The xaphoon ( ) is a
chromatic
Diatonic and chromatic are terms in music theory that are most often used to characterize scales, and are also applied to musical instruments, intervals, chords, notes, musical styles, and kinds of harmony. They are very often used as a pair, ...
keyless
single-reed
A single-reed instrument is a woodwind instrument that uses only one reed to produce sound. The very earliest single-reed instruments were documented in ancient Egypt, as well as the Middle East, Greece, and the Roman Empire. The earliest types o ...
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 reed ...
instrument. It has a closed
cylindrical bore
In music, the bore of a wind instrument (including woodwind and brass) is its interior chamber. This defines a flow path through which air travels, which is set into vibration to produce sounds. The shape of the bore has a strong influence on t ...
and a very slightly flared
bell. The xaphoon has a full
chromatic
Diatonic and chromatic are terms in music theory that are most often used to characterize scales, and are also applied to musical instruments, intervals, chords, notes, musical styles, and kinds of harmony. They are very often used as a pair, ...
range of two octaves, and overblows at the twelfth like the
clarinet
The clarinet is a musical instrument in the woodwind family. The instrument has a nearly cylindrical bore and a flared bell, and uses a single reed to produce sound.
Clarinets comprise a family of instruments of differing sizes and pitches ...
.
History
The first xaphoon, made out of bamboo in 1972, was a spontaneous effort by Brian Wittman, a Hawaiian saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist, to create an instrument for a young child who liked the sound of the saxophone. After failing to get a satisfactory sound out of an improvised
bamboo flute
The bamboo flute, especially the bone flute, is one of the oldest musical instruments known. Examples of Paleolithic bone flutes have survived for more than 40,000 years, to be discovered by archaeologists. While the oldest flutes currently kno ...
, Wittman cut a mouthpiece opening and attached a
tenor sax
The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor and the alto are the two most commonly used saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B (while th ...
reed to it. Wittman was impressed by the sound of the simple instrument. After playing it at performances, other musicians were curious and asked him to make more; thus he refined the instrument, patented it,
and started to manufacture and sell it.
Overview
The xaphoon's tone sounds like a clarinet or a saxophone, and is suitable for playing music in similar genres such as jazz or klezmer, although it has also been used to play music of other traditions.
It uses a standard tenor saxophone reed. The xaphoon has nine tone holes: eight holes in front, and one hole in back for the left thumb, superficially resembling those of 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 news ...
. The xaphoon's fingerings, however, are significantly different from those of either a saxophone or recorder.
The most common instrument, in C, is 12.5 inches or 32 cm long. Due to having a closed bore instead of an open bore 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 news ...
, its range is an octave below recorders of comparable length; for example, the soprano recorder's lowest note is C5, while the C xaphoon's is one octave lower at C4. The standard range is two octaves, although experienced players are able to extend the range of the larger sized instruments above that.
Due to its short length and large finger-hole size, the pitch of individual notes can be raised and lowered easily, making the xaphoon equally well-suited to play Turkish, Middle Eastern, and other musical scales outside the European tradition. The xaphoon is similar to the
chalumeau
The chalumeau (; ; plural chalumeaux) is a single-reed woodwind instrument of the late baroque and early classical eras. The chalumeau is a folk instrument that is the predecessor to the modern-day clarinet. It has a cylindrical bore with e ...
, a European keyless single-reed instrument that was the ancestor of the
clarinet
The clarinet is a musical instrument in the woodwind family. The instrument has a nearly cylindrical bore and a flared bell, and uses a single reed to produce sound.
Clarinets comprise a family of instruments of differing sizes and pitches ...
, and has a comparable range. Although it has a complete chromatic scale, the maker considers it a primarily diatonic instrument, capable of playing well in a small number of keys.
Materials and makers
The xaphoon has been made commercially available by Brian Wittman since 1975; Wittman still makes approximately 1500 bamboo instruments per year by hand at his home on the island of
Maui
The island of Maui (; Hawaiian: ) is the second-largest of the islands of the state of Hawaii at 727.2 square miles (1,883 km2) and is the 17th largest island in the United States. Maui is the largest of Maui County's four islands, which ...
, Hawaii, using local bamboo selected from the forests of the eastern end of the island. The xaphoon is available from Maui Xaphoon (Brian Wittman's company) in the keys of C, B♭, D, and G (as well as any other key via special order).
Due to its popularity, it became impossible to fulfill all orders manually using bamboo,
and thus in the spring of 2000, a molded
ABS version of the xaphoon following Wittman's patented design was introduced. These instruments are made under license by Indiana Plastics in
Elkhart, Indiana, and are marketed under the trade name Xaphoon Pocket Sax. Currently, it is available in the key of C, with its lowest tone middle C. The instrument is sturdy, and the reed can be protected by a cap when not played.
In the spring of 2012, Wittman began a collaboration with Francesc Sans Sastre, a long-established luthier in
Sant Jaume de Llierca
Sant Jaume de Llierca is a village in the Provinces of Spain, province of Province of Girona, Girona and autonomous community of Catalonia, Spain. The municipality covers an area of and the population in 2014 was 812.
References
External links
...
, Spain, to produce hand-made wooden xaphoons in strict accordance with the original xaphoon design. These oak and olive wood xaphoons are sold under the name "Xaphoon de Catalunya".
While the popularity of the xaphoon has led to frequent use of the word "xaphoon" to denote any type of small single-reed keyless woodwind instrument, the term remains a registered trade name. Only those instruments produced by Brian Wittman (Maui Xaphoon), Indiana Plastics (Xaphoon Pocket Sax), and Sans Luthier (Xaphoon de Catalunya) are allowed to be called xaphoons.
See also
*
Chalumeau
The chalumeau (; ; plural chalumeaux) is a single-reed woodwind instrument of the late baroque and early classical eras. The chalumeau is a folk instrument that is the predecessor to the modern-day clarinet. It has a cylindrical bore with e ...
*
Clarinet
The clarinet is a musical instrument in the woodwind family. The instrument has a nearly cylindrical bore and a flared bell, and uses a single reed to produce sound.
Clarinets comprise a family of instruments of differing sizes and pitches ...
*
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 pr ...
*
Venova
The Venova is a single-reeded woodwind musical instrument, currently produced by the Yamaha Corporation. The original model, the YVS-100, was released in 2017 and an alto model, the YVS-120, was released in 2019.
The Venova features a predominan ...
References
External links
*
*
Xaphoon example "
Bei Mir Bistu Shein
"Bei Mir Bistu Shein" ( yi, בײַ מיר ביסטו שעהן, or yi, בײַ מיר ביסטו שיין, , "To Me You're Beautiful") is a popular Yiddish song written by lyricist Jacob Jacobs and composer Sholom Secunda for a 1932 Yiddish lang ...
"
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Clarinets
Culture of Maui
Saxophones
Bamboo musical instruments
Hawaiian musical instruments