Quena - flute of Andes
The Quena (Sometimes also written "kena" in English) is the traditional flute of the Andes. Traditionally it is made of bamboo or wood. Sometimes there were Quena that is made of human's bone. These days, people make Quena by wood mostly.
Quena has 6 finger holes and one thumb hole, and is open on both ends or the bottom is half-closed. Quena has similar structure to tungso which is Oriental music instrument.
Quena has 6 finger holes and one thumb hole, and is open on both ends or the bottom is half-closed. Quena has similar structure to tungso which is Oriental music instrument.
To play the Quena, the player closes the top end of the pipe with the flesh between his chin and lower lip, and blows a stream of air downward. It is normally in the key of G, with G4 being the lowest note (all holes covered). It produces a very "dark" sound.
The Quenacho is a greater and longer than quena. It is lower-toned version of the quena, and made the same way. Also, it is played like quena. Quenacho is in the key of D, with D4 being the lowest note, a perfect fourth lower than the Quena. It produces a very rich sound.
Quena is mostly used in traditional Andean music and Amazon music. And It was only played by man. In the 1960s and 1970s the Quena was used by several Nueva Canción(Latin American's effort to discover Andes traditional music) musicians, this use was in most cases for particular songs and not as a standard instrument but some groups such as Illapu have used it regularly. In the 1980s and 1990s some rock groups have also incorporated the Quena in some of their songs. Today, the Quena is also relatively common in World music.
I post Quena because of its sound. I hope you listen Quena's sound. This address is linked site that has video playing Quena.
http://cafe.naver.com/nationalfilmpromote/311
http://cafe.naver.com/nationalfilmpromote/311
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