| 45,000
Years of Flute
In
1999, archaeologists excavating a site at Jiahu in China's Hunan
Province unearthed six flutes which are 7,000 to 9,000 years old.
They date from the early Neolithic period, and are the oldest playable
flutes in the world. Made from the wing bones of the red-crowned
crane, the flutes are transverse, played horizontally like our own.
But the flute was around long before then. A 45,000 year-old flute
was found in Slovenia in 1995. It is made from a bear femur and
is blown at one end. Its range is almost exactly an octave. A 30,000
year-old deer bone flute and a 40,000 year-old vulture bone recorder
were discovered in French caves. These two instruments have a range
of almost two octaves.
Visit
the Assyrian and Babylonian rooms at the British Museum and you'll
spot flute players in the ancient stone wall-carvings. A small bronze
statue of a flute-playing girl which dates back to between 1300
and 900 B.C.E. was found in Megiddo, Israel, attesting to the flute's
use by the ancient Hebrews. The ancient Greeks tied reeds together
to form pan-pipes called the syrinx. Debussy's masterpiece Syrinx
is inspired by this instrument and the Greek myth of Pan and Syrinx.
The Indians of ancient Mexico also made flutes out of reeds, originally
just with one note but eventually boring holes into the reeds to
produce more than one note. As art historian Bradley Smith has noted,
"pipes and flutes evolved from the human voice, the sound of
wind, and the song of birds." The Indians also made flute-like
pipes out of clay, like ocarinas. A small sculpture of a person
playing a clay pipe, found in Oaxaca, Mexico, dates from around
300 A.D. After the human voice and drums, the flute was the earliest
instrument used in ancient India. One of the ancient Indian flutes
was played through the nose.
Some
cultures play flutes that are virtually the same as their ancient
ancestors. In China, the ti-tzu is still used for performances of
traditional music. This transverse bamboo flute has eight holes
and plays a scale similar to C Major. The ancient Indian flute is
very similar to the modern-day bansuri of Hindustan in northern
India, which derives its name from the word for bamboo.
Also
transverse, the bansuri is a popular solo instrument and plays music
based on ragas, or scales comprised of diatonic, chromatic, and
mixed modes. The quena, played in South America, has pre-Columbian
origins. Compared with these examples of ancient flutes, the instrument
we play today is relatively new.
The
Tudor and Baroque Recorder
In Europe, the earliest baroque and pre-baroque composers
wrote for the wooden recorder. In Queen Elizabeth's time (ruled
1558-1603), recorders often played in a quartet, their different
sizes reflecting the soprano, alto, tenor, and bass configuration
of a vocal quartet. In addition to defeating the Spanish Armada
(1588) and leading her country to prominence on the world stage,
Queen Elizabeth was a great patron of the arts. It is said that
among her court musicians were 76 recorder players and 78 flutists
and fifers!
When
the Queen went out hunting she took her horn players. The trumpet
was sounded
in military settings, but the recorder players only serenaded their
Queen indoors. Why was that? Because the recorder of this period
was very soft, so its sound would not carry unless it was played
in an intimate room.
This
changed as recorders were gradually replaced by louder, transverse
flutes, and Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) was key in effecting
this revolution. Bach wrote for the transverse flute, taking advantage
of its greater volume and technical capabilities and expanding the
dynamic and expressive range demanded of the performer. You've probably
played Bach's music. The Six Sonatas for Flute and Harpsichord or
Continuo, Partita in A Minor for solo flute, Suite in B Minor, and
other flute music are some of the most magnificent staples of the
flute repertoire.
The
Classical Period: From One Key to the Boehm System
During the classical period, composers such as Mozart and Haydn
wrote for a wooden, transverse flute with only one key. The intonation
was irregular because flutemakers were limited by the possibilities
afforded by holes simply bored into the wood. In the 1830s, Theobald
Boehm, a flutist living in Munich, Germany, developed his system
of flute design which has lasted in its basic form through the present
day. We all play Boehm system flutes.
The
Flute's Role in Society
Throughout its long and colorful history, the flute has been fashioned
of wood, bone, clay, bamboo, and metal, and played vertically, horizontally,
and even through the nose. Present in almost every society, the
flute has played distinct roles. In ancient Greece, the syrinx was
played by shepherds and herdsmen in pastoral settings. The ancient
Chinese used the hsiao in their temples to elicit a solemn mood
during the Confucian ritual. The bansuri is connected to Hindu ritual
through its association with the god Krishna. In the Bible, the
flute is a joyful instrument used for praising God: "Praise
Him with stringed instruments and the pipe." (Psalm 150)
So,
my Flutewise friends, know that your instrument existed long before
recorded history, and that civilization dawned to the accompaniment
of the flute. "And the people piped with pipes, and rejoiced
with great joy, so that the earth rent with the sound of them."
(First Kings, I:40)
Activities:
-
Visit a museum to see the collection of ancient instruments.
-
Today, recorders are still made of wood, but also plastic. I played
the recorder before I started the flute. Perhaps you also play
the recorder. If not, try it.
-
Visit the following websites for more information, photos, and
recordings of the flutes discussed in this article. Website
where you can read about and download a recording of the 9,000
year-old Chinese flutes. Recorder website.
-
Play some pieces that evoke ancient times and exotic flutes, such
as Debussy's Syrinx, Katharine Hoover's Winter Spirits for Solo
Flute, based on the American Indian Kokopelli, and Robert Maggio's
Elysian Fields for Solo Flute, based on the Greek myth of Orpheus
and Eurydice. André Jolivet's Chant de Linos depicts the
funeral songs and dances of ancient Greece. Each of the four movements
of Albert Roussel's Joueurs de flûte portrays a different
flutist from myth or legend, including Pan and Krishna.
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