LL-L "Music" 2009.03.07 (06) [E]

[Lowlands-L List]

===========================================
L O W L A N D S - L - 07 March 2009 - Volume 06
===========================================


From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Music

I wrote about bagpipes and possibly related musical instruments within a
Eurasian context. (Please see at the end.)

I should have added to the part about musical instruments with fixed air
chambers a fairly well-known instrument of India: the *pūngi* (पून्गि),
which is also known as *bīn* or "been" (बीन). It is the stereotypical Indian
snake charmers' instrument:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Schlangenbeschw%C3%B6rer-Delhi-1973.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Beeninstrument.jpg

There is clearly a link between the mentioned instruments of China and
probably also one with those of Europe.

This instrument is considered the ancestor of the shehnai or shahnai (Hindi,
Marathi* sanaī* सनई, Tamil *chorēy* செனாய், Telugu *vehasāy* షెహనాయ్):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Shehnai.jpg

This is related to the following, widely assumed to be Persian-derived:



Arabic: zamr زمر, surna سورنا

Armenian: zurna Õ¦Õ¸Ö‚Ö€Õ¶Õ¡

Batak: sarune

Burmese: hne` နးဧ့်

Dayak: serunai

Javanese: sruni

Khmer: sralai ស្ៃឡេ

Macedonian: zurla зурла

Malay: sernai

Mandarin: suona 嗩吶

Persian: surnay سورناى, sorna سورنا

Turkish: zurna

Uyghur: sunay سۇناي сунай

Uzbek: surnay сурнай

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron
Seattle, USA


***

Second posting:

I wrote about bagpipes and related musical instruments in Medieval
Saxon-speaking areas, and I mentioned the following:



Apparently, a *platerspil* (Middle German *blaturspil*) is a much smaller
type of pipe, consisting of a wooden mouthpiece and the main part of the
flute with play holes, both attached to a bladder (*plater*, *blatur*) as
sack.



Please see here:
http://www.lutherschauspiel.de/index.php?id=26

http://www.u-roming.de/camerata/platerspil.html

http://www.chmtl.indiana.edu/tml/16th/LUSMUS_07GF.gif



It seems to me that there are remarkable and perhaps not coincidental
similarities between this instrument and the *huluxiao* (葫蘆簫) or *hulusi* (
葫蘆絲) of China.



http://www.chineseinstruments.org/page.php?type=Wind&inst=Hulusi&file=Hulusi_1

http://www.chineseinstruments.org/page.php?type=Wind&inst=Hulusi&file=Hulusi_2



While the *platerspil* uses a bladder as an air chamber, the *huluxiao* ~ *
hulusi* uses a gourd for the same purpose. The latter can have one or more
pipes, while the former has only one. (The type of gourd itself is of
non-Chinese origin as its name with *hú* (葫) suggests.)

The flexible air chamber (bladder) of the *platerspil* may well have led to
the development of the inflexible air chamber of the *huluxiao* ~
*hulusi*as well as to the development of a larger, squeezable air
chamber as in the
bagpipe family. I have a hunch that we are dealing with cross-Eurasia
technology (as in so many other cases).

The *huluxiao* ~ *hulusi* is a "barbarian" instrument, i.e. is not an
invention of China's dominant Han (æ¼¢) ethnicity. Relatives of it are played
traditionally among various ethnic groups of Southern China and in
neighboring countries (some of which have been absorbed among the Han). Its
air chamber is not unlike that of the *hujia* (胡笳), an instrument associated
with "northern barbarians", specifically with the Xiongnu (*Hsiung-nu*, 匈奴),
the eastern branch of the Huns that kept biting at China's ankles for quite
some time while its western branch kept biting at Europe's ankles.
Descendants of the *hujia* are still being played in Northern China, also in
part among ethnic minorities.



