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 pressurein the sound chamber that creates sound.[2]
Native American flutes comprise a wide range of designs, sizes, and variations—far more varied than most other classes of woodwind instruments.
The instrument is known by many names.[3] Some of the reasons for the variety of names include: the varied uses of the instrument (e.g. courting), the wide dispersal of the instrument across language groups and geographic regions, legal statutes (see the Indian Arts And Crafts Act), and the Native American name controversy.
Native American names for the flute include:
Alternative English-language names include:American Indian courting flute,[11]courting flute,[12] Grandfather's flute,[13]Indian flute,[14]love flute,[15] Native American courting flute,[16]Native American love flute,[17]Native American style flute (see the Indian Arts And Crafts Act),North American flute,[18]Plains flute,[19]and Plains Indian courting flute.[20]
Names in other languages include:
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".[21]
The prevalent term for a person who plays Native American flutes is "flutist". This term predominates the term "flautist".[22] "Flute maker" is the predominant term for people who "craft" Native American flutes.
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 (natural node, block of resin) plus an external tied-on cover (cane, wood, hide).[1] 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.[2]
The use of open finger holes (finger holes that are played by the direct application and removal of fingers, as opposed to keys) classifies the Native American flute as a simple system flute.
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.[23] Another narrative from the Tucano culture describesUakti, 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:
It is also possible that instruments were carried from other cultures duringmigrations.[34]
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.[35][36] This conjecture proved to be accurate when, in 2013, a sample from the artifact yielded a date range of 1020–1160 CE (95% probability calibrated date range).[37]
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.[38]
The two ends of a Native American flute along the longitudinal axis are called the head end (the end closest to the player's mouth—also called the North end, proximal end, or top end) and the foot end (also called the bottom end, distal end, or South end).
The Native American flute has two air chambers: the slow air chamber (also called the SAC, compression chamber, mouth chamber,breath chamber, first chamber, passive air chamber, primary chamber, or wind chamber) and the sound chamber (also called the pipe body,resonating chamber, tone chamber, playing chamber, or variable tube). A plug (also called an internal wall, stopper, baffle, or partition) 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(also called the channel, furrow, focusing channel, throat, or windway) from the slow air chamber to the sound chamber. The block is often in the shape of a bird.[39]
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 (typically with glue). 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 ("TSH"). 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 thefrequency 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 (rather than metal levers or pads such as those on a clarinet). This use of open finger holes classifies the Native American flute as a simple system flu