Fakirs!

If you're a regular reader, you may remember we already dealt with fakirs. Also called fakers, those street vendors, more or less honest, were looked at with suspicion. Remember how Garrett J. Couchois was discredited when a "witness" told to the Court having seen the piano seller and nose flute designer playing a Humanatone as a fakir.



Indeed, the early Humanatone, while sold by mail-order, were also largely distributed in the streets by the fakirs. George W. Stivers, whose sons founded the Humanatone Introducing Novelties Co., was called the King of fakirs, and was used to recruit hundreds of "agents" to sell his tin novelties.



But who were exactly the fakirs? How did they look like?
I found a full page of the San Francisco Chronicle on the subject, dated of Apr. 18, 1909. This period corresponds exactly to the full-charge marketing of the Humanatone. Indeed, the new-yorker company is named.



The pictures are great, and show the real street scenes and it's easy to imagine how the Humanatones were demonstrated and sold:



One paragraph of the article is dedicated to a "first-class merchant" working for the Humanatone Co. Unfortunately, there is no further mention of nose flutes:



There is also a photograph of this Humanatone agent:



The whole text is interesting and well written, thus I recomposed it in the case you want to read it in full.

German TV archive

A German TV archive in which the comedian Hans-Werner Olm offers a Nasenflöte to the presenter Oliver Pocher and tries to teach him how to play. The program was called Rent a Pocher, and was broadcast from Jan. 2003 to Apr. 2006. This is an excerpt of SE01/EP06, and so probably dating of 2003.

The Ocariflute through its advertisements

Back to the Ocariflute, with advertisements, in order to precise dates.

The Ocariflute was invented in 1922 or 1923, and was presented to the Concours Lépine in September 1923, where his inventor, Achille Brilhault, won a silver medal.

The first ads I found were published in 1926, in two novelties catalogues, l'Echo de la Gaîté française et le Record du Rire. As you can see in the first one, the instruent is called Ocariflute (and not Oclariflute as it had been in the music instruments catalogues). But in the second ad, there apparently was a mistyping, and the flute is named "Orariflute". The nose flute is sold for 3 Francs in both books.



in 1927, the ad in the Echo de la Gaîté française is axactly the same, but the price has raised to 3 Francs 60 centimes.



In 1929, both ads have been re-composed. The text and price of the first one have not been changed (despite a typo problem in the name), but the advertisment was "downgrade" from page 7 to page 125. However, a line on the side of the page says « All the success novelties are launched by the "Ca é Française" » (with a typo problem in the word "Gaîté"). It means the Ocariflute is still regarded as a "success novelty".
The second one (in Record du Rire)has been totally renewed in a half page, with a huge title, a much longer description, and a price lowered to 3 Francs 50.



In 1930, the price is unchanged in the Echo de la Gaîté française, but the ad has again be re-organized, and downgraded again to page 395.



The 1932-33 ad in the Record du Rire got a new lay-out, and the price has increased to 4 Francs! (a bit less than the equivalent of 2 kilos of bread)



In 1936, there is no more ad for the Ocariflute in the Echo de la Gaîté française, but there's one left in the 1936-37 catalogue of the Record du Rire. The instrument is still sold 4 Francs, again with a renewed lay-out.
It seems it's the end of sales for the Ocariflute.



In conclusion, The Ocariflute was launched in 1923 and sold until 1937. During those honorable 14 years, the price increased by 25%, from 3 to 4 Francs (for the nickeled model). Was it a consequence of the 1929 crisis? Well, if one looks to the french rates, inflation increased from 1923 to 1930 (with a peak of 31,6% just for 1926!!) and then decreased (deflation) from 1931 to 1935, then took off again to tops! So the Ocariflute constantly increasing price was not directly correlated to it. But between 1930 and 1935, there was a huge activity decrease. So, it's very bizarre that an instrument that was not new, got a regurlarly increasing price until it disappeared.

Mei's History of Art - Series 2: Native Art

Maikel Mei, well known regular reader of this blog, musician and collector, is also a nose flute painter, as we already had the opportunity to show notably here, here and there.

