Pan flute

A pan flute (also known as panpipes or syrinx) is a musical instrument based on the principle of the closed tube, consisting of multiple pipes of gradually increasing length (and occasionally girth).

Ancient Greeks called this instrument Syrinx, in honour of the Muse, and Pandean, or Pan-pipes and Pan-flute, after Pan.

The Romans adopted the Syrinx from the Greeks and the Etruscans, and they too played it at their banquets, festivals, as well as in religious and funeral processions.

[5] The pan flute's tubes are stopped at one end, at which the standing wave is reflected giving a note an octave lower than that produced by an open pipe of equal length.

An overblown harmonic register is near a 12th above the fundamental in cylindrical tubes, but can approach an octave jump (8th) if a decreasing taper is used.

[citation needed] According to the Fundamental Principle for pan flutes, the frequency and the length of the tube are inversely proportional.

[6][7][8][9] The pan flute is played by blowing horizontally across an open end against the sharp inner edge of the pipes.

By overblowing, that is, increasing the pressure of breath and tension of lips, odd harmonics (notes whose frequencies are odd-number multiples of the fundamental), near a 12th in cylindrical tubes, may also be produced.

The Romanian pan flute has the pipes arranged in a curved array, solidly glued together, unlike Andean versions, which are usually tied together.

In Laos and Thailand, there is a cylindrical version called the wot, used in folk music from the Isaan region of the country.

These new pan flutes address some long-standing issues to make it an easier instrument to learn and to play accurately.

A siku pan flute with two rows of bamboo pipes cut to graduated lengths. The pipes are aligned so that their tops are level (for embouchure). The pipes are bound in a combination of braided and woven yarn, including a woven strap with a traditional pattern. An additional strap is attached to the left and right sides of the flute, so that it may be worn around th neck.
The siku is an Andean pan flute
This pan flute from the Solomon Islands is made from bamboo bound with reeds and rope
The god Pan playing on his Pan flute. Excerpt from the Flemish magazine Regenboog . Draft for the woodcut Pan of Jozef Cantré . Published in 1918. [ 3 ]
Pan and Daphnis – 1st century BC Roman replica of 2nd century BC Greek original
Two Romanian pan flutes
A Peruvian-American airman playing an Incan zampoña
American musician Dom Flemons of the Carolina Chocolate Drops plays the quills, a traditional African-American pan flute, suspending it in front of his mouth with a harmonica rack