noseflute.org: vintage photo

Showing posts with label vintage photo. Show all posts

May 13, 2016

Archie Sweet, Plastic Humanatone Early Adopter

The Don McNeill's Breakfast Club was a radio variety show, that ran from 1933 to 1968, at early morning.

Amongst the artists performing in the program, 'Archie Sweet', allegedly the Breakfast Club 'janitor' in 1943-44, was a one-man band. He proclaimed himself the 'World's Greatest One-Man Ban', and was challenged in a 'murderous musical struggle' by 'Panhandle Pete', with Paul Whiteman as commentator.

Lincoln Sunday Journal, Anniston Star and Indianapolis Star of the 5th and 6th of March, 1944 :

What is interesting for us is that Archie Sweet « hopes on victory on the humanaphone » (sic):

We don't know what is a 'singa-tinga'(a jews harp?), but the so-called 'Humanaphone' was definitely a 'Humanatone'! It was even one of the first plastic Humanatones, produced by Gretsch since (Autumn?) 1943. Indeed, we found a photo of Archie Sweet. It is very rare to find vintage pictures showing nose flute players with their instrument, so we are glad!

Oct 23, 2014

Concertos for Nose Flute

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:

Sep 10, 2014

Nose flute in a 1959 University Yearbook

It is not rare to read in yearbooks students' depictions like "Steve is a nose flute artist and raised many laughs at his fraternity party"... But it is much scarcer to have a portrait à la nose flute published in those pages, and particularly in 1959!

Here is a page of the 1959 Columbia University - College of Pharmacy yearbook. The young pharmacist Lawrence E., member of ΡΠΦ fraternity, is shown playing a Humanatone (certainly a Gretsch one).
To plainly understand the caption, you have to know [all the readers here are not Americans] that Juilliard School is a famous New York City performing arts conservatory.

Aug 15, 2014

Tim Flood inducted in the NFoF!

Mr. Tim Flood passed away on 3rd of July, and many people are plunged into mourning. Indeed, Timothy Flood had several lives, and many people knew him through the different facets of his gifted personality.

Tim Flood (8 January 1927 – 3 July 2014) was an Irish celebrity. He was famous for having been six times an Irish National Champion of Hurling, a typical Irish sport, kind of a Gaelic field Hockey.

Flood first excelled at hurling in his youth. He arrived on the inter-county scene at the age of twenty two when he first linked up with the Wexford senior team. He made his senior debut in the 1947-48 National Hurling League. Flood went on to play a key part for Limerick during a golden age for the team, and won three All-Ireland medals, six Leinster medals and two National Hurling League medals.[2] He was an All-Ireland runner-up on three occasions. Wikipedia.

Besides his successful sportive carreer, Tim was a musician, and particularly a tenor banjo player (you can hear him playing with his son in this video)

Tim Flood played music all his life and was the mainstay of the well known Castleboro Céili Band. He, along with Larry Harrington, Larry Joyce, Bill Simpson, Jack Nolan, Noel and Ramie (Buzzer) Ryan and Paddy Joyce and later with Jim Murphy, Knoxtown kept the flag flying for Irish Music in our parish and outside it. He played and competed at all the fleadh ceoils around the country and sometimes adjudicated at competitions all over Wexford and beyond. Cloughbawngaa.

But what does interest us here, is Tim Flood's third career. Indeed, after his retirement, Tim became again a multiple champion in ... sheepdog trials! Tim was one of those handlers who use a nose flute as a shepherd tool.

Since his retirement from hurling Tim has been heavily involved in sheepdog trials, and he has represented Cloughbawn, Wexford, Leinster & Ireland on numerous occasions, on TV shows such as 'One Man And His Dog' and has travelled the world in his interest in this discipline. Cloughbawngaa.

In his book "One Man's Way... The Interviews" (WSN publications - York, UK, 2006), Austin Bennett interviews famous sheepdog handlers, and notably Tim Flood. In the excerpt below, we learn that the instrument was made by late Owen Humphreys, Talysarn, Wales.
(You can get the book here : allsheepdogs.com)

And, for our biggest pleasure, several pictures showing Mr. Flood with his nose whistle hanging around the neck (please notice on the last picture, that his left neighbour also carries a nose whistle around the neck).

Copyrighted pictures by Austin Bennett and Barbara Collins (no infringement intended):

It is very difficult to see the details of this nose flute on the pictures. However, I found a precious footage in which the instrument is closely shown. The interviewer, John Jude Doyle was the local pub owner.

