What is it ??

World/Folk Flutes & Winds
1

G’day all,
I wonder if someone could please identify this instrument for me..
It is Bamboo or Cane…24 " long…The lowest note is in the neighbourhood of C#,and the ascending notes sound like a Minor’ish scale…There are 6 finger holes.
The Mouth piece and Blade are on the OPPOSITE side of the finger holes..
Aparently it was brought back from Japan by a soldier after the end of World War 2..
Sorry about the pathetically small photos…I’ve been doing battle with the computer for the last 3 hours,trying to make them bigger and if go on any longer,the computer will die !!..Death by sledge hammer ..!!
Thanks…weedie..

2

Yer man MT GURU has come to the rescue again and enlarged the pics for me ( Thank you sir )…now we can actually SEE the instrument…any ideas ?

3

I think is is a quenacho with a pinquillo mouthpiece. A quenacho is a big quena (the Andean flute) usually tuned to low D, which has a notch at the end and it is played like a flute but straight, not sideways.
The pinquillo is a small Latin American instrument which has a mouthpiece like a recorder or a whistle.
It is possible to find quenachos that have a pinquillo mouthpiece.
To see a picture of a quenacho with a pinquillo mouthpiece, see my thread “the Andean ancestor of the irish low D whistle ?”.

4

Thanks Gerardo…
I’m still unsure about the instrument…If it IS a Latin American instrument..I wonder how it came to be in Japan at the end of WW2 ?..
Maybe one day we’ll find out…thanks again :thumbsup:

5

I don’t think it is Latin American - the fipple on the opposite side of the fingerholes is often found on East European flutes, but I haven’t found this feature on any photograph of quenachos/pinquillos. This does of course still not answer how the instrument came to Japan, IF it is East European…

6

If it is East European, try eefc.org. They have a list server which has users world-wide.

The fipple has the same look as a frula from Serbia and surrounding areas. But the instrument is way too big to be a frula.

Good luck,

John

7

I’d go with an ID of a SULING, originally from Indonesia or the Philippines. Check Wikipedia, source of all knowledge for a full description.

Best wishes.

Steve

8

The look is just about identical to a Hungarian folk pipe on a photo illustrating an article on these. However, they don’t have bamboo in Hungary. Or anywhere in E. Europe.