Maikel has entered a long process and huge work: browsing the History of Art, by painting 10 series of 4 pictures (40 paintings altogether!). Each series will be exploring a selected era or culture, as a tribute to its style(s). The frames are 40x30cm large, and worked with acrylic paints.

What's the link with nose flute? Each painting will figure an elephant, and you'll discover that his head is the exact profile of a Weidlich & Lohse Nasenflöte, the famous "Swan logo" nose flute.

Maikel will probably have comments to add to each series, so, don't miss them in the "comments" part of this post, at the end of it. Also, don't hesitate to click on the pictures to magnify them, and get the full quality of the details.

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Mei's History of Art - Series 2 : Native Art (Basic Age)


Basic Age: Australian


Basic Age: African


Basic Age: American


Basic Age: Indian


The whole series:


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On the same topic:

- Beautiful drawings by Maikel Mei
- Nose flute paintings by Maikel Mei
- Maikel Mei's new paintings
- Bocarina painting by Maikel Mei

Mei's History of Art:

- Series 1: Rock Cave Art
- Series 2: Native Art

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Intermediate plastic Humanatone

Look at these pictures from the norwegian Digitalt Museum... it's a translucent plastic Humanatone! The current Humanatones are stamped on the front with "Trophy Music Co.". Here, you can read "Trophy U.S.A.". The plastic looks like polystyrene, and not polyvinyl chloride, as it is used now.



I suppose this is an intermediate model, between the Gretsch ones and the current Grover-Trophy production. When does it date of? Difficult to say, but probably early. Indeed, the nose flutes sold by the Dr. B. B. Bumstead in the 1990's were already made in PVC and stamped "Trophy Music Co." Since I don't know when Gretsch sold the rights to Grover, I can't be much more precise. Is this nose flute from the 70's?

Otamatone Day + 1

Yesterday was the World Otamatone Day. You know, the Otamatone, this delightful and horrible (altogether) japanese toy, looking like a music note, with a tadpole head, and delivering out-of-tune sounds, like a primitive Atari video game running out of power...



Well, we outrageously love the Otamatone, because it is a contestation weapon: it's the best toy to grow children as real punks. That's the reason we offered one to the Nosy Diva, herself, to "punkify" her a bit.

Yesterday, whereas she was sick and in a bad shape, Miss Birdy K. got over her weakness and recorded her contribution to the Otamatone Day, as a simultaneous duet for Otamatone and nose flute, probably the first in the whole universe.

She wrote:

« Though not at my best I just had to make a little contribution.
Slight intonation variables are due to my ear infection (otitis)
(cheap excuse, I know- oh, and my nasal intonation is affected by my sinusitis...)
Next year I will do better »

« You may also say that the distortion got worse with the lessening of the batterie and that there was no time to loose for practise.... »

Divaistic excuses! Please listen to this sweet and delicate future archive:

A small archive before it disappears

Anniemal is an enthousiastic nose flutist from California. She had a MySpace page, but it seems totally abandoned now. Hopefully, there is one music track left on it, well done and mixed.
There is also a text :

« As a child I was given a funny shaped piece of plastic that I was told was a nose flute. Hmmm?, I thought.... COULD THIS BE LOVE??? I soon realized that I had a blessed talent for the beautiful instrument... Much like the greats of out past, Mozart and Beethoven. I knew that a natural ability like this should NOT be wasted. The Nose Flute, or humanitone as some like to call it, is not an easy instrument to play. It takes extreme facial precision both with your mouth and nostrals. Once I had mastered the plastic toys, I searched high and low for a nice wooden nose flute. They are harder to find than you would think. In fact the only maker of a nice wooden nose flute lives in Germany. I ordered my first wooden flute in December of 2003. The difference in quality of sound from the plastic to wooden is monumental. The wood helps make my nose air sound more rich and earthy. I am so proud to be the on call flutist of the SFV! In short, I am the Anniemal! Nose fluting is my life. I play a wooden humanitone hand crafted in Germany that has just the perfect sound. This is the first of many more glorius tunes to come. »

Here is the track:



According to the pictures, Anniemal was playing a Max Zycha nose flute.

Flute or Whistle: about the name

I've been asked by a french magazine to write a paper about our instrument. And the recurrent question of the right/legitimate name for it bothers me again. Particularly in French.

