MAKING OF FLUTE MUSICAL INSTRUMENT
Channel: Viranam India
Date: 30/07/2021

The flute is a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening. According to the instrument classification of Hornbostel–Sachs, flutes are categorized as edge-blown aerophones.[1] A musician who plays the flute can be referred to as a flute player, flautist, flutist or, less commonly, fluter or flutenist.

Flutes are the earliest known identifiable musical instruments, as paleolithic examples with hand-bored holes have been found. A number of flutes dating to about 43,000 to 35,000 years ago have been found in the Swabian Jura region of present-day Germany. These flutes demonstrate that a developed musical tradition existed from the earliest period of modern human presence in Europe.[2][3] While the oldest flutes currently known were found in Europe, Asia too has a long history with the instrument that has continued into the present day. In China, a playable bone flute was discovered, dated approximately 9000 years old.[4] The Americas also had an ancient flute culture, with instruments found in Caral, Peru, dating back 5000 years [5] and Labrador dating back approximately 7500 years.[6]

Historians have found the bamboo flute has a long history as well, especially in China and India. Flutes have been discovered in historical records and artworks starting in the Zhou dynasty. The oldest written sources reveal the Chinese were using the kuan (a reed instrument) and hsio (or xiao, an end-blown flute, often of bamboo) in the 12th-11th centuries B.C., followed by the chi (or ch'ih) in the 9th century B.C. and the yüeh in the 8th century B.C.[7] Of these, the chi is the oldest documented cross flute or transverse flute, and was made from bamboo.[7]