What is this called?

[oleorezinator]

What appears to be a tabor pipe with 5 holes
and 3 keys with a metal head. I'm assuming that
this is in Barcelona. Does anyone recognize the band?
Who made the tabor pipe? Starts at 7:00 tooters at 7:19.
The tabor pipe is at 7:23. Thanks, o
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwuZ0fgW ... ata_player

[squirrel]

It's a flabiol. Like the tabor pipe it's played with one hand while the other plays a little drum.
I like this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvYGMoskot0

You can have more informations about the flabiol in the dedicated wikipedia page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flabiol

[Tim2723]

That's very neat and interesting. Thanks for posting it. It's certainly the most sophisticated pipe and tabor I've ever seen. I do question the Wikipedia comment that it is the original model for the tonette. To the best of my knowledge, the tonette is a globular flute while this appears to be open-ended like a normal tabor pipe.

[MTGuru]

I do question the Wikipedia comment that it is the original model for the tonette. To the best of my knowledge, the tonette is a globular flute while this appears to be open-ended like a normal tabor pipe.

If by globular you mean a closed vessel like an ocarina ... No, the [tonette or]* song flute is an open bore fipple flute. But you're right that that (unsupported) comment is suspicious. The tonette is not a one-handed overblown tabor pipe but a two-handed diatonic whistle, for which any diatonic fipple flute could be a model. The globular shape makes it easier for small fingers to hold, and the bore restricts it to one octave, so no accidental overblowing.

* Correction: Not tonette. See below.

[s1m0n]

Leonard Cohen's first instrument was a tonette, he reports.

[MTGuru]

One of the first tooters I remember (age 5 or so) was a 4-note whistle shaped like an ocean liner. The three smokestacks were the finger holes.

It was literally a vessel flute.

[Tim2723]

I do question the Wikipedia comment that it is the original model for the tonette. To the best of my knowledge, the tonette is a globular flute while this appears to be open-ended like a normal tabor pipe.

If by globular you mean a closed vessel like an ocarina ... No, the tonette or song flute is an open bore fipple flute. But you're right that that (unsupported) comment is suspicious. The tonette is not a one-handed overblown tabor pipe but a two-handed diatonic whistle, for which any diatonic fipple flute could be a model. The globular shape makes it easier for small fingers to hold, and the bore restricts it to one octave, so no accidental overblowing.

Are you quite sure of that MT? The instrument I recall playing as a child in school was closed at the end. It came in a pasteboard box and had two different decorative ends: a trumpet-like bell and a simple button. Both could fit over the closed end of the instrument but our teacher insisted on the trumpet bell, believing that the more pointed end could lead to trouble. But in either case it was only a decoration and the flute played the same with or without either. The instrument I recall was very much an in-line ocarina. A globular or vessel flute of about an octave's range. Perhaps it was not a Tonette? I distinctly remember calling it that, but it might have been something else. There was also a popular pre-band instrument called a flute-o-phone or something similar, but I recall the name Tonette. I managed to hang on to the instrument until I was about 14 years old. I would still like to have one today just for fun and old time's sake.

In this Wiki photo we can see what I believe to be the closed end of the flute with the button decoration in place. There's no question in my mind that this is the instrument of my childhood, albeit with the other decoration attached:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:MIM_P ... edited.jpg

[MTGuru]

Are you quite sure of that MT?

Hats off, Tim. I was describing the Song Flute or Flutophone, and somehow misremembered the Tonette as being the same. But you're 100% right, the Tonette is a vessel flute.

http://mewzik.com/research/fitchhorn/index.php

Of course, our joint point that the Catalán flabiol is an unlikely precursor of the tonette still stands. Unless there's an indirect connection, such as that the guy who designed the tonette also played the flabiol.

[Tim2723]

I'd also still love to have a flabiol. That is the coolest tabor pipe ever, but most certainly not the precursor to the Tonette.

I still remember my disappointment the day we received our Tonettes. Even as a small child I thought the trumpet bell was just a silly decoration and I really wanted the cooler button end for my instrument. But the teacher went around collecting all the buttons.

P.S. You can still buy Tonettes and Flutophones at Amazon. They're only a couple of bucks. They even have the old It's Tonette Time instruction book. I remember when that cover art wasn't retro!

[Sorry to go on about this, but it's the sort of thing that happens when one looses his buttons! ]

[O_Gaiteiro_do_Chicago]

If you're looking for flabiol these are great instruments:

http://www.sansluthier.net/skin/flabiol.aspx

I have one in boxwood and it sounds amazing. Francesc and his family are also great people and very passionate about Catalan music.

[MTGuru]

One of the first tooters I remember (age 5 or so) was a 4-note whistle shaped like an ocean liner. The three smokestacks were the finger holes.

Funny ... This photo appeared in today's local paper: http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/dec ... kazoo-day/

If you look at the bottom right ... That's not a kazoo, but a whistle just like my "vessel". Except that I recall mine was white and yellow.

(Of course, citing that article in this context buries the lede: National Kazoo Day!)