Bucium

The bucium is a member of the brass (Hornbostel–Sachs 423.121.11). Learn how it makes its sound and explore related instruments.

How the bucium makes its sound

In the Hornbostel–Sachs system, which classifies instruments by how they produce sound, the bucium belongs to the brass (lip-vibrated aerophones): the player's buzzing lips set the air column vibrating – trumpets, horns, trombones, tubas and the didgeridoo.

More broadly it is one of the aerophones (wind instruments), where sound comes from vibrating air.

Players shape its sound through technique and materials; the resonating body filters the raw vibration, boosting some harmonics and damping others.

From Wikipedia

The bucium is a type of alphorn from Romania and Moldova. The word is derived from Latin bucinum, originally meaning "curved horn", an instrument used by the Romans. The word is a cognate with English "bugle".

A bucium may have either a straight or curved tube, and may be conical throughout its entire length or only in the bell. Its tube, which measures 1.5 to over 3 meters in length, may be made from fir, ash, limetree, or hazel wood and bound with birch, cherry, or lime bark. Northern Romanian versions of the bucium may incorporate metal as well. Most versions of the bucium are played by blowing into a trumpet-shaped wooden mouthpiece.