Por amor al arte

Since earliest times clay has been used to make musical instruments, many of which originated as domestic pots, but their use changed when sound producing properties were discovered. Others were clay imitations of instruments made in other materials, while still more began life purely as ceramic musical instruments.

Whistles and flutes are the most numerous of all ceramic instruments. Globular flutes are found all over South America (the area richest in ceramic instruments) either imitating objects such as conch shells and deer skulls or in non-representational shapes more like modern ocarinas (fig. 1). The Ancient Chinese also had similar flutes called ‘hsuan’ with up to eight finger holes. This type is cross blown, but many have an airduct which directs the breath against a sharp edge producing the note automatically much like a pea~whistle. The South American whistling jars or ’silbador’ are like this, consisting of connecting pots with a spout at the end of one pot and the whistle mechanism at the end of another.

 

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