Whirly tube

File:Whirlytube.png

A yellow whirly tube

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 fundamental and second harmonic are difficult to excite.

The instrument is often used as a toy but it has also been used as by a number of artists including Peter Schickele (see below), Loch Lomond, and Yearbook Committee. Also Brett Dean's Moments of Bliss.

Lasso d'amore

The lasso 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.

See also

• Tromboon

Further reading

• (1989). Experimental Musical Instruments, Volume 5, p.19. Features description and illustration.

External links

• Piano and lasso d'amore on YouTube, "Go Tell It on the Mountain"
• "Corrugaphone" instrument description, University of Wisconsin-Madison Physics Department.
• "Whirly Tubes", ScienceWorld.ca.