The folgerphone (sometimes Folgerphone) is a

wind instrument A wind instrument is a musical instrument that contains some type of resonator (usually a tube) in which a column of air is set into vibration by the player blowing into (or over) a mouthpiece set at or near the end of the resonator. The pitch ...

(or

aerophone An aerophone is a musical instrument that produces sound primarily by causing a body of air to vibrate, without the use of strings or membranes (which are respectively chordophones and membranophones), and without the vibration of the instrume ...

). Like the

saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to p ...

it is classifiable as a

woodwind Woodwind instruments are a family of musical instruments within the greater category of wind instruments. Common examples include flute, clarinet, oboe, bassoon, and saxophone. There are two main types of woodwind instruments: flutes and Ree ...

rather than

brass instrument A brass instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound by Sympathetic resonance, sympathetic vibration of air in a tubular resonator in sympathy with the vibration of the player's lips. The term ''labrosone'', from Latin elements meani ...

despite being made of metal, because it has a reed. The folgerphone is a modern experimental instrument, using an

alto sax The alto saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments. Saxophones were invented by Belgian instrument designer Adolphe Sax in the 1840s and patented in 1846. The alto saxophone is pitched in the key of E, smaller th ...

mouthpiece, with copper tubing and a coffee can (the name is a reference to

Folgers Folgers is an American brand of coffee produced and sold in the United States, with additional distribution in Asia, Canada and Mexico. It forms part of the food and beverage division of The J.M. Smucker Company. Folgers roasts its coffee in ...

, a common American brand of canned coffee). The instrument is not commercially produced, but constructed by musicians, and need not use a genuine coffee can, but any

sounding box Sounding or soundings may refer to: *Sounding (archaeology), a test dig in archaeology * "Sounding" (''Justified''), an episode of the TV series ''Justified'' * ''Soundings'' (journal), an academic journal of leftist political thinking * ''Soundin ...

made of metal. Although it uses a sax mouthpiece, it is a

cylindrical-bore In music, the bore of a wind instrument (including woodwind instrument, woodwind and brass instrument, brass) is its interior chamber. This defines a flow path through which air travels, which is set into vibration to produce sounds. The shape ...

instrument, and thus part of the

clarinet The clarinet is a Single-reed instrument, single-reed musical instrument in the woodwind family, with a nearly cylindrical bore (wind instruments), bore and a flared bell. Clarinets comprise a Family (musical instruments), family of instrume ...

family, but is played with finger holes, like a

recorder Recorder or The Recorder may refer to: Newspapers * ''Indianapolis Recorder'', a weekly newspaper * ''The Recorder'' (Massachusetts newspaper), a daily newspaper published in Greenfield, Massachusetts, US * ''The Recorder'' (Port Pirie), a newsp ...

, rather than with keys like a saxophone or modern clarinet. In the

Hornbostel–Sachs Hornbostel–Sachs or Sachs–Hornbostel is a system of musical instrument classification devised by Erich Moritz von Hornbostel and Curt Sachs, first published in the in 1914. An English translation was published in the '' Galpin Society Journ ...

classification system, it is among the 422.211.2 subsection of reed aerophones.

History

The instrument was invented by Nolan Hatcher and Craig Nutt of Alabama (members of the Raudelunas art collective, and the experimental jazz bands the Ron Pates Debonairs and the Blue Denim Deal) at least as early as 1979, when it was used on their duet album ''Dinosaur Time''. It has also been used in recorded

experimental An experiment is a procedure carried out to support or refute a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of something previously untried. Experiments provide insight into cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome occurs whe ...

and

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

works by others, such as Robert Horton's band Plateau (not to be confused with the

Skinny Puppy Skinny Puppy was a Canadian electro-industrial band formed in Vancouver in 1982. The group was among the founders of the industrial rock and electro-industrial genres. Initially envisioned as an experimental side-project by cEvin Key (Kevin Crom ...

side-project platEAU), as on the 1990 ''Arrhythmia'' compilation CD.

References

* Clarinets Experimental musical instruments Saxophones {{SingleReed-instrument-stub