Svirel

Svirel (Russian: свирель) is a Slavic woodwind instrument of the end-blown flute type traditionally used in Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine.

[citation needed] However, it is difficult to say whether the Old Russian svirel had a double or a single pipe: there is no data about this preserved.

What makes things still more complicated is the fact that names of similar instruments of kindred nations, such as Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians are often mixed.

N. I. Privalov fixed the name svirel to the double pipe, because this is how the instrument was referred to in the Smolensk region, the major area of its popularity.

In the modern day svirel more often refers to the end-blown flute type instrument, with a whistle device set into its upper part.

On the upper end it has a beak-like whistle device and in the middle of the face side it has several (usually six) finger-holes cut out.

The wooden pipe is commonly made of buckthorn, hazel, maple, ash, or bird cherry.