Three notes played on a whirly tube
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The whirly tube, corrugaphone, or bloogle resonator, is a musical instrument which consists of a corrugated (ribbed) plastic tube (hollow flexible cylinder), open at both ends, which is swung in a circle to play. The faster the toy is swung the higher the pitch of the note it produces. It produces discrete notes in the harmonic series like a valveless brass instrument.
The instrument is often used as a toy but it has also been used by a number of artists including Peter Schickele (see below), Frank Ticheli, Loch Lomond, and Yearbook Committee. Also in Brett Dean's Moments of Bliss and by The Cadets Drum and Bugle Corps in 2011.
The lasso d'amore (a pun on oboe d'amore) is an experimental musical instrument made of corrugated plastic tubing, employed in some of Peter Schickele's comic P. D. Q. Bach compositions such as the Erotica Variations and Shepherd on the Rocks with a Twist. Schickele gives a tongue-in-cheek explanation of the instrument's evolution: Viennese cowboys twirled "their lariats over their heads with such great speed that a musical pitch was produced. ... The modifications that had made this development possible rendered [the lasso] useless for roping cattle."
In reality, the lasso d'amore is a toy sold under various names including "bloogle" and "corrugaphone". It is much like a thin vacuum cleaner hose that is swung in a circle to play. The faster the toy is swung the higher the pitch of the note it produces. It produces discrete notes in the overtone series like a valveless brass instrument. To be played in concert as a lasso d'amore the length of the toy must be trimmed to tune it.
- Sprott, Julien Clinton (2006). Physics Demonstrations: A Sourcebook for Teachers of Physics, Volume 1, p.158. ISBN 9780299215804. "corrugaphone", "Bloogle Resonator", "Hummer".
- Morris, Craig (August 7, 2009). "Whirly Tubes and Bloogles", LivMusic.com.
- Rickards, Steven (2008). Twentieth-Century Countertenor Repertoire: A Guide. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 273–4. ISBN 9780810861039.
- Schickele, Peter (1976). The Definitive Biography of P. D. Q. Bach. New York: Random House. p. 227?. ISBN 9780394465364.
- (1989). Experimental Musical Instruments, Volume 5, p.19. Features description and illustration.
- on YouTube, "Go Tell It on the Mountain"
- "Corrugaphone" instrument description, University of Wisconsin-Madison Physics Department.
- "Whirly Tubes", ScienceWorld.ca.
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