Nowadays, the popular usage has consecrated the nouns nose flute in English, Nasenflöte in German, and neusfluit in Dutch. A few people still use nose whistle, almost no German people say Nasenpfeife, and dutch people use neusfluit (nose flute) and not neusfluitje (nose whistle).

Indeed, in anglo-saxon countries, there had been a continuity from the 1920's until now, even if the strand has been very tiny at some periods of the 20th century. After the 1900-1930 first wave, Gretsch launched the plastic Humanatone in the 40's, and Weidlich&Lohse the Schwan in the 1950's. Those were imported in the Netherlands. And there were people to play those instruments, creating what can be called a nose flute culture. Finally and progressively, the name of the instrument has been fixed and frozen. Nose flute, Nasenflöte, neusfluit.

There is such a sparse but spread culture that the instrument received some nicknames, more or less ironical: "tin handkerchief", "snot flute", etc.

Even the japanese people say hanabue (鼻笛), and they indifferently write 笛 for whistle or flute. They still use the name they had for the traditional bamboo nose flute.


The Specificity of French

In France, there has been no continuity from the 1920's Ocariflute to... to what? There are no nose flutists in France. Well, let's say there is just a handful of players, disseminated and isolated. No way to compose a common knowledge and culture, no way to agree around a name. Worst, when some new instruments appeared on the market, they generally were called by their trade names: Ocariflute, Mellibrou, ... Bocarina!

From time to time, however, some people had to use a generic name, and were a bit embarrassed. This is the case now, while the instrument begins to be known.

The most used appellations are "flûte à nez" and "flûte de nez".
The disadvantage of the first one is a possibility of confusion. "Flûte à bec" ("flute with a beak") is the name for the beak flute, and people are used to it. So "flûte à nez" sounds like "flute with a nose".
"Flûte de nez" sounds rather filthy in French (it sounds like the flute is coming from your nose...)

Flûte nasale (nasal flute) would certainly be the most elegant version, but is generally used for the traditional nose flutes, the polynesian vivo for instance.

Only "sifflet nasal" (nasal whistle) would sound regular and would not be confusing... besides the tonal variability which is not induced by the noun whistle.

But is our instrument really a flute or is it a whistle?


The Generic Name: Flute or Whistle?

Is our instrument really a flute? There are several possible approaches to answer this question.

First, let's take a look at the Horbostel-Sachs classification (1914), which is the reference for scientists and academics.

Our instruments are aerophones, and its classification begins with the figure 4.
Then, immediately, a problem occurs. Is the vibrating air contained in the instrument? Well... partly yes, and partly no. Is the mouth cavity part of the instrument? Well, no, as the fingers do not belong to the piano. But the instrument is not comparable to a whip or a bullroarer. Let's say the air is contained in the instrument (in the airway, indeed). So, we belong to class 42.
Next step is 421 and even 421.2 ("breath is directed through a duct against an edge").
Finally, we get a 421.221 ("Single flutes with internal duct").

Then, a "fatal error" happens: either we have to decide to be a simple whistle (open flute without fingerhole), but this class (421.221.11) allocates no possibility of tonal variability, or to choose for the "stopped flute" (by the mouth) and slowly make for a piston flute!

Well, there is another possibility: 43, Unclassified aerophones.

As you can see, the Hornbostel-Sachs classification is not perfectly adapted to every instruments. What number to give to the typewriter used by Erik Satie as an instrument? Even being less extreme, other paradoxes have been reported (for instance, see: A proposed new classification system for musical instrument by J. Montagu and J. Burton)


An Answer by Randy Raine-Reusch

[Please, be sure there is no disrespect towards Mr. Raine-Reusch or his work in what follows. Mr. Raine-Reusch is an eminent ethnomusicologist and scholar, with a knowledge far above my little speculations. The lines that follows are not an attack, just a series of questions]

When I received a mail from the ethnomusicologist Randy Raine-Reusch (see this post) about the Guaranis, he began his answer by:

« Thanks for writing. First let me please make a correction. The instruments you play and are interested in are not flutes, so calling them a nose flute is not correct. They are in fact whistles and are correctly called nose whistles. »

Why did Mr. Raine-Reusch sort the instrument among whistles and not beside flutes? There are several possibilities for that:

- the usage
- the absence of finger holes
- the sound
- the shape


The Usage

The idea behind this is that a flute would produce music and a whistle a signal or a rhythm only (a percussive instrument). This would lead us to call nose flute our instrument.

