bamboo flutes

Subject: bamboo flutes
From: alison
Date: 11 Aug 00 - 12:51 AM

I have just acquired a set of bamboo, and bone flutes, (one possibly made from an antler)...

I am informed that they are called "de"s or "di"s.

they have the same fingering as whistles and there is a hole just below the mouth hole which can be covered with bamboo paper to make a "musical mosquito" (kazoo)type noise.

does anyone know anything about maintaining them?

slainte

alison

Subject: RE: bamboo flutes
From: catspaw49
Date: 11 Aug 00 - 01:01 AM

I dunno al..............But I'd DEFINITELY keep them away from the koalas when you get home.

Spaw

Subject: RE: bamboo flutes
From: Sorcha
Date: 11 Aug 00 - 02:22 AM

I have this Japanese Bamboo Flute CD I would GIVE someone to get it out of my house............I can't hear even half the notes.

Subject: RE: bamboo flutes
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 11 Aug 00 - 08:01 AM

G'day Alison,

As I understand it, the "paper" is actually a single layer peeled from green bamboo. It is attached by gluing with garlic juice: you break the end of a clove of garlic and smear juice evenly around the hole, stretch the bamboo membrane and hold it a moment until it sticks.

You can then adjust the tension (usually up) by huffing over the membrane long enough to slightly moisten the garlic juice, loosening it momentarily and allowing a quick adjustment. The technique seems to come easier to Chinese masters of the ti-tzu (as does enjoying the 'mirliton' sound added to the flute!)

I last bought the bamboo membrane from the Sheng Ho trading company, on Broadway at the Railway Square end of (Sydney's) Chinatown but they are long gone. I think it is (was) available from more general purpose Chinese stores down in Dixon Street. If you can't get in to there, you might try Eastwood area or somewhere else with a high population of ethnic Chinese.

Otherwise, can check out Dixon Street as it is just down the hill from where I work. (I must admit that I have taped over the holes and settled for a much more occidental sound.)

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: bamboo flutes
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 12 Aug 00 - 01:59 AM

G'day again Alison,

I did mean to ask if the flutes you have are fixed pitch or tunable. Most ti tzu I have seen are made of a single piece of bamboo. The simplest and cheapest are only as long as the tube needs to be for the required pitch and are decorated by shallow patterns incised in the bamboo then filled with paint.

The next step up usually has decorative bands of silken thread around the barrel (quite like old bamboo fishing rods) and some lacquer panels. The best instruments have the silk bindings and are longer, with the tube terminated with a pair of holes towards the lower end and extra holes below the effective barrel of the flute for looping through the attachment cords of coloured silk tassles. These swing along with the eprformance.

The very best of these also has a tuning sleeve, created by turning down the lower section and padding its circumference with cork while fitting a brass sleeve over the upper portion. This gives a friction fitting section that allows some degree of adjustment. This style was quite rare about Sydney when I bought mine some 20+ years back.

I have not heard anyone other than ethnic Chinese performers play with the bamboo membrane fitted, to create the authentic 'buzzing' Chinese sound. Most others, like me, are more guang lo than gung ho.

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: bamboo flutes
From: alison
Date: 14 Aug 00 - 02:32 AM

Bob,

these are tuneable, they have the brass bits that you can slide in and out, they are all in 2 bits, and all have a few extra holes at the bottom.... now I can go out and get some tassles to put on them now that I know what they are for.....

I got 7 of them for $60.. looks like I got a good deal then????

a friend has offered me some bamboo papers which he has for his, and some elk blood which apparently is a Chinese medicine used for gluing them on.

these have both Chinese and ??Indian writing on them, I'll get one of the girls in work to translate the Chinese.

I also got 2 weirds things which I am not sure what they are. Each about 3 inches long (white)with a few holes in them. If you block off the 2 ends you can play them like an ocarina. I'm not sure if that is what they are or if they are some sort of pitch pipe....

slainte

alison

Subject: RE: bamboo flutes
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 14 Aug 00 - 03:28 AM

G'day Alison,

Without seeing them, I would guess that $60 is a good price for 7 of almost anything these days. When I first got interested in Chinese flutes (~1973) I could buy the simplest type for $1 loose! The boxed fancy models cost between $4 and $10 ... and they had a set of 12 fairly spartan looking longer models in a leatherette covered wooden case, complete with extra papers, a bore cleaner and little compartments for the tassles - and the garlic - for $60.

