native american kaval???

[pancelticpiper]

I was visiting Yosemite a few years ago, and I went to the place where they have a reconstructed native American village, and local native Americans discussing various aspects of their culture. There was a guy who was playing flute. He says, "anyone want to try it?" I said I'd try, he handed it to me, and I immediately saw that it was like a Bulgarian kaval or Middle Eastern ney, being an open tube. Having played kaval, I proceeded to play on the thing. The guy was astonished, saying "you're the first white person who's been able to play it!"
So, here is a Native american flute tradition which uses the same technology as the kaval or ney. This tradition seems to be completely overlooked in the present revival of Native American fluteplaying. I've talked to a number of Native American flutemakers, and none has even heard of this style of flute.
However, when I looked at a museum catalogue of California Native American flutes (I can't remember which museum), about half of the specimens were this style, the other half having the now-universal block.
Anyone out there know about this, or how widespread the kaval-style Native American flutes once were?
At least in South American flutes, the story I've heard is that the fipple was introduced by the Spanish, and that pre-Columbian flutes were either panpipes or the shakuhachi-like kena. If so, how did North American natives come to invent the fipple? Or is the fipple concept in North American also post-Columbian?

[Yuri]

Aw, come on! There are libraries worth of books and articles by all sort of researchers, from musicologists to ethnographists describing pre-Columbian fluetes with fipples. (which is a really weird word, since no-one seems to agree just what it means exactly, but you get my point) There are tons of Aztec and surrounding peoples' flutes of this type, both open, as in whistle, and closed, as in ocarina. In the South, there seems to be less emphasis on the open ones, at least in the high Andean cultures, but there are open flutes of this type from Colombia and Venezuela, and of course there are the ocarinas from the Andes.
And as to the kaval-like flute. It would be really surprising if a culture failed to notice the musical possbilities of the simplest of all flutes, the open tube. With fingerholes added. As to whether the culture chose this type as a preferred one, that's another matter.

[Yuri]

Aw, come on! There are libraries worth of books and articles by all sort of researchers, from musicologists to ethnographists describing pre-Columbian fluetes with fipples. (which is a really weird word, since no-one seems to agree just what it means exactly, but you get my point) There are tons of Aztec and surrounding peoples' flutes of this type, both open, as in whistle, and closed, as in ocarina. In the South, there seems to be less emphasis on the open ones, at least in the high Andean cultures, but there are open flutes of this type from Colombia and Venezuela, and of course there are the ocarinas from the Andes.
And as to the kaval-like flute. It would be really surprising if a culture failed to notice the musical possbilities of the simplest of all flutes, the open tube. With fingerholes added. As to whether the culture chose this type as a preferred one, that's another matter.

[greenspiderweb]

Pancelticpiper,

Are you referring to what some are calling the Anasazi flute (or Hopi in another version)? If so, it's not overlooked by some modern NAF makers-but probably only a handful have made any. It seems an interesting flute to me, and one I'd like to try someday.

Here's a couple of links that might help:

http://cedarmesa.blogspot.com/2005/10/n ... asazi.html

http://www.shakuhachiforum.com/viewtopic.php?id=82

[pancelticpiper]

Thanks Greenspider! Those are sort of like the Yosemite ones. The Yosemite type are much shorter, only around half the length, and having a much wider bore-to-length ratio they play in the low register. Kavals and Neys, having a more narrow bore-to-length ratio, want to play in the second and higher registers, and special techniques must be used to play the low register.
Also the blowing technique is quite different on the Kaval as opposed to this Anasazi flute. The Anasazi flute seems to be a Shakuhachi or Quena type thing, blown vertically and having a notch. The Kaval and Yosemite flute have no notch at all. The embouchure technique on a Kaval is sideways- hard to describe but quite different.
So this basic type of endblown flute was perhaps fairly widespread, it seems.
About pre-Columbian fipples, perhaps you're right Yuri, but I played Andean music for several years, hung out with a lot of Bolivian and Peruvian guys, and read a lot about the music, and the consensus was that fipples were post-Columbian, and that ocarinas etc were introduced by the Spanish. Maybe that belief comes from the apparent fact that remote villages were there is little or no Spanish influence even today have no fipple-type instruments, playing only Siku and drum.

