Flute music

The following program was originally released in 1967.

Of the many types of melodic instruments in the world the flute in its various forms

seems to be the most universal in both distribution and appeal to them.

You know you talk about that you know

that.

Though they could use it in a variety of ways and for many different reasons

all the peoples of the world have a new set of.

Michigan State University Radio invites you now to a program of music around the

world produced and hosted by Martha lookalikes.

Flutes come in all sizes.

Some are so small as to produce only a couple of high shrill note. The one we're

hearing now is not the smallest but it is small enough to be played with only three fingers of one

hand while the drum dangles from the little finger the same hand and is struck with the other hand.

This combination called Tabor and pipe was common in Europe in the Middle Ages.

In this modern example is from Peru.

On the other hand the Indians of Mato Grosso area in Argentina

have double flutes which are no less than seven feet long.

Many flutes including both of those we just mentioned are played by

blowing at one end of the tube.

But there are many other foods that are held at a right angle to the player's body with the breath directed

at a hole in the side of the instrument.

These are often called transverse in the silver flute used in orchestras and bands in this country.

A good example that. The flute we're hearing now however.

Is a still another one knows it's being played with air from the nostrils

instead of the mouth. They're not very common but they are found on all the continents.

This particular example is from the Thames.

Recorders are part of the flute family as well as our various kinds of whistles

arenas Pan pipes. In fact all kinds of wind instruments in which the sound is not

dependent upon the vibration of lips or reeds.

People make flutes out of all sorts of materials clay

metal wood. The sound you hear now is a flute made by

South Africa out of the yard long hollow stalk of the wild cabbage plant.

You may have noticed the sound of the player's voice punctuating the sound of the instrument.

Sometimes this occurs involuntarily when the player is gasping for air or

pushing out the large amounts of air necessary for playing the flute. And sometimes it's done

on purpose. For instance I think that it was done on purpose in the previous example to get a certain

effect.

One of the interesting. Possible on the flute is that the player can get a different sort of tone

by humming while he plays.

Here we hear a herdsman from the Highlands on the eastern border of the Congo

using this voice.

A similar technique of singing while playing is also sometimes used by the choppy women

of Mozambique when they play opera arenas which are as I mentioned earlier branch of the flute family.

There aka arenas are made from the hard shells of a certain kind of wild orange.

I think it's interesting to note the point that it is women who are playing. I

don't know whether or not the men ever play our arena but each society has its

own rules about which activities are acceptable for men to engage in and which activities are

suitable for women.

And this usually extends to the field of music who is allowed to make Handel or

play any particular instrument. Use specific vocal styles or do certain dance steps.

In some cases it might even be a punishable social offense for say a

woman to touch a particular musical instrument or for a man to do a particular dance.

In many cultures the flute is symbolically associated with fertility life and love.

It's been suggested that some of the characteristics of the instrument which might be relevant to

these associations are its shape the quality of the sound being so

similar to the human voice and the fact that the production of the sound is so intimately related to

one's breath. In any case the flute is considered in many cultures to

have a powerful effect and is sometimes reserved strictly for ritual or ritualistic

purposes.

Such was the usage of many of the American Indian tribes. Here we have the song

accompanying the Sun Dance of the suit the sun dance was the main ceremony the

Plains tribes and had great significance though the details differed from tribe to tribe

blowing the whistle demonstrates the importance of the ceremony and ensures it

Cassady the flute is bound to be especially powerful because it's made of the bone of an

eagle and mystical power also resided in the Eagle.

A more ordinary kind of flute was used for North American Indian love songs but it was

still assumed that the sound of the instrument had great power that it would literally

as well as figuratively and chant and the which the girl of whom it was directed.

The music of the South American Indians has combined with the Spanish an African musical

traditions with a wide variety of interesting results. In the end these mountains

region of Colombia there developed a dance called go based on the coca

tree and conquest of love and again its flutes seem to best tell the story.

If you heard the program we did on love. You may remember my mentioning that the theme song of

this series is music music around the world. Tills of the down to earth love of the Hindu god

Krishna for his concert. The MILKMAID Raja.

While implying the spiritual interpretation of love between man and God

having been raised in a community of words with Krishna himself is said to have played the flute so

sweet that. Nothing.

