Re: 9000 year old flute and Neanderthal flute

Hi Folks,

I'd like to reinforce and expand upon D. Wolf's point that "by blowing
harder or softer, or adjusting the embouchure, one probably could play a
folksong from almost anywhere on said flute."

As a flute player and a flute maker, I know that it is really easy to
shift the pitch of a flute for a given fingering by at least +/- 50
cents. Most good flute players subconsciously make adjustments using
lip shape, tongue placement, air pressure, and even "cheek shape" (e.g.
moving pockets of air to specific places in their cheeks) [not to
mention rolling the flute in or out, or changing the angle of the flute]
to bring a flute into tune when they are playing. This is so automatic
that flute makers have to make a concerted effort NOT to do it when
finishing the tone-holes for a new instrument.

I personally would be very hesitant to reach any conclusions about the
precise intervals used in these 9000-year-old flutes without looking at
statistical information from a large number of samples (of flutes and of
different people playing the flutes, preferably people who knew how to
consciously blow consistently).

Regarding the Neanderthal flute fragments: I think it is at best
ludicrous to reach any conclusions about specific tunings from so little
data.

Cheers,
Christopher

And the data from the actual sound sample that I have clearly demonstrates
this fact with respect to the chinese flute. I didn't convert to cents, but
the pitch fluctuations for each tone varied as much as 20 to 30 hertz for
some of the tones.

Darren Burgess
Gainesville FL
----- Original Message -----
From: Christopher J. Chapman <christopher.chapman@conexant.com>

> I'd like to reinforce and expand upon D. Wolf's point that "by blowing
> harder or softer, or adjusting the embouchure, one probably could play a
> folksong from almost anywhere on said flute."
>
> As a flute player and a flute maker, I know that it is really easy to
> shift the pitch of a flute for a given fingering by at least +/- 50
> cents. Most good flute players subconsciously make adjustments using
> lip shape, tongue placement, air pressure, and even "cheek shape" (e.g.
> moving pockets of air to specific places in their cheeks) [not to
> mention rolling the flute in or out, or changing the angle of the flute]
> to bring a flute into tune when they are playing. This is so automatic
> that flute makers have to make a concerted effort NOT to do it when
> finishing the tone-holes for a new instrument.
>