As you can see, the nose flute - full brass - is from "Humanatone type", but has a huge air hole in the nose shield and has a flat mouth shield (no bending there). It is difficult to be affirmative, but it also looks like having a double wall nose shield, (as on Bernard Visser's vintage flute)

I also found an interesting RTÉ radio program (Farmweek - July 27, 2007). In the first part, Tim Flood mostly talks about his dogs, but from 3'23 till the end, we can hear the "herding nose flute" and From 4'46 until the end, Tim deals about the nose flute itself:

May Mr. Timothy Flood rest in peace.

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For having used and promoted the nose flute as a herding tool, Tim Flood is inducted to the Nose Flute Hall of Fame, in the "Promoters" section!

Feb 10, 2013

20 Frobies on stage!

Here is a great (but quite stupid) french TV video archive: 20 Frobies on stage!

On Dec. 6, 1987, as every Sundays, was broadcast the program Le Monde est à Vous ("The World is Yours"), presented by Jacques Martin, the same emcee that had already introduced Mr. Bourdin and is Narinophone/Ocariflute 5 years earlier, in 1982.

This time, Mr. Martin welcomed Les Petits Ecoliers Chantant de Bondy (The Little Singing Pupils of Bondy), a children chorale founded in 1945. Any of these 18 children had a Froby around the neck. With the nose flute of their leader "Moulinot" and the one offered to the presenter... that was a total of 20 Frobies!

No doubt on that, they were Frobies, and you can recognize them by the two long "wings" spread on each side of the nose.

Here is a transcription of what was said, because it gives some information:

— And now, an unusual show! A weird instrument, a new instrument is born, Sound the pipes, Let the trumpets play, and this instrument, as you gonna see, is played with the nose! Yes, it's one of the rare instruments, it's even the only one as far as I know, which is played with the nose. And to illustrate this instrument, the baptism of this instrument, we're going to listen to Moulinot and eighteen children of the Bondy's chorale, who will interpretate, obviously, Siffle-nez [Whistle-nose]. Please, children of Bondy, the stage is yours!

I won't transpose the whole song, but it's called Sifflenez, and was apparently especially written to launch Froby, which is also called Siffle-Nez in this show. All the lyrics deal about the different noses around the world, the magic whistle, the hapiness whistle, and exhort the people of the world to become "siffle-nez".

Sifflenez

Quelle que soit la couleur de votre nez, nez-skimo, nez-cossais,
Mon sifflet magique vous fera danser, siffler, siffler

Tous les nez du monde pourront se parler, nez-grillon, nez-palais,
Même les nouveaux nez sauront faire siffler leur p'tit bout d'nez
Du pôle Nord à l'Equateur
C'est le sifflet du bonheur

(...)

Et si tous les enfants du monde entier devenaient siffle-nez
Ça f'rait rigoler l'univers entier, quel pied de nez,
Du pôle Nord à l'Equateur
C'est le sifflet du bonheur

— Thank you. As a world premiere, the Children of Bondy just presented this weird instrument to you, which is called the ..
— The Siffle-Nez
— The Siffle-Nez! So, is it really possible to play it?
— It's a good question
— Give me a note... to check...

[The presenter plays the Froby]

— Done! Have fun with that, children, it won't hurt and it's less hazardous that smoking cigarettes! Let's applaud loudly the Children of Bondy, Thank you sir!

[Then, the presenter sends his froby to another guest, while saying "for your little daughter, not for the daddy"]

Here is the footage:

Apparently, a 45rpm was issued (with or without the Children chorale??).

Now, there are several interesting facts to point out here. First, all the Frobies are fluo green, and I suppose that if there had been different colors available, in such a motley group, they would have chosen to spread the whole range.

Then, this video is dating of Dec. 1987, and it seems to be the "official" launching of Froby (Mr. Martin speaks about "world premiere", "baptism", ...). This could be an help in chronology. Let's draw it in 2 points:

1987-12-06: Froby's launched on french TV
1988-03-07: the Papeleria Informal files its patent for... Flapi!

Was the Flapi born *after* the Froby, contrariwise to what I thought? Or is it just due to a long delay to "build" the patent (with lawyers, and so...). Whatever the answer is, it is now ascertained that both Flapi and Froby were launched in a very short lap of time. Flapi might have been a first version immediately followed by an "international" one, Froby.

