Indian flute

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Indian flute, carved by Chief Arthur Two-Crows, 1987

The Indian flute is a traditional North American Indian flute . It is a mostly wide- bored core- gap flute . The special thing about it is that the core gap is formed with the help of a rider on the outside of the flute body.

In English a whole series of names for this flute are common, in addition to Indian flute and American Indian flute also love flute , ie "love flute", and courting flute , ie " courting flute ". There is also the descriptive humpback flute , meaning “ hump flute ” and external duct flute , meaning “flute with an external core gap”. The most common today is the name Native American Flute , which simply means "Indian flute " in German.

In addition to the Indian flute, there are also other types of flutes, such as kerbflutes, comparable to the South American quena and recorder-like instruments , among North American Indians .

Construction

Construction

An Indian flute consists of a pipe that is divided into two sections by a partition in the upper quarter. The lower section consists of cold cuts with a cutting edge, the clay holes and the lower opening, possibly with four so-called wind holes, which limit the effective pipe length and allow a carved lower end. The upper section forms the wind chamber and consists of the blow opening at the upper end of the pipe and an air outlet opening at the septum, which is located directly above the cut.

In order to create a core gap, a rider is attached over the air outlet opening with a cord, which is designed so that it forms the core gap together with the flute wall, which leads to the cutting edge. This rider is also known as a totem or fetish, in English also as a bird , ie "bird" or block .

There are two variants: the more common prairie variant and the less common woodland variant, where it is said that the channel for the core gap was carved into the flute wall. However, this apparently also occurs sometimes with the prairie variant, so that the distinction is not entirely clear. Woodland flutes are always described as being softer and more intimate in tone.

Some flutes also have a second tube without tone holes as a drone and belong to the double flutes .

Indian flutes are usually carved from split wood, rarely turned, but sometimes made from reed or bamboo.

history

Indian flute

The Indian flute is first mentioned in the 19th century. Pre-Columbian flutes, such as those excavated by the Pueblo Indians, are notched flutes, such as the South American Quena ; some such instruments are still in use in North America, such as the Hopi . A number of creation myths for the Indian flute are known. A popular story about the Indian flute is that young men used it in courtship and then stopped using it. In addition, it was also used, among other things, for ceremonial purposes and for healing, mainly as a soloist. At the beginning of the 20th century the Indian flute was largely forgotten as a result of the cultural oppression of the Indians by the American government. Since the sixties of the 20th century there was a renaissance and Indian flutes found their place above all in Indian ensembles and in New Age and world music , but classical compositions were also written for them, among others by Philip Glass . Well-known Native American flautists are Grammy and Nammy Award winners Mary Youngblood , Bill Miller and R. Carlos Nakai .

Mood and range

Fingerings for the basic scale (minor pentatonic scale) on many of today's Indian flutes

In the nineteenth century the tuning of the Indian flutes did not conform to the western tone system. The mood of the flutes was extremely diverse. A certain sound system was not recognizable. Such flutes and their modern replicas are also called "grandfather flutes". Then in the twentieth century it became common to use the western tonal system, mostly the minor pentatonic scale . There are flutes with five tone holes that can be used to play a single pentatonic scale; however, most have six tone holes because they can be used to play various pentatonic scales and even diatonic scales.

Due to their wide length, Indian flutes can usually only be overblown with difficulty or not at all, so that the range seldom exceeds an octave and a half. Their keynote is usually in the one- or two-stroke octave. Occasionally there are also lower instruments in the small octave.

layout

played on a flute in 1987 made by Chief Arthur Two-crows

In addition to very simple flutes, there are also elaborately designed with traditional carving art, which also serve as collector's and decorative objects.

Web links

Commons : Indian Flute  - Collection of images, videos and audio files