Native American flute


The Native American flute is a musical instrument and flute that is held in front of the player, has open finger holes,
and has two chambers: one for collecting the breath of the player and a second chamber which creates sound.
The player breathes into one end of the flute
without the need for an embouchure.
A block on the outside of the instrument
directs the player's breath from the first chamber—called the slow air chamber—into the second chamber—called the sound chamber.
The design of a sound hole at the proximal end of the sound chamber causes
air from the player's breath to vibrate.
This vibration causes a steady resonance of air pressure
in the sound chamber that creates sound.
Native American flutes comprise a wide range of designs, sizes, and variations—far more varied than most other classes of woodwind instruments.

Names

The instrument is known by many names. Some of the reasons for the variety of names include: the varied uses of the instrument,
the wide dispersal of the instrument across language groups and geographic regions,
legal statutes,
and the Native American name controversy.
Native American names for the flute include:
Alternative English-language names include:
American Indian courting flute,
courting flute,
Grandfather's flute,
Indian flute,
love flute,
Native American courting flute,
Native American love flute,
Native American style flute,
North American flute,
Plains flute,
and Plains Indian courting flute.
Names in other languages include:

  • Naming conventions

By convention, English-language uses of the name of the instrument are capitalized as "Native American flute". This is in keeping with the English-language capitalization of other musical instruments that use a cultural name, such as "French horn".
The prevalent term for a person who plays Native American flutes is "flutist". This term predominates the term "flautist". "Flute maker" is the predominant term for people who "craft" Native American flutes.

Organology

The instrument is classified in the 2011 revision of the Hornbostel–Sachs system by the MIMO Consortium
as 421.23—Flutes with internal duct formed by an internal baffle plus an external tied-on cover . This HS class also includes the Suling.
Although Native American flutes are played by directing air into one end, it is not strictly an end-blown flute,
since the sound mechanism uses a fipple design
using an external block that is fixed to the instrument.
The use of open finger holes classifies the Native American flute as a simple system flute.

History

There are many narratives about how different Indigenous peoples of the Americas invented the flute. In one narrative, woodpeckers pecked holes in hollow branches while searching for termites; when the wind blew along the holes, people nearby heard its music. Another narrative from the Tucano culture describes
Uakti, a creature with holes in his body that would produce sound when he ran or the wind blew through him.
It is not well known how the design of the Native American flute developed before 1823.
Some of the influences may have been:
  • Branches or stalks with holes drilled by insects that created sounds when the wind blew.
  • The design of the atlatl.
  • Clay instruments from Mesoamerica.
  • The Anasazi flute developed by Ancestral Puebloans of Oasisamerica.
  • Experience by Native Americans constructing organ pipes as early as 1524.
  • Recorders that came from Europe.
  • Flutes of the Tohono O'odham culture. Although crafted by a Native American people, these instruments are not strictly Native American flutes since they do not have an external block. In place of the block, the flue is formed by the player's finger on top of the sound mechanism. This style of flute may have been a precursor to, or one of the influences for, the Native American flute.
  • Flutes of the Akimel O'odham culture. These flutes may have directly evolved from flutes of the Tohono O'odham culture, with the addition of a piece of cloth over the sound mechanism to serve as the external block.
It is also possible that instruments were carried from other cultures during
migrations.
Flutes of the Mississippian culture have been found that appear to have the two-chambered design characteristic of Native American flutes. They were constructed of river cane. The earliest such flute is curated by the Museum Collections of the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. It was recovered in about 1931 by Samuel C. Dellinger and more recently identified as a flute by James A. Rees, Jr. of the Arkansas Archeological Society. The artifact is known colloquially as "The Breckenridge Flute" and was conjectured to date in the range 750–1350 CE.
This conjecture proved to be accurate when, in 2013, a sample from the artifact yielded a date range of 1020–1160 CE.
The earliest extant Native American flute crafted of wood was collected by the Italian adventurer Giacomo Costantino Beltrami in 1823 on his search for the headwaters of the Mississippi River. It is now in the collection of the Museo Civico di Scienze Naturali in Bergamo, Italy.

