Creating Panpipes

Another ancient item used for making music and for festive entertainment and dancing, is the species Panpipes. Made up of a collection of cylinders, graded in length and tied together, with the lower ends enclosed, panpipes are played by the musician’s blowing across the top of each pipe. The player can choose to move either the pipes or one’s head.

Called p’ai-siao by 500 BC in China and syrinx in ancient Greece one-thousand years earlier, panpipes were assumed to have been played by the water nymph, Pan. According to The Ultimate Encyclopaedia of Musical Instruments, Egyptian versions date from 330 BC. From China the panpipes spread across the Pacific and into South America. Names include Laka in pre-Columbian Chile, Anata in Peru, Siku in Argentina, Bolivia and Paraguay (where the chromatic range is divided between players, pipes may be longer than two metres, are angled away from the musician, balancing on the ground and the melody is divided between several players, creating a stereo effect).

From Greece panpipes spread to the Balkans. Gheorghe Zamfir is a Romanian panpipe artiste whose compositions and performances have promoted Romanian folk music. Also, South American folk ensembles highlighting panpipes seem to ideally capture the atmosphere of snow-capped mountains and remote plains as the evocative tones of the panpipes linger.

Here is El Condor Pasa played on the panpipes by Canto Andino.

Taking my pvc pipe I cut pieces to make a set of panpipes, graded in length. After decorating the cut pipes with paint, I assembled the instrument binding the tubes together. I decided to experiment by leaving the lower ends open to allow more options for notes: the pipes can be enclosed by the player’s hand when a lower note is required, and playing the pipe uncovered produces a higher note.

Here are photos of my Panpipes during the production process.

Enjoy Gheorghe Zamfir’s Wind of Change