The sudrophone is a
brass instrument
A brass instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound by sympathetic vibration of air in a tubular resonator in sympathy with the vibration of the player's lips. Brass instruments are also called labrosones or labrophones, from Latin a ...
invented by the French instrument maker
François Sudre
Jean-François Sudre, also written Sudré (15 August 1787 – 3 October 1862), was a violinist, composer and music teacher who invented a musical language called ''la Langue musicale universelle'' or Solrésol.
Sudre was born in Albi in south ...
(1844–1912). Its shape resembles that of an
ophicleide. It was patented in 1892.
[Renard, Jean-Michel]
"SUDROPHONE"
. Old Musical Instruments. Retrieved 12 August 2013.
A sudrophone has a conical bore and three or four
Perinet valves. Its length is and the bell diameter is . The "valve" nearest the mouthpiece on the bell throat controls a silk membrane to create a nasal effect, which Sudre designed to make a sound like a cello or a bassoon. The instrument is very similar to the
baritone horn
The baritone horn, or sometimes just called baritone, is a low-pitched brass instrument in the saxhorn family.Robert Donington, "The Instruments of Music", (pp. 113ff ''The Family of Bugles'') 2nd ed., Methuen, London, 1962 It is a piston-val ...
and
helicon. Acoustically these resembled the
saxhorn
The saxhorn is a family of valved brass instruments that have conical bores and deep cup-shaped mouthpieces. The saxhorn family was developed by Adolphe Sax, who is also known for creating the saxophone family. The sound of the saxhorn has a ...
s, but the shape was different as the main tube was doubled back on itself, giving a vertical appearance reminiscent of an
ophicleide, this design choice was made by Sudre to make the instrument stand out more amongst the primarily saxhorn-shaped brass instruments that were much more popular.
The unique feature of these instruments was an apparatus on the side of the bell throat called a "mirliton" (kazoo), with a membrane which would vibrate sympathetically with its pitch, creating a kazoo-like effect. The apparatus allowed the player to either engage or disengage the membrane, so it could also function as a normal saxhorn, albeit with a unique outside shape and narrow bell.
References
External links
Demonstration of a sudrophone
1892 musical instruments
Brass instruments
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