Construction

Components

The two ends of a Native American flute along the longitudinal axis are called the
head end
and the foot end.
The Native American flute has two air chambers:
the slow air chamber
and the sound chamber.
A plug
inside the instrument separates the slow air chamber from the sound chamber.
The block on the outside of the instrument is a separate part that can be removed.
The block is also called the bird, the fetish, the saddle, or the totem.
The block is tied by a strap onto the nest of the flute.
The block moves air through a flue
from the slow air chamber to the sound chamber.
The block is often in the shape of a bird.
Note that flutes of the Mi'kmaq culture are typically constructed from a separate block, but the block is permanently fixed
to the body of the flute during construction.
Even though these flutes do not have a movable block, they are
generally considered to be Native American flutes.
The precise alignment and longitudinal position of the block is critical to getting the desired sound from the instrument.
The longitudinal position also has a modest effect on the pitches produced by the flute,
giving the player a range of roughly 10–40 cents of pitch adjustment.
The slow air chamber has a mouthpiece and breath hole for the player's breath.
Air flows through the slow air chamber and up the ramp, through the exit hole, and into the flue.
The slow air chamber can serve as a secondary resonator, which can give some flutes a distinctive sound.
The sound chamber contains the sound hole, which creates the vibration of air that causes sound when the airflow
reaches the splitting edge.
The sound hole can also be called the whistle hole, the window, or the true sound hole.
The splitting edge can also be called the cutting edge, the fipple edge, the labium, or the sound edge.
The sound chamber also has finger holes that allows the player to change the
frequency of the vibrating air.
Changing the frequency of the vibration changes the pitch of the sound produced.
The finger holes on a Native American flute are open, meaning that fingers of the player cover the finger hole
.
This use of open finger holes classifies the Native American flute as a simple system flute.
Because of the use of open finger holes, the flutist must be able to reach all the finger holes on the instrument with their fingers,
which can limit the size of the largest flute that a given flutist can play.
The finger holes can also be called the note holes, the playing holes, the tone holes, or the stops.
The foot end of the flute can have direction holes.
These holes affect the pitch of the flute when all the finger holes are covered.
The direction holes also relate to the Four Directions of
East, South, West, and North found in many Indigenous American stories.
The direction holes can also be called the tuning holes or wind holes.
In addition to the Components of the Native American flute diagram shown above with English-language labels, diagrams are available with labels in
Cherokee,
Dutch,
Esperanto,
French,
German,
Japanese,
Korean,
Polish,
Russian,
and
Spanish.

Spacer plate

An alternate design for the sound mechanism uses a spacer plate to create the flue.
The spacer plate sits between the nest area on the body of the flute and the removable block.
The spacer plate is typically held in place by the same strap that holds the block on the instrument.
The splitting edge can also be incorporated into the design of the spacer plate.
The spacer plate is often constructed of metal, but spacer plates have been constructed of wood, bark, and ceramic.
When positioning and securing the removable block with the strap,
the use of a spacer plate provides and additional degree of control over the sound and tuning of the flute.
However, it also adds a degree of complexity when performing the task of securing both the block and the spacer plate.

Plains style vs. Woodlands style

Various sources describe attributes of Native American flute that are termed "Plains style" and "Woodlands style".
However, there is no general consensus among the various sources
about what these terms mean.
According to various sources the distinction is based on:
  • whether the flute uses a spacer plate to create the flue of the instrument,
  • whether the flue is in the body of the flute or the bottom of the block,
  • the sharpness of the angle of the splitting edge,
  • whether the finger holes are burned or bored into the body of the flute,
  • the design of the mouthpiece,
  • the timbre of the sound of the flute, or
  • details of the fingering for the primary scale.