The term “pan flute Indians” is in itself condescending, as all dehumanizing remarks are. It can even be considered racist, due to both the “othering” and dehumanization it implies.
While factual, the at the same time condescending qualification, also denies that playing the pan flute – also known as panpipes - is not at all easy. It is a developed skill, connected moreover to a rich musical legacy.
In the case of Peruvian musicians, it is of course the cultural legacy of the Andes region, the highland Amerindians, representing an intriguing world and culture, albeit perhaps clouded by clichés put in our head (lama’s, woolen hats and ponchos). The pan flute combining with the shamanic drum, and guitars, in Andean countries makes an unique, magic feel. Since I am a percussionist, the role of the drum naturally interests me.
Pan flutes are quite known globally as being an instrument in that part of South America, but it has a history elsewhere in the world too. Maybe less known among the common populace. This post is about that.
Historical and archaeological studies found that pan flutes were throughout history known all over the world, in many different cultures. On all continents.
The intriguing thing is – I find – that as main musical instrument it only remained important in a few cultures: the said Andes region, and – for some reason – Romania, in Eastern Europe. Why did it “survive” in particularly those two regions? Perhaps inexplicable, yet an interesting mystery.
Pan flutes are further known – still today – also in a few other places, such as (other) parts of Europe and the Americas, and in Africa and Asia. Interestingly, though, Peru and Romania remain the two countries most associated with the pan flute.
ANDES
In the case of Andean Peru and surroundings, wind instruments predate European arrival, so also the pan flute go back to the Amerindian roots: with the (Spanish) Europeans came later the string instruments, guitar, and guitar-like. Maybe a but comparable to how hand drums might represent the African roots within Black music with also modern instruments.
Elsewhere in the Americas, “scraper” like instruments represent an Amerindian remnant, though these scrapers were also known in African music. In the more maintained and purer Amerindian cultures in the Andean region, the pan flute is definitely a direct connection to the “pre-contact” indigenous culture, as are other less-known instruments used there traditionally, such as shamanic drums.
That means music’s original connection to the natural surroundings, and in that sense “pure” or “pristine”, but also more spiritual.
ROMANIA
Romania as “pan flute island” is more enigmatic. The pan flute’s first use there is, anyway, hidden in the mist of times, though according to some sources not that far back, known since the 17th c. (and perhaps before).
An explanation – though hard to prove – might lie in the relatively large Gypsy, or more correct ethnically Roma(ni) – population Romania has. In fact, percentage-wise, Romania is one of the countries in Europe with relatively the largest Gypsy/Roma population, along with Bulgaria.
In Western Europe, only Spain is known for having a substantial Gypsy/Roma population. In Eastern Europe in a few more countries, with own musical traditions. The Flamenco music of South Spain received some Gypsy influences, but is South Spanish music in essence.
Gypsy music/Roma music in Romania is therefore different, more adapted to the region there, with East European/Klezmer-like traits. As a nomadic people, Roma tended to take musical elements from parts they traveled through, rather than hold on strictly to own traditions, though these (North Indian elements) persist.
Historically known in Ancient Greece too, the pan flute is named after a Greek God Pan, and it might just be that exactly the “nomadic” lives Roma chose to live, made them safeguard ancient musical traditions lost in more settled, modernized communities in the surroundings.
Local, Jewish, Romanian, but also Turkish influences are notable among the Lautari musicians, as the Roma music class is known in Romania. Among the Lautari (named after a lute) various instruments play a role, but also a pan flute. Sources say it was brought by the Turks (also because of etymology of words for it: muscal and nai).
The pan flute is now used seldom among these lautari, though they were known as their “primary” instrument. Besides in Romania, Bulgaria and elsewhere, also in Turkey (and indeed Spain) Roma were known as relatively often musicians.
As with the Spanish guitar of local, South Spanish origin (with Persian/Moorish antecedents), the Roma in Eastern Europe, Greece, and Turkey used local instruments from there, including thus probably the pan flute, and later more violins, accordions, as the clichés on Romanian Roma music are known.
