Dear Phoaks,

Art Thieme has forwarded some requests from Bruce "Utah" Phillips, for information and asked me if I would put them in some threads. Here is the first one, in Utah's words:

The 9000 year old Chinese flutes excavated at the Jiahu site in Henan province, China, were, to some extent, still playable. They are said to have between five and eight holes. I want to reproduce one of these flutes and play it. But I don't know how far apart the holes are.
What's the scale?
How is it blown - what kind of mouth piece does it use?
I've got a very old Babylonian creation hymn I'd like to try out on one. So, let me know how I can learn more about it.

It just occurred to me that I read a brief monograph about flute making by native Americans here in California. Seems they each made a flute with the holes placed randomly, no two flutes the same. So, each flute played its own song which, like the flute itself, belonged to the maker. His own song which could be given as a gift, along with the flue, to some other person. No System. But that in itself is a system. Is the same so with the Chinese flutes?