Nose flute

Nose Flute

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Nose flute

The nose
Nose

Anatomically, a nose is a protuberance in vertebrates that houses the nostrils, or nares, which admit and expel air for Respiration in conjunction with the mouth....
flute is a popular musical instrument

Musical instrument

A musical instrument is an object constructed or used for the purpose of making music. In principle, anything that produces sound can serve as a musical instrument....
played in Polynesia

Polynesia

Polynesia is a subregion of Oceania, comprising a large grouping of over 1,000 islands scattered over the central and southern Pacific Ocean....
and the Pacific Rim

Pacific Rim

The Pacific Rim refers to the countries and cities located around the edge of the Pacific Ocean. There are many economic centers around the Pacific Rim, such as Auckland, Busan, Brisbane, Ho Chi Minh City, Hong Kong, Lima, Los Angeles, California, Manila, Melbourne, Panama City, Portland, Oregon, San Diego, California, San Francisco, Cali...
countries. Other versions are found in Africa, China and India.

hano ihu in Hawaiian means "bamboo, breath, nose." It is made from a single bamboo node with a hole at the node area for the breath and three holes for the notes on the top side of the tube. It was often used in conjunction with chants and song.

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Encyclopedia

The nose
Nose

Anatomically, a nose is a protuberance in vertebrates that houses the nostrils, or nares, which admit and expel air for Respiration in conjunction with the mouth....
flute is a popular musical instrument
Musical instrument

A musical instrument is an object constructed or used for the purpose of making music. In principle, anything that produces sound can serve as a musical instrument....
played in Polynesia
Polynesia

Polynesia is a subregion of Oceania, comprising a large grouping of over 1,000 islands scattered over the central and southern Pacific Ocean....
and the Pacific Rim
Pacific Rim

The Pacific Rim refers to the countries and cities located around the edge of the Pacific Ocean. There are many economic centers around the Pacific Rim, such as Auckland, Busan, Brisbane, Ho Chi Minh City, Hong Kong, Lima, Los Angeles, California, Manila, Melbourne, Panama City, Portland, Oregon, San Diego, California, San Francisco, Cali...
countries. Other versions are found in Africa, China and India.

Hawaii
Ohe hano ihu in Hawaiian means "bamboo, breath, nose." It is made from a single bamboo node with a hole at the node area for the breath and three holes for the notes on the top side of the tube. It was often used in conjunction with chants and song. The Hawaiians believe that the nose is pure and innocent unlike the mouth which can say many things. So the breath entering and exiting the 'ohe hano ihu is purer than the mouth. In olden days a man would serenade his sweetheart with the nose flute in order to woo her heart and win her affections.

Africa
In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the nose flute is played by eight different ethnic group
Ethnic group

An ethnic group is a group of humans whose members identify with each other, through a common heritage that is real or presumed.Ethnic identity is further marked by the recognition from others of a group's distinctiveness and the recognition of common culture, linguistic, religion, human behaviour or Race traits, real or presumed, as indic...
s. See Grove's Dictionary of Musical Instruments, 1984 edition.

Philippines
In the Philippines
Philippines

The Philippines, officially known as the Republic of the Philippines, is a country in Southeast Asia with Manila as its capital city. It comprises 7,107 islands in the western Pacific Ocean....
the pitung ilong (flute nose in Tagalog) or kalaleng
Kalaleng

A Kalaleng is a nose flute made from bamboo from the Philippines.Usually around two feet in length a kalaleng has holes cut in the side, to be stopped by the fingers producing the notes....
of the northern Bontok people, is played with the extreme forward edge of the right, or left, nostril. Because the Kalaleng
Kalaleng

A Kalaleng is a nose flute made from bamboo from the Philippines.Usually around two feet in length a kalaleng has holes cut in the side, to be stopped by the fingers producing the notes....
is long and has a narrow internal diameter, it is easy to play different harmonics through overblowing - even with the rather weak force of the air from one nostril. Thus, this nose flute can play a over a range of two and a half octaves. Finger holes in the side of the Bamboo tube, change the operating length, giving various scales. Some players take a filter tip from a cigarette
Cigarette

A cigarette is a product consumed through smoking and manufactured out of curing and finely cut tobacco leaves and reconstituted tobacco, often combined with other List of additives in cigarettes, then rolled or stuffed into a paper-wrapped cylinder ....
and plug up the other (unused) nostril, in order to increase the force of their breath through the flute.

New Zealand
Historically, in New Zealand
New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses , and numerous Islands of New Zealand, most notably Stewart Island/Rakiura and the Chatham Islands....
, the Maori
Maori

The Maori are the indigenous people Polynesian people of Aotearoa . The group probably arrived in south-western Polynesia in several waves at some time before 1300....
had no naturally occurring native bamboo, so some of their nose flutes called nguru
Nguru

Nguru may refer to:* The Spinifex people, an aboriginal people of Australia* Maori music, a small Maori nose flute from New Zealand* Nguru, Nigeria, a town in Yobe State, northern Nigeria...
were carved from a soft stone, similar to soapstone
Soapstone

Soapstone is a metamorphic rock, a talc-schist. It is largely composed of the mineral talc and is rich in magnesium. It is produced by dynamothermal metamorphism and metasomatism, which occurs at the areas where tectonic plates are subduction, changing rocks by heat and pressure, with influx of fluids, but without melting....
. Wood, bone, and various kinds of Ivory could also be used to make the "nguru", often with very elaborate carvings, befitting such a sacred object. With modification, a transitional "nguru" could also be played with the mouth, instead of the nose.

The Maori koauau ponga ihu, a gourd
Gourd

A gourd is a plant of the family Cucurbitaceae, or a name given to the hollow, dried shell of a fruit in the Cucurbitaceae family of plants of the genus Lagenaria....
nose flute was also part of the nose flute tradition, (note that a similarly constructed gourd nose flute, ipu ho kio kio was also used in Hawaii). The maker would form a nose hole in the neck (or stem) of the gourd, by cutting off the neck, at a fairly small cross section. This small hole is placed under the player's nostril, in order to generate the flute-tone. The "koauau ponga ihu" functions as an Ocarina
Ocarina

The ocarina is an ancient flute-like wind instrument. While several variations exist, an ocarina is typified by an oval-shaped enclosed space with four to twelve finger holes and a mouth tube projecting out from the body....
in its acoustic principles. Several notes of a scale can be obtained, by drilling fingerholes into the "Bowl" of the gourd.

Internal links

Nose whistle
Nose whistle

A nose whistle is a wind instrument of the woodwind family. The nose provides the air into the open mouth, which acts as a soundboard....

External links
- 'Ohe hano ihu sound clip performed by Ranga Pae