More on the recently discovered ancient Chinese flutes

[Larry Klaes <lklaes@xxx.xxxx]

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ETAtAhRAqQGHp8Pz8yK3sa0iMh864QdWBgIVAK1hlJhw1FAUieBpxWijGoniqmsn 
>From: coachmusicdan@m7V1T_iZz5pyyzaz9gb-g41z5VcymvtsFFptWm23Pk8qxa5fIi2IlWst0jrdKkCD4W6awaWGwomrrck6yks.yahoo.invalid (Dan Cook)
>Date: Mon, 27 Sep 1999 22:03:41 -0500 (CDT)
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>Subject: [META] More on the recently discovered ancient Chinese flutes
>
>From: coachmusicdan@m7V1T_iZz5pyyzaz9gb-g41z5VcymvtsFFptWm23Pk8qxa5fIi2IlWst0jrdKkCD4W6awaWGwomrrck6yks.yahoo.invalid (Dan Cook)
>
>The flutes that Larry posted an article about last week are beginning to
>cause quite a stir in the music community around here.
>
>http://www.dallasnews.com/science/0927sci2oldflute.htm
>
>To quote in part: 
>     
>Nearly 9,000 years after a Chinese craftsman fashioned a flute out of
>bone, scientists have resurrected its ancient tones.
>
>
>Anyone with a computer audio setup can hear the flute's haunting sound,
>played by a modern musician, on the World Wide Web. It is the same sound
>- though not the same music - heard millennia ago by people in China's
>Yellow River Valley.
>
>
>The flute is one of a handful found buried in graves at Jiahu, an early
>Chinese village that was inhabited from 7000 B.C. to 5700 B.C. The
>discovery may be the world's oldest playable musical instrument, a team
>of Chinese and American researchers reported in last week's issue of the
>journal Nature.
>
>
>Blowing through the flute produces a series of tones remarkably similar
>to the Western eight-note scale, scientists say. So musicologists could
>study the instrument to help unravel how and when different musical
>scales developed. Archaeologists also hope to learn more about how music
>was an integral part of ancient Chinese life.
>
>
>Excavations at Jiahu have unearthed some of the best Chinese relics from
>this era, known as the Neolithic period, said team member Garman
>Harbottle. Beginning with digs in 1962, scientists have found 45 house
>foundations, 370 cellars and nearly 400 graves. Together, thousands of
>stone, bone and ceramic artifacts are painting a picture of one of
>China's earliest long-lasting villages.
>
>
>The Jiahu relics are stored at the Institute of Cultural Relics and
>Archaeology of Henan Province, where Dr. Harbottle got to study them two
>years ago.
>
>
>"I was blown away by them," he said.
>
>
>Especially intriguing were the 40 or so flutes, some broken into
>fragments and others in exquisite condition. The Nature paper describes
>the six best-preserved examples.
>The flutes, carved from the wing bones of red-crowned cranes, measure
>roughly 8 inches long. Each flute has anywhere from five to eight holes
>drilled through its side. Each would have been held vertically, like a
>recorder is today, as the musician blew into its end. All of them were
>found in sealed graves dating back nearly 9,000 years.
>
>
>It's not surprising that the instruments were found in graves, Dr.
>Harbottle said. Music would have been an integral part of the Jiahu
>villagers' religion, and they would have needed flutes to complete
>rituals associated with death.
>"If one is to appease a god, one has to play music in the rightful way,"
>said Gene Cho, professor of music theory at the University of North
>Texas in Denton
>
>
>You can hear these flutes being played at
>http://www.bnl.gov/bnlweb/flutes.html
>
>c=iii=<0
>www.coachmusic.com
>
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