8 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. yj 



" for serenading the girls." Two series of reeds constitute a set, 

 each series comprising three or four reeds of different lengths, bound 

 together side by side and blown across the open ends. The two parts 

 of the set are connected by a cord nine or more inches in length and 

 the player holds one set in each hand, holding them with the ends 

 having the shorter reeds next each other. Thus he has an instru- 

 ment which produces high tones in the middle of its length and low- 

 tones at each end. In the sets contained in the Marsh Collection at 

 the United States National Museum the shortest reed is 4^ inches, 

 and the longest is 145 inches in length. It is said that panpipes in the 

 native villages frequently contain reeds 2 or 3 feet long, giving a 

 deep resonant tone. 



It is the custom of the Tule to play two sets of panpipes together, 

 one player sounding one tone and the other the next tone, alternat- 

 ing throughout the performance. Igwa and Alfred Robinson (the in- 

 terpreter) demonstrated this use of the instrument and produced a 

 surprisingly loud tone resembling that of a calliope. It was said the 

 instrument could also be played with a moderate tone. As Alfred 

 was not an expert player, Igwa then played the instrument alone, giv- 

 ing a performance marked by a rapid succession of high and low tones, 

 suggesting a performance on a concertina. Two expert players could, 

 it was said', play the same sort of music in alternating tones. 

 Another style of playing the panpipes was a sliding tone or glissando 

 produced by passing the reeds rapidly in front of the player's lips, 

 and yet another style consisted of rhythms on a single tone. Alfred 

 said, " There are about 100 kinds of music played on the panpipes." 

 The effect of this varied playing by skilled performers is undoubtedly 

 very interesting. 



Four sorts of playing on the panpipes were recorded and portions 

 of the records transcribed. The same set of pipes was used in mak- 

 ing all the records and the differences in pitch of the melodies are of 

 special interest. The compass of the melodies is five tones (except 

 for one tone in the first rendition), and the fourth tone of the com- 

 pass does not occur. The intonation is fairly good, especially on the 

 interval of a fifth. The melodies appear to be improvised along 

 familiar melodic lines although each " sort of playing " is of an in- 

 dividual type. The first transcription is from a performance by two 

 players sounding alternate tones, and the second, third and fourth 

 are from a performance by Igwa alone. 



