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 (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:
(Teguima language) (Lenape)
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 (see the Indian Arts And Crafts Act), 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".Based on searches on the Google search engine performed on February 26, 2016 for "Native American flutist" (about 23,800 results) and "Native American flautist" (about 3,090 results). "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 (natural node, block of resin) plus an external tied-on cover (cane, wood, hide). 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 (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.
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 (often referred to by the archaic exonym "Papago flutes"). 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 (often referred to by the archaic exonym "Pima flutes"). 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 (95% probability calibrated date range).
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 (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.
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 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 (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 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 (and lowest pitched 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 (and derive their name from) 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,Anatomy of the Plains Flute, Flutetree.com 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 (blunt and placed against the lips vs. designed to go between the lips), the timbre of the sound of the flute, or details of the fingering for the primary scale.
Branch flutes
While many contemporary Native American flutes are crafted from milled lumber, some flutes are crafted from a branch of a tree. The construction techniques vary widely, but some makers of branch flutes will attempt to split the branch down a centerline, hollow out the inside, and then mate the halves back together for the completed flute.
Double and multiple flutes
A double Native American flute is a type of double flute. It has two sound chambers that can be played simultaneously. The two chambers could have the same length or be different lengths.
The secondary sound chamber can hold a fixed pitch, in which case the term "drone flute" is sometimes used. The fixed pitch could match the fingering of the main sound chamber with all the finger holes covered, or it could match some other pitch on the main sound chamber.