A woodwind instrument is a musical instrument which produces sound when the player blows air against an edge of, or opening in, the instrument, causing the air to vibrate within a resonator. Most commonly, the player blows against a thin piece of wood called a reed. Woodwind instruments include the bansuri, dizi, flute, fife, piccolo, clarinet, bassoon, saxophone, bass clarinet, panpipes, pipe organ, and several instruments in the oboe family
The free reed aerophones, such as the Chinese shêng, Japanese shō, Laotian khene, and the European instruments: harmonica, harmonium and reed organ, accordion, bayan, concertina, and bandoneón, are also in the woodwind family.
Bansuri
The bansuri (Hindi: बांसुरी) is a transverse alto flute of Bangladesh,India, Nepal and Pakistan made of a single length of bamboo with six or seven open finger holes. An ancient musical instrument associated with cowherds and the pastoral tradition, it is intimately linked to the love story of Krishna and Radha, and is depicted in Buddhist paintings from around 100 AD. It is intimately associated with Krishna’s Rasa lila; the tunes on his flute are poetically associated with driving the women of Braj mad. The North Indian bansuri, typically about 14 inches long, was traditionally used as a soprano instrument primarily for accompaniment in lighter compositions including film music.
History
The word bansuri originates in the Sanskrit bans [bamboo] + swar [musical note]. There are two varieties of bansuri: the transverse, and the fipple. The fipple variety is usually played in folk music and is held away from the lips like a whistle. Because of the flexibility and control it offers, the transverse variety is preferred in classical music.
Pandit Pannalal Ghosh (1911-1960) elevated the Bansuri from a folk instrument into serious classical music.He improvised with the length and number of holes and eventually came up with longer bansuris with larger bores and a seventh hole placed 90 degrees around from the line of the other six holes. Longer bansuris provided better coverage in the lower octaves.
