent (ES1004918), filed on Mar. 7 under the title "Flauta Nasal", 1988 and registered on Oct. 10 of the same year, by Uriarte Urbina and Antonia Maria, inventors, for the account of Papelaria Informal S.A., Donostia-San Sebastián, Guipúzcoa, in the autonomous community of the Basque Country.

No specific technical innovation in this nose flute, but a neat and efficient design though, with two huge lateral walls, sized largely over what's necessary. Why ? To help a better grip maybe ? Or more probably in the design gesture, making the profile of the flute looking like an elephant head.

The Flauta Nasal is planned to be made in one piece, in cast plastics or composite material, but might be recovered by another material :

« De forma más concreta, la flauta nasal que se preconiza esta constituida mediante un cuerpo monopieza, preferentemente obtenido a base de material plástico, aunque obviamente puede estarlo en cualquier otro tipo de material apropiado, cuerpo dotado de una embocadura para insuflación de aire al interior del mismo y a través de las fosas nasales, estableciéndose en su seno una conducción arqueada que dirige el aire insuflado hacia una salida del cuerpo, debidamente distanciada de la embocadura anteriormente citada, en correspondencia con el normal distanciamiento entre nariz y boca del usuario, quedando esta salida situada sobre una aleta sensiblemente plana, destinada a adaptarse al labio inferior por su zona extrema y libre de manera que la salida de aire quede situada inmediatamente por encima de dicho labio. »

Videos : a star is born !

The incomparable Nosy Diva Miss Birdy K., urged by her fans, has finally created her own Youtube channel, and uploaded a bunch of stunning, funny and highly talented videos. Playing the nose flute and the viola, the nose flute and the ukulele, the nose flute and ..., she masters incredible tremolos and vibratos, particularly in very sharp tones. A real Nasenflöte nightingale!

Here are three videos that noseflute.org was lucky to produce, but check the other ones too, on her channel, notably the Queen of the night aria, her Radetzky March, but also her intervention on Bach's Concerto in A minor... (More to come, so my advice would be that you subscribe to it...)

An interview of the Nosy Diva is to come soon on these pages.

Review : Heinrich Handler's nose flutes

Mr Handler is an Austrian man in his eighties, who produces Nasenflöten very near the perfection. In the 1980's, he rediscovered the 1930's Styrian nose flute, studied archives and photos, began to test and improve them, and then created his own models.

I received 2 flutes bought at Steirisches-Volksliedwerk, the "large" and the "small" models.

Both flutes were protected in very nice little pouches, made by Mrs Handler, and accompanied with a notice beginning by a little poem. Everything looks like having been made with the heart, a lot of care, and a precise craftsmanship.

The large model is rather built on the same technical specifications than the small one : same air duct length (2.2 cm), same very thin mouth hole (1.8 cm x 0.3 cm), and an air entrance quite similar, but a bit narrower on the small flute.
Only the mouth cap is longer on the large model, where the air duct cover is made in 3 parts, two of them following the sides all the flute long.

The large model :

The small model :

All Handler's Nose flutes are hand-free models, with a long horizontal drilling through the air duct cover, with gently tapered ending holes, allowing to pass a leather or elastic cord.

Handler's flutes are made of fruit tree wood, but also in maple or yew. Some are two colored wood mixed.

They wear the Heinrich Handler's monogram : a capital H between two points.

The precision of the work (sharp and neat labium) allied to sharp technical specifications (very narrow mouth hole) and quality woods, lead to high quality nose flutes, with a great rich wood sound, precise in response and very handy and confortable to play.

Here is a sound sample (thanks to the Nosy Diva Miss Birdy K.) :



You can purchase nose flutes by Heinrich Handler either :
- online, at Steirisches-Volksliedwerk

- or directly at :
Mr Heinrich Handler
Werksweg 58
A-8160 Weiz
Austria
Tel : +43 3172 3743

Here you can also download a PDF magazine with a text about the Styrian nose flutes and Mr. Handler (Page 32+)

And here a video in which Mr and Mrs Handler play their nose flutes.

Video : Kentucky T. Dutchersmith, a funny performer

Here is a classic video in which Kentucky T. Dutchersmith plays Nose flute, cello and different percussions, while accompanied by an orchestra. It seems that he plays a Max Zycha's Nasenflöte. Thanks to Miss Birdy K. for having made me discover it.

Patrick Huet de Froberville : a French patent

The first and only French patent I found dates of 1987. Filed by Patrick Huet de Froberville on 15th of June, 1987, and registered on 16th of December, 1988, under the number FR2616574, it depicts a very common nose flute in its functionning and refers explicitly to US2245432, CH253732, US 2197993 and GB214832 patents.

«In this instrument, sound is produced by the vibration of the air contained in a hollow globular body, and produced by the breath of the performer, which breaks on a bevelled edge, characterised in that it comprises a body 2, 3, 4 which is shaped so as to fit the nostrils and mouth of a user and to channel the flow of air exhaled through the nostrils of the latter onto a bevelled edge 8 of an opening 7 positioned in front of the half-open mouth of the user, whose oral cavity 17 is used as a hollow body of adjustable volume. »

« D'une façon avantageuse l'instrument suivant l'invention est réalisé en une matière plastique moulée. »

« L'instrument suivant l'invention est avantageusement réalisé en matière plastique moulée mais peut également être réalisé en métal ou autre. »

So, the nose flute is primarily planned to be made in plastics, but possibly in metal.

The novelty stands in the design of the instrument, not really appealing (to my own taste), with many useless angles, providing a kind of "Darth Vader"/stormtrooper massive look.

Video : The first notes of a great beginner

LuthVal is a very fine lute, renaissance guitar and theorbo player. UkeVal is a 'ukulele player who's specialized in classical and ancient music. Both persons are the same guy. Will the third pseudo NosefluteVal appear on YouTube ? Val built a cardboard nose flute with our template, and played his first notes! Thanks to him for the video.

Check his Lute channel
Check his ukulele channel

And for the best or the worst, this little "cuckoo" video :