NAF Part 5 Ancestral Puebloan, "Anasazi" flute

THE ANASAZI FLUTE
In this posting we're going to look at a completely different type of Native American flute. The Ancestral Pueblo or "Anasazi" flute, which is currently being reproduced by Michael Graham Allen aka Coyote Oldman. He is making these from measurements of artifacts that were provided by Dr. Richard Payne, an avid collector, historian and author. Unlike all the other Native American flutes (NAF) we've looked at so far, this flute pre dates any European influence. In this sense it is a true Native American flute, but as we shall see below, it shares many characteristic with flutes throughout the world.

Examples of this flute can be heard on Scott August's latest release "Lost Canyons" available from Cedar Mesa Music.
An Echoes radio "CD of the Month" this release features three pieces for solo Anasazi flute and three pieces for Anasazi flute and world instruments.

AN END-BLOWN FLUTE
The major difference between the Anasazi flute and the modern (1800-present day) Native America flute is how the sound is produced. The Anasazi flute is not a fipple flute, like the modern NAF, but is an end-blown, or rim-blown, flute. End-blown flutes are some of the oldest flutes in the world. One of the oldest is the Ney from the Middle East, which dates back to the time of the Pyramids. In Turkey there are the Nai and the Kaval. The most well-know end-blown flute is the Japanese shakuhachi. In the Western Hemisphere an end-blown flute called the Quena can be found along side Pan-Pipes (Zampoñas) in South American, while in North America the Hopi culture has an end-blown flute that is still used for ceremonies, and the Southern California native cultures also have a end-blown flute made of Elderberry, but it is no longer in common use.

PLAYING TECHNIQUE
Unlike a modern NAF, the player has to learn how to place their lips against the mouth piece to produce a sound. It can take an hour to a week for the beginner to produce their first note! I was lucky, getting notes within the first hour, but even now, four months later, there are times when I have difficulty making a sound.


The flute is a hollow tube. The mouth piece is a slight depression on the top side of the tube. The player covers most of the lower part of the tube with their lower lip and chin while blowing a stream of air across the depression. If the stream air doesn't hit the flute just right no sound, or high squeaking overtone results.


THE "ANASAZI" SCALE
This flute is 30" long and has a bore of 3/4" at the far end. It is made of cedar. The root note is G# and has a scale that is surprisingly close to the modern NAF scale in that it is pentatonic. But the mode is differetnt. This scale is a major pentatonic scale with the addition of a minor 3rd. The pitches are G#, A#, B, C, D#, F, then the Octave. Notes above, and including the Octave that can be played by over-blowing are: G#, A#, B, C and even D# and a higher G# -two octaves above the root. With alternate fingerings a player can get some chromatic pitches, such as G (half step below the octave), F#, and E. As you can see in the photo above the finger holes are much different than the modern NAF, being closer to the bottom of the pipe and there is a larger gap between each set of three holes than on the NAF.

Listen to a Sample of this flute.

HISTORY

This type of flute dates back to AD 500. During this time the cultures of the Four Corner area of North America were called Basketmakers. Pottery was just beginning to be made, but weaving was the at it's height during this time. This was before the cliff dwelling of Mesa Verde, and the giant pueblos of Chaco Canyon. People lived in Pit-houses, a semi-subterranean "earth-lodge" with an earth covered log roof. This was also the high point of Rock Art creativity, especially so of Kokopelli. This flute is Kokopelli's flute.

In 1931 Earl Morris, who reconstructed the great Kiva at Aztec, NM, was excavating in the Prayer Rock district of northern Arizona, near Canyon de Chelly, when he unearthed four flutes in a cave he later named Broken Flute Cave. These flutes were made of Box Elder which has a soft inner pith that can easily be removed. (End-blown flutes from southern California were made of Elderberry which also has a soft inner pith.)

Morris also found similar flutes in Mummy Cave in Canyon del Muerto, part of Canyon de Chelly in 1934. These include ones with only five holes. These five hole flutes match Hopi flutes from the 1900's. A living history that stretches back 1,500 years! These flutes are reported to be in the collection a the University of Colorado, Boulder.

Morris describes the Mummy Cave find In a National Geographic Magazine article. He describes that the flutes found were buried with "The body...of an old man, surely once a priest or chief. Beside the usual offerings of beads, baskets, and sandals, there lay above his buckskin wrapping a flute, one end beneath the chin, the other between the thighs. ...

Along the left side was a mass of wooden objects, all readily perishable, hence extremely rare in perfect condition. Conspicuous among them were bone-tipped flint flakers with which knives and projectile points were made, several spears, four handsomely wrought spear throwers, and three more flutes."