These Roma/Gypsy Lautari musicians in Romania used the pan flute originally, but in time less. Its tradition however survived in Romanian folk music.
ORIGINS
There is even a source that states that the Romanian-area pan flute influenced its used in the Andes region of Peru, since around the 17th c.. This seems nonsense to me, and thus a dubious source.
Maybe driven by too much pride or cultural nationalism, historical sources showed that pan flutes have existed worldwide in various cultures, and it is also common sense. It’s a very basic instrument that could arise everywhere, requiring after all blowing at the edges of different-sized tubes.
Even the presence of Bamboo - while useful - seems not to predispose Eastern Asia, as woods have also been used for them. I learned that this blowing is not that simple, and does at first seem not natural – i.e. requiring effort, as with blowing a trumpet – but it is a skill that in time can be acquired.
A further argument that the pan flute is not of Romanian origin, but known originally world wide, is that they are historically also known in (central) Africa, and centuries back. In the Bantu regions, far from regions of Turkish or Arab influences, and before dominant European colonial influences, such as in Congo, Kenya, South Sudan, and Mozambique, they have a historical presence.
The Luba (DR Congo), Konso (South Sudan/Ethiopia), Shona (Zimbabwe) and Nyungwe (Tete region, Mozambique) peoples, are examples of peoples with an important role for pan flutes in their traditional music.
Today, especially in Mozambique, the “Nyanga” as panflutes are known there, still survive in music.
Its historical presence in China (later reaching Turkey), still in Vietnam, and also in e.g. Papua New Guinea, further shows that pan flutes ere universally human, and not Romanian or Turkish in origin, and not even of Peruvian origin – even if found there from a long time, way before the Spanish came, but even in pre-Inca times). The sizes and shapes (and number of tubes) may differ per culture, as do the musical structures, but the principles of playing are the same.
Pan flute-like instruments were known all over the world historically, though. Another example is the still present pan flute tradition of the Solomon Islands in Oceania, often combined with interesting bamboo percussion.
SURVIVAL
The most enigmatic about this instrument’s history is not so much that it originated (easy to come up with), but rather where and why it survived in certain regions, and others (even neighbouring ones) not.
Why not among other Amerindians, outside the Andes region? Known in certain parts of Iberia historically too, but especially in Galicia (NW Spain) and bordering North Portugal (less known elsewhere on the peninsula), and in Italy mainly in the (far northern) Brianza region, while it was known in ancient Rome as it was in Greece. Why common in Romanian folk music, but not in bordering regions like the Balkan, Bulgaria, or Ukraine? It is less known there, anyway.
Why still maintained in parts of Mozambique, among the Nyungwe people, but absent or less in other parts of Africa as an instrument?
Above all, this shown an interesting aspect of folk culture. Folk culture is largely a natural development, for sure, but also a conscious choice of original creativity, self-expression, an aim of “distinction”, or to use a modern term: “identity”.
“Originality” is what makes folk culture distinct, to summarize. If all folk culture were the same, there would be no folk culture. Its essence lies after all in its originality and distinctiveness/difference from other (surrounding) cultures.
The life-affirming creativity and originality of folk culture is beautiful..
Some cultures chose the pan flute for this, but each in their own distinct ways, as the differences in uses – within wider music and dance - between South America, Europe, and Africa show..
REGGAE
Having become more or less a Reggae connoisseur over time (“expert” sounds so lame), I do have an idea about its use in Reggae music, that is: of the pan flute.
Not really, only a few examples of pan flute or very similar sounds, with Burning Spear’s song Free Nelson Mandela as prime example. Adds a nice touch to that song..
POP MUSIC
The pan flute did reach wider Western pop music here and there, however. With a solo in the famous hit California Dreaming, by the Mamas & Papas, in the equally famous Africa by Toto, as well as - more predictably - in covers of the Andean classic El Condor Pasa, such as by Simon & Garfunkel. Then to songs of other rock/pop acts, from Sting and A-Ha to the Spice Girls, and, well, Shakira..
SEE ALSO: http://music.africamuseum.be/instruments/english/congo%20drc/mishiba.html