Maybe Mr. Raine-Reusch was precisely dealing with the Guarani instrument, from which he wrote:

« The instrument that you play is originally from the Guaranis people used for calling birds, to my knowledge it was not used for melodies. However, this whistles along with many other native whistles became popular for use in Samba bands in Brazil, and you can easily see them at the Carnival parades. »

It occurs that a reader of this blog (Mr. Don Luis, from Mexico) found a quotation showing that the Guaranis, long before Blues and Jazz bands, used the instrument to play music, and not only to call birds:

(Nelson Gastaldi, Fairy Tales from the Grilling Fields):

« You also lived with the Guaranies Indians.

« Yes, I lived for some time in their tribe near the Brazilian border because I was interested mainly in their very rich language. (...) The Guaranies have a very special music that can be located in the field of ritual music; in fact, the relationship between the sacred, magic and music has been historically present at all times and in all civilizations. The Guaranies mainly use a nose flute, and they sing in groups gathered around the fire. Sometimes I accompanied them with a harmonica or a melodica, and they were pretty interested in the results of this musical experience. Zima, the shaman from the tribe, once said I was always with the Indians and with the dead people. »

Since they played ritual music, we may suppose that musical nose flute playing was not a modern usage for the Guaranis...

Anyway, our instrument is used for music, and even if some may blow it during carnivals, nobody would call "signals" the beautiful 1924-27 solos by Lloyd Buford Threlkeld, or the recent ones by sensei Mosurin...


The Finger holes

Has a flute to have finger holes to be a flute? As noted by Mr. Montagu, "we have already encountered the Venda and Lithuanian flute bands in which each instrument only produces one note". I would personally add a question: "how many pipes must a pan flute have to be called a flute?".

So, the question of the finger holes does not seem to be relevant.


The Sound

Any person that has already listened to a decent nose flute knows that it sounds close to a flute, and quite far from a whistle. Anyway, if you build a decent whistle, with a big "belly" in order to get a lower tonality, you can approach a flute sound. Contrarywise, take a very small flute, very sharp, and you'll get a whistle sound. So, the point is not relevant.


The Shape

Here comes probably the core question... Have a flute to be a long rod to deserve the name of flute? Does the word "flute" include a notion of tube?

In Latin, a flute is called... a tibia. That's the reason our bone is called tibia, because tibia mean stem, and induces a notion of length and hollow.

But we're not talking of a tibia, but dealing with a flute.

flute (n.)
early 14c., from Old French flaute (12c.), from Old Provençal flaut, of uncertain origin, perhaps imitative or from Latin flare "to blow;" perhaps influenced by Provençal laut "lute." The other Germanic words (cf. German flöte) are likewise borrowings from French.

Other etymological dictionaries are less hesitant about the flo,flare origin.

No reference to a long rod.

In the probable case the word comes from the latin flare, I went to check my Latin etymological dictionary (Ernout et Meillet, Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue latine):

Flo, -as, -aui, -atum, -are : souffler. (...) « fondre » (le métal pour la monnaie, aes flatum, etc.). Ancien, usuel.

That is: Flo: to blow. (...) « to melt » (metal for coins...).

So, Flute would be related to the fact of blowing and not to a shape. This is the same etymon that would have driven to flow, blow, blasen (german) or fluxus...

More, this air flow has no specific relation with the mouth. Flatus means the breath or the wind. The trivial evidence is that the word also provided flatulence.

And contrarywise, why the Hawaiian nose flute made of a gourd, with a globular shape, is called a flute? Because of its two finger holes?

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In conclusion, I cannot see any solid reason NOT to call a nose flute a flute. But I certainly would appreciate a lot an answer from Mr. Raine-Reusch, because I'm not sure to have scanned all the points that drove him to discard our instrument from the "flute world".

