Homemade tube trumpets are natural trumpets constructed out of a length of hose pipe fitted with a kitchen funnel. They are used as teaching aids, [1] and by bands such as the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band [2] and Low Profile. [3]
As with the natural trumpet and bugle, the tube trumpet is a simple (valveless) brass instrument, and is therefore in principle limited to a single harmonic sequence, though by employing embouchure it can be made to produce a chromatic scale in the higher registers.
It can be constructed in any desired key depending on the length of tubing used; and a working tube trumpet can be retuned to a sharper pitch by trimming the hose. Once shortened it cannot be returned to its original or a flatter pitch.
By using a three foot length of garden hose and taping on a plastic funnel the principles of sound vibration can be demonstrated to music students. [1]
Unlike any other brass instrument, the tube trumpet is flexible, allowing the bell to be swung around the player's head. This gives it the unique ability to bend notes via the Doppler effect. This effect was demonstrated to good effect in an early hit of the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band, I'm the Urban Spaceman, which was reprised during their reunion tour. [2]
Low Profile were a New Zealand alternative rock band of the 1980s who released two albums - Quiet Streets (1982) and Elephunkin' (1987), but are best remembered for their quirky single Elephunk In My Soup, which included the use of a hosepipe trumpet they termed an Elephunk.
A hosaphone is one such homemade trumpet, which was used to compose a Codetta in C for Hosaphone(tm), Piano & Bass. [4]
A typical tube trumpet was made by Uncle Phil in the comic strip For Better or For Worse , which he termed a "hose-a-phonium". [5]
A brass instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound by sympathetic vibration of air in a tubular resonator in sympathy with the vibration of the player's lips. Brass instruments are also called labrosones or labrophones, from Latin and Greek elements meaning 'lip' and 'sound'.
The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet with the highest register in the brass family, to the bass trumpet, which is pitched one octave below the standard B♭ or C Trumpet.
Vivian Stanshall was an English singer-songwriter, musician, author, poet and wit, best known for his work with the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, for his exploration of the British upper classes in Sir Henry at Rawlinson End, and for acting as Master of Ceremonies on Mike Oldfield's album Tubular Bells.
Neil James Innes was an English writer, comedian and musician. He first came to prominence in the pioneering comedy rock group Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band and later became a frequent collaborator with the Monty Python troupe on their BBC television series and films, and is often called the "seventh Python" along with performer Carol Cleveland. He co-created the Rutles, a Beatles parody/pastiche project, with Python Eric Idle, and wrote the band's songs.
"Death Cab for Cutie" is a song composed by Vivian Stanshall and Neil Innes and performed by the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band. It was included on their 1967 album Gorilla.
Bonzo the Dog is a fictional cartoon character first created in 1922 by British comic strip artist George Studdy. The pup quickly rose to popularity in the 1920s. He starred in one of the world’s first cartoons, became an inspiration for mass-marketed merchandise, and became a favourite among children and adults.
Frozen Pictures was a motion picture, television and multimedia production company founded and operated by veteran producers and writers Brett Hudson and Burt Kearns, and is affiliated with Frozen Television. It closed in 2012.
Gorilla is the debut album by Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, originally released by Liberty Records, LBL 83056, in 1967. In 2007, EMI reissued the album on CD with seven bonus tracks.
"Falling in Love Again " is the English language name for a 1930 German song composed by Friedrich Hollaender as "Ich bin von Kopf bis Fuß auf Liebe eingestellt". The song was originally performed, in the 1930 film Der Blaue Engel, by Marlene Dietrich, who also recorded the most famous English version, which became her anthem. Dietrich is backed by the Friedrich Hollaender Orchestra.
"C Jam Blues" is a jazz standard composed in 1942 by Duke Ellington and performed by countless other musicians, such as Dave Grusin, Django Reinhardt, Oscar Peterson, and Charles Mingus.
Robert Kerr is a comic musician who plays trumpet and cornet. He was originally a member of the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band and was persuaded by Geoff Stephens to join The New Vaudeville Band, before forming his own combo, Bob Kerr's Whoopee Band. Kerr was a part of a reunited Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band line-up of surviving members, which toured in 2006 and 2008.
