Bone FlutesBone Flutes
We are proud to offer bone flutes made by luthier Helen Leaf. Helen's tabor pipes are known for their high quality and I am pleased to say that these bone flutes are also excellent instruments. Helen is currently studying for a Phd in the archaeology of the bone flute.
The bone flute (though it should be accurately described as a duct flute) is the most common musical instrument found in Viking and Anglo-Saxon archaeological contexts. The design we offer was in common use from the 9th century onwards, and may have been in use earlier, though this cannot be proven definitively as only partial remains exist. Helen's flutes are accurate recreations of this type of instrument.
Click HERE to listen to one of our bone flutes.
Click here to read about and hear flutes currently in stock.
Sheep bone flutes as shown here with cm scale are available from stock for £75 plus postage. Five hole deer bone flutes are available special order for £115.
Playing the Sheep Bone Flute
Since these flutes are fipple or duct flutes like a tin whistle or recorder producing a tone is very easy, just blow gently into the end!
Although the instrument has only three holes it is possible to get a scale of at least six notes by covering the end varying amounts with the fingers of one hand, whilst covering or uncovering different combinations of holes with the other.
All the flutes are different and each has its own playing characteristics and possibilities for cross fingering and overblowing, which you will discover with practice.
Though to modern ears these different notes may sound out of tune with each other, a practised player will be able to tune them with their breath or cross fingering to produce either a modern minor or major scale. Occasionally a flute produces the haunting minor scale used in Nordic cow-horn playing, with its sharpened leading note.
Notes for Re-enactors
According to the archaeological record the bone flute must have been a very common and popular musical instrument across Europe in the Early Medeval period. There is the possibility that similar wooden flutes existed but because of their fragile nature these do not turn up in an archaeological context this early, the earliest dating from around the year 1000. Therefore the re-enactor wanting to recreate the musical life of Anglo-Saxon, Viking or Early Medieval Celtic culture should consider the bone flute before any other instrument.
The bone flute is relatively easy to make, portable and easy to play making it the tin whistle, recorder or pocket harmonica of its day. If your persona is from the lower social echelons, and not that of a Skald, Bard or Noble a bone flute would be a more appropriate instrument than a lyre or harp, both of which required considerable investments of time and money to produce. Because of its relatively small size a bone flute can be worn as a pendant or on the belt, or as part of a chatelaine, making it a useful unusual costume accessory helping to avoid 'cloning'.
Bone flutes continued in common use until the 12th century, becoming rarer and finally obsolete around the 14th.
Click here to read about and hear flutes currently in stock.