Note: In my research on these flutes, especially as regards Morris' finds there are some discrepancies with dates that I have yet to sort out.

HEAR MORE
To hear more of the Anasazi flute sign up for my quarterly free mp3 downloads, through my free E-mailing list.

References:
Campbell, Grant, Canyon de Chelly: It's people and rock art, 1978, University of Arizona, Tucson.

Clint Goss, 2005, www.flutekey.com/brokenflutecave.

Robert Gatliff: 2005, Personal Correspondence.



© Cedar Mesa Music

Echoes from the Road: Day 10: Moab & Canyonlands

MOAB & CANYONLANDS
June 30, 2005. Day 10


I dropped my truck off at the mechanics this morning and then, thanks to the wife of the couple I was staying with, I got a tour of some of the sights around Moab that I hadn't seen yet. Jane, not her real name, took me north of the town and then turned west into the Island in the Sky section of Canyonlands. After a brief stop at a petroglyph panel we did the hike to Mesa Arch. Although I'd never witnessed it in person, the photos I'd seen of Mesa Arch had fixed it in my mind. The very name seemed to speak to me, inspiring me to write Dawn at Mesa Arch on my first recording Distant Spirits.


It's a short hike to get to the arch which, upon first glimpse, looks like an eye of stone. It's also smaller than the famous view through it would suggest. The arch is part of a "fin" of rock that is separating from a cliff. Water, which expands when frozen, cut through the rock below the top of the fin and carved out the arch. The view is stunning.


The La Sal mountains in the distance. Giant pillars of red rock tumbling down to a broad plateau that is cut by the Colorado river. This view has become one of the most famous in the area, at least at dawn. During the harsh light of day the scene is bleached and washed out. Still stunning though.


Farther down the road to the tip of the plateau we were on, called "Island in the Sky" we come to Grand View point. Again the view is stunning. Almost a hundred miles in the distance are the Abajo mountains while below us is more of the canyons cut by the Colorado and Green rivers. Giant pillar of rock called Hoodoos are capped with white sandstone. Jane tells me that the name Grand View Point is not for the "Grand" view, but rather the Colorado river was once called the Grand river above it's union with the Green. Grand View Point was named before the name was changed.

SEGO CANYON
While we were leave Canyonlands, Jane, who realized that I enjoyed seeing rock art told me that see knew a place that I wouldn't normally see called Sego Canyon about 35 miles northeast of Moab with rock art from three cultures.
We headed north out of town and soon left the main highway driving through a 20th century ghost town. Heading into the book cliffs we came to dirt road that led into a small canyon and parked.


There above us was a large panel of Ute pictographs, dating from the 19th century. As we walk further up the canyon we went back in time.


Next was a panel of Fremont petroglyphs. The Fremont culture is thought to have been current with the Ancestral Pueblo cultures. They have some similar traits, such as pit houses, and later pueblo style building. Some believe them to, perhaps, be the ancestors of the modern Ute culture. Further up the canyon, however, was the biggest surprise of all.


A huge panel of Barrier Style pictographs floated above us. The Barrier style is very old. Most of the panels can not be dated but limited information puts them somewhere between BC 2,000 to AD 1, some 2,000 to 4,000 years old.


The human figures in most Barrier style panels have ghostly eyes, floating bodies and seem to be connected in some way to shamanism. The figure above looks to be holding a horned serpent or snake.


Wild head dress abound along with stylistic clothing or robes. Many people see aliens from another planet in these other worldly depictions.


What ever their meaning they stare at us down through the ages.

We stayed as long as we could, but Jane had to get back to work and I needed to check on my truck, as so we headed back toward Moab. Once back at the mechanic., it turned out that a bad spark plug gap was causing the problem after all. Thanks to Tony at Arches Repair Center I was mobile again.

Echoes from the Road: Summer 2005, Day 9

Boulder to Moab
June 29, 2005

Highway I-70

Today started early. I had spent the night with a friend in Boulder after a week with two other friends in Denver. It had been a long week. Several gigs and meetings. I was happy to get back on the road.

My truck had been good all week and so I figured that today's trip would be fun, exciting and breath-taking as I crossed the Rockies. But just as I started to get on the ramp to highway I-70 my truck started sputtering and hesitating. Do I turn around or see if it the problem passes again? I elected to press on.


I passed several old, abandoned mines. The road was very steep and my truck was struggling. I decided to stop for a while.