I know that one bloke would buy two or three sets, take them round to Paddy's Markets (which, BTW, was originally Padi's markets - the Chinese markets) and sell them for $120 a set.

I suspect that "Elk's Blood" may be a natural gum like "Dragon's blood" (or gum tragacanth), used as a fixative in glazing and enamelling work - as well as traditional medicine. The idea of using garlic is to be able to quickly adjust the tension, so it needs to be a water soluble gum with just enough adhesion to let go when you want to fiddle with the membrane.

If you have small double-ended, cross-blown flutes with holes at each end, they sound like a small shepherds'(?) instrument I once heard played by the flautist who did the sound track for The Last Emporor. They were louder than any of his larger flutes and he had to turn off the PA and turn away from the audience at Gan Aim folk club (old Irish-centred club at the Taverner's Arms) so as not to deafen us!

Although, if you can play them like an ocarina ... that is probably what they are - whistle-ended vessel flutes moulded around a water lily bulb instead of the sweet potato used to make the European ocarina. These generally have 4 or five holes, but you would recognise them, since they are commonly seen on stalls at folk festivals, usually with a leather thong. Possibly they are a bamboo or bone variant playing a simpler scale (such as the pentatonic scale usually associated with eastern music).

You will have to take a few JPGs of them and send the pix to me so I can hazard better guesses, but I reckon you got value for money - as long as you get to play them.

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: bamboo flutes
From: alison
Date: 14 Aug 00 - 04:20 AM

playing them already Bob, sound nice.

the small ones are like tubes, not shaped around anything round. Next time I get hold of the digital camera I'll send you som photies....

slainte

alison

Subject: RE: bamboo flutes
From: Ella who is Sooze
Date: 14 Aug 00 - 04:59 AM

I don't know Alison.

i have a small bamboo fife like thing.

And I have to say.

Much respect due to you if you can play them for a long time.

They are hard to play and take a lot of wind. Not as easy as the other flutes I have.

But then if I want to get drunk quick, my good old bamboo fife is better than ten whiskys!.

Hooray!

Not as much puff as she used to have.. Ella

Subject: RE: bamboo flutes
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 14 Aug 00 - 09:21 PM

G'day Ella,

The problem in talking about Chinese bamboo flutes is that they cover a huge territory - literally and metaphorically. It is dangerous to generalise. The ones that I bought (mainly in the '70s and '80s) were made as working instruments and were not tourist trade souvenirs ... but many instruments that turn in the West were.

They often look quite decorative, but have not been made carefully to either a local tradition or Western standard tunings. On the other hand, some instruments that turn up cheaply may be of virtuoso standard in their own tradition - but only suit that style and music. You just don't know until you try the instrument in question.

Alison: I'd love to see the pix when you get your hands on a digital camera (or scan in a couple of paper prints). Given enough time I might even get out to the wild western suburbs and see them in the bamboo.

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: bamboo flutes
From: alison
Date: 15 Aug 00 - 01:39 AM

I've taken some pics Bob, not sure where Mark has put them, but as soon as they turn up I'll send them to you.

I got the Chinese writing translated.... each flute has a Chinese poem written on it which mentions the flute or the music....

slainte

alison

Subject: RE: bamboo flutes
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 15 Aug 00 - 02:57 AM

G'day Alison,

Thanks for that - It sounds like they are an interesting set of flutes and I look forward to seeing the photographs.

BTW: I actually bought my first Chinese bamboo flutes and whistles to photograph them! They were used in a macro-photography assignment when I was studying photography and it was some time later that I got around to actually playing them.

Each of the flutes has a column of infilled Chinese ideograms below the embouchure or the mouthpiece, as well as a carved dragon or flower, but I presume this to be the manufacturer's or distributor's mark, particularly since many instruments have the same characters and they always start with the ideogram for China.

Regards,

Bob Bolton