A Quick Guide To Vessel Flute

The vessel flutes

The vessel flute is a special class of flutes with a spherical shape. These types of flutes have a globular body shape unlike conical or cylindrical bore common to most flutes.

Specifically, they are types of flutes with a closed far end rather than a cone-shaped or tube-shaped body. Vessel flutes are also known as globular flutes because of their body shape.

Many of the vessel flutes are made from glass, gourds, clay, ceramic, plastic, wood, and other solid materials. Gourds or shells and wood are commonly used for vessel flutes in Africa. On the other hand, clay and ceramic bodies are common in Latin America and China.

The body of vessel (globular) flutes are a vessel rather than a tube and behave like the Helmholtz resonator. Simply because they have a spherical and hollow body enclosure.

However, their act like Helmholtz resonators is somehow complicated depending on the number of finger holes on their body.

Vessel flutes are constructed in different shapes and forms, but they all have a blow-hole that is used for blowing through them.

Also, depending on the type and inventor, they have one or more finger holes, used to control the musical note, on their globular or spherically shaped bodies.

Some of the vessel flutes are fipple-blown while others are Edge-blown vessel flutes. We will shed light on that in the types of vessel flutes section.

Types of Vessels Flutes

There are different types of vessel flutes. However, they are categorized into two major classes based on how players blow through the mouth hole to play the instruments.

Basically, the two classes of vessel flutes are fipple and fipple-less or edge-blown vessel flutes.

Fipple Vessel Flutes

The first types of vessel flutes are fipple vessel flutes which have the fipple that helps the player to direct the air stream to the edge just like the recorder mouthpiece.

Specifically, they possess ducts that serve as the mouthpiece and guide the air stream coming from the blow-hole to the edge.

A typical example of a fipple vessel flute is ocarinas.

Ocarina

Ocarina is a special form and typical example of vessel flutes, and it is of fipple class.

These vessel flutes are a very old instrument that is believed to have been in existence for over ten thousand years.

The name ocarina was given to this instrument by Guiseppe Donati in 1853 after he successfully invented a submarine-shaped clay flute.

Ocarinas are made with different shapes, different numbers of finger holes, and different key tuning.

These wonderful instruments are made from different materials like metal, glass, stone, wood, porcelain, bone, coconut, plastic, and clay.

However, most ocarinas are made traditionally from ceramic or clay materials.

The majority of ocarina has four to twelve finger holes around their globular body and one fipple mouthpiece where the blow-hole is located.

However, some have double (body) chambers that can extend the range of the instrument and allow the playing of chords.

Ocarinas are very common among amateur musicians because of their simplicity and low cost.

Fipple-Less or Edge-Blown Vessel Flutes

The second class of vessel flutes is fipple-less or edge-blown vessel flutes. These types of vessel flutes are without fipple and play by directing the air stream against the edge of the instrument’s mouth hole with the aid of the player’s lips.

Playing the fipple-less flutes is like playing the concert flute because both utilize the player’s lips to direct the stream of air against the edge of the mouth or embouchure hole.

Some examples of fipple-less vessel flutes are Xun, Hun, Tsuchibue, and Kōauau ponga ihu.

Xun

The xun is a Chinese ancient musical instrument and one of the oldest musical instruments in China. It is an oval-shaped wind instrument, made with clay and dated back to around 4000 BC in China.  

The sound produced by xun is very rich, mystical, and deep.

Kōauau ponga ihu

Kōauau ponga ihu is a small gourd vessel flute and one of the Traditional Māori Musical Instruments.

The instrument is made from a small gourd with an open top that serves as a blow or mouth hole. Also, it has two small holes on its body which are used to control the tone of the sound produced by the instrument.

Basically, Kōauau ponga ihu is played with the nose. Of course, the instrument is played by blowing across the top blow-hole with one nostril.

When the player blows through the blow-hole (top opening), a deep resonant booming sound like the mating call of an owl parrot is created.  

The sound created by playing Kōauau ponga ihu is a sweet flute-like sound. The delicate and sweet tone of the Kōauau ponga ihu has been related to the sound of wind in treetops or a seabird’s call.

You can use the link below to listen to the Māori gourd vessel nose flute kōauau ponga ihu being played.

Hun

The Hun is another type of fipple-less or edge-blown vessel flute. Hun indeed lacks fipple and has been played in Korean Confucian temples as far as the 12th century.

Hun is made of baked clay or ceramic material. And just like other types of vessel flutes, Hun has a globular shape. This traditional Korean vessel flute has a blowing hole at its top side to blow the air across the instrument for playing.

In addition, Hun has several finger holes (like five) across its body. These finger holes are used to vary the tone of the sound the instrument produced.

To play the Hun, it is held in two hands, and a stream of air is directed across the edge of the blowing hole at the top. Conjointly, the fingers are used to close and open the finger holes on its body to create different musical notes.

This fipple-less vessel flute is used primarily in Korean court music ensembles. However, it has been used in some contemporary Korean compositions and in some Korean film scores.

Tsuchibue

This is also an edge-blown vessel flute but of ancient Japanese origin. It is popularly known as the ancient Japanese clay vessel flute.

Tsuchibue is just like the Chinese Xun and the Korean Hun. This is very obvious because Tsuchibue also has a globular shape and is made from clay as well.

