Hyperbass Flute

The hyperbass flute is the largest and lowest pitched instrument in the flute family, with tubing reaching over 8 metres in length. It is pitched in C, four octaves below the concert flute (three octaves below the bass flute, two octaves below the contrabass flute, and one octave below the double contrabass flute), with its lowest note being C₀, one octave below the lowest C on a standard piano. At 16 Hz, this is below what is generally considered the range of human hearing (20 to 20,000 Hz).

The hyperbass flute is made of PVC and wood. There appear to be wide tone holes, made from standard tee fittings, but without keys; these are covered with the palms of the hands.

The first known example of the instrument was built by Francesco Romei, a Florentine craftsman, for Italian flautist Roberto Fabbriciani. Fabbriciani is the inventor and primary performer of this instrument. He calls it flauto iperbasso in Italian.

Low flute specialist Peter Sheridan commissioned the first fully chromatic hyperbass flute from the Dutch maker Jelle Hogenhuis in August 2010. The instrument, though reputedly sluggish in response, plays lower than the concert piano (C₀). This prototype model is still under research with Mr. Sheridan and Mr. Hogenhuis, as the new direction of the low flute partials create numerous problems with the air stream and dilemmas for basic tone production. This said, the instrument truly is innovative in its approach to distribution of partials, as if blown in the correct manner a three to four voice chord will sound.

The instrument can produce an edgy, growling tone, as well as support a large ensemble of flutes and winds on a handful of notes (C1-F1). The 32 feet of piping, required to produce the fundamentals, permits creative exploration. Composers in Australia and America have already begun to compose for the instrument.