World Flutelore: Folktales, Myths, and Other Stories of Magical Flute Power

by Dale A. Olsen

Overview

In many places around the world, flutes and the sounds of flutes are powerful magical forces for seduction and love, protection, vegetal and human fertility, birth and death, and other aspects of human and nonhuman behavior. This book explores the cultural significance of flutes, flute playing, and flute players from around the world as interpreted from folktales, myths, and other stories—in a word, ""flutelore."" A scholarly yet readable study, World Flutelore: Folktales, Myths, and Other Stories of Magical Flute Power draws upon a range of sources in folklore, anthropology, ethnomusicology, and literary analysis.

Describing and interpreting many examples of flutes as they are found in mythology, poetry, lyrics, and other narrative and literary sources from around the world, veteran ethnomusicologist Dale Olsen seeks to determine what is singularly distinct or unique about flutes, flute playing, and flute players in a global context. He shows how and why flutes are important for personal, communal, religious, spiritual, and secular expression and even, perhaps, existence. This is a book for students, scholars, and any reader interested in the cultural power of flutes.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780252037887
Publisher:	University of Illinois Press
Publication date:	12/06/2013
Edition description:	1st Edition
Pages:	264
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

A lifelong flutist performing classical, jazz, and many types of world flute music, Dale A. Olsen is a professor emeritus of ethnomusicology at Florida State University. His many books include Music of the Warao of Venezuela: Song People of the Rain Forest and Popular Music of Vietnam: The Politics of Remembering, the Economics of Forgetting.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations xi

Prelude xiii

Story 1 "Raman's New Flute" (Vellore, India) 1

Chapter 1 Flute Types and Stereotypes 4

Story 2 "The Turtle, the Monkey, and the Jaguar" (Apinayé [Gé] Culture, Brazil) 13

Chapter 2 The Making of World Flutes 15

Story 3 "Manwoldae Is Autumn Grass" (Korean Poem) 30

Chapter 3 Flutes That Talk 31

Story 4 "Culture Heroes Discover the First Flutes" (Wogeo Culture, New Guinea) 38

Chapter 4 Flutes and Gender Roles 40

Story 5 "The Story of the Flutemaker" (Lakota Culture, United States of America) 46

Chapter 5 Flutes, Sexuality, and Love Magic 50

Story 6 "Aniz the Shepherd" (Uyghur Culture, China) 69

Chapter 6 Flutes and the Animal Kingdom 72

Story 7 "The Origin of Maize" (Yupa Culture, Venezuela) 90

Chapter 7 Flutes and Nature 93

Story 8 "The Fluteplayer" (China) 100

Chapter 8 Flute Origin Myths and Flute-Playing Heroes 105

Story 9 "Yoshitsune's Voyage among the Islands" (Japan) 113

Chapter 9 Flutes and Protective Power 117

Story 10 "The Rat Catcher of Korneuburg" (Austria) 129

Chapter 10 Flutes and Death 132

Story 11 "The Pifuano Flute of the Chullachaqui Rainforest Spirits" (Iquitos, Peru) 141

Chapter 11 Flutes and Unethical/Ethical Behavior 144

Story 12 "Song of the Flute: The First Eighteen Verses of Rumi's Masnevi" (Persia [Iran]) 148

Chapter 12 Religious Status of Flutes 150

Story 13 "How the Noble Fujiwara no Yasumasa Faced Down the Bandit Hakamadare" (Japan) 163

Chapter 13 Socioreligious Status of Flute Musicians 166

Story 14 "Hard to Fill" (Ireland) 178

Chapter 14 The Aesthetics and Power of Flute Sounds, Timbres, and Sonic Textures 179

Conclusion 191

Notes 197

References 213

Index of Stories 225

Subject Index 229

Editorial Reviews

"Olsen commands a thorough knowledge of his subject matter…This book will be a valuable addition to the institutions of learning as well as to all who love music and folklore… It offers an opportunity to discover how the cultures of the world have cherished the magical process we practice and love—the direct transformation of our breath into music—and incorporated it into their views of the world."—Journal of Folklore Research
 


"Any reader interested in world culture, music, ethnography, or ethnomusicology will enjoy Olsen's work. Recommended."—Choice


"World Flutelore breathlessly succeeds in establishing a foothold for flutes as a subject worthy of study, and inspires organological curiosity even among those uninitiated to flues and flutelore."—Journal of American Folklore
 

"World Flutelore has lasting value for scholars and musicians—and general readers. After decades of research, fieldwork, performing, and collecting flutes throughout the world, Olsen has shared his life's passion with a book that is informative and lively—a fine mix of wisdom and enthusiasm."-Western Folklore

"This study on flutes and their lore in different global settings is engagingly readable and of genuine interest not only to ethnomusicologists and folklorists, but to all musically minded readers. Olsen unveils an almost boundless panoramic view of the flute as a powerful entity that permeates people's aesthetic, symbolic, cultural, and mythological worlds and their inner psyches."—A. J. Racy, author of Making Music in the Arab World: The Culture and Artistry of Tarab

From the Publisher