worldwide: double pipes

world-wide: associated pipes - double pipes

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Double pipes, or two pipes played at the same time, are found in sculptures, paintings, stained glass, religious manuscripts and archaeology dating back into pre-history, right up to the present day. Sometimes the two pipes are exactly the same; other images show two slightly different shapes, one playing the tune and the other a drone pipe.

It is impossible to see the mouth-piece on some of these images: some may be duct flutes, others may have single or double reeds or be trumpets. If you have information on the mouth-piece of any of these instruments I would be grateful to know.

I have not included images where it is definately not a variety of duct-flute without keys. Around 1810 an English instrument maker, William Bainbridge, patented a keyed double flageolet which consisted of two English flageolets joined together so that the player could harmonise the tunes that s/he played. Flageolets are therefore not included here.

*Arabic countries*
between mid 4th and mid 5th centuries, double horn, Sheikh Zouéde mosaic Northern Sinai, Egypt. Centaur in a mythological procession
945-525BC statuette Egypt	945-525BC statuette Egypt	900BC statuette Egypt	711 BCE - 100CE Egypt
900-700BCE box, Lebanon	664-525BCE Egypt	God Bes, Egypt	God Bes, Egypt, copy
332-30 BCE Egypt, God Bes dancing		1st century BCE cameo, Alexandria, Egypt
8th century BCE Syria	100 to 300AD Syria

	6th century manuscript Antioch, Syria, ‘Vienna Genesis’
2500? terracotta, Ur, Iraq	247 BCE-224 AD Nippur, Iraq	200AD south Iraq	3rdc BCE to 2ndc CE Iraq
150 BCE Iraq (with drum)	Iraq	1st Millennium Iraq (cast)
3rd century BCE -106AD Arabia women musicians		2nd century BCE - 3rd century AD, bronze, Masjid-i-Soleiman, Iran	4th century BCE Tunisia
c.500BCE terracotta found in a ship that sank 2500 years ago which was transporting figures from Tyre, Lebanon		unknown terracotta
2012 Iran

*Israel*

Iron Age II, 7th century BCE
pottery The Israel Museum

8th-6th BCE Pheonicia / Israel

mid 20th century painting Reuven Rubin

Russian Federation

1885 painting detail, Russia

Double svirel has two similar pipes of different lengths.
Each of the pipes has a whistle and three finger-holes.
Size of the double svirel varies on a great scale.
The bigger pipe can be 29 to 47 cm long,
and the smaller 22 to 35 cm. The big pipe is usually
held in the right hand and the small one in the left hand.

Bringing together two pipes into one instrument makes
it possible for one player to perform two-voice melodies.
The repertoire of double svirel tunes is quite extensive
and versatile. Double svirel was unevenly spread in Russia.

Svirel, Russia

1775 Sept 12th St Petersburg, letter to newspaper from Dr Matthew Guthrie 'Anecdotes of Music' regarding
Russian Musical instruments, talking of double pipes, each with 3 holes: 1820 “...good samples of the flute, whilst in its rude unimproved state, with only three holes. I shall make one observation
more upon them, that I think they are not unlike the unequal flutes in the mouth of Francisco Ficaroni's female
minstrel, whom you have given us a plate of; and those she is playing on seem, by the application of her fingers,
to have also but three holes.” Bristol Mercury - Monday 11 December 1820 letter image Francisco Ficaroni's female minstrel (?)

Mid-19th c. Roslavl district	1940 Smolensk from: 'FOLK MUSIC ARCHIVE OF THE MOSCOW CONSERVATORY', Barbara Krader		source The Finnish Heritage Agency
		1952 Teppo Repo, born in Viistinä village, western Ingria and moved to Finland 1911. He learned the art of making and playing various flute, horn and clarinet instruments from the older representatives of the shepherd tradition at home.
St. Petersburg

Russia double pipes

double pipes being played

1913 painting 'Human-Ancestors' by Nicholas Roerich (detail)

20th century, in Ethnological Museum, St Petersburg


Ukraine
19th century Sopilka "Dvodentsivka" from the Verkhovyna district
Urych village (Lviv region)	Two sopilka / dentsivkas are combined into one instrument but still only one has playing holes. The other pipe, although it is of the same length, has no holes and acts as a drone.

