NMR ISSUE 17

Astrological Forecast 17
Diving Beetle
Editorial 17
Epilogue
Hymn to the God
It's the End of the World as Your Know It
Lady of Light
Letters 17
Love and Magic
Lover, the Feeling and Love, the State of Being
New Age Scapegoat
Our Constitutional Rights and Education
Qabalistic Explanation of the Parts of the Soul
Seth, Witchcraft and a New Definition of Magick
The Oldest Magick
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Understanding Your Dreams
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The Oldest Magick

Seventeen: Magick Mode Flutes

By Lew Paxton Price

Between 1950 and 1955, according to an article in the Biblical Archaeology Review, at ancient Ugarit in what we now call Syria, many fragments of Hurrian religious songs were found. Three of these fragments, when pieced together, formed a hymn, in written music, to the moon goddess.1

Four other tablets from different parts of Mesopotamia were the means of deciphering the hymn. Two of them named the strings of a type of lyre and the intervals between them. The other two were instructions for tuning this lyre and also named seven different tunings (modes). This notational system is known to be at least 3,000 years old.

A modern replica of a lyre from ancient Ur in Sumer provided the final piece, telling us some of what the people of those times knew of music. The lyre required a knowledge of music sufficient to tune strings by ear to the fifth above the starting note and to tune down from the fifth to the fourth note below it. When the harp was tuned, it consisted of twelve notes tuned to the diatonic scale. By retuning only a few notes, the mode could be changed, so the full chromatic scale was known. All seven modes were possible (Celtic harps today operate similarly).

It was apparent from the mode notations on the musical tablets that the natural major we use most today was also the most popular then. However, there is no way to tell now the key in which a song or hymn was written. It appears that as long as the mode was known, any key the artist chose would do. This is a more intelligent way to do things in many respects, as most of their instruments were apparently geared to modal tunings and the musicians understood them well.

The balanced mode we call the natural major was, I believe, introduced by a northern people, probably from Europe, where the springtime (vernal equinox) was the beginning the year. The Hurrians, whom some believe to be essentially the same as the Aryans, probably brought this mode or scale with them during their first migration southward before 3,000 B.C.E.

The people who were responsible for this mode were probably the same people who invented the transverse flute (see article twelve, NMR 3:2). This flute, originally using a hole across which one blew much as a panpipe is blown, is probably the sweetest sounding flute ever. It has less versatility and range than a nay or kena, but makes a consistently sweet sound. It is the ancient ancestor of our western recorder and metal mechanized flute, and, I believe, of the Chinese transverse flute. Another form of this flute today is the Celtic fife, of which there are many varieties made of many materials, some with thumb holes and some without, but all tuned to the natural major mode.

In its original form it is still used throughout the world today—especially in India. I often refer to it as a flute of India because it is their most used woodwind today. Very likely, it went to India when the second Hurrian/Aryan migration southward met the one coming northward from Sumer and they turned eastward (the Mediterranean blocked any westward movement). The flutes of India today are nearly identical to the very early transverse flutes, most having only six-finger holes and no thumbhole, and tuned to the natural major mode.

Creating the old bamboo or reed transverse flute is similar to making a nay or kena. If you use bamboo, do the usual preparation and finishing (see article three, NMR 1:3). However, leave the node at the end by the embouchure (blowhole) in place. (If you must remove it, you can use a cork in its place.) The embouchure should be on the topside (like the finger holes), about diameter, with a sharp edge, and centered about from the node or edge of the cork (if your bamboo has an inside diameter of about).

Before cutting the end of the flute back, check the pitch (this will be a G flute). The flute should be about eighteen inches long from the plug (node or cork) to the opposite end before it is cut back. The low pitch will be lower than G at first. You must slowly shorten the flute until you attain a G. After that, drill or burn the six " diameter finger holes as follows: at 1" (the little finger will play this hole), 4", 5", 6", 7" and 8" from the end opposite the embouchure. Enlarge each hole slowly, beginning with the one nearest to the end, until you attain its proper pitch. All holes closed should give a G. The hole nearest the end when open should give an A. The next hole in line (two holes now open) should give a B, then C for the next hole, D next, E, and with all holes open F#. You can crosscheck pitches by playing the second octave and by producing a fifth (the D of the second octave) with all holes closed. Try to plan your flute so that the holes do not fall upon a node or a place where a node was in the bamboo.

If you have never played a transverse flute before, it is best to learn how before you try to tune your own—at least try to learn how to blow properly. First, kiss the embouchure (blowhole) to center your mouth on it. Second, roll the flute away from your upper lip while keeping it in contact with your lower lip (this is for proper spacing). Third, shape your mouth as if to say pooch and blow while rolling the flute up and down slightly. Be sure that the flute remains in contact with your lower lip and that it does not slip against the lower lip. Find the best sound using this method and work on it so that you can begin to subconsciously remember the correct position. A mirror helps to keep your lips centered on the embouchure. It is best that you start with no fingers on the finger holes and do not put them there until you have learned to hold your lip correctly and make a continuously pleasant sound. Be sure that, while learning, you either have a finger hole completely open or completely closed. Later, you can experiment. Do not practice for more than two minutes at a time at first. Take ten minutes to rest between practices. You can increase the practice time as your lips grow stronger.

The hole placement to create a current major mode nay in the key of G is the same, but the total flute length will be different (see article on creating the nay in NMR 3:4). The hole placement for a current major mode kena in G would be 1", 2", 3", 4", 5" and 6", using the same dimensions as the transverse flute (" inside diameter) and the same embouchure described in article ten (NMR 2:6). The total length of the kena must be found by making it too long and then cutting it back if you want extreme accuracy. About 13" should be close, depending on the thickness of the node. A thumbhole can be added to either the nay or the kena, but should not be necessary. If you add the thumb hole, you should place it 1" further away from the end than was the last finger hole, and you should start with a " diameter and slowly enlarge it until the note with all holes open is another G.

The transverse flute should play well in over two octaves and reaches its maximum range when the distance from its plug to its end is about 28 inside diameters. The longest nay can have a length of more than 40 inside diameters. The longest kena falls somewhere in between. The longer nay can have a range of over three octaves. This is what I term the classical nay—more difficult to learn but much more to play.

1989 by Lew Paxton Price

Notes:

1) Some of the people responsible for these findings are Professor Leonard Woolley (excavator), Professor Anne Kilmer (Assyriologist at the University of California, Berkeley), Professor Robert R. Brown (UC Berkeley) and Professor Richard L. Crocker (Assyriologist at UC Berkeley).

2) Many of the old written languages, especially early Hebrew, had no vowels. Thus, Hurrian and Aryan would have been spelled essentially the same way. It was later translators that assigned the vowels to the words.

3) Some have more, but more holes are usually considered superfluous.