HOWLERS: DEATH WHISTLES & CHAMBER-DUCT FLUTES
Small sculptural chamber-duct howlers: This ancient sound was probably used to call in prey, to terrify enemies, & in death ceremonies.
A drawing of one type of internal construction of a chamber-duct/howler is on the research page. A recording of one of my howlers is on the same page.
With these small sculptural howlers: blow harder & softer through the open tube on top. Roll your hand over the large opening on the bottom of the piece. Try talking, singing, barking, tonguing Ts & Gs while playing. Can you buzz your lips like a trumpet into the open tube? While singing...? Of the five howlers, the brown skull & owl-eyed piece are still available.
With these Aztec style Howlers, the movements of the breath circle within the three internal chambers in an erratic pattern and produce an amazing array of sounds; add singing, lip buzzing and there are even more available sounds.
Cannon howler. Blow through the the end that’s up in this picture. While blowing harder & softer, open & close the 2 ends of the crosswise tube.
The rings slide up & down, making a light clicking sound.
Mayan chamber-duct flutes have can also play soft reedy flute sounds. It has 4 inter connected chambers: a small chamber-duct inside with 2 tiny opposing holes, like a whistling tea kettle, and an exit-hole. The mouth-tube blows through the top tiny whistle hole; across the 2nd tiny whistle hole into the hollow round ball. The exit tube connects to the exit hole at one end or crosses the mouth-tube. allowing for pitch adjustments. The Mayan flutes have a small finger hole below the round ball. On the Research page, please see my article: Complex Acoustics in PreColumbian Flute Systems. The double flute depicted on the Research page has 3 connected chambers: blow through the top of the head into the 1st tiny hole, across the chamber-duct & the 2nd hole, swirling into the hollow ball, then out the exit holes. There are 2 for each whistle.
HOWLING RATTLE: blow through the hole visible in the picture to the right. In addition to blowing harder & softer, there are two holes that can also manipulate the sound; one of them is visible at the top of the left picture; open & close them to change the pitch of the sound. Roll this piece in your hands to activate the rattle. Blow & rattle simultaneously. This Rattle’s internal mechanism is similar to the white “cannon” flute immediately above, and the Ochre/green glazed pieces also above. Most of these pieces are also available for purchase.
SEE BEASTIE: 2 howlers were built similar to the cannon above, and clay was coiled around each instrument; they were then joined in the middle. Each end of this piece thus has its own instrument. A great variety of sounds can be created by blowing harder & softer, by singing & growling, all while opening & closing the 2 openings of each howler tube.
Rick Rowland and Susan Rawcliffe are playing the See Beastie. Note please, we cannot see each other while playing.