Please help me to identify this flute.

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ThijsP
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Please help me to identify this flute.

Post by ThijsP »

For the price of a cup of coffee, I bought this 43 cm flute. It has 8 holes on one side, 3 holes on another and one in the bottom. It looks a bit (but only a little bit) like the one described here: viewtopic.php?f=20&t=79384 . However on closer examination there are many differences (mine has a reed, the blow hole is not covered, and the rectangular hole is not present on mine). So what is this and how is it played? The university in my city has many Chinese students, perhaps this is how the flute ended up in the second hand shop. Also there is a sticker on it, but I can’t make sense of that either. I have been looking around the Internet, but I came up with nothing to match my flute. I hope someone here can help.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/85868622@N ... hotostream

http://www.flickr.com/photos/85868622@N ... hotostream

http://www.flickr.com/photos/85868622@N ... hotostream

http://www.flickr.com/photos/85868622@N ... hotostream

Kind regards,
Thijs
brianholton
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Re: Please help me to identify this flute.

Post by brianholton »

Well, it's Chinese, for sure, the sticker - what I can see of it - says it was made in Yangzhou. The odd thing is that it's from the east of China - in the non-Chinese areas of the west and south-west you do come across single-reed instruments, but I have never seen anything like it, and I have been going to and from China for 25 years!

I wonder if it's a species of bamboo clarinet, of quite recent invention?

Can cai-shao-yang help identify this?
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James D
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Re: Please help me to identify this flute.

Post by James D »

I'm not sure what the Chinese name is, but I'm pretty sure it's the instrument sometimes called a: "Chinese Bamboo Sax".
(I think perhaps Brian might be right about it being a quite recent invention, à la the "xaphoon")

There's a guy playing one here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMlVp-DUgk8

Marek Gold (AKA Fluteman) includes it in his "How To Make Your Own Bamboo Flutes" EBook.
brianholton
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Re: Please help me to identify this flute.

Post by brianholton »

The label on the cabinet of instruments beside him reads "High Quality Sax".
ThijsP
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Re: Please help me to identify this flute.

Post by ThijsP »

Hi James,

Thanks! It does kind of sound like that (the few tones i could squeeze out of it)! Our university has a huge Chinese student body, so I suppose one of them sold this flute to the second hand shop that I bought it in (for €2.50). I think you solved it. Thanks again!!

Thijs
ThijsP
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Re: Please help me to identify this flute.

Post by ThijsP »

Thank you Brian!
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Re: Please help me to identify this flute.

Post by Tonehole »

ThijsP wrote:Hi James,

Thanks! It does kind of sound like that (the few tones i could squeeze out of it)! Our university has a huge Chinese student body, so I suppose one of them sold this flute to the second hand shop that I bought it in (for €2.50). I think you solved it. Thanks again!!

Thijs

They're found in the Uighur region of Xinjiang and played frequently with the Tudusic ethnic minorities. Typically, the better ones are made from solid wood - look up guanzi (double reed) which is much different from a xaphoon.

Yours is a single reed with eccentric 8 hole fingering - the guanzi derived in two major traditions (north and south is a coarse division). It is probably not quite worth US$2.50 in China, but it's not a bad price :)

It is not equal temperament, and you might have some trouble with the fingerings, although the guanzi fingering charts work with some adjustments. You may find that baroque traverso fingering works better: two fingers cover two semitones for two of the notes. Apart from that, it is very similar to a 6 hole flute (if yours has not rear hole, which a guanzi does have).

Fascinating breadth of instruments here...
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