"The piano with a thirty-foot keyboard, forty-five octaves, and
five hundred and twenty-two keys, which Mr. Alfred Butt will
'present' in 'Follow the Crowd' at the Empire Theatre, is now in
course of construction. Six pianists will play it, and Mr.
Irving Berlin, the composer of 'Watch Your Step,' is composing
some special melodies for them."--_Sunday Paper._
The new Bombastophone which the Titanola Company are constructing for
Mr. Boomer, the famous War lecturer, is approaching completion. This
remarkable instrument, which roughly resembles a double-bassoon, stands
about 45 feet high, and has a compass of 500 octaves, from the low B
flat _in profundissimo_ to the high G on the Doncaster St. Leger line.
The use that Mr. Boomer makes of the Bombastophone is very original and
effective. Whenever he sees that the attention of his audience is
flagging he introduces an interlude of "bombination," which renders
lethargy impossible and exercises an indescribably stimulating effect on
the tympanum. The current of air is supplied by a bellows operated by an
eight-cylinder Brome engine, but Mr. Boomer works the keys himself,
climbing up and down them with a rapidity which must be seen to be
appreciated.
Another instrument which is expected to work a revolution in the realm
of sonority is the Clumbungo Drum, on which Mr. Wackford Bumpus will
shortly give a recital at the Albert Hall. The drum, which is made of
teak and rhinoceros hide, is three hundred feet in circumference, but
only twenty feet high, and the drumsticks are of proportionate length.
As Dr. Blamphin, the eminent aurist, remarks, "The merit of the notes of
this momentous instrument is their profound sincerity. They cannot be
disregarded even by the most absent-minded auditor."
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