188 safford: pan-pipes of peru 



States National Museum (no. 95,908, shown in fig. 1) has pipes 

 producing alternate notes of the scale as above described, but 

 they are in lengths which produce a scale in the key of/. The 

 reed producing the tonic, or do tone (/) is 120 mm. long (inside 

 measurement) . The fa and la {B\> and D) pipes below, theoreti- 

 cally f and I the length of the do pipe, are actually 180 mm. and 

 144 mm. long; the sol (c) pipe above theoretically f the length 

 of the do pipe, is actually 80 mm., and consequently sounds 

 true; but the upper re and /a {g' and h'\?) pipes at the extreme left 

 of the instrument are too long, and consequently almost a half- 

 tone flat. It is probable that this irregularity was not intentional 

 on the part of the instrument maker, especially if he gauged the 

 length of the pipes by his ear alone rather than by definite meas- 

 urements. Writers on musical instruments often show a tend- 

 ency to give too great importance to accidental irregularities 

 of this kind and to regard them as intentional. As a matter of 

 fact, to correct a pipe for flatness the Titicaca Indians pour either 

 water or a little pisco (grape brandy) into it, thus shortening 

 the vibrating column of air to the required length. Specimens 

 of flukes made of single reeds with holes for the fingers and thumb 

 are sometimes dug up from prehistoric graves in Peru with the 

 original holes plugged and replaced by new holes slightly above 

 or below the original ones, showing that the first holes had been 

 made by guess work and the resulting tones were too sharp or 

 too flat for the ear of the player, who, finding his instrument to 

 be "out of tune," felt obliged to correct it. In the same way, 

 when the players of pan-pipes come together to form an orchestra, 

 it is often necessary for some of them to tune their instruments 

 to accord with the others. This is easily done by raising the pitch 

 of the flat-toned instruments, as described above. 



That pan-pipes are not an intrusion from Spain is proved con- 

 clusively by their occurrence in prehistoric graves. That the 

 ancient Peruvians played them in mated pairs producing alternat- 

 ing notes in the scale is equally certain from the fact that on vases 

 interred with mummies, players of pan-pipes are represented in 

 pairs, sometimes with the two instruments on which they are per- 

 forming connected loosely by a long string. 



