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A Medieval Tongue-(Lip-)and-Duct Flute

Author(s): Cajsa Lund


Reviewed work(s):
Source: The Galpin Society Journal, Vol. 34 (Mar., 1981), pp. 106-109
Published by: Galpin Society
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/841474 .
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CAJSA LUND

Medieval

and-Duct
Tongue-(Lip-)

Flute

URING
archaeomusicologicalwork in the Malmoi Museum in the
spring of 1979 I came across a flute whose construction and
technical playing possibilitiesimpelled me spontaneouslyto interpret
it as a tongue duct flute. From the knowledge I then had of such
flutes, however, it seemed rather improbable that this type of flute
could be found among archaeological material, and I therefore
recorded it as an 'atypical block-and-duct flute'. Shortly afterwards
Dr ErnstEmsheimerpublishedthe essay,now reprintedin thisJOURNAL,
in which he suggests in conclusion that tongue duct flutes might very
possibly be hidden in archaeologicalcollections. This gave me every
reason to inspect the Malmo discovery more closely. The find is now
described here at the suggestion of Dr Emsheimer, to whose article
it may be seen in the light of an appendix.
The flute (P1.VIII a) is made of a sheep'sright tibia. The lower part is
broken off, but otherwise the bone is largely undamaged and well
preserved. The present length of the flute is 13 cm. The blowing end,
which is by nature triangular (3.4 cm high, 2.7 cm wide), is evenly
and obliquely carved as shown in Pl. 4b. At 1.2 cm from the blowing
end is a triangularwindow I.I cm wide and I cm high. It was the
location of the window in relation to the obliquely-cut blowing end
(P1.VIII b) which led me at once to associatethe flute with the tongueand-duct principle.Was there really sufficientroom for a block (e.g. of
wax, wood or resin) in the seemingly narrow space between the
blowing end and the edge? In my own belief and that of other archaeologists as well as osteologists the present construction of the blowing
end is the original. Two fingerholes (4 mm in diameter) are located
7.o and 9.2 cm respectivelyfrom the blowing end. At the point where
the bone has been broken off there are tracesof working that could be
due to yet another fingerhole. The window possesses no speciallyworked edge and is, like the fingerholes, rathercoarsely and unevenly
carved out. The flute has no remains of a block, or wear and tear
marks from one, that are visible to the naked eye.
The flute was discoveredin 1971 in the course of municipalarchaeological excavationsin Malma5(building No. I of the 'Kronan'block).1
Io6

It lay, together with a pottery shard,alongside a wooden barrelwhich


had probably been used as a well. From the type of well and the
pottery shardthe flute can be dated to the late 13th century. It lacks an
inventory number. The excavation itself has catalogueNo. MHM 4527
and archive No. 28:o3.
The flute is remarkably easy to play as a tongue duct flute. The
evenly-cut, oblique sides of the blowing end are placed againstthe
underlip and the upper part of the opening underthe upper
performer's
lip. (The upper part of the blowing end is worn, but it can clearly be
seen that its naturallysharp, uneven corners have been smoothed out
so that they do not irritate the lips or gums.) The tongue, loosely
'curled up', is insertedinto the blowing end, and when one blows the
air is directedvia the tongue towards the edge of the window (labium)
in order to produce the sound, which is rather sharp and piercing

(P1.VIIIc).2

As mentioned earlierthe flute could also be a block-and-duct flute.


In order to gain more facts by which to judge what type of flute it is
I had the two following experiments carried out. I. Laboratory
(chemical and microscopic) analysesto discover any existing remains
of a block in the blowing end.3 2. Practicalattemptsto reconstructthe
flute in order to test the possibility of playing it with an artificialblock.
analyseswere carriedout inJanuary 1980 by Dr Lars
I. The laboratory
Haraldsonof the Institutefor Analytical Chemistry, Lund University.
Dr Haraldsonreports that there are traces of a film of fat all over the
inside of the flute. This probably stems partly from the bone's natural
fat and partly from the (according to reports) unusually high fat
content of the archaeologicallayer in which the flute was discovered.
(The flute was rinsed with water when it was found in 1971 but has
never been treated with any preservative.)
The analysesdid not reveal any tracesof a block made of wax, resin
or such materials. Dr Haraldson believes that it would have been
possible to establishwhether such a block had been used, because the
inside of the blowing end is extremely porous. The only 'foreign'
materialto be found in the tiny holes is sand. Neither did he find signs
of wear or any other interference on the inside of the blowing end
that could have been caused by a wooden block. The laboratory
analysesnecessitatedsome very minor damage to the flute. A total of
about 3 cubic mm bone was removed from the inside of the blowing
end, but in such a place that the technical possibilitiesfor playing the
flute were not altered. Due to the porous surfacethe operation is not
visible to the naked eye.
107

