Neanderthal Bone Flute Music

Short film, full title is Playing the Neanderthal flute of Divje babe, is authored by Sašo Niskač, music is performed by Ljuben Dimkaroski, scientific adviser is Dr. Ivan Turk, archaeologist. Extraordinary find from 1995 in Divje babe cave site, western Slovenia, it is most comprehensively described in the paper at http://www.cpa.si/tidldibab.pdf, was met with great enthousiasm on one side and with great scepticism on the other side of the scientific audience, for details see http://www.greenwych.ca/divje-b.htm. Only in 2009 the dilemma if the holes in the bone were accidental or purpose-made, was finally resolved. Ljuben Dimkaroski, member of the Ljubljana Opera Orchestra for 35 years (trumpet), was given a clay replica of the flute by the curator of Slovenian National Museum on occasion of Ljuben's exhibition "Image in Stone". In his dreams, about a year later, he got a clue of how to play this prehistoric instrument. The result you can see and hear by yourself, or live, performed on a concert, at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38AFm-TUywE.

The movie was published here by P. Jakopin on behalf of Jožek Košir (Jozek Kosir) - with permission of the authors.

P.S. A remark on the music played in the film:

A potpourri of fragments from compositions of various authors has been selected, to show the capabilities of the instrument, tonal range, staccato, legato, glissando ...

1. Fragment from Adaggio in G Minor, Tomas Albinioni
2. free improvisation, mocking animal voices, at the end the presentation of simultaneous sounding of two tones
3. Ode to Joy, 9th Symphony, Ludwig van Beethoven
4. Slovenian (Prekmurje region) etno song Vsi so venci vejli
5. Slovenian (Koroška region) etno song Rož, Podjuna, Zila
6. Nabucco, Giuseppe Verdi
7. Bolero, Maurice Ravel
8. From the new world, Antonin Dvořák

Category:

Education

Tags:

• flute
• bone flute
• music
• cave bear
• Neanderthal flute
• Divje babe
• Slovenia
• Ljuben Dimkaroski
• Ivan Turk
• Sašo Niskač
• Pella
• world's oldest known flute
• 60.000 years ago

[stierhufe]

okey srry for my english.. if you play some deeper base sounds with echo .... in a spirit world of the cave ,shaman speak like bear or so and some one plays a pipe flute that you listen same music from a bottle or example the bambus = big bone flute ..

[PJakopin]

@stierhufe The distance in time did not permit anything wooden to remain and so it is difficult to say if the cave dwellers had any other instruments. The fact that the instrument was involved in some ritual activity is almost sure. A new book about Divje babe from such point of view is in preparation.

Best P.J.

[stierhufe]

hm i think that was longer ..i mean it was an cave bear^^ and the sound must be deeper ..roooaaar you know ... eagle is high and bear is deep ..

[PJakopin]

@stierhufe :) :) The bone is of a very young bear, so no roooaaar :)

The majority of excavated bones are of bear cubs, as many of them did not make it through long winters. Adult bear bones are rare. Big bones are also less appropriate for such playing technique, as human lips are not thick enough to close the side bone opening, where the sound is produced by blowing on the blade edge.

Comment continued ...

[PJakopin]

@stierhufe The lower tone, however, is surprisingly low for such a short whistle (<12 cm), it is only two tones higher than the lowest tone of a 62 cm long flute (also see the doubts of Nowell in the references of the Divje babe flute Wiki article)! Using additional ways of handling the instrument, and considering that it is only two years since the musician Ljuben Dimkaroski started to use and explore the tidldibab (his name for the ancient flute), ...

[PJakopin]

@stierhufe ... it is possible to obtain a scale of well over three octaves. 40 tones on a 12-tone musical scale can be managed easily. More difficult to achieve are only the lowest tones, which is understandable. On the upper end the instrument did not have the last word yet :). High tones are also very far reaching, piccolo can override the entire orchestra, so the flute also has to be viewed from this perspective. And, last but not the least - it can be carried around in your pocket :). BestPJ

[yayajaMB]

Ko so to kopali je bilo v našem kraju ogromno prometa.

[stierhufe]

@PJakopin okey i see but for example if i drink some beer ,i take the empty bottle ^^ and have some deeper sounds if i blow that ..and the beer bottle is not large and i can carried in my pockets too^^

[Sain240]

something in it's sound is so ethereal, but also powerfully human. The sound rouses the blood a little.

[Udername45]

I wish I lived back in those times.