Other InformationSpecific usage history: According to Engel (1872), `The instrument from which the cast has been taken was discovered placed over a corpse in a Peruvian tomb, and was procured by the French General Paroissien. It is made of a greenish stone, which is a species of talc. Four of its tubes have small lateral finger-holes, which, when closed, lower the pitch a semitone. The Inca Peruvians called the syrinx (or Pandean pipe) huayra-puhura. The British Museum possesses a huayra-puhura, consisting of fourteen reeds. These ancient Pandean pipes are very interesting, since they exhibit the peculiar order of musical intervals used by the American aborigines before their musical conceptions were in any way influenced by European civilization.' |