What’s a Fu-horn?    As in karate, meaning ‘the way of the open hand’, so should ‘Fu-horn’ evoke the way of the hornmaker or player.  ‘Fu’ in Chinese means either ‘man’ or a suffix to evoke ‘intensity’.  Either will work to describe the studio products of a guy called Mr. Fire-Man.

Don’t blame me for being showy.  There’s no joy quite like a new horn.  In particular, there’s no joy like a new horn with moving parts.

This fine elderberry piece called ‘the Wah-wahorn’ is a return to smaller instruments after many years pursuant of giant sound chambers (mostly made of hogweed).  The reason?  They work.  A small hardwood chamber has big, punchy high notes and can still be played in the low register if you must have moments of buzzing.  Below is the opposite end of the spectrum, from the series of ‘Triplehorns’ made from said hogweed.

The state of this art is derived from several years experimenting with wooden (or relative natural materials) chambered horns.  These days, I’m only interested in chambers designed of one piece that self-drain when upended after playing.  Below is an old prototype of a trombone, complete with moving slide.

The very beautiful slide horn

The Travelling Horn (with detachable bell/hat).   The hat is felt hardened with varnish.  The main part of the horn body is empress wood.

The Lanternhorn in an old configuration.   She is mostly elderberry with the bell composed of steam bent cedar ribs overlaid with tracing paper, glue and varnish.

A giant cow parsnip horn in use on stage at the Railway Club in Vancouver.

There’s always plans for the next one.