workwas carriedout in FebruaryI980 by Mr


2. The reconstruction
Ake Egevad, an instrumentmaker from Ovesholm, Skine. He
receivedno priorinformationon the questionsat issuebut was only
with a suitableblock.Mr Egevad,to
askedto makea reconstruction
whom I alwaysturn for practicalexperimentswith archaeomusicological material,achievedthe closestpossibleduplicationof the flute
from having succeededin finding a sheepbone of much the same
size andshapeas the originalbone. He was alsoableto placea block
so thatthe flutefuncof beeswaxin the flute (i.e. the reconstruction)
block-and-duct
flute.It is interesting,however,
tionedasa 'traditional'
thatMr Egevadquestionedwhetherthe originalflutewasplayedat all
with an artificialblock.He reported:'It is unnecessarily
complicated
to inserta wax block (andthusequallya blockof, e.g., resin)into this
flute.I triedfirstwith a woodenblockbutin factI rejectthepossibility
that suchwas originallyused.An absurddegreeof precisionwork is
requiredin orderto carveand,aboveall,to fix a woodenblocksuitable
to thepurposein thenarrowandunevenspacebetweentheblowingend
and the edge. Of coursea wooden block might have been usedthat
was fastenedwith wax or somethingsimilar.In that way the block
would have beenheld in placeand functionedeven if the wood had
shrunk.But (concludedMr Egevad)why go to so much trouble?I
simplyuse my tongueand,whichis in fact even better,my lower lip
as a block!' Nor did the laboratoryanalysesrevealany tracesof wax
or the like as a fasteningmaterial.
Thusthe resultsof boththepracticalandthe laboratoryexperiments
increasethe probabilitythat the Malmoflute reallyis a tongue duct
flute(orlip ductflute).As farasI canunderstand
it is simplerto make
a tongueductflutethana blockductflute.A tongueductflute'sedge,
for example,obviouslydoes not need to be made with any special
accuracy,and,as mentionedearlier,the Malmoflutehasno speciallyworked edge.4 From the manufacturingpoint of view the most
essentialfeatureof the Malmoflutehas undoubtedlybeen to carved
the blowing end both smooth, and also at a 'correct'angle to the
window. This operationis, accordingto informationfrom Ake
Egevad, considerablysimplerthan the working of the edge and,
further,the mountingof an artificialblock, particularlyif making
flutesfrom brittlematerialsuchas plantstalks.
I ventureto thinkthatthe tongue-and-duct
principlewas generally
employedin both the ancientand the medievalperiodsin Northern
Europeanhistory.But presumablypeople mainly fashionedtongue
duct flutesof readilyavailablemateriallike plantstalks,or wood rich
Io8

in pith, like elder, and such have naturally not been preserved. Yet,
like Dr Emsheimer,I want to urge keen alertnessto the possibility of
tongue-(lip-)and-duct flutes existing among, e.g., the material of
archaeologicalblock duct flutes. Hopefully more surprisingdiscoveries
await us to confirm his hypothesis that tongue duct flutes have been
more widely distributed in time and space than has hitherto been
recognized.
NOTES
I 'Dit S:t Petri klockor nidde' by Dag Widholm (pp. 12-14), Aktuelltfrdn
Malmdmuseum,5, 1971 (Malm5 museum).
2 The flute can also be blown with the lower lip serving as a block (i.e. the
lip-and-duct-fluteprinciple). The choice of tongue or lower lip seems to be
obvious, depending on the shape of the performer'smouth. For me it is most
natural,and thus easiest, to play it as a tongue duct flute.
3 Dr Emsheimersuggests such analysis;see p. Io5 above.
4 Cf. e.g. the carefully carved edge on the hitherto oldest known blockand-duct flute in Scandinavia (from Falkbiping,Sweden; Neolithic Period).
Publishedby CajsaLund in Fornvdnnen,
no. 1/1979 (Stockholm), pp. i--9.

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