The musical instruments in this exhibit originated throughout the Americas, including the Great Plains of North America, Mesoamerica, Central America, and the Andean region of South America. While these instruments have become popular in the tourist trade, their origin is in the ancient cultures of these continents.  

For many indigenous cultures of the Americas, the traditional form and the spiritual aspects of musical instruments are more important than the skill of the player or the musical performances that they are used to produce. Music was and is a part of life among these cultures, with songs for every occasion and type of ceremony; songs are played for success in hunting, healing, and as a source of protection, as well as for important rituals such as funerals.  Further, music may simply be played for pleasure, as a way to relax and to find joy in small things, as well as for seeking what one wants in life, such as finding love.  While each of these cultures embraces certain stories and styles, they all use music to evoke emotion, memories, and stories that are passed on through generations.  

In addition, these indigenous instruments have been developed into works of art. Some, like the panpipes and the rain stick, must be made of certain materials and take certain forms in order to function correctly, but they are often painted with bright colors or decorative patterns. Others, meanwhile, may be made in an array of fanciful shapes and forms where the art may reflect the music produced, such as the bird forms of Great Plains Lakota flutes, or, like the ocarinas, where they may be made in the form of animals or mythological characters. 

The ocarina is a ceramic flute with three to six finger holes, and it is a type of aerophone, a musical instrument with one to three internal chambers that produce sound by causing air to vibrate. Ocarinas are believed to have originated in Costa Rica as early as 2000 BCE. The form of ocarinas developed and changed over time, and as the use of these flutes spread to other parts of the Americas, the different styles and types were shared and reproduced in many cultures.  The earliest ocarinas usually had a single chamber and were decorated with simple geometric designs; later versions were decorated with stamps and complex incised patterns, and then, like these two ocarinas, they were produced in the forms of different creatures, including frogs and turtles, but also cats, birds, armadillos, humans, and supernaturals. Ocarinas continue to serve many functions in traditional cultures, including as musical entertainment and as toys, but also for serious purposes such as in long-distance signaling, in celebrations, and in war and dances of death. 

Indigenous ocarinas of the Americas have been influential to other cultures not only in their artistic form, but also in their music. The ocarina has become popular in North American folk music, and most recently it has appeared in American pop culture, in the video game Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. (Researched by Ana Babb) 

The earliest-known panpipes were made by ancient Andean cultures and date back to 4200 BCE, but this instrument has developed in different cultures all over the world. This set of multicolored panpipes is strikingly similar to pan pipes found, for example, among the indigenous Solomon Islands cultures – but, the similar form is not surprising, as the function of pan pipes dictates their traditional form.  

The shape and length of each tube in the panpipe directly affects the pitch of the music, and the different tubes enable the player to make a variety of sounds with different pitches. Like this set of panpipes, the most common type of panpipes has 13 tubes that may have open or closed ends; however, larger sets of panpipes can have as many as three rows of tubes in different lengths and circumferences.   

Because ancient depictions of Andean panpipes virtually always illustrate two panpipe players, scholars believe that these instruments were played by pairs of musicians, or perhaps that a single, very talented player could play two sets of panpipes at once.  Because panpipes have been found in ceremonial contexts, scholars also believe that panpipes were important in ancient Andean rituals. Researched by Ana Babb 

The Great Plains wooden flute is also known as the flageolet or the love flute. This bird effigy flute takes a popular form, with a bird’s face and beak carved into the end; the earliest-known flute of this type was found in the northern Great Plains and dates from the 1800s. 

The process of making Great Plains wooden flutes starts with finding and cutting a straight branch of cedar wood; the branch is shaped into a cylinder, which is split open and hollowed out. The artisan carves the finger holes, the sound chamber, and adds the sound block, and finally attaches the two halves back together. 

The mythological origins of the Great Plains flute center around the story of a man who serenades his lover. In the most detailed version of the story, a young hunter chases an elk into the forest and happens to hear a sound that makes him feel full of love and desire. He notices a woodpecker in a tree and realizes that the sound is created from wind blowing through the holes that the bird has created. The man then fasts and prays until he has a vision where the bird appears before him and transitions into being a human. The bird-human shows the young hunter how to whittle a branch into bird-shaped flute, with a neck and an open beak. The young man then plays this flute, which results in him winning over the chief’s daughter, and they fall in love. This story of a love serenade aptly illustrates why one name for this instrument is the love flute.  Researched by Ana Babb 

Rain sticks are formed from long, round, thick cactus branches. The artisan who creates the rain stick cuts the branch and removes the thorns; the cactus branch is then hollowed out, and the thorns are turned around and stuck into the hollow branch.  Finally, the branch is partially filled with pebbles, seeds, or dried beans, and the open end is sealed. When the rain stick is turned upside-down, the pebbles, seeds, or beans fall slowly through the thorns inside the hollow cactus, creating the sound of a pleasant rainfall. 

 The origin of the rain stick is unclear. While some claim that rain sticks were invented by the Aztec cultures of Mesoamerica, others give credit for this invention to the Diaguita cultures of the southern Andean region. Tube-shaped rattles that resemble rain sticks have also been found in the central Andes as well.   

Given the rain-like sound that they produce, rain sticks are believed to have been used in ceremonies to call for rain during crop-growing seasons. These instruments may be painted with elaborate geometric designs, as is this Andean rain stick, and they can have beads, feathers, and other embellishments attached to them.  Researched by Ana Babb 

For more information, you may contact the researcher(s) noted in the title of this exhibit entry, or Dr. Billie Follensbee, the professor of the course, at BillieFollensbee@MissouriState.edu