noseflute.org

Feb 17, 2012

A Masterpiece by Mosurin

A new masterpiece by maestro Mosurin, which could become a reference! In this Turkish March by Mozart, the great japanese nose flutist offers the whole dimension of his talent : pure sound, accuracy, speed and his incredible breath.
A real jewel, enjoy it !

The Turkish March by Mosurin
Mosurin's website

Feb 16, 2012

Some images from mangas

Some images coming from mangas. It seems that only Humanatones are present in japanese comics. The character with a kind of hedgehog hair style is Pyu to Fuku! Jaguar.

Feb 15, 2012

Humanatone : a very early user manual

This is a rarity : one of the first Humanatone user manual. It was folded in the cardboard box with the tin-plate instrument. What is interesting (and quite funny) is that the creator of the nose flute didn´t know yet what would be the use of this new instrument : played for concert ? At church ? For fun ? Please read the texts and you´ll be amused !

And here are some details. The texts are simply delicious and describe "with difficulty" such a new concept offering an "unlimited capacity of expression".

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About metal Humanatones, check :

- Humanatone - part I : the metallic era
- New Humanatone ads
- The Two metal Humanatones
- Another metal Humanatone
- Humanatone boxes
- Another Humanatone box
- Humanatone: A very early user manual
- The Magic (Nose) Flute: only questions... .
- A Humanatone and clones chronology
- A Humanatone in 1892 ?
- Humanatone: Early promotional demos
- Another Humanatone archive
- Huma... something
- Rectification: Humanatone appearance date
- Great paper from 1903
- Nose Flute Pioneers: The Stivers - Part I
- Nose Flute Pioneers: The Stivers - Part II
- Nose Flute Pioneers: The Stivers - Part III
- Nose Flute Pioneers: The Stivers - Part IV
- Nose Flute Pioneers: The Stivers - Part V
- A Humanatone as a scientific tool
- Two other Humanatone Ads

And on later Humanatones :

- Humanatone - Part II : the Gretsch plastic era
- Humanatone - Part III : the Gretsch metal era

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Feb 14, 2012

Happy Valentine´s Day!

Happy Valentine´s day to all the nose flute lovers!

Feb 13, 2012

Video : Astroboy with piggy ears !

A quite funny video of the AstroBoy theme at the nose flute, shot at the Samsara in Kyoto.

Feb 12, 2012

The incredible nose flutes by Hanako

I do not know anything about Lady Hanako. I just got aware of her existence and her production on the Dragonfly website. But what I discovered astounded me!

Mrs. Hanako crafts clay, glazes and paints and is amazingly innovative in the shapes she gives to her hanabue. Animals, characters, funny objects, and even "nose flute forgery" !

Real « nose » flutes! :

Forgery!! Here is a copy of Hiroaki Sasaki nose flute, and... a clay Humanatone! :

More and more funny, characters. Characters who play the nose flute themselves, in a focal reduplication. I had a picture in my stock for a long time of a man with a nose flute shaped to his own face. Now, I can make the link : it was a hanabue made by Mrs. Hanako. Stunning, no? Even the 3 cap badges are reproduced!

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More pictures on Hanako's page.

If someone knows a way to reach Mrs. Hanako (an e-mail address for instance), we would be very glad to know it. We would love to ask her for an interview.

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Feb 11, 2012

Nose flute lessons

Al Hager, of GrothMusic has decided to "get serious about nose flute playing" and has begun to take lesson with a professional wind instruments musician. The first lesson has been filmed and shared with us on YouTube. Thank you!

Bocarinas^™ on Ebay !

The commercial success of the South African hi-quality nose flute is irrefutable, and the Bocarina^™ becomes easier and easier to get. Since today, it is available on Ebay, per unit (red, blue or black) or within a 3 flutes bundle.

Noseflute.org knows well the seller, Brian F., aka Brionski, for having bought some vintage nose flutes from him. Brian has been a Humanatone lover for decades, and is a new convert to the Bocarina^™. We sincerely recommend this gentle and enthousiastic vintage photographs ebayer from Long Island.

His Ebay announce is quite funny, with many amusing fake pictures.
We wish Brian a good luck with his new Bocarina^™ business!

Check the announces here

Feb 10, 2012

A new japanese plastic nose flute ???

The master craftsman Kunio Katada shows a new plastic nose flute on his blog, with the date 2011. I do not read Japanese - I use Google translation - and think I understood the flute is called "Hana Adachi" (who is a manga character from Flunk Punk Rumble), but I understood not much more.

The instrument looks very similar to the ones that are produced by Mr. Katada, so I suppose it is a prototype made by him. Is he going to mass-produce it ? I sent him a e-mail with some questions, and wait for the answers, but if a japanese reader can explain us what's happening, he would be welcome :)

The page on Ki_Kanban's blog (original)
The sequel on Ki_Kanban's blog (original)

The page on Ki_Kanban's blog (translated by Google)
The sequel on Ki_Kanban's blog (translated by Google)

Feb 8, 2012

Do you customize your flutes ?

Makers and craftsmen sell nose flutes according to the design they opted for, generally a « functional design » in relation with the possibilities of the material they use, whichever it is, wood, plastic, clay ... Very few makers decorate their work (Roi Bitton, Hiroaki Sasaki, Hanako...). So, many customers/players feel the need to personalize their instrument. Noseflute.org has looked on the internet for those customized nose flutes, and found many.

