Flute Types and Stereotypes

It is not known if Raman's flutes were horizontally, diagonally, or vertically held when played, cross-blown or end-blown, ducted or ductless. Because there is an innumerable amount of flute types in the world, as explained in the prelude to this book, there is also an inestimable amount of oral and written literature that mentions flutes. Often, however, specific flute types are not distinguished in folklore, and sometimes flutes are just called "pipes" (see chapter 11), oboes are called "flutes," trumpets are called "flutes," flutes are called "trumpets," and so on. For those reasons of ambiguity, it is important to discuss how flutes are classified in music scholarship.

Flute Classification

What exactly is a flute? A flute is an edge-type aerophone, meaning it is any instrument whose sound is produced by an aspirated stream of air—in flutelore, the players include humans, animals, spirits, and other entities—that strikes a sharp edge, creating audible sound waves. The histories and traditions of music throughout the world include many ways to classify musical instruments, and ethnomusicologist Margaret Kartomi has discussed and compared most of them.

For purposes of world flutelore, I delineate seven categories for aspirated edge-type aerophones, which I refer to as "Olsen categories" in this book.

1. Vertical/diagonal tubular flute with ductless, rimmed mouthpiece. Single-tubed (open distal end); ductless (open proximal end or open end extension made from a different material than the tube; rimmed; the player focuses the air stream directly upon the sound-producing, rimmed edge or an extension of the rimmed edge that is made from a different material than the tube), vertically or diagonally held when played, end-blown, with finger holes. Some examples are the Arabic nai (see figure 1), Bulgarian kaval, Ethiopian washint, Hopi flute, Persian nay, and Turkish ney.

2. Vertical tubular flute with ductless notched mouthpiece. Single-tubed (open distal end), ductless (with a notch for a mouthpiece; the player focuses the air stream directly upon the sound-producing edge in the shape of a notch), vertically or diagonally held, end-blown, with finger holes. Some examples are the Bolivian and Peruvian kena (quena), Chinese xiao (hsiao), Ghanaian odurugya, Japanese shakuhachi (see fig. 2), Q'ero pinkuyllu, and Vietnamese tieu, and Warao muhusemoi (see chapter 2, figure 9).

3. Vertical, diagonal, or horizontal tubular flute with duct mouthpiece. Single- (also double-, triple-, quadruple-, or more) tubed (open distal end), duct (with a fipple, beak, ring, or external baffle type mouthpiece apparatus that channels the player's air to the sound-producing edge), vertically (i.e., recorder), diagonally held (i.e., Irish pennywhistle on occasion), horizontally (Bolivian muhuseño and Slovakian fujara; with attached bocal or air tube), end-blown, with finger holes—some examples are the Bolivian, Ecuadoran, and Peruvian pinkullo (and variant spellings), the Bolivian saripalka (see chapter 7, figure 15), Bolivian tarka (see chapter 7, figure 16), European recorder, Indonesian suling, Irish pennywhistle, and Native American courting flutes (see chapter 5, figures 13 and 14).

4. Transverse tubular flute with ductless single-hole cross-blown mouthpiece. Single-tubed (open distal end, although some variants are closed), ductless (with a mouthpiece that is a single hole that is either round, oval, square, or rectangular in shape; the player focuses the air stream from the mouth or nose directly upon the sound-producing edge of the hole), horizontally or slightly diagonally held (often varies during a performance), cross-blown, with finger holes. Some examples are the Brazilian pífano, Chinese dizi, European-derived orchestral flute, Indian bansuri, Hawaiian 'ohe hano ihu, and Vietnamese sao (see figure 3).

5. Vertical multiple-tubular flute with ductless rimmed mouthpieces (panpipe type). Multiple-tubed (closed distal ends, joined or held together in a raft or bundle shape), ductless (open proximal ends only, no notches; the player focuses the air stream directly upon the sound-producing edge or edges), without finger holes. Panpipes can be either single unit or double unit. A single-unit panpipe consists of a series of tubes of diverse materials that are rafted or bundled, carved, or molded (see figure 4) together to form a single whole that is capable of producing a complete melody when played by a single player—some examples are the Chinese pai xiao, Ecuadoran rondador, Peruvian antara, and Romanian nai. A double-unit panpipe consists of two halves, each half traditionally played by a separate individual, requiring two persons to play the whole, the two halves considered to be one instrument. Some examples are the siku among the Aymara in Bolivia and Peru, and the julajula in Bolivia (see chapter 14, figure 21).

6. Globular or vessel flute with ductless, single-hole, cross-blown mouthpiece (ocarina type 1). Single-chambered vessel, ductless (with a...