This blog is dedicated to the sublime instruments called nose flutes and which produce the most divine sound ever. We have chosen to discard all the native models from S. Pacific and Asia, for they need fingering to be played. We'll concentrate on "buccal cavity driven" nose flutes : the well patented and trademarked metal or plastic ones, plus, by a condemnable indulgence, some wooden craft or home-made productions.

May 12, 2016

News from Korea - Part II : The Koroa

This post is the sequel of News from Korea - Part I : New Patents

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If you ever look for Korean nose flutes (코피리 - 'kopili'), you'll probably find traditional long flutes, or some modern performers playing a classic flute with their nose, or other joyful experiments, as in this commercial for a nasal spray. But you should not find many 'buccal driven' (what I call 'urban') nose flutes. Well, this was right up until ten years ago, or so.



Indeed, Mr. 장광현 ('Jang Gwanghyeon'), author of the patents we presented in the Part I, has been crafting modern nose flutes since around 2005... And beautiful and funny ones!

No infringement of the copyright intended in the use of the following images, all rights reserved to their authors



As you can see on the very last picture, a lot amongst Jang Gwanghyeon's nose flutes have a slidable duct cover, and this might explain the assertion « Conventional nose flute includes (...) a throttle », as seen in Part I.

I don't know much about Mr. Jang Gwanghyeon, not only because of the poor translation available online for the Korean language, but also because the name 장광현 looks to be rather common there. Anyway, Jang Gwanghyeon is not only gifted with his hands, he is also an inventor and a business man, as his three nose flute patents demonstrate, and a humanist, as we'll see below.



So, Jang Gwanghyeon filed several patents, and it was not just for fun, as you can expect it. Apparently last February, a manufactured nose flute model appeared on the market, shaped as in the last patent (KR1015458350000), available in four version, the Koroa, ('코로아'), after a trademark registered Sep. 2014:



« The name of this product is widely used to ride the wind Korean nose is called Roa (KOROA) resembling Korea (KOREA). » [Google translate]

Well, not sure to understand the Google gibberish, but I know that "Ko" ('코') means nose. And maybe did I understand that 'Roa' means 'wind wave'. So 'Koroa' would say something like 'nose wind surfer' ... plus the pun Koroa/Korea.

Here are the different Koroa nose flutes. But as you can see, 2 or 3 month after their launch on koroa21.com, they all are sold out!:



4 different versions called Little Prince ('어린왕자'), More Beautiful than Flowers ('꽃보다아름다운'), Inner World ('내면의세계') and Love Forever ('사랑은언제나'). Each nose flute is (was) sold in a box, with a CD, a pouch, a strap and a cleaning cloth. As you can see also, the Koroa is inset with a costume gemstone.

No infringement of the copyright intended in the use of the following images, all rights reserved to their authors

Again, I didn't understand all the content of the texts I passed through Google translate, but I understood that Mr. Jang Gwanghyeon has a humanist/humanitarian purpose in the mind when creating the Koroa. He explains that nose flutes can be an educational tool and a link between people from different cultures.

[Google gibberish]: « To transcend religious and cultural knowledge through the nose and think that would be a cultural product whose ages anyone can get a response.

(...) « Race, language, and readily available beyond all cultures, co-products Loa will play the role of mediator to symbolize love and peace to the network means connecting the world do not even pay for one price without a doubt ...»

« More specifically, the practice is to tell you the date of this sleep condition to participate in the sales and business co-Loa is part of the corporate name of the company to participate directly appointed as royalties to help disadvantaged in their donation or UNHCR. »




Ypu can see some videos of Mr. Jang Gwanghyeon playing his nose flute on his Facebook page: here and here.

Here is the 'official' video on Gwanghyun Jang's Youtube channel:




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Related links :

- News from Korea - Part I: New Patents
- News from Korea - Part II: The Koroa

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