http://www.chineseinstruments.org/page.php?type=Wind&inst=Hujia&file=Hujia_1
http://www.chineseinstruments.org/page.php?type=Wind&inst=Hujia&file=Hujia_2
http://www.chineseinstruments.org/page.php?type=Wind&inst=Hujia&file=Hujia_3
(read "Altai" instead of "Altair")

As you can see, aside from the air chamber, the *hujia* resembles an oboe or
shawm. You can see a musician playing it on camelback in a sculpture of the
Tang dynasty (唐朝, 618-907), a time when China was teaming with foreigners:



http://www.chineseinstruments.org/page.php?type=Intro&file=Intro_11



The European Renaissance shawm has an air chamber also, albeit a perforated
one, and there are medieval ancestors of this instrument:



http://www.music.iastate.edu/antiqua/renshawm.htm



Regards,
Reinhard/Ron
Seattle, USA

***
First posting:

Low Saxon *Dudelsack* for 'bagpipe' is most likely a fairly recent German
loanword.

Hanne cites synonyms:

Syn.: *Dudei, Hämelken, Hümmelken, Lullekendei, -pip, Pipenbuck, Pipsack.*

*Dudei* is most likely a Slavic loanword, while the others are probably
native, except that *–buck* (billie-goat) may be a German calque which is
associated with the Slavic *duda* ~ *dudy*.

In Middle Saxon ("Middle Low German"):

   - *pipsack ~ pypsak*
   - *platerspil ~ platerspyel*
   Middel German glossing: *ein pfeiff mit secklin, sackpfiffe, pfiffenspil,
   blaturspil*
   - *lollikenpipe ~ lolikenpype*
   apparently from *lollen* or *lolliken* 'to sing softly', probably related
   to English 'to lull'
   (cf. *lollbroder* "lull brother" monk of an order that cares for the sick
   in hospices)
   - *ruysch-pype
   *from *ruschen* ~ *ruyschen* 'to whoosh', 'to hiss'

Words for bagpipes in a Pomeranian chronicle in Middle Saxon:*
*

*Disse was so gecleidet, de ander anders; itzt qwam einer mit
platerspilalse de barenleider plegen tho hebben, denn qwam dar einer
mit einer
lollikenpipen edder mit einer gantzen tzegenhut, de alse eine sackpipe was.
*

My translation:
"One was dressed thusly, another differently; now one came with (a) *
platerspil* as bear trainers tend to have, then one came with a *
lollikenpipe* or with a whole goat's skin which was a *sackpipe*."

Middle Dutch reference: *
up den doedelsak spelen, zoo als de berenleiders, om de beren te doen dansen
*
(my translation: to play the bagpipes as do bear trainers in order to make
bears dance)

Schiller, Karl: Mittelniederdeutsches Wörterbuch / von Karl Schiller und
August Lübben. - Bremen : Kühtmann [u.a.]. 1 (1875) - 6 (1881)

*Lollikenpipe, sackpipe* and *ruysch-pype* appear to denote the same
instrument. Because of the reference to a whole goat's skin I suspect it is
the larger type of instrument.

Apparently, a *platerspil* (Middle German *blaturspil*) is a much smaller
type of pipe, consisting of a wooden mouthpiece and the separate main part
of the flute with play holes, both attached to a bladder (*plater*, *blatur*)
as sack.

Please see here:
http://www.lutherschauspiel.de/index.php?id=26

http://www.u-roming.de/camerata/platerspil.html

http://www.chmtl.indiana.edu/tml/16th/LUSMUS_07GF.gif

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron
Seattle, USA

•

==============================END===================================

 * Please submit postings to lowlands-l at listserv.linguistlist.org.

 * Postings will be displayed unedited in digest form.

 * Please display only the relevant parts of quotes in your replies.

 * Commands for automated functions (including "signoff lowlands-l")

   are to be sent to listserv at listserv.linguistlist.org or at

   http://linguistlist.org/subscribing/sub-lowlands-l.html.

*********************************************************************
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/lowlands-l/attachments/20090307/ab419ff1/attachment.htm>