The other horns

I made both of these horns from recycled materials. They are both brass instruments, as they are played with a trumpet or trombone mouthpiece. They work on the principle of finding the critical length of the bore of pipe used that gives all the notes in a diatonic scale. Neither have any holes or valves or sliding tubes to create the different notes, it is all done with lip muscle tension.

The 'crumpled horn' is made from a copper immersion tank heated and beaten into the horn bell shape. The heat exchanger coil from the inside of the same tank then provides spiral copper length. The 'crumpled horn' is in Db (D-flat) with a one octave range and has a mellow sound like french horn.

The 'seahorn' is my latest instrument. I found the day glow horn bell, previously a fog horn from a ferry/cruise ship, at Dorchester metal recycling centre. It is about 1.25 metres long and made of aluminium with about 3.5 metres of 15mm copper tube attached. The range is over 2 octaves of diatonic (normal) scale in the key of Eb (E-flat). It has a strong sound when I use a trumpet mouthpiece to play it; but if I use a trombone mouthpiece it really sounds like a fog horn.

I am also working on an attachment that can be added to alter the key of the 'seahorn' using a smaller bore copper tube (10mm).

Nick playing his Crumpled horn, made from a copper immersion tank coil and casing beaten out.