20th century 3 Ukraine double pipes
21st century dzholomyhas	Ukrainian Djolomyga, or Double Sopilka

Dvodentsivka

2015 graphic by Svetlana Dorosheva


Georgia
2011 Ivan Goderdzishvili

Turkey
10th century ivory casket, Istanbul, Turkey
1920's Turkey - front [description from an auction site]
1920's Turkey - back

Indonesia
foi doa	1942 Ngada, Indonesia	stamp, part of a set of traditional musical instruments
foi doa

Taiwan - nose flutes
Mouth flutes were played by peasants while nose flutes were only played by royalty.

nose flutes

20th century Tsou man from
Dabang community

Paiwan player

player

Paiwan player

player

Pairang Pavavaljung playing
the double nose flute

woman player

2012 Sauniaw Tjuveljevelj
[video]

21st century children learning the double nose flute from Yu Weimin	2017 Taiwu Ancient Ballads Troupe at music festivall	Paiwan woman playing double nose flute
The nose flute is sometimes played by the mouth. Pairang Parvavalug

USA and Canada

Blue Bear drone pipes

drone flute

2023 Annette Bauer Montreall, Canada

1869 Euterpe, painting

1882 Piping Pan statuette

belt buckle

1883 photograph

early 20th century tile

early 20th century painting

1915 illustration

1924 Solar-Powered Buffalo Heritage Carousel

1925 fantasy art

1984 ceramic pipes

double

double Native American

List of Native American flute makers worldwide

High Spirits, modified drone: The left hand flute has three fingerholes, and will come with three leather patches, so you can choose which ones you'd like to keep closed to create your prefered pitch of the drone. The right hand flute plays like a normal Native American flute.		2 different Native American pipes
2009 Arizona Festival fairy	21st century copy	2014 painting by Rae Chichilnitsky
2015 reenactment, Jackson Hole, Wyoming		21st century 'Arethusa' duo
2 pipes plus drone	leather blocks the hole for tuning drone

South and Central America

Mexico

250 BCE – 200 AD Colima western Mexico	West Mexico
		100 BCE-250AD Jalisco; double pipe and rattle
		Pre-Columbrian ca. 500 BCE –500 CE Jalisco, double-pipe and rattle	100BCE-250AD Nayarit People double pipe and rattle
250 BCE-250 AD Jalisco, double pipe and rattle, West Mexico

300BCE - 1250AD Jaina

Jaina, off the coast of the Yucatán Peninsula, Mexico, is an artifical island used as a burial site for persons of the Mayan elite.

Mayan artisans expressed their creativity through detailed sculptures, pottery,
and jewellery, which were often buried alongside the deceased.

‘The Musical Instruments of the Jalapa Del Marques Valley’ by Gonzalo Sánchez Santiago

300 BCE - 250 CE front, Colima

300 BCE - 250 CE back, Colima

300 BCE.–AD 250 Colima culture

200BCE to200BC Pre-Columbian, West Mexico front

200BCE to200BC Pre-Columbian, West Mexico back

300BCE to 300AD pre Colombian West Mexico front
300BCE to 300AD pre Colombian West Mexico back
another double pipe
date unknown
Maya style, Mesoamerica	Mexico sound	prehistoric pipes
pre-Colombian Mexican Gulf area	on sale in USA. No informarion
unknown	1974 painting

Peru

1800–200 B.C.E examples of ceramic figurines, Formative Period, Tembladera, Cajamarca, north Peru.
The culture continued to flourish until European contact in the 16th century.

double pipes from Peru

Jalisco style human effigy flute, unknown date

front Aztec 20th century, made for tourists, front

back Aztec 20th century, made for tourists, back

Aztec 20th century, made for tourists, mouthpiece

clay double pipes currently being made: copies of archeological finds
by Arte Talli

players of bamboo double pipes

Peru

Mayan

in F#

Cusco double pipes

double pipes from Cuzco, Peru

unknown

double bone flute from the north
of Peru; part of a tradition of double dulzainas and pinkillos (especially cane and wood) that extends through the Andes from Ecuador to Lake Titicaca.
Corrected and plugged fingering holes

Cajamarca, Peru reproduction

2016 Peru Miguel and Gabriel Gordón	2024 Peru

Ecuador
2016 Geovanny Bedón	2023 Ecuador, Jhony Garcia Coque

central America

100BCE-800AD

700-1500 gold pendant, Costa Rica. snakes?
" Ritual self-sacrifice through bloodletting
from the soft parts of the body"

pre-Colombian Costa Rica


*Africa*
	unknown	2016 Africa, Tanzania, double nose pipes cane pipes


India and area
India late 2nd century BCE to early 3rd century CE	2nd century India	Satara, India (probably reeded pipes)

2nd-3rd century NW Frontier, Pakistan

100-300AD goddess, Gandharan
north-west Pakistan and north-east Afghanistan

21st century Algoza (double flute of Rajasthan), video duet

1975 doneli Baluchistan, Pakistan/Iran/Afganistan

flute doneli audio

another doneli [two separate
pipes, one a drone]

1976 satara flute, Thar desert, Barnawa village, Rajasthan

source

21st century desert

2012 with circular breathing

2020 Steev Kindwald double flute ‘Alghoza’

“two whistle flutes and many variations of these flutes and many many kinds of tunings. They are used for calling rain,
for thanking the rain, for various ceremonies, for ancestor and trance work, and for singing poetry”