A sincere and heart felt thank you from Erik, for those customers helping with his project with children who were once at a garbage dump more in....
Flutemaker Ministries Erik's Music
Buy a song from Erik and help the
Kids of Cascabel
After the announcement of the discovery of what might be the oldest instrument in the world, I felt quite inspired to research it and try to bring a semblance of it to my customers.
The original was found in a cave in Germany and said to be 35,000 years old when Europe was being populated. The flute is 22 centimeters long with the bottom hole broken off. I copied the holes and left more room on the blow side for tone. The wider bamboo also gives more tone.
It is said that the length of these vulture bones can be 1- 3 inches longer. With that information I found the right note in tune with the scale of the flute. I invite you to enjoy the You Tube clip to see what we have done.
Lastly, I am donating the proceeds to The Kids of Cascabel my project in Nicaragua feeding children in poverty including kids who once scavenged in a garbage dump. As they need food, a home and an education, I am always looking for a way to help them. More at www.FlutemakerMinistries.org.
REASEARCH NOTES ON THE ICE AGE FLUTE:
MUSIC MAKER: A new report concludes that people living in Europe more than 35,000 years ago made this flute, shown from three different angles, out of a vulture bone.
A magnified portion of the flute, top, provides a closer look at two of the flute's finger holes. Jensen/ U. of Tubingen
Researchers working at two Stone Age German sites have unearthed a nearly complete flute made from a vulture’s forearm as well as sections of three mammoth-ivory flutes.
These 35,000- to 40,000-year-old finds are the oldest known musical instruments in the world, says archaeologist and project director Nicholas Conard of the University of Tübingen in Germany .
The bone flute, which excavators found in 12 pieces, and the ivory flutes were discovered in the summer of 2008 at Hohle Fels cave when modern humans first migrated to Europe .
The preserved portion of the bone flute is about 8.5 inches long and one-third of an inch wide. Finely incised lines near four finger holes probably indicated where to carve these openings using stone tools.
(For 38 years Erik the flutemaker has been marking his flutes from his best master flutes to get great copies.)
Musicians presumably blew into an end of the bone flute that contains two V-shaped notches. The researchers plan to make a replica of the ancient flute to investigate how it was played and what type of sounds it made.
(See Erik’s You Tube thoughts below on how it was played.)
The flutes are the oldest musical instruments found to date.
The researchers say in the Journal Nature that music was widespread in pre-historic times.
The most well-preserved of the flutes is made from a vulture's wing bone, measuring 22cm long with five finger holes and two "V"-shaped notches on one end of the instrument into which the researchers assume the player blew.
The archaeologists also found fragments of two other flutes carved from ivory that they believe was taken from the tusks of mammoths.
The find brings the total number of flutes discovered from this era to eight, four made from mammoth ivory and four made from bird bones.
According to Professor Nicholas Conard, this suggests that the playing of music was common as far back as 40,000 years ago when modern humans spread across Europe .
Thanks for getting the Ice Age Flute and a Fossil Stand. All the proceeds go to help feed, educate and provide a home for the Kids of Cascabel, Children rescued from a garbage dump in Nicaragua.
Every Stand is unique and diferent, for a better view click on a Fossil Stand
Letters from our Customers:
Hello Erik and greetings from Finland!
My Ice age flute came today and is brilliant. I like the way it
looks and like the smell. Tuning and the sound is interesting.
Let there be love and harmony in Your heart!
Juha Rikka in Helsinki Sept. 2009
Erik,
I received both flutes in perfect condition.
Thank you for sending me the first end-blown Ice Age flute! It sounds like
an ancient bone flute that was made for playing by firelight while shadows
dance on the cave walls. I've been playing mine by candlelight, and I like
to play it meditatively like a shakuhachi or Native American flute. I think
the Ice Age flute makes a good, compact, and affordable meditation flute
that I can take with me to the woods or wherever else I go. But I don't want
to risk Ice Age #1 so I'm ordering another one for my take along flute. By
the way, I really appreciate that the money goes to a good cause!
Thanks again!
Rick Magee in Plant City, FL. Aug. 2009
Erik the Flutemaker.com Contact us: 954-424-6502
14701 SW 18 Court Davie, FL. 33325 Email us: info@eriktheflutemaker.com