reedpipe without fingerholes

Classification: 4 Aerophones / 42 Wind instruments proper / 421 Edge instruments or flutes / 421.2 Flutes with duct or duct flutes / 421.22 Flutes with internal duct / 421.221 (Single) flutes with internal duct / 421.221.1 Open flutes with internal duct / 421.221.11 Open flutes with internal duct without fingerholes
Maker: Unknown
Village / Town: Wola Zarczycka near Łańcut
Region: Subcarpathia
Country: Poland
Owner: Franciszek Kotula Ethnographic Museum in Rzeszów
Inventory number: MRE 6012
Description: body made of a single, decorticated tree branch
Measurements: 855 mm
Materials: wood
Sound compass, tuning: harmonics (aliquots) uttered by stronger or weaker blowing and by closing and opening the bell with a finger; tuning variable, depending on the length of the reedpipe
Performance practice: reedpipes without fingerholes were played during Lent, due to the ban on playing other instruments (in particular those providing accompaniment to dance) ; on Good Friday, when church bells went silent, reedpipes made of a thorny bush (invoking Christ's crown of thorns) were played by boys running around the village; it was also traditionally made (and played) by shepherds
Catalog card by: Zbigniew J. Przerembski


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