On the specific "french problem" in finding the most appropriate generic name, I still have no anwer, beside nicknames like Nasalette, Narinette, etc. Well, flûte nasale is probably the best...

The Reveries - Postpunk Canadian nose flute

Eye Weekly was a free newspaper published in Toronto, Canada, from 1991 until 2011. Here is a front cover dating of 2007, with The Reveries as main topic and a huge purple plastic Humanatone held with a rubber band:



The Reveries is a Toronto trio lead by Eric Chenaux. They used to play post-punk covers of country music, distorted, out of tune and staggering, and have evolved to "sweet Jazz" (well... as distorted:).

« The Reveries sing and play standards – from Cole Porter to Nick Cave. They call what they do sweet jazz. It is, but in an altered state precipitating an altered state. This would be hallucinogenic music if hallucinations were real (there are no illusions at work here). This figures – in any setting, all three are insidiously mind-bending musicians. » [rat-drifting.com]

The band is composed of:

Eric Chenaux: vocals, mouth-speaker, electric guitar, harmonica
Ryan Driver: vocals, mouth-speaker, mouth-microphone, quasi-ruler bass, thumbs-reeds
Doug Tielli: vocals, mouth-speaker, electric guitar, nose flute, saw


Doug Tielli plays the nose flute as a background instrument, but also holds solos or weaves approximative melodies, as flangy as the others instruments do. The Reveries have a very specific approach to music, a kind of cool punk dandyism. They have released 4 CDs, and most of the tracks have a nose flute part.

- Blasé Kisses, 2003.
- Live in Bologna, 2007.
- Matchmakers Vol. 1: The Music of Willie Nelson, 2008.
- Matchmakers Vol 2.: The Music of Sade, 2012.

The Reveries music has clearly evolved with time, towards what they call "sweet Jazz".




You can listen to The Reveries :

- on their MySpace page (I particularly recommend to you December Days, I Let My Mind Wander and I've Just Destroyed The World...)

- on Amazon.fr (strangely not in .us or .ca): Blasé Kisses, Live in Bologna and The Music of Willie Nelson

- on Squidco.com : The Music of Sade

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You also can buy the physical CDs :

- at rat-drifting.com for the 3 first ones.

- at squidco.com, for the last one

Yet another TV archive!

Here is another french TV archive, dating of April 1982. It is an excerpt of a popular Sunday program (Incroyable Mais Vrai, a spin-off of the original That's Incredible).

In this footage, the presenter Jacques Martin welcomes a nose flute player, Mr. Bourdin.

Here are some excerpts of the (condescending and chauvinist) dialogue:

[The presenter welcomes Mr. Bourdin. Questions about his profession]

...

— Mr. Bourdin is an Incredible But True musician, because one day, his daddy built a device...

— Exact.

— ... which is named the Narinophone ["Nostrilophone"]. Please would you show this Incredible But True instrument: the only instrument played with the nose... The case is a matchbox, and this is daddy's invention. So, teach us how to play the Narinophone... it's an instrument which is attached with adhesive...

— Yes, so to get free of our hands.

— Narinophone, you see? Because we're like that, in France: we've got no oil, but we have Narinophones!... Is it an artistic instrument? It could also have been called the Morvophone (Snot-o-phone) too, but it was less melodious. I prefer Narinophone. Well, Mr. Bourdin, is the instrument set?

— [First whistling]

— Here is your mike, and you're going to play something for us with the Narinophopne, please.

— [Playing]

— Very well done!

[Applause]

—So... please... it's a remarkable instrument... Oh!

[instrument falling on the ground]

— My God! Let's put it back quickly in its case, don't we, because it's a very precious instrument. And you see, this is France. France of Incredible But True, this France which – where is the camera? Yes, this one – This France which is able to introduce, on a Sunday, an Incredible But True instrument, packed in a matchbox, Mr. Bourdin's Narinophone, who is applauded as he deserves it! Bravo Mr. Bourdin!

[Applause]

[Mr. Bourdin plays a subway ticket]

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Here is the footage:



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Now let's have a look at some screenshots:


The nose flute is a metal one — quite shiny – with a straight (square) heel, on which one can see a pair of holes. At the very beginning, it is possible to see the back of the flute, and it seems it featured a lip rest.

