Social aspects of wind instruments

In folk cultures of the world

In folk cultures—here implying rural traditional communities—music often serves purposes other than entertainment or aesthetic enjoyment. Certain wind instruments are closely associated with the supernatural, and their sounds connote powerful magic. Australian Aboriginal people, for instance, identify the sound of a bull-roarer with the voices of supernatural beings; for the Plains Indians, the same sound signifies an awesome natural phenomenon, such as thunder. As a vestige of traditional culture in the Netherlands, every winter a wooden horn (midwinterhoorn) is lifted from the well where it is stored and then sounded to drive away evil spirits and encourage the return of spring. Wind instruments are often among a group’s most important ritual objects, and in some cultures they are specially venerated. The Kamayurá Indians of the Amazon rainforest keep their giant flutes—a metre or more long (3 to 4 feet)—wherein spirits are believed to dwell, in a special shrine where they are treated as sacred objects. The flutes and the drums of some New Guinea peoples are similarly housed and revered.

Wind instruments in rural traditional cultures also serve nonreligious functions. In New Guinea, the Asmat once played bamboo trumpets (fu) to frighten an enemy during battle and to alert a village that the victorious warriors were coming home with the corpses of the foes. Conch-shell trumpets are used for signaling in the Pacific coastal regions of Colombia, in the Ecuadoran highlands, and in various parts of Asia and Oceania. Trumpets also may be associated with the office of king or chief, as in western Africa, where their use may be strictly controlled by tribal law.

A variety of wind instruments in traditional cultures are used for personal amusement, and some are known to accompany vocal performance and dance. For example, the didjeridu of Australian Aboriginal people, which is found across the northern coastal areas from west to east, supplies introductions, interludes, and conclusions, as well as accompaniments for vocalists and their clapping sticks; it also provides intricate aural counterparts to the foot movements of dancers. The player’s technique, which uses circular breathing (inhaling through the nose while blowing into the instrument to yield an uninterrupted tone), involves both blowing and singing into the instrument.

It is common for musical instruments to have symbolic significance. The form of an instrument or its decoration may relate to local myths, as do American Northwest Coast whistles carved in the shapes of birds and African ivory horns stained with human blood. Wind instruments in particular often have sexual connotations. Among the Tucano (Tukano) Indians of the northwest Amazon, the number of tubes on a set of panpipes traditionally depended on the age of the male performer and his sexual maturity. Boys between five and nine years of age play instruments with only three pipes, while men’s panpipes have eight or nine. Wind instruments are also made to resemble the male and female sexual organs. The phallic shape of flutes, which are played exclusively by men in many cultures, is self-evident. Instruments reserved for women are often round or curved and may bear associations with the moon or water. (Oceans respond to tides, tides to the Moon; the Moon marks the female menstrual cycle.) No symbolism is universal, however, and an instrument’s sexual connotations may conflict: for example, a conch shell, which by its shape and derivation from a water animal is female, is generally made into a trumpet, usually considered a male instrument.

Not only the shapes but also the sounds of traditional instruments are often rich in symbolism. The sound of the flute, for example, is widely associated with love magic. Among the Northeast and Plains Indians of North America, young men played the flute to serenade young women; in New Guinea, flutes and flute music historically have been connected with rites of sexual initiation. In some cultures, instrument symbolism is highly developed. For the tradition-oriented Tucano, instrument sounds constitute a symbolic taxonomy comprising three levels: whistling, vibration, and percussion. The whistling of a flute connotes sexual invitation, while vibration, represented by such instruments as the local clarinet and the bull-roarer, symbolizes a warning or threat. Percussive sounds produced by drums and various rattles symbolize the uniting of male and female.

In Asia

In many cultures of Asia, wind instruments are used in a variety of social contexts, not least in religious ritual. In Taiwan the transverse flute (di) and free-reed mouth organ (sheng) are played in celebrating Confucius’s birthday. Some of the Chinese-inspired imperial ritual music in Japan likewise employs the flute and the mouth organ, along with the oboe (hichiriki). In the Chinese Autonomous Region of Tibet, the low-pitched chanting of Buddhist monks is accompanied by a variety of instruments, the most spectacular of which is the long copper rag-dung. These straight, conically bored natural horns vary in length from some 5.5 to 10 feet (1.7 to 3 metres) or more and are sometimes made in sections that can be telescoped to enhance portability; they provide drones for chanting. The only melodic instrument in Tibetan religious orchestras is the double-reed rgya-gling, which is used to play preludes and interludes to the chants.

Wind instruments are used in many different ways in Asian classical and folk music; thus, the distinctions between art and folk instruments are not always clear-cut. In China, for instance, transverse flutes may be played in modern folk ensembles as well as in ritual and local theatre orchestras. This diversity of use has affected manufacture: although flutes are still made in irregular temperaments for traditional music, many are now constructed in equal temperament for use in the concert hall. Folk instruments also have been brought into classical music traditions elsewhere. The shehnai of northern India, a conical oboe with a metal bell and six to eight finger holes, was traditionally associated with outdoor performance and largely with folk music; it is now played on the concert stage and in temple compounds. The nagaswaram serves the same functions in southern India.