My Lagerphone is builtPosted on 19 January 2007 and here's how it sounds.. I was visiting my inlaws in Poland over Christmas and the plan was to punch holes in the lager tops we'd collected with a help from the metal worker who lived next door (Romek). Now Romek was very enthused by the whole project and promptly found us a huge bucket full of metal discs that were left overs from bird cages he makes. We punched holes in about 500 of them with his drill - 5 at a time, so took about an hour.  Cleverest of all, this may be the world's first portable lagerphone - we used three shovel handles and cut the head of a large screw, so each part screws together like a long curtain pole. The portability was a requirement because a) I had to get it back from Poland and b) I have to take it with me to the states in April, where it will feature in the last of my Piosenki.  Incidentally, research I did into the lagerphone recently suggested a whole army of other names for it, and indeed it's ancestory, or at least related instrument in the Turkish 'Jingling Johnny' or Turkish Crescent, where it was used to scare the living daylights out of the invading Westerners. Oh, and amongst others, Haydn used one in his Military Symphony (though I guess his didn't have a boot). OK call me a proud dad, but isn't he a beaut:  Update My lagerphone has now had its premiere in Carnegie Hall! Here's a shot of baritone Yang Yang holding it after the premiere of my piece Piosenki. My daughter helped decorate it further with some colourful tassles which danced and waived delightfully during the performance.  and here during a further performance, also in the Weill Hall at Carnegie, with baritone Kyle Ferrill in full flow:  You can hear the full recording of the first Carnegie performance on the Carnegie Hall website - the lagerphone is featured in the very last song, about 18mins in. Update 2 As this page is visited regularly by people interested in the lagerphone, I thought I should add something about the inspiration to build the lagerphone. During the Carnegie workshops for my piece Piosenki I met Hyper-Accordionist and one half of the Groanbox Boys Michael Ward-Bergeman. Somehow we got talking about his lagerphone which is used in the Groanbox Boys duo, and I knew I had to make one. Visit their page dedicated to 'the boot' on the Groanbox Boys Freedom Boot page. I am now thrilled that I have passed this inspiration on to my friend Clive Batkin who is planning to build his own 'heavy metal lagerphone'! Update 3 Piosenki has now been taken up by world-famous soprano Dawn Upshaw, who has performed it in Minneapolis and at Carnegie Hall. Here's the latest picture, together with Baritone Evan Hughes and the composer. 
COMMENTS KrisBelucci commenting on My Lagerphone is built: 02 June 2009 at 05:58 da best. Keep it going! Thank you Leave a Reply |
David Bruce - Composer