Because of its shape, his nose flute looks to be an Ocariflute [see this post], and this is rather problematic...
In the footage, the TV host Jacques Martin says « his daddy built a device » and then « This is daddy's invention ». As far as we know, the Ocariflute was invented by Achille Brilhault in 1922-23. And according to the Brilhault family tree, Achille had no children [see this post]. Even if he had one, the son would have been named Brilhault too, and not Bourdin.
(Well, remains the case of Mr. Bourdin having been an illegitimate child. In this 1982 video, Mr. Bourdin looks to be around 55-60. So, he would have been born around 1922-1927. So, there is a technical possibility).

Mr. Bourdin's nose flute shows two holes in the heel. Maybe were they made to slip a cord for hanging the flute around the neck. How has this Narinophone stayed so shiny during more than 50 years without having gotten rusty? Twenty years before, in 1961, Jean Dubuffet's one was already clearly oxydized... Well, safely preserved and wiped up or varnished... It could have been a genuine Ocariflute in perfect shape.

I have no answer for any of those questions, and won't certainly never have. Was this instrument a genuine Ocariflute or a copy made by a musician? Did Mr. Bourdin's father build this instrument or was it just a family belief? Was he the inventor of the Ocariflute and sold the patent to Brilhault? Only a copy of the list of 1923 Concours Lépine silver medallists could help... (For sure, I made a search for a patent registered by an inventor named Bourdin, but found nothing).

Cool nose flute in Pueblo, Colorado

A shakey but interesting video, of Susy Bogguss — a Country female singer — on stage in Pueblo (Colorado), with a guest musician. The guest is a funny fellow, Brent Ritter, local vocalist of the Pueblo Municipal Band, and serious nose flute player.
I don't see well, but I guess he does not play a plastic Humanatone, but probably a vintage metal one. You can see from 1'15" that the singer has to stop singing because she laughs. Cool nose flute solo from 2'56".

Wooden Nose Flute Color Chart

An unusual work on the bench by RON, the ceramic nose flute maker presented in this post. Here, it is no less that 39 wooden hanabue "in progress", displayed like a color chart. Quite impressive! [from Yoshihiro Sawada Facebook page]

Jean Dubuffet, one of us!

Jean Dubuffet (1901-1985) was a great painter and sculptor. He was the inventor of the "Art brut" ("raw art"). He approached the surrealist group, became member of the College of 'Pataphysique.

« Dubuffet sought to create an art as free from intellectual concerns as Art Brut, and his work often appears primitive and childlike. Nonetheless, Dubuffet appeared to be quite erudite when it came to writing about his own work. » (wiki)

« Spinning Round » (1961) [Tate Gallery, London]:


Jardin d'Email, Otterlo, Netherlands:


« In late 1960–1961, Dubuffet began experimenting with music and sound and made several recordings with the Danish painter Asger Jorn, a founding member of the avant-garde movement COBRA. »

Indeed, he recorded several albums of "Experiences musicales" or "Musique chauve" ("bald music"), using many different instruments (You can listen to his experimental music here)

A picture of 1961, by Jean Weber, and the cover of Dubuffet's musical work:


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Jean Weber made also a great picture of Jean Dubuffet playing his nose flute!



At first glance, I thought it was a Humanatone. Jean Dubuffet had an agent in the USA, and travelled to America very soon. So, the flute could have been bought there.

In a book published by the Dubuffet's Foundation, one can see the Weber's photograph, with a caption: « Jean Dubuffet playing a nasal flute (or narinette), Paris, 1961. » :



Was there a nose flute called Narinette? No no no. This name is the result of a double mistake!!

Indeed, there was an instrument called Varinette, with a V. The Varinette was a "double kazoo" (2 vibrating membranes) invented in 1919 by the Abbe Jules-Ernest Varin.



How may I be so sure of the confusion Narinette/Varinette and why a double mistake?