I found a Starbucks and pulled off the highway. As I drank my tea I went over my options. I had a gig in Moab in two days. If I could make it there today that would give me a free day tomorrow to get a mechanic to look at my truck... I got back on the highway.


I was beginning to feel like would never make it when the Eisenhower Tunnel came into view. The highest vehicular tunnel in the world, the west side is over 11,000 feet. Passing through it I would cross the Continental Divide again, this time to the pacific side. Hopefully it was all "down hill" from here.


Once on the other side of the tunnel there were many mountains in the distance. I still had a way to go. By the time I got to Vail my truck was acting so strange I didn't even bother to take photos. By this time I was very worried.


Soon the Colorado River began to parallel the highway. At several places the highway and river passed through canyons that were so narrow the road became elevated. The west bounds lanes over the east bound lanes.

Utah

By mid afternoon I was in Utah, in what seemed like the middle of nowhere. I got off I-70 and got on Scenic Byway 128 which I knew would pass through some incredible scenery and dump out just north of Moab. In the distance are the La Sal mountains.


After a while the road began to descend into a narrow canyon and rejoined the Colorado River. You can still see the La Sal mountains on the horizon.

Scenic Highway 128

The road passed the Fisher Towers...


Then Castle Rock, over looking Castle Valley came into view.


The canyon got narrower,


The cliffs got steeper.


Wonderful, weird, red rock surrounded everything.


After passing through steep walls of hanging rock, the road finally came out just north of Moab. My truck had made it! I found my destination and got some advice about where to get my it fixed. A little garage called, appropriately, Arches Repair Center was reccomened. Tony, the mechanic there, thought it was might be a bad spark plug. I made plans to drop my truck off in the morning. I thought I would have to hang out all day waiting for it to be fixed, but the wife of the couple I was staying with offered to drive me around.

That night I slept soundly. Hopefully tomorrow my truck would be fixed and things could get back to the normal grind of life on the road.

Grand Canyon Ravens

While on my way to watch another sunset, there were lots of ravens hanging around the parking lot. One was sitting on a fence along the pathway to the rim. He seemed very unconcerned about people walking close to him . So, of course, I took some photos.


Up close they look very big and powerful. While on the ground they move around with short hops. Nothing like the graceful, playful, acrobats they are in the air as they float, dive, and swoop with ease and grace.


Ravens are very intelligent, curious birds. In many of the Native American cultures they are "Tricksters" and are known for their playful behavior. I spotted this one playing, or perhaps, investigating a plastic bag. The wind would blow it away from him and he would walk after it, pick it up and move it about with his beak before setting it down. The wind would again blow the bag away, and the whole scene would repeat itself. Hidding behind a car, so as not to disturb him, I got a MOVIE of him. If you want to know more about ravens, Bernd Heinrich, a biology professor at the University of Vermont, has written a couple books that are very interesting. You can also find informantion on web pages at DesertUSA and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

After raven watching, I was off to the rim to view another sunset.

Canyon Shadows below Cape Royal


The North Rim


Looking north east toward the Painted desert and the Navajo and Hopi lands. In the foreground is O'Neill Butte. Behind it on the left is Wotans Throne and to the right, Vishnu Temple.


As the sun dipped below the horizon, O'Neill Butte lights up like a beacon after the everything around it has given way to the darkness.


Soon it too was lost to light.


Finally only Wotans Throne remained in the last rays of the setting sun.


As streaks of oranges, reds and yellow lit up the western sky, the canyon surrendered to darkness, becoming a sea of black under a dome of stars.

Later that night, as I lay in bed, I could hear the cries of Coyotes in the distance. Piercing the night with their primal calls.

Rocky, the Coconino Rock Squirrel

While doing an In-store appearance here at the canyon, I set a cup of hot tea on a window sill behind me to cool. After finishing a tune I heard a rustle behind me. I turned around to find an Rock Squirrel sucking down MY caffeine. After my initial shock I grabbed my camera and started taking photos and a QuickTime MOVIE. By that time a small crowd had gathered (upstaged by a squirrel once again...) and while I was filming the little guy, someone's flash went off and scared him away. Not before he had consumed a fair amount of tea. I figure he'll be up all night tonight, wigged out on caffeine. After that little adventure he tried to come in the store through the door, scared a of couple women and made his way up a Juniper tree to gorge himself on berries, all the while posing for tourist cameras. At first I thought he was an Abert Squirrel, but I have since found out I was mistaken.

Here are some sunset photos from today:

Most of the tourists face west when the sun sets, but the real show is to the east as the filtered light makes the cliffs glow red, vermillion and orange.


Distant Thunder


Fading light


Looking west after sunset.