WHAT IF?

The "Basso" Alphorns — Ridiculously Long & Difficult to Control :)

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What IF Richard Strauss had in mind having the alphorn calls played in the lower octave, as written in the score, rather than according to the "old notation" convention, which means the calls are to be played an octave higher? I decided to try making the shortest of the options: An alphorn in A-basso for the 5th alphorn call in the score. It measures about 19-1/2 feet long.

By adding length where available, I also have a very nicely tuned A-Flat-Basso alphorn for the 4th alphorn call in the score. It measures about 20-1/2 feet long. Finally, I made 4 extension tubes and used the F# tuning tube from Walter Bachmann to build a 21ft. 9 in. long alphorn in G-Bass for the first 3 Daphne calls.

NOTE: I made each extension tube as quickly as possible. Since the bores are cylindrical, I was able to use a router to carve out the troughs in each tube half. This was an experiment. I had no idea whether any of these "basso" alphorns would be playable or sound at all pleasant. It turned out they are playable — and the sound is not horrible! — but since the playable notes are in the higher range of the harmonic series, where the partials get more closely packed together, hitting any note directly makes for a challenging task. In this sense these horns are difficult to control :)

Thanks to details about French Horn construction provided by my fellow alphorn enthusiast Ryan Stewart, it is not so surprising that these basso horns "work." When you hear about "the world's longest alphorn" -- you see a massive looking horn, since the maker decided to build them to scale -- with a conical bore through the entire length, resulting in massively large bells. See this YouTube Video for the images shown below.

But if you think about the analogy with the natural horn and the system of "crooks" used with them, the lower ranges were achieved by adding lengths of cylindrical tubing between the lead pipe and the tubing that eventually begins its conical journey to a flared bell. This is the model I used:

• Mouthpiece (cup with a tapered shank)
• "Lead pipe" — a conical section into which the mouthpiece is inserted. These are:
  • My F-Tube from Walter Bachmann
  • My F# Tube from Walter Bachmann
  • My G Tube, which I built
  • My A-Flat Tube from Walter Bachmann
  • My A Tube, which I built
• Extension section consisting of one or more cylindrical tubes — my "crooks"
• Conical section leading to a flared bell

A-Basso Alphorn

Playing the notes of the 5th Alphorn Call in Daphne on a 19-1/2 ft horn in A-Basso

Click on the image:

Here is a video "walking tour" of this 19-1/2 foot long alphorn in A-basso.

Clich on the image:

A-Flat-Basso Alphorn

Alphorn Call #4 in Daphne — in A-Flat – click on the image

Adding Length to the A-Basso alphorn to make the A-Flat Basso alphorn

1. Inserted the longer F tube from Walter Bachmann instead of the F# tube I used for the call in A.
2. Inserted the mouthpiece extension - used for changing F# to F.
3. Pulled some of the sections slightly apart. The O-rings were very tight anyway.

Uf de Bänklialp on A-Flat-Basso

(an octave lower than Aregger's recordings from the 1970s in A-Flat).

G-Basso Alphorn

21 ft 9 in long, about 6.6 meters.

Alphorn Call #1 in Daphne — in G – click on the image

G-Tube Construction:
I didn't have enough room in the house to assemble this, so I used the garage and played a couple feet outside the garage.

F# Tuning Tube (from Walter Bachmann) with mouthpiece (also from Walter)

My Extension Tube (1)

My Extension Tube (2)

My Extension Tube (3)

My Extension Tube (4)

Middle Tube + Bell Section (from Walter Bachmann)

F#-Basso Alphorn

This alphorn measures 23 feet long, or 7 meters.
It consists of all the pieces for the G-Basso alphorn above, except:
I used the F tuning tube instead of the F# tuning tube, plus the 1/2 tone adapter.

Uf de Bänklialp on F#-Basso

(click image below)

F-Basso Alphorn

And now for my longest alphorn — the F-Basso — twice the length of my Bachmann Alphorn with the F hand tube. I play most of "Uf de Bänklialp" in the video (click on the image):

Walking the F-Basso Alphorn (click on the image)

The Parts

Part 1: Mouthpiece + Leadpipe (F Hand Tube)

Length: Mouthpiece 3", F Hand Tube 48.38"

Part 2: Extension Tubes

Part 2a: Extension Tube, 23.63"

Part 2b: Extension Tube, 32"

Part 2c: Extension Tube, 32.5"

Part 2d: Extension Tube, 31.5"

Part 2e: Extension Tube, 29.25"

Part 3: Middle Tube + Bell Section

Middle Tube, 40.7" / Bell Section, 51.25"

Total Part 3 Length: 91.95"

Total Section Lengths:

Conical Sections: Mouthpiece, F-Tube, Middle Tube, Bell Section = 143.33" (~12 feet)
This is my Alphorn in F

5 Cylindrical Sections Added: 148.88" (~12 feet, 5 inches)

Total Length: 292.21" (~24 feet, 4 inches)

Theoretically, an F-Basso alphorn should be twice the length of my Bachmann Alphorn in F.
My construction is almost exactly that. It would be interesting to have one extension tube 5 inches shorter to make for an exact doubling in length. I'm not going to worry about that. This F-Basso works fine :)

A 42-Foot Long Beast

In this experiment I explore using PVC pipe for my extension tubes. I inserted three 10-foot PVC pipes into my Bachmann alphorn in F — just after the F hand tube and before the middle tube with bell. The quick math: A 12-foot long F alphorn plus 30 feet of PVC pipe = 42 feet. Tuning? Yeah, somewhere between a G and an A-Flat.

The main problems playing this are: (1) My embouchure cannot relax enought to play any of the super low tones, and (2) in my comfortable embouchure range I am up where the partials are super close together. I can actually play a chromatic scale over two octaves. But there are a lot of available notes in between the notes of the scale, which you will hear in the videos.

Video 1: Scales

Click on the image:

Video 2: Uf de Bänklialp

Click on the image: