Bone flute
Bone flutes are very simple small wind instruments . In contrast to a wooden flute, a harmonious instrument can hardly be built from bone, since the bone cavity is never uniform. The greater part of the bone flute is designed as a core gap flute or recorder . A wax plug is inserted as a block into the upper end of the bone and contains the blow hole. The air flow is divided at the labium or cold cuts. Other bone flutes are blown from the side like transverse flutes .
history
Stone age
- → Main article Flutes made of bone and ivory in the Aurignacia
Bone flutes are the oldest archaeologically proven musical instruments of mankind. There are already finds from the Aurignacien , a culture of the European Paleolithic . In 2009 the discovery of a well-preserved flute made from the wing bone of a griffon vulture from the Hohlefels on the Swabian Alb, which is around 42,000–43,000 years old, became known. It is sometimes difficult to judge whether finger holes are actually made by human hands or whether they are bite marks from predators. Also among the oldest finds are three specimens from the Geißenklösterle cave near Blaubeuren , only a few kilometers from the Hohlefels. The first flute found there, which was made from the radius of a whooper swan , became particularly famous . Recently, let mammoth ivory -pieces together to form a flute, which had at least three finger holes.
Metal times and the Roman era
Amazingly, there are no bone flutes from this long period. The Roman tibia was made of wood, ivory or metal, even if the name still refers to an original production from the shin bone.
middle Ages
In the Middle Ages flutes came from shins (tibiae) in front of sheep most commonly. The number of finger holes varied: mostly three or four holes, more rarely two, five or six holes, some with an additional thumb hole. There were also flutes made from bird bones. The earliest medieval finds include flutes from the Carolingian monastery of Müstair (Switzerland, Canton Graubünden) and from the northern German settlements of Haithabu and Schleswig . A surprising number of finds come from castles.
Manufacturing
A tubular bone that is as straight as possible is best, for example the shinbones (tibiae) of young sheep or the bones of birds. For macerated bone, remove one or both ends of the joint. Then you drill the holes. The top one, which divides the airflow, is called the labium or cold cuts. This is followed by a thumb hole on the back and finger holes on the front if desired. A beeswax plug is inserted into the upper end of the flute as a mouthpiece into which the air duct has to be cut.
Style of play
Due to the differences in bone cross-section and length, no laws can be derived for the construction of a coherent instrument. The deliberately chosen small number of finger holes in medieval specimens shows that, in contrast to wooden flutes, the construction of a versatile instrument was not intended at all.
Stone age
Melodies from the Stone Age are of course not passed down. Friedrich Seeberger , an expert in the reconstruction of archaeological music, carried out experiments with modern replicas of Stone Age flutes. Remarkably varied music can be played with the simple instruments.
middle Ages
For this period, too, there are no traditional melodies, information on how to play and who actually played on these "simple" instruments. The comparatively large number of finds on castles, at least in Switzerland, could serve as an indication of a tradition of this kind that is particularly well-maintained there; either by the Burg needle or by dairymen that kept the castle own cattle. Shepherds preferred simple melodies, as shown by the phrase “Pastorale” (Italian: shepherd's song) in Arcangelo Corelli's Christmas concert . Traveling musicians can also be considered as players on bone flutes. On multi-hole instruments, a skilful minstrel could play melodies with forked handles, half-covering the holes and overblowing techniques. Overall, however, the drilling of the holes does not have a system, and they sound accordingly: a scale rarely results, mostly inconsistent.
literature
- Gerd Albrecht, C. Stephan Holdermann, Tim Kerig, Jutta Lechterbeck, Jordi Serangeli , "Flutes" made from bear bones - the earliest musical instruments? Archäologisches Korrespondenzblatt 28, 1998, 1–19.
- Christine Brade, The medieval core gap flutes of Central and Northern Europe, Neumünster 1975.
- Tim Kerig, swan wing bone flute: 35,000 years ago, ice age hunters invented music. Stuttgart: Württembergisches Landesmuseum, 2004
- Bone sound. Announcements of the Prehistoric Commission / Austrian Academy of Sciences 36, Vienna 2000, CD and booklet.
- Raymond Meylan, The Flute. Basics of their development from prehistory to the present, Mainz 2000.
- Stefanie Osimitz, The Carolingian bone flutes from the St. Johann monastery in Müstair. In: Annual report of the Archaeological Service and the Preservation of Monuments Graubünden 2006, Chur 2007, 68–73.
swell
- ↑ uni-tuebingen.de: University of Tübingen - NewsFullview press releases ( Memento of the original from November 7, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed November 7, 2014
