35,000 years of flute music ....

Archeologists in Germany have discovered the remains of a notch-flute, made from an ostrich leg bone, which has been carbon-dated to c.35,000 years ago.

The flute has five finger-holes and a notch end - the barrel has snapped below the fifth hole and the rest of the instrument is missing, although apparently the original bone could have been up to 3 inches longer.

The New York Times has a good article about the flute including a sound sample of a replica. The article also links to the original announcement in Nature magazine (a subscription site).

This find extends the known age of instruments we would all recognise as flutes back to 35000 years ago - odd to think that I'm following in quite such a long tradition ...

More duck news

The latest duck to hit the headlines is the one who has become a regular at a restaurant in Aylesbury: regulars have been known to change their booking date depending on whether she will be around or not.

And how do the restaurant show their appreciation? By calling her Crispie ...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/hampshire/8108319.stm

Lituus - a revived instrument

Researchers at the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council have recreated the lituus, a long-lost instrument from Bach's time.

Working with the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, and with the benefits of acoustic software modelling, they have created this 2.5m long monster, and played it (or, rather, them, for they have built two) in a performance of Bach's 'O Jesu Christ, meins lebens licht’ (BWV 118) from 1736 or 1737.

I admit that at first glance I was expecting something more shawm or rauschpfeife-like, but it's always nice to see another lost instrument making a return.

The BBC news item I first saw is here, the EPSRC press release is here, and there's even a video up on YouTube showing the [re]creation of the lituus and the instrument in action.

Ducks palace

The story of Sir Peter Viggers and his £1,645 floating duck palace has been so widely covered in the media that it hardly needs me to mention it here.

But it's a story that's got two of my favourite things - Tory grandees make complete arses of themselves, and ducks.

So here's a link to the original Telegraph article, and here's a follow-up article about the disappearance of the duck palace.

So once again, the moral is beware of annoying a duck - take away their palace, and they'll shop you to the papers ...

A fine day for duck news

Not one, but two, bits of duck-related news today.

The Guardian newspaper reports that Oxford University researchers spent £300,000 and three years proving ... that ducks like water!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2009/may/20/research-proves-ducks-like-water

No doubt the ducks enjoyed it though, which isn't something you can often say about animal research.

The Duck Man of Washington State

Joel Armstrong, the Lesession organisation salutes you: when a duck decided that the best place to raise her brood of ducklings was on a ledge above a pavement in the middle of a city, Joel was there to catch the ducklings and guide them to water ....

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8058221.stm

Double contrabass flute

The Florida State Flute Orchestra have got a double contrabass flute, said to be one of only four in the world.

It's made up of over 18 feet of tubing, stands eight feet tall, and sounds great! The flute features in this Fox News video here.