Hosaphone

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A hosaphone(tm) is a brass instrument, constructed from plastic tubing and a kitchen funnel. The hosaphone was invented as a parodic response to the natural trumpet, a traditional concert instrument of similar design but constructed from metal. Because hosaphones are considerably cheaper (by a factor of about 100) than traditional brass instruments, they make excellent demonstration tools and learning instruments. Because they are very crudely constructed, they are also useful for demonstrating the relative importance of instrument design and embouchure: a skilled player can produce rich, euphonious tones from an otherwise absurd instrument.

Like the natural trumpet and bugle, the hosaphone is a simple (valveless) brass instrument, and is therefore in principle limited to a single harmonic sequence, though with proper skill and embouchure it can be made to produce a chromatic scale in the higher registers.

Unlike any other brass instrument, the hosaphone 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. The inventor, Ellis Workman commissioned David A. Roth, to comp(h)ose a Codetta in C for Hosaphone(tm), Piano & Bass that takes advantage of this ability.

Hosaphones(tm) can be constructed in any desired key depending on the length of tubing used; and a working hosaphone(tm) can be retuned to a sharper pitch simply by trimming the hose with a pocket knife or chain saw. Once shortened it cannot be returned to its original or a flatter pitch.

The self-claimed inventor insists that the '(tm)' is part of the name. In the United States registration with a patent office is not required.

[edit] Media

[edit] Trivia

• The hosaphone, or "hosaphonium," is featured in a the comic series For Better or For Worse, 28 October 2006 – 31 October 2006, [1].

[edit] External links

• Hosaphone home page
• Codetta in C for Hosaphone(tm), Piano & Bass, a brass quintet arrangement also exists for Codetta in C for Hosaphone(tm)