Bill Posters Will Be Band was a comic musical group formed by musicians who were members of The Bonzo Dog Band and Bob Kerr's Whoopee Band. The band was formed late 1983 by Biff Harrison, Jim "Golden Boots" Chambers, Evil John Gieves Watson, Sam Spoons, Hugh Crozier and Dave Clennel.
Sir Henry at Rawlinson End, released in 1978, is a largely spoken-word, solo comedy recording by British musician Vivian Stanshall, formerly of the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band. It originated in his Rawlinson End sessions for the John Peel Show on BBC Radio 1 beginning in 1975, and a similarly-named track on the Bonzo Dog Band's 1972 album Let's Make Up and Be Friendly.
Colour Me Pop is a British music TV programme broadcast on BBC2 from 1968–1969. It was a spin-off from the BBC 2 arts magazine show Late Night Line-Up. Designed to celebrate the new introduction of colour to British television, it was directed by Steve Turner, and showcased half-hour sets by pop and rock groups of the period. The programme was a pioneering precursor to the better-remembered BBC music programme The Old Grey Whistle Test (1971–87). Unlike its successor, most of the editions of Colour Me Pop are missing, due to the BBC's archival policy of the time.
The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band was created by a group of British art-school students in the 1960s. Combining elements of music hall, trad jazz and psychedelic pop with surreal humour and avant-garde art, the Bonzos came to public attention through a 1968 ITV comedy show, Do Not Adjust Your Set.
"The Intro and The Outro" is a recording by the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band. It appears on their debut album, Gorilla (1967). It is not so much a song as a comic monologue in which the speaker introduces the musicians who ostensibly appear on the recording. The recording fades out before the emcee completes the introductions and without the "orchestra" being able to play anything more than a vamp. The piece was written by Bonzo member Vivian Stanshall, who also provides the vocal. Stanshall first introduces the seven members of the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, who are credited with their actual instruments, over a vamp that resembles Duke Ellington’s "C Jam Blues".
Patrick & Eugene are an English musical duo, made up of Patrick Dawes and Eugene Bezodis. They are best known for their songs, "The Birds and the Bees", which was featured in two commercials; one for Volkswagen and another for Gordon's Gin, as well as appearing in YouTube classic "The to-do list", and "Don't Stop", which featured in a commercial for The Laughing Cow cheese. The title track to their 2009 album Altogether Now can be heard during the closing credits of two American series, both Showtime's Weeds and ABC's Grey's Anatomy. Their music has also been used for the Coen Brothers' Burn After Reading and the trailer the 2007 film Mr. Bean's Holiday.
The whirly tube, corrugaphone, or bloogle resonator, also sold as Free-Ka in the 1960s-1970s, is an experimental musical instrument which consists of a corrugated (ribbed) plastic tube or hose, open at both ends and possibly wider at one end (bell), the thinner of which is rotated in a circle to play. It may be a few feet long and about a few inches wide. The faster the toy is swung the higher the pitch of the note it produces, and it produces discrete notes in the harmonic series like a valveless brass instrument, but the fundamental and second harmonic are difficult to excite. To be played in concert the length of the tube must be trimmed to tune it. Hornbostel–Sachs number: 412.22, the tube is a whirling non-idiophonic (reedless) interruptive free aerophone, but is usually included in the percussion section with sound effects such as chains, clappers, and thunder sheets.
Adrian Charles Edmondson is an English actor, comedian, musician, writer and television presenter. He was part of the alternative comedy boom in the early 1980s and had roles in the television series The Young Ones (1982–1984) and Bottom (1991–1995), which he wrote together with his collaborative partner Rik Mayall. Edmondson also appeared in The Comic Strip Presents... series of films throughout the 1980s and 1990s. For one episode of this he created the spoof heavy metal band Bad News, and for another he played his nihilistic alter-ego Eddie Monsoon, an offensive South African television star.
Unpeeled is a 1995 compilation of sessions recorded by The Bonzo Dog Band for the John Peel show on the BBC during the late sixties.
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