The Nosy Diva Birdy Kuck, to whom we asked to send pictures of her personalized flutes, proposed us to write a little text to present the topic. We thank her a lot. Here it is :

One of the major tasks a nose flutist is confronted with is the optical aspect of playing and performing the nose flute. Most people tell about associating Hanibal Lecter with the view of the poor instrumentalist. Let alone that fact – even without knowing or having seen The Silent Lambs you cannot help looking stupid or worse with the nose flute. If anybody brings proof of the contrary I will gladly change my mind but that seems very unlikely to me.

If you can deal with looking stupid – which you have with that instrument – you may still want to give it an individual character or use it for certain opportunities. Noseflute.org has a little gallery of works done by nose flutists all over the world.

Note: the tragic aspect of those little art works is that no matter how beautiful they are they still look stupid in your face ;-) for example look at the angel-winged christmas dream. Wear it and you look like a mix of Fürst Bismarck and Kaiser Friedrich. But we nose fluters certainly go beyond all stupidities to the level of pure art...

Please note also that for the unique Schubert Modell with the whiskers of Franz Schubert, the musical cat, no harm was done to the animal. Just a lot of patience needed collecting the lost ones over the years. A special thanks to Dietling Preiss for the work on that model.

The Nosy Diva Birdy Kuck

The Nosy Diva's customized nose flutes

The Angel-winged Christmas Dream :

The Schubert Modell (made by Dietling Preiss) :

The Golden Bocarina^™ (made by UkeHeidi) :

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UkeHeidi's own « Stupid Schwann » :

And the many pictures found on the net :

On Hiroshi Tachibana's blog, two decorated Bocarinas^™ :

On Kusabuenoi's blog, two other Bocarinas^™ :

Other decorated hanabue on the same blog :

A Humanatone found on Brain-note :

Another highly decorated Humanatone on Darkapril blog :

And here Miss Yoshie (from the band Ankh Aqua) with her Humanatone :

A painted wooden flute on Nakano's website :

And this cute kitten from Rockinn blog :

We want to add this very funny little nest for nose flute, found on Kozakurapon's blog :

Noseflute.org will gladly receive evidences of the creativity of the nose fluting world and is looking forward to your works!

Feb 7, 2012

The Nasenpfeife at Nürnberg 2012 Toy Fair

The Spielwarenmesse 2012 (International Toy Fair of Nürnberg, Germany) has been opened from 1st to 6th of February. The Bernd Kaltenbach's Pfaff Nasenpfeife had its stand there, and can be shortly seen in a video made about the Toys4teens section.

There is also a page dedicated to it on the Austrian site Spieletest with some pictures and a sound sample.

Video : Crazynose blows the hits!

Well, it's not a new video... it dates of almost 3 years. But it is funny and quite well done!
It was published by the "Good God Dawn Show"

Feb 6, 2012

The Tachibana's nose flute webpage

Hiroshi Tachibana, japanese Shakuhachi (尺八) player and reader of our blog, has created a nose flute section on his website, primarily dedicated to the bamboo flute. The page, very interesting — and certainly much more for someone able to read the Japanese... – displays two decorated Bocarinas^™ at its top.

The page exposes a presentation of the nose flute as an instrument, but above all, the researches and experiments driven by Mister Tachibana. He notably explored how the sound evolves while partly masking the mouth window of a Humanatone (As earlier done on this page, but here with a very systematic and scientific approach)

Another interesting topic is the explanation of how to play a nose flute... without the nose!

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In Japanese, the original Hiroshi Tachibana's nose flute page.

And here is a Google automatic translation of the page.

tcbnhrs on Youtube

@tcbnhrs on Twitter

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Feb 5, 2012

Video : Ugo and Casimiro, an extravagant duo !

« Ugo e Casimiro » is an italian duo composed by Felice Pantone (ukulele, nose flute and vocals) and Alberto Bertolino (percussions, barrel organ and vocals). Follow them on Noseflute.org, which will soon publish an interview.

Feb 4, 2012

Humanatone boxes

The metal Humanatone, by James J. Stivers, was sold packed in a little carboard box. Several models were issued, and I assume the first one was the black one, printed with a golden typo.

It was later replaced by a very attractive red box. Don't get shocked or soaked with tears, I didn't break my red box in order to propose an "éclaté" to you; I just recomposed it after having scanned each face (and the last bottom flap is a fake) :)

Feb 1, 2012

Experiments around the Bocarina^™

Just after having received the plastic Bocarina^™ I sent to him, Master Ki Kanban, born experimenter and nose flute analyst, published a bamboo version of the South African instrument on his blog.

On my side, and to fulfill a wish of the Nosy Diva, I just sprayed a Bocarina^™ with a nice golden painting coat, for a very bling-bling result !

Jan 31, 2012

The two metal Humanatones

We all know the first metallic Humanatones, but how many of us did notice there actually were two different models ? Those tin plate pioneers were issued in 1904 (check their history here) and distributed until no less than 1944 or so, as we already exposed it there.

It is not surprising the shape evolved during 40 years of availability in the catalogues. When did the change happened? I have no clue of the date, but it probably was rather soon, as it can be deduced to the rarity of the first shape.

The original model had a full rounded air duct cover. Later, the Humanatone got a tappered cover, forming a plane whistle.

Another noticeable difference lays in the shape of the folded flaps which support the rivets. On the first model, the flaps are rectangular, then became pear-shaped :

Finally, the marks evolved, and the « Other patents pending » stamp disappeared, replaced by the mention of Leech and Couchois'