Specifically, tsuchibue is a Japanese language word that means “clay flute”.

Sound production By The Vessel Flute

The sound of a vessel flute is produced when air is blown either through a whistle-type mouthpiece or across a blow-hole edge.

Some vessel flutes are duct-blown with a fipple that helps to direct the air onto the rim edge. This is just like a recorder mouthpiece.

Other vessel flutes are fipple-less which is played by blowing across through the rim-of the blow-hole.  These types depend on the lips of the player to direct the blown air against the far end of the edge. This is played just like a concert flute.

When you blow through the opening of an empty bottle, you create a basic fipple-less or edge-blown vessel flute.

The sound is produced in a fipple-less vessel flute when the air stream from the player oscillates as it passes through the edge of the blow-hole.

Basically, what happens is that as the player blows against the edge of the hole, the air stream goes back and forth, as quickly as possible, between the outer and inner side of the labium. Labium here is the edge of the far end of the blow-hole.

This process occurs at the opening called voicing.

Acoustical Behaviour Of The The Vessel Flute

But the vessel flute contained a body of air in a globular or spherical shaped body and not a column of air in a tube. As a result, the acoustical behaviour of these instruments is significantly different.

Note that the air in the vessel flute resonates as one body with the air moving in and out of the vessel in succession. As a result, the pressure within the vessel decreases and increases.

This resonance in the vessel flute is totally different to that of a cone or tube of air. Because in a conical or cylindrical tube, air moves along the tube back and forth.

This caused the pressure in one part of the tube to increase and the pressure on other parts to decrease.

The pitch of the Vessel Flute

The pitch of these instruments is a function of total volume enclosed by the instrument and total surface area of the open holes.    

Note that we have openings in blow-holes that players blow into and other openings in finger holes. These openings form the total open hole area and that is all that matters not the position of the opened holes.  

Furthermore, how hard or soft the players blow into the instrument have an impact on its pitch. Of course, the force carried by the breath can alter the pitch of this instrument by several semitones.

Be that as it may, the tone produced by the instrument will be sabotaged if the air is too low or too much. As a result, the instrument has a much smaller usable tone range.

The most favourable breath force relies upon which pitch is being sounded. This is in accordance with the breath curve of the instrument. For this reason, learning how to play a vessel flute in tune is not easy.

Vessel Flute Fingering

The tone of the sound produced by the instrument is controlled by the total open area achieved when the finger holes are closed or opened.

From this theory, it means that the smaller instruments have a total volume enclosed and are higher pitched. Therefore, when any of the holes on the instrument is opened, the pitch will always increase with the same magnitude.

Also, Opening the holes always increases the total surface area of the open holes by the same quantity no matter the number of other holes that are open.

Finger Holes And Possible Notes

This theory above is very useful in the fingering of a vessel flute. For instance, the flute with just two finger holes of equal size has the capability to produce three distinct notes. 

The first note is produced when the two holes are opened. The second note is produced when both holes are closed. Lastly, the third note is produced when one of the holes is closed and the other opened.

The case is different when the two finger holes have different sizes. This makes it possible for the vessel flutes to produce four distinct notes.

This first note is produced with both holes opened. The second note is produced with both holes closed. The third note is produced when only the smaller hole is opened. And the fourth note is produced when only the bigger hole is opened.

Generally, the number of possible notes the vessel flutes can produce increases as the number of finger holes on its body increase.

It is possible to achieve (1024) full chromatic notes with the instrument if the following conditions are met. Theoretically, if the smallest finger hole that the instrument has, is capable of raising the pitch by a semitone. And at the same time, every successive finger hole, starting from the smallest one, has a size that doubles the last one.

The Vessel Flute Sound Amplification

Initially, the sound that comes from the instrument is a broad-spectrum “noise” in the form of “Chiff”. However, all the frequencies that match the resonant frequency that is equivalent to the resonant frequency of the resonating chamber are specifically amplified.

NOTE: Resonant frequency is the natural frequency where a medium vibrates at the highest amplitude. This is the pitch of the note that is heard.

As said earlier, the vessel flute acts like a Helmholtz resonator by utilising the body of air in the vessel for amplification.

Tuning The instrument

Generally, there is no tuning mechanism for vessel flutes. Maybe because they slightly rely on breath pressure variation.

Also, maybe the size of the voicing must match the volume of the chamber to produce an acceptable tone.

Nevertheless, some of the vessel flutes have plungers they use to change the volume of the vibrating chamber.

More On Fingering And Pitch

Practically, the harder the players blow through the instrument also has a great impact on the pitch of this instrument as we have already discussed. Specifically, if many finger holes are opened, it is essential for the player to blow harder which in return raises the pitch.

Also, the pitch can vary in the shapes of the vessel as much as the cavity acts like a Helmholtz resonator. This is the primary reason we have vessel flutes sizes and shapes.

Final thought

The vessel flutes are the type of flutes that are spherical in shape. This is any family of flutes with globular or vessel-shaped bodies rather than tubular or conical.

The term vessel flute is also used to refer to any globular flute.

Vessel flutes are often made from gourds, fruit shells, ceramic, or clay material. Probably, the ocarinas are the best-known example of vessel flutes. Nearly all vessel flutes have finger holes that players can use to play different notes by opening or closing them.

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