KUZHAL OOTHUM KANNANUKKU SRIKRISHNA PLAYING FLUTE
Dear friends, I have read long back, once Radhabecame angry with Krishna searching for the misplaced flute and getting nervousof not getting it. Finally it was got, and Krishna started playing forgettingeverything. Once again Radha became angry; she caught hold of the flute, brokethe flute to two in her anger. But it became two flutes. It got multiplied asshe broke again. We have the photos of Krishna,playing flute singly, during cattle grazing time, with gopikas or duringrasaleela etc. Idols of Krishna are there either singly or with Radha, playingflute. After his going to Madhura fromVrindavan, not much is told about Sri Krishna and his flute. In the Mahabharataepic Sri Krishna appear as a matured person. One thing has made me wonder- Whyplaying of flute is not done in a daily manner in Krishna temples? I asked this point for clarification withrespected Sri Narayanaswamy iyer. He countered with me a question- Why udukkuis not played in Siva temples and answered- It is not necessary to play thefavourate music instrument of the deities in their temples. Flute was well available inDwapara Yuga. I was interested to know a littlemore of flute. The interesting information gathered from websites compiledafter much editing is given below. Flute has rough translation as odakkuzhal in Malayalam andpullankuzhal in Tamil. Sincerely, Gopala Krishnan 8-5-2012. Reposted on 10-1-2021 after editing and updating information. R. Gopalakrishnan 1. What is flute? The flute is a musical instrumentof the wood wind family. Unlike wood wind instruments with reeds (nanal orkorukkai used for playing nadaswaram- in short pee ppee), a flute is an aerophone or reed less wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of airacross an opening. According to the instrument classification ofHornbostel-Sachs, flutes are categorized as edge-blown aero phones. A musician who plays the flutecan be referred to as a flute player, or a flutist. I could read that the flutes arethe earliest known musical instruments. A number of flutes dating to about 40,000 to 35,000 yearsago have been found in the Swabian Alb region of Germany. These flutesdemonstrate that a developed musical tradition existed from the earliest periodof modern human presence in Europe. 2. History of flutes In 2008 a flute dated back to atleast 35,000 years ago was discovered in Hohle Fels cave near Ulm, Germany. The five-holed flute has a V-shaped mouthpiece and ismade from A VULTURE WING BONE. The researchers involved in the discoveryofficially published their findings in the journal Nature, in August 2009. The discovery is also the oldestconfirmed find of any musical instrument in history. A three-holed flute, 18.7 cm long, made from a mammoth tusk dating to 30,000 to 37,000 years ago wasdiscovered in 2004, and two flutes made FROM SWAN BONES excavated a decadeearlier (from the same cave in Germany, (dated to circa 36,000 years ago) areamong the oldest known musical instruments. The earliest written reference toa flute is from a Sumerian-language cuneiform tablet dated to c. 2600-2700 BCE. Some early flutes were made out of tibias (SHIN BONES). The flute has also always been anessential part of Indian culture and mythology, and the cross flute believed byseveral accounts to originate in India as Indian literature from 1500 BCE hasmade vague references to the cross flute. 3 Acoustics (Sound study associated with flute) Basic scientificinformation – Ifdifficult simply skip. A flute produces sound when astream of air directed across a hole in the instrument creates a vibration ofair at the hole. The air stream across this holecreates a Bernoulli, or siphon.This excites the air contained in the usually cylindrical resonant cavitywithin the flute. The player changes the pitch ofthe sound produced by OPENING AND CLOSING HOLES in the body of the instrument,thus changing the effective length of the resonator and its correspondingresonant frequency. By VARYING THE AIR PRESSURE, a flute playercan also change the pitch of a note by causing the air in the flute to resonateat a harmonic other than the fundamental frequency without opening or closingany holes. 3a. if a flute has to produce louder voice length has to be comparativelymore To be louder, a flute must use alarger resonator, a larger air stream, or increased air stream velocity. A flute's volume can generally beincreased by making its resonator and tone holes larger. This is why a policewhistle, a form of flute, is very wide for its pitch, and why a pipe organ canbe far louder than a concert flute A large organ pipe can containseveral cubic feet of air, and its tone hole may be several inches wide, whilea concert flute's air stream measures a fraction of an inch across. 3b. Difficulty in playing pipe The air stream must be directed at the CORRECT ANGLE AND VELOCITY, orelse the air in the flute will not vibrate. I do recollect in 1964’s atParrys corner in Chennai, a player selling flutes, one played by himbeautifully. After reaching room, when I tried the purchased flute, it did notproduce any good sound. Myenergy lost was the result. In non-fipple flutes (no pee pee)which we use commonly, the air stream is shaped and directed by the player'slips, called the embouchure. This allows the player a wide range of expressionin pitch, volume, and timbre, especially in comparison to fipple/ducted flutes. Generally, the quality called timbreor "tone colour" varies because the flute can produce harmonics indifferent proportions or intensities. The tone colour can be modifiedby changing the internal shape of the bore, such as the conical taper, or thediameter-to-length ratio. A harmonic is a frequency that isa whole number multiple of a lower register, or "fundamental" note ofthe flute. For simple understanding like expanding waves in a pond. HAPPA, TECHNICAL DETAILS SOME WHAT OVER…. 4. Categories of flute In its most basic form, a flutecan be an open tube which is blown like a bottle. There are several broad classesof flutes. With most flutes, the musician blows directly across THE EDGE OF THEMOUTHPIECE. The player of a side-blown fluteuses a hole on the side of the tube to produce a tone, instead of blowing on anend of the tube. End-blown flutes should not beconfused with fipple flutes (using pee pee in simple language the grass end)such as the recorder, which are also played vertically but have an internalduct to direct the air flow across the edge of the tone hole. Flutes may be open at one or bothends. Open-ended flutes such as the concert flute and the recorder have moreharmonics, and thus more flexibility for the player, and brighter timbres. Anorgan pipe may be either open or closed, depending on the sound desired. Flutes may have any number ofpipes or tubes, though one is the most common number. Flutes with multipleresonators may be played one resonator at a time (as is typical with pan pipes)or more than one at a time (as is typical with double flutes). Flutes can be played with severaldifferent air sources. Conventional flutes are blown with the mouth, ALTHOUGHSOME CULTURES USE NOSE FLUTES. The flue pipes of organs, which are acousticallysimilar to duct flutes, are blown by bellows or fans. My note- In my boyhood days while using homakkuzhal to blow thefirewood in oven, sometimes it produced a pitched sound- I recollect now. Evenusing mouth by blowing inside air, keeping the tongue and lips in a shallowmanner, we can produce a sound with pitch. It is called mouth whistle. Manyconductors in buses produce such a whistle to stop. I will continue with a part 2before starting with Nadaswaram In nutshell what I understood- 1. Flute is the oldest musical instrument 2. The earliest flutes were made of tusks, hollow bonesetc. 3. The flute can have either one end closed or bothends open cylindrical form and made of wood. 4. Flutes can be played either through end or throughan end hole 5. Flutes can be played with nose also though notpopular 6. The cylindrical flutes are most common. It is playedusing mouth pushing air, The air inside the pipe is made to vibrate 7. The opening and closing holes in the flute createsounds with different pitch.Compiler. R. Gopala Krishnan, 77, retired Asst General Manager, KeralaTelecom, Trivandrum. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Thatha_Patty" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/thatha_patty/871993304.170096.1610249921536%40mail.yahoo.com.