Could resist it.

Even the river stopped flowing to listen. The flute is one of the main symbols of the

art literature drama dance and music.

Music is also used in reference to the other gods of India. Here it accompanies a woman singing

a song of devotion to Lord Rama.

The old.

Man.

That. Was. That.

Was.

It was the sound of flutes that accompanied the metal of the sect of Turkish Muslim

mystics in their efforts to communicate with the Divine Spirit.

They were commonly called whirling dervishes because accompanied by flute music such as we're hearing

now is closed and hands raised above their tall rounded hats. The left

palm facing New York's in the right palm up toward the sky repeating certain phrases

over and over they slowly spun round and round for hours on end.

The wide hymns of their long cloaks flowing around them.

However flutes are also accompaniment for less serious dances. A few minutes ago we heard a

popular South American dance. Here's a Tartar folk dance. Also a

flirtation. The flute is backed by a joyous heart.

Many interesting intimates are used in Yugoslavian folk music including several types of

flutes. One is a double flute.

Two pipes carved out of a single piece of wood one having three holes in the other hand and.

Two pipes which are often tuned to an interval of the second harmonic pattern to which

most Western ears are unaccustomed but which is a favorite interval in that area.

That double flute is basically a shepherd's instrument. And they also have various sizes of

single flutes. The men play to wile away the time when they're out tending the

flocks and to accompany dances when they're in the village. They also claim that the

music helps to keep the animals calm and signals them when they're to move on.

The long flute playing tradition of the Greeks is amply attested by among other things

numerous illustrations of instruments and players on pottery pieces in that country to the

terrain and economic situation lead to many men spending much of their time alone in the

mountains with their flocks for company and their flutes for solace.

Perhaps because it's relatively easy to make an easily portable yet has a pleasing sound

similar to the pleasantness of human voices the flute is often used as an instrument of

personal expression to create musical extensions of an individual's feelings of

joy loneliness or sadness. In the following selection from Sumatra

the flute accompanies the final sadness that of mourning.

Flute music can also be cheering however. The next election was played by two elderly

Luba men of the Katanga region of the Congo. When asked why they played this kind of

music they answered that they were sad and depressed and they wanted to cheer themselves up and give their hearts

courage. The people who happened to be listening in obviously share their feelings and joined in

spontaneously. It's an interesting style. Evidently indigenous to the area a

thumb piano supplies the background to the flute work seems to me that if American

musicians had had a chance to make extended trips to the Congo in the earlier days of jazz

the techniques of herby man and the other modern jazz flutist might have made less of a splash.

My body you have to

be able to be able to. You.

Don't want to. Go out.

There.

With up good.

Stuff.

Do you want to.

Then has such a large variety of foods that I didn't know where to begin choosing examples. So

I put together a sort of pastiche of a few of the several kinds of Japanese musics to give

you an idea of some of them.

She is a large heavy walled bamboo flute which plays both solo and in

various kinds of ensemble. It often joins with this guitar like show me song which you hear in the

company vocal solos.

The music.

From.

The village group becoming the band's.

Accompaniment for a hero's dance.

Those were from both the folk and the classical style pan. India too has

several kinds of flute music both in the classical and folk traditions. Each area has

its own styles and the various tribal groups scattered around the country have their own distinctive

styles. This lively dances of the tribe in Madhya Pradesh.

From the Turkistan area of Afghanistan we hear a flute playing a melody similar in

style to Mediterranean shepherd.

In Israel where the recorder type flute called in Hebrew College who is considered the

national instrument. Many of the tunes have grown out of a shepherd's feeling for the land.

We're hearing one of the top composers for that instrument named playing one of his

own compositions called Kineret the Sea of Galilee.

We have a musical interpretation of partridges in the next piece. The Chinese composer

who plays his arrangement of an ancient melody.

Before we begin our last election I invite you to go on a musical whirl of weddings around the world

with us next week.

Our last numbers from Tunisia it's played against Aleut background is a sort of

high society Siloam style of that country.

We have presented music around the world with Martin the worst loser and commentator

and we invite you to be with us again next week at the same time for music

around the world.

You're right I've done my bit but you know.

This program was produced for Michigan State University Radio

originally released in 1067.

The program you've just heard is from the program library of National Public

Radio.