Confluence

Pipeworks - The Instruments

The Bog Horn takes advantage of the inflow and outlet of a lavatory to make a bass and treble horn. You can duet on it! It is a B flat instrument with a range of four octaves: it has a tuba-like boom on the bass end and a thinner, almost reedy quality in its top registers. Fingering involves taking one finger off at a time, leaving all the other holes covered, a method called closed fingering, similar to that employed by Northumbrian pipes.

The Cool Calorifier, or Hot Tank, provides a resonating chamber for the spiralling pipes within. A large slide is welded at the top, which controls the range of the instrument trombone-fashion. The interesting innards of the tank also double as a percussion resource.

The Water Pipe is a piece of copper tubing fitted with a clarinet mouthpiece: the instrument is played with the 'horn' in a goldfish bowl filled with water, to create an unearthly gurgling effect.

The Down Pipes are differing lengths of plastic tubing arranged on a frame according to their tuning, and played with by hitting a table-tennis bat across the end to produce a resonant tuned percussion.