The big and the Very Very Big.

In relation to another job I’ve been reading around the world of low flutes. Some very low flutes indeed.

We’re all familiar with the concert flute and probably the piccolo.

There are alot of fantastic alto and bass flutes available nowadays for a very reasonable prices. Indeed, two such companies  are  GUO and Hogenhuis.

You’ve probably even heard of a contrabass and perhaps even a sub contrabass but you might not have come across the Hyperbass flute.

Apparently first thought of and created by Roberto Fabbriciani it was a crude affair, looking more like a proof of concept rather than a polished produced instrument but there was music for it and here he is performing it!

 

More recently, one has been constructed by Hogenhuis. This is a keyed instrument so considerably more recognisable as a ‘typical’ flute, despite it looking like some kind of bizarre plumbing experiment! It measures in at a whopping 32 feet in length and ingeniously uses bike brake cables to operate some of the keys!

 

And double bass players thought they had problems getting their instruments to gigs!