Wind & Reed

Of all the ways we have made music, breath may have come first. Bone flutes found in caves in southern Germany date to around 43,000 years ago, among the oldest confirmed musical instruments ever found. Every culture since has shaped exhaled air into tone in its own way, and what grew from that impulse varies enormously. Irish flutes and Uilleann pipes, Andean quenas, Japanese shakuhachi, Persian neys, free-reed concertinas and accordions, harmonicas small enough for a coat pocket. Built for ceremony and dancing, for meditation and for the pleasure of a session. The traditions are old, and they are very much alive.