[Yuri]

Yes, in the high Andean civilizations there seems to be a dearth of (pre-colombian) fipple-type flutes. It's quite possible that the present ones are all post-conquest. But closer to North America what I wrote is still true. I remember an article in National Geographic on a newly discovered Mayan township, and there is a photo of some guy playing a tiny greenstone ocarina, just unearthed. (said it's tuned in perfect pentatonic scale, which, from my own experience with ocarinas I tend to doubt very much, as with different fingerings yo can get just about any scale you like.) And the Aztec pipes with one, two, three and even four clay cylinders and any number of fingerholes on some/any of the pipes are so idiosyncretic as to make any post-contact theory out of the question.

[Steve Bliven]

This sort of rim-blown, obliquely played flute is common to most all California tribes. They were generally made from river cane cut between the nodules or with the nodules punched out, or from Elderberry with the pith pushed through. They had anywhere from three to seven holes. I've made a number of these for my own amusement and they can play some very interesting tunes.

The Hopi or "Anasazi" flutes are generally played much like a quena or a shakuhachi, i.e., "over the top"; although they too can be played obliquely.

I'd be interested in knowing who the player was that is shown in the original message on this topic. Perhaps Ben Cunningham-Summerfield?

Best wishes.

Steve

[sean an piobaire]

Hello All ! and you too, Richard !
I have come to this topic pretty late but better than never, so.....
Some of the "Americans" around the Great Lakes played "Rim-Blown"
Flutes, and there is a recording on one of my Lp Records, that has a
man in Wisconsin, playing a Rim Flute, made from a Shotgun Barrel !
This is something that might have happened with Kavals in the Balkans.
The use of Gun barrels for Flutes, might have influenced that characteristic beveled Octagonal carving on the distal ends of wooden Rim Flutes.
This feature imitates the Octagonal metal casting that keeps the Gun Barrel from rotating around in it's position in the wooden Gun Stock.
For more about this, please look up on the net, articles on Kavals, Neys, and North Greek Floyera(s) by Tony Tammer, of Oakland, California.
As to California Flutes, I have been studying these Rim Flutes since 1988.
Most are of Elder and are located in the Field Museum at Chicago, and
"The Sun House" at Ukiah, California. The Southern California Rim Flutes
are at "The South-West Museum" at Eagle Rock, Los Angeles County.
These are made of Arundo Donax which was a non-native plant, introduced by the Spanish Colonists. I made Mr. Blivens a version of one of these Rim Flutes, which could be made with either 4 or 5 finger holes.
The Elder Rim Flutes could be made with only 4 finger holes on the Coast,
to 8 finger holes (The Yani Nation at Mount Lassen ). I taught the Pomo
people how to make their Elder Rim Flutes again (the last player died in
1915). The Pomo had 4 finger holes at the Coast, and 5 finger holes at Clear Lake. I made Wally Clark, a Maidu, HIS style Rim Flute with 6 finger holes. The Maidu live in and around the Sacramento area.
The Sun House wanted me to make Rim Flutes for sale at the Museum
Shop, but I declined, because of the difficult embouchure needed to make
a good tone off the rims ( All California Rim Flutes could be played from either end, making 2 different scales, because of the different relation
ship of the finger holes and their distances from each rim).
I thought it would plague tourists who would buy a Rim Flute, only to complain that they couldn't get a sound out of it, after they took it home.
There is only one recording of the Quechan or Yuma Nation Rim Flute on the California / Arizona border, which is marked by the Colorado River.
This recording was made in the early 1920s, and is available through
the Lowery Museum at UC Berkeley. The Lowery has an extensive
catalog of vocal music of the various California Nations, and is a
wonderful resource !!!
The Plains, "Outside Wind Block" Flutes (the Sioux "Cho-tonka" etc.)
were popularized by Michael Graham Allen in the 1980s, after Flutes
he had studied at "The Pony Express Museum" at St. Joseph, Missouri.
I bought my first "Native" Flute from him, in 1986. These Flutes are certainly easier to play than the "Native Rim-Blown" Flutes.
Ah-Ho ! Sean Folsom