BY STEPHANIE ESLAKE
Many consider classical music to be “old”. Some even argue that it’s “dying“. But when you also consider that one of its primary instruments — the flute — has origins dating back about 40,000 years, you might start to see how weak these arguments can be. The strength of musical expression is timeless.
The flute is the oldest instrument representing our voice. Across the world, humans have forged this tool out of bone, metal, and wood, using their breath to share story through music.
Australian flautist Jane Rutter has dedicated much of her career to presenting this incredible history, exploring the instrument from an anthropological point of view. Through live events, theatrical presentations, and on social media, Jane is on a mission to share the flute’s potential to enrich us with narrative and emotion.
In this interview, Jane introduces the history of her instrument. Jane will play her own classical and world flutes in Figaro, Flutes and Flowers. The event, also featuring baritone Teddy Tahu Rhodes, can be live streamed through the Melbourne Digital Concert Hall.
Jane, you’ve spent nearly 20 years presenting the history of the flute from an anthropological point of view. At what point in your own career did you realise you wanted to explore the history of the instrument as well as perform it?
I grew up in a fairly academic background, and so I’m always interested in musicological, cultural, and academic indicators in performance. It made sense to delve deeper into the story of the flute, which has accompanied mankind over tens of thousands of years.
I learnt the recorder at an early age – four years old – and from my teenage years have had a collection of different world flutes as well as classical flutes.
My earlier notions of the flute – drawn from my studies in Sydney with Margaret Crawford and Michael Scott, and in Paris with Jean-Pierre Rampal and Alain Marion – had already set the scene. The French Flute School views the flute as a voice. It seemed a happy convergence – a natural flow – to include this subtext in many of my performances since my time in Los Angeles [when I recorded a single with arranger/composer Jeremy Lubbock, and pianist Suzanne Ciani].
Over the past 20 years, through various concerts, presentations, recordings and lectures, [I’ve discovered] the thread of the flute is present throughout history: various flute gods and deities, and different kinds of flutes are found all over the world. I have presented this material in concerts, across social media and in papers.
Drawing from this research and experience, how would you describe the way the flute came to be? After all, throughout history, each continent has invented its own style of flute and expression through its performance.
Yes, that’s correct. The oldest flute dates back some 40,000 years – and is the oldest artefact as a musical instrument known to man. There are several examples – from what is now Germany – of Palaeolithic flutes made from a bone, with simple tone holes, dating back to this period. These early flutes indicate that music has been an accompaniment to the development of the culture of modern man.
Bone flutes date back to about 9000 years in China, and early flutes, dating back thousands of years, have been found in both the Americas. Anthropologists believe the flute was a tool of communication for early man, and that before language became sophisticated, the flute was used to express emotions – to evoke and connect with the spirit world; to charm spirits, animals, and humans alike!
How do you feel this early creation of the flute might have had a broad-level influence on the way we make music, such as moving from percussion instruments into voice and melody?
If we start with the voice – set aside early drums – we immediately move to the flute, which paved the way for other melodic instruments. The flute is a breath instrument, close to our sense of inspiration and creativity.
From the beginning, the flute was used with communicative intent to include melody in music-making. It’s an important association: melody has a narrative, and the notion that a musical instrument could follow a ‘conversation of sound’, and convey sentiment, begins to a large degree with the flute and its parallel to voice.
In what way does the flute reflect the human voice? How has this informed your own music-making and career?
There is a kind of alchemy that takes place when the breath is harnessed to make music – in song, or with the flute and other wind instruments. The flute is closest to the voice because it is the only wind instrument that doesn’t require a reed or a mouth piece to push against, and therefore as an ‘edge-blown aerophone’ it is like the human voice.
This ties in with my French Flute School philosophy: it’s been my lifelong quest to prove that anything possible with the voice is also possible on the flute.
What significance did the flute play in former civilisations, from an anthropological perspective? Specifically, what are some of the common ways it was used in its earliest forms – such as spiritual, traditional, social, and other ways?
The flute is often used for meditation, or to assist in creating meditative states, even to this day. During COVID-19, I have created many flute meditation pieces, up to 30 minutes long, to assist others in times of stress.
Associated with spiritual and mystical rights over thousands of years, the flute continues to convey cultural traditions all over the planet. Shakuhachi, an ancient flute, continues to be beloved in Japan. In the West, performers play classical flutes from baroque to contemporary. Concert flute, piccolo, alto and bass flute are all played in classical, jazz, world, and popular Western music.
On every continent, in nearly every country, there is a different type of flute, and often a corresponding flute deity – Krishna, Cybele, Kokopelli, Pan, Esu, the Pied Piper to name just a few mythological characters that are tied to the flute.
The Indian bamboo transverse flute is the instrument of Lord Krishna and is heard all over India as an instrument popular culture and of mysticism, as is the dizi bamboo flute in China, and the Peruvian panpipes in Peru. […] As an Australian musician, schooled in French flute playing, it’s particularly interesting to note that the didgeridoo or yidaki dates back [around 1500] years. There is a connection for humanity through the various types of flutes.
Why do you enjoy sharing the story of the flute in addition to playing it? And through your work, what message or education do you hope to share with others about its history?
The message in my music is always to follow the vocal line, the narrative. Embedded in music are all the stories of the human condition.
The sound is paramount. Of course, you must have an impeccable technique in order to be able to play really well. However, playing straight from the heart, circumventing ego, and conveying the emotional and cultural intention of the music through images of sound – that is my message to younger players, who are often obsessed with being able to play loud and fast. This is not what is important. The sound and emotional and culture are what matters; creating that vibration of empathy in the heart of the listener, which emanates from and also resonates in the heart of the player.
Before you go: what is your favourite period of history when it comes to music for the flute you play, and why?
I think of pieces as best friends! And my favourite period is the period from which the piece of music I’m playing was written. Whatever I’m playing at the time is my favourite piece! That being said, I particularly love the period in France of French symbolists, known as French impressionist music – Debussy, Fauré, Ravel, Satie, their colleagues and associates, their teachers and forerunners.
Jane Rutter with Teddy Tahu Rhodes will perform Figaro, Flutes and Flowers this March. Stream through the Melbourne Digital Concert Hall from 7pm March 31.
Listen to Jane’s Flute Meditation Music on YouTube or your favourite streaming platform.
Images of Jane Rutter supplied. Featured image shows artwork ‘Italian Peasant Family with a Boy Playing a Flute’, National Trust, Public Domain.
