Unknown where flutes developed. Flutes tens-of-thousands of years old have been discovered in Europe and Asia. Bamboo flutes spread from China and India, along silk road, and across the oceans to Southeast Asia and Africa. Native Americans also made bamboo flutes.
The bambooflute, especially the bone flute, is one of the oldest musical instruments known.[1] Examples of Paleolithic bone flutes have survived for more than 40,000 years, to be discovered by archaeologists.[1] While the oldest flutes currently known were found in Europe, Asia too has a long history with the instrument that has continued into the present day. In China, a playable bone flute was discovered, about 9000 years old.[2]
Historians have found the bamboo flute has a long history as well, especially China and India. Flutes made history in records and artworks starting in the Zhou dynasty. The oldest written sources reveal the Chinese were using the kuan (a reed instrument) and hsio (or xiao, an end-blown flute, often of bamboo) in the 12th-11th centuries b.c., followed by the chi (or ch'ih) in the 9th century b.c. and the yüeh in the 8th century b.c.[3] Of these, the chi is the oldest documented cross flute or transverse flute, and was made from bamboo.[3][4] The Chinese have a word, zhudi, which literally means "bamboo flute."[5]
The cross flute (Sanscrit: vāṃśī) was "the outstanding wind instrument of ancient India," according to Curt Sachs.[6] He said that religious artwork depicting "celestial music" instruments was linked to music with an "aristocratic character."[6] The Indian bamboo cross flute, Bansuri, was sacred to Krishna, and he is depicted in Hindu art with the instrument.[6] In India, the cross flute appeared in reliefs from the 1st century a.d. at Sanchi and Amaravati from the 2nd-4th centuries a.d.[6][7]
In the modern age, bamboo flutes are common in places with ready access to bamboo, including Asia, South and Southeast Asia, South America, and Africa.
(the hole faces away from the player, against the lower lip, making sure the top lip is not concealing the hole, when the instrument is played. Works on the same basics as blowing air over an empty bottle to create noise.)
Kinko school utaguchi (歌口, blowing edge) and inlay. The shakuhachi player blows as one would blow across the top of an empty bottle (though the shakuhachi has a sharp edge to blow against called utaguchi) and therefore has substantial pitch control.
Hotchiku
Same technique as shakuhachi. The angle of the utaguchi (歌口, lit. "singing mouth"), or blowing edge, of a hotchiku is closer to perpendicular to the bore axis than that of a modern shakuhachi.
To produce sound, the player closes the top end of the pipe with the flesh between the chin and lower lip, and blows a stream of air downward, along the axis of the pipe, over an elliptical notch cut into the end.
Thailand. A block has been put into the end of the flute, an internal fipple that creates a hole to blow through, channeling air through a duct to create sound.
List of bamboo flutes, cane flutes, reed flutes
This list is intended to show flutes made of bamboo. It excludes pan flutes or panpipes, and flutes and whistles that don't have finger positions to change notes. It also excludes pipes that use reeds to produce the sound. Bamboo is a grass, and some "cane" or "reed" flutes may get listed here, as long as the plant is being used for a tube that is blown into or across to create noise. Types of flutes include transverse flutes (also called cross flutes), end-blown flutes (ring flutes are included with these) and Nose flutes. Fipple flutes, also called duct flutes, may be added to the list as well, as long as they are bamboo-based instruments. The bamboo variant may be added for instruments that include wood and bamboo versions.
This nasal flute is made from a section of bamboo, pierced with nine holes. The entire surface is decorated with geometric patterns of different shapes, forming several registers in the vertical direction. To play the flute, a hole must be applied against one nostril while the other is blocked by the fingers.
end-blownduct flute. Mouthhole on bottom of pipe's end, soundhole on flute's bottom (opposite side of the pipe from the fingerholes).[21] This flute may have as many as 8 fingerholes, plus up to 2 additional thumbholes; the thumbholes offer additional notes.[21]
Bamboo nose flute bound with bands of colored coconut fiber. Collected from Tahiti, the Society Islands during Cook's voyages to the Pacific 1768–1780.
^ abcdeSachs, Kurt (1940). The History of Musical Instruments. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. pp. 158–159, 180.
^Kadel, Ram Prasad (2007). Musical Instruments of Nepal. Katmandu, Nepal: Nepali Folk Instrument Museum. p. 45. ISBN978-9994688302. Banshi...\transverse flute...made from bamboo with six finger holes...known as Lord Krishna's instrument.
^Akrofi, Eric (2016-11-30). "Personalities in World Music Education No 14 – J.H. Kwabena Nketia". International Journal of Music Education: 41–45. doi:10.1177/025576149201900106. S2CID143945839.
^ abSadie Stanley, ed. (1984). "Gasba". The New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments. Vol. 2. London: MacMillan Press. p. 26. an oblique rim-blown flute.
^"Nai". thefreedictionary.com. Archived from the original on 2021-04-13. Retrieved 2020-11-30. The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979)...An Uzbek and Tadzhik transverse flute...Depending on the material from which it is made the nai is called agach-nai (wooden), garau-nai (bamboo), misnai (tin), and brindgzhi-nai (brass)
^Sam-Ang, Sam (2008). "The Khmer People of Cambodia". In Miller, Terry E.; Williams, Sean (eds.). The Garland Handbook of Southeast Asian Music. New York, US: Taylor & Francis. p. 97. ISBN9781135901547. Archived from the original on 2023-06-30. Retrieved 2020-11-30.
^ ab"ប្រវត្តិ "ខ្លុយ" (translation:History of the Khloy". choukhmer.wordpress.com. 6 July 2010. Archived from the original on 5 December 2020. Retrieved 5 December 2020. រន្ធ មាន បង្ហើរ ខ្យល់ ចោល មួយ ឬ ពីរ ស្ថិត នៅ លើ ក្រោម ឬ ចំហៀង តួ សម្រាប់ ជួយ តម្រូវ សំនៀង របស់ រន្ធ ចំ រន្ធ ទី ៧ ឬ រន្ធ ទី ៨ ។(translation: One or two vents on the bottom or side of the body to help adjust the tone of the seventh hole or eighth hole)
^"MOXEÑO o MOSEÑO". Archived from the original on 2020-11-30. Retrieved 2020-12-01. system of insufflation...placing a cane of conduit towards the mouth...to blow through the artificial "mouth"...due to the great distance from the normal mouth to the holes.
^"La Quena". Archived from the original on 2020-02-06. Retrieved 2020-12-01. ...a flute originally from South America, from the Andean zone (Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile and Argentina...