Because I found a footage. In 1961, Terre des Arts, a french TV program dedicated to arts, broadcast a documentary about Jean Dubuffet. A part of it focuses on Dubuffet and music, and the artist presents the intruments used for his recordings with Asger Jorn. Dubuffet shows and plays his nose flute! But you will hear at the very beginning of the 10 seconds footage that he clearly pronounces Varinette and not Narinette.

So, Dubuffet made the first mistake, calling Varinette his nose flute (confusing with the double kazoo), and then, the book author made the second one, transcribing Narinette with a N. Indeed, « narine » means « nostril » in French, and Narinette could have made a funny name for a nose flute...



Short, but wonderful, isn't it?

So, what nose flute is played by Dubuffet? In the footage, one can clearly see the instrument straight heel, and it makes no doubt that Dubuffet's nose flute was the french Ocariflute! The instrument looks already "vintage" and a bit rusty: it is already 35 years old or so.




I propose Jean Dubuffet for Honorary Degree in the Nose Flute Hall of Fame (Performers section)

Happy birthday Mr. Bocarina!

Happy Birthday Mr. Schuermans! You did a great job with the Bocarina design and you are a gentleman. I'm lucky to be your friend. The nose flute side of the world owes you one! What could we wish you? More and more success in your productions, new inventions and designs, and for sure great and sweet moments in your personal life.



The Nosy Diva sent her own addition:

Today is Chris Schuerman's birthday and in addition to wishing happiness, health and wealth I would like to say a few words in addition.

I would like to thank you, Chris, for having invented this instrument. It makes nose flute player's life much easier. The great playability and beautiful sound have convinced me from the very first note.
Teaching is fun also, almost everybody succeeded producing a sound or melody. I do not want to make this look like an advertisment but I just would like to say that it is the merit of Chris Schuermans to have invented a noseflute which is easily acessible for almost everyone and thus a possible democatization of noseflute playing. It is a high class instrument yet it costs very little - a Ferrari at the price of a Volkswagen :0)
Thanks for that and have a great day, and all the inspiration and luck you need for creating new inventons, I a very curious what will be next!
With musical greetings to you, Chris, and the nosefluting world,

The Nosy Diva

Yet Another German Nasenflöte!

Donnerwetter! Another mistake! Well, let's be positive: another mistake corrected!

I thought that the metal Nasenflöte that was advertised in (almost) any german catalogue in the 1920-1930's was the one made by PaBru, the Paul Brunner's company in Brunndöbra.

The omnipresent no-name german metal noseflute and the Paul Brunner's one:


The no-name german Nasenflöte:


But if you look well at both engravings, you'll see the shape is not the same, particularly for the airway cap and the nose shield.

It could have been a drawing artefact. But I found a record of the Metropolitan Museum of Art for a german nose flute. There is no picture, but the record says the instrument is in metal and dates of before 1941.

Much more, the description says:



Donnerwetter (again)! The "water pump" was the PaBru trademark! The exact mark that appears of the Fanfare instrument as on the flutes and kazoos, playing with the rebus around Brunner: Brunnen means well, spring, fountain in German.



So, there was "another" german nose flute, stamped with a "water pump" and made by PaBru. The question remains to find who produced the no-name german flute, and where... Klingental district too?

Mister Swing - little addition

As we were posting, two days ago, the articles about Hans-Christian Klüver, an interview with Mister Swing by Maren-Britt Dahlke was published on Prinz.de.

> Read Ein Gespräch mit ... Hans Christian Klüver alias Mr. Swing

And since noseflute.org was named, we can't resist the pleasure to publish the passage dealing with the nose flute:



That is:

Mr. Swing is also known for his nose flute playing
The noseflute is a rather exotic instrument - it originates from the indios- and I personally know almost nobody who plays it, but my focus is the music and not the sensation. A french blogger found me on youtube and is so thrilled by my noseflute playing that he posts about me regularly (noseflute.org). And this is spreading more and more.

(Thanks to Miss Birdy K. for the translation)

Videos about the Coelho No. 25

Here are two videos about the Fábrica de Pios de Aves Maurilio Coelho's bird whistles.

The first one shows Fabio Coelho presenting the pio No. 25 as a bird call, but also as a musical instrument:



In the second one, beginning with a #25 whistling, Fabio presents the whole collection. The #25 reappears at 1'18"