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For sure, I have contacted the Les Petits Ecoliers Chantant de Bondy to ask them if they still had some Siffle-Nez in their drawers, or even if some ex-singing-children (they should 31-33 years old, now) had kept the Froby, would sell it... I got a gentle answer by the current curator, but for now, no other news.

I also think I have found again "Moulinot". After some meticulous researches, I believe he is the french comedian-musician-director Philippe Cotten, also called "Phillipe Cotten dit Moulinot". I'm currently trying to get in contact with him.

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As condescendant and over-playing he was, Jacques Martin has been (AFAIK) the only french TV presenter to introduce nose flutes on the screen. He did twice, in 1982 and here in 1987.
For this reason, I would like to propose him to the Nose Flute Hall of Fame, as simple member in the Promoters section. Please, give your opinion in the comments section.

Jan 30, 2013

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)

Nov 8, 2012

Nose Flute Pioneers: Aurion Villa Chevers

With the "Nose Flute Pioneers" series, Noseflute.org enters a little cycle of research. I hope it won't be too arid for a blog, but I really think that the facts I found have to be published. The sources : Google patents, US Census and an access to newspaper archives. But also, depending on the topic, correspondence by e-mail with descendants. Let's better say : internet searching tools available for a Frenchie not able to access US real paper archives.

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Nose Flute Pioneers: Aurion Villa Chevers

Aurion V. Chevers was not an industrialist, nor a merchant, nor even a tinsmith, but a clerk, the Deputy City Clerk of Providence, RI.

Aurion was born in Providence, Rhode Island, in 1856, and is « the youngest son of the late George W. Chevers, who was formely rector of St Paul Church ». Aurion had one brother, T.R. Lambert and a sister, Clara G.

So, in 1880, at the age of 24, Chevers is Deputy City Clerk. He lives alone in Vernon Street, and probably already practices wind musical instrument research as a hobby.

On 1st of February, 1882, Aurion marries Miss Hattie Childs Fish, 6 years younger. They have their first son, Louis C., Jan. 25, 1883, then another one, Aurion V., Aug. 6, 1884.

In 1887, Chevers files his first patent (fil. Apr. 22, reg. Nov.8, with the number US373,012). It is a complex "pandean organ", i.e., an organ blowing pan flutes. The "pipes" are intended to be preferably built in glass.

Then, May 10, 1888, he files another patent for the specific design of the pipes used on his pandean organ.

Just after filing the patent, on 27th of July 1888, hattie has another son: Stillman White Marshall.

The patent [US445,849] is registered only February 3, 1891 and this year is the beginning of a very sad series for Aurion and Hattie. Indeed, their son Aurion V. passes away on 9th of January, at the age of 6.
On 5 of January 1893, Hattie gives birth to twin boys. They will die even before having received a surname.
And Oct. 13, 1894, it's the turn of Louis C., aged of 11.

So, in 1900, the Chevers are only 3 at home:

In 1909, Aurion Villa files another patent, for a theatrical accessory: a Musical pipe (US 951,801, fil. Mar. 29, 1909, reg. Mar. 15, 1910). In one of its declinations, the pipe-flute is blown by the nose, thanks to a dedicated flanged cap:

Aurion Chevers, with his ideas and innovations upon wind instruments, should have been boring at work, as clerk in the city hall. In 1910, he is not a clerk anymore, but is officially an "entertainer"!

I don't know what exactly is his job, but it is during this period that Chevers invents his nose flute. On Feb. 24, 1916, Aurion files a patent for a "Musical instrument or vocal flute" (pat. US1,228,532, reg. Jun. 5, 1917).

If one looks well at the instrument, he will notice that it is not exactly a nose flute as we know them. Indeed, there is no labium, but just a "funnel" which accelerates the air blown. In fact, this "vocal flute" is not a "nose whistle", but more what we could call a "nose pan flute" which variable pipe is... the mouth.

When exactly did Aurion V. stop his "entertainer" career? I don't know, but in 1918, he has become "city passenger agent" for the Colonial Line (in 1920, he works for the Steamship Co.)

However, it is in the March 1918 issue of Popular Science, that Aurion Villa Chevers gets the honour of a small article, with his portrait playing the "vocal flute":

In 1921, Aurion V. is 65 years old, and suddenly dies on 5th of March.

The only surviving Chevers' child, Stillman White Marshall, a printer, had married Julia Barry, but they had no children. Julia died in 1975, and Stillman on 8th of July, 1983, aged of 94 (almost 95).

Aurion V. Chevers was buried where he married, and where his father was rector: at the St Paul Church, Providence, RI.