Nathaniel Bobbitt is one of a growing number of flute players that have seen the advantage of buzzing the flute. The variety of buzzed flute players range between how they perform the buzz and the purposes they use for buzzing the flute. In the case of Bobbitt he came to the buzzed-flute through a phone conversation with the buzz-flute inventor Robert Cantrick. Bobbitt has explored the buzzed-flute technique through his ability to circular breath. The result is a number of non-linear acoustic effects, pedal tones, and colorful timbre. His move away from the semantics (periodic acoustics) of what the flute is known for and a move toward the dynamic interactions of a physical flute's tube resonance (non-linear acoustics) and the hybridization of the flute intonation. His activity with the buzzed-flute was employed in Unexpected Reflection a flute and tape piece by Emiliano del Cerro, commissioned by the Spanish Ministry of Culture. This piece Bobbitt premiered at the Alicante New Music Festival (Spain) and subsequently represented Spain in the Unesco Tribunal for Composers. Bobbitt continues to consider the role of the buzzed-flute in more functional terms: imaging intangible performance behaviors, next generation sensor technology, and the role of energetic behavior in communication theory and phonology. For Bobbitt the buzzed-flute is a tool that suggests ways to develop deeper understandings of language, computation, signals, and real-time/biological systems.

The Acoustic Buzz Sample is from Nathaniel Bobbitt's catalogue of buzzed-flute techniques circa 1994. This recording is a single take without recording or digital manipulation. Thanks to Dr. Richard Boulanger (Berklee College of Music) for support in this recording.