Has anyone ever noticed how many end-blown or rim-blown flutes there are in the world in various cultures? Some of these flutes use pretty much the same concept, i.e. you blow over a sharpened edge of a hollow tube. You get Kena/ Kenacho flutes in South America, Ney flutes in the Middle East and an Endere flute in Uganda - they all use the same concept to produce a sound; it’s basically a notched flute.
Has anyone ever played one of these? Any idea where one can find music to play for these?
The fingerings and how the music is played for the instruments will specific to the flute at times. I believe the kaval, ney, quena have different scales and intervals.
Yes I play (badly ), the music is not always melodic in the western style (Koauau more than the Kaval). I have played my Koauau to many people and for some of the older Maori people it either reminds them of their childhood (as the instrument has gone out of fashion to a large degree and some haven’t heard the sound for many years) or give the sound of water, or other sounds of nature.
I make a number of the Koauau out of bamboo, and gift them to people to take away and try, as it takes ages to get a sound out of them (which is probably why they are not so popular these days) but it is a beautiful tone .
I can only come up with one “parent scale” according to my native music and music theory background and that is a scale with A as the tonic (“root note”). It is the scale of (North Indian) Todi whose intervals we can describe as
1 b2 b3 #4 5 b6 7 8.
I don’t remember the South Indian (Carnatic) name for it without looking it up so I won’t go there unless you are desperate for this.
A well known “mystic” scale used in several very deep raags of South Asian traditions. WE can also hear this scale a lot in Balinese and, other South East Asian musics, but not necessarily in the same key of course. Also gapped scales from this.
If you want to hear u tube examples search for any of Raag (or raga) Gurjari, Todi and Multani.
Gurjari (or Gurjari Todi) is hexatonic omitting the perfect 5th.
Todi, the mascot raag for this scale, uses all 7 notes.
Multani (pronounced mooltaani) is also full scale.
Bhopal Todi which is a pentatonic raag could be construed as either gapped Phrygian (Bhairavi) or gapped Todi. You can do this on your flute with notes A Bb C E F A+
Bone (bird or in long ago days human), stone or wood were the most common, and to create a traditional Koaua requires the skill and knowledge for the Karakia (prayers) to be said while making the instrument.
I am a mongrel mix of world cultures so I do not have the cultural background to create to Koauau the traditional way. I do however love the tone, so I use materials that are available. I have some hand turned ones many bamboo ones, PVC ones and one I created from the cardboard roll from lunch paper.
The end blown flute has been around for so long, I suspect the knowledge of how to make the flutes came over when the Maori traveled here, and the flute was adapted to suit the materials and tools that were available. So i don’t feel too guilty using modern techniques and materials . I do feel really good when I can teach people about the music of the Maori, and there are still many Maori people in New Zealand who have not seen or heard of the Koauau.
), the music is not always melodic in the western style (Koauau more than the Kaval). I have played my Koauau to many people and for some of the older Maori people it either reminds them of their childhood (as the instrument has gone out of fashion to a large degree and some haven’t heard the sound for many years) or give the sound of water, or other sounds of nature.
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