Tubophon

The Tubophon is a musical instrument belonging to the family of percussion instruments.

Name

Tubophon: Consisting of the words tubo = tube, pipe (Latin – tubus) and phon = loud, sound (Greek – phonos)

History

The history of the Tubophon started in 2004 when engineer Stefan Schubert discovered by accident the sound characteristics of district heating steel tubes covered with plastic caps. The unique archaic sound inspired Schubert to construct a percussion instrument comprising different tube lengths and thicknesses. Together with Prof. Peter Sadlo he built a prototype for the musical highlight during the inauguration of the geothermal energy project in Pullach/ Germany. The device, then known as a "Geothermiephon" ("geothermics phone") however, was disassembled again and the further development was stopped for cost reasons.

In 2010 the financial and constructional music project started anew. A new, transportable building concept made it possible that within six weeks more than 160 m of tubes were welded to each other with the help of heavy-duty lifting equipment. In his advisory capacity Prof. Peter Sadlo again contributed with many suggestions and ideas regarding the playability and the pitch range. However, the way of proceeding was rather more experimental than predictable.