World Flute Society

Below is a repost from World Flute Society and taken from "Flute Paths Section of the World Flute Society's quarterly publication, Overtones!" Repost by permission. You may order a copy by clicking this link (August 2017 / Vol.3). "Thanks to Kathleen Joyce-Grendahl, Executive Director of the World Flute Society, for permission to post this article.

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Flute Path - Dr. Marcia Watson Bendo
8-17-2017

Thirty years ago, in 1987, I walked along the vendor’s booths lining Main Street in Tulsa, OK, during the annual Tulsa Mayfest arts festival. One vendor caught my eyes and ears. He was showing handmade flutes, pan flutes, and cassettes of his own flute recordings. I was captivated by the ethereal sound of the instruments and finally chose a 5-hole walnut flute, a rosewood pan flute, and two cassettes, Night Forest and Tear of the Moon. The man’s name was Michael Graham Allen (Coyote Oldman). That serendipitous meeting would later shape my life in a way I could not have imagined at that time.

Back home, I listened repeatedly to the unique flute music on my cassette player and attempted to play scales and melodies without notation or finger diagrams. It was a very different musical experience than what I had known growing up learning classical music on the piano and violin.  After working as a professional violinist for over a decade, I had left music behind and followed other career choices. Like people often do, I put aside creative pursuits for other life goals. While I studied and worked to become a psychologist, it was comforting to see the flute patiently waiting for me on a table next to the piano. The flute with the little Coyote was a visible reminder that one day, I would devote more time to playing it.

Many years later, my interest in the flute was renewed. Life had slowed down a bit for me, so the time was right to turn my attention to flute playing and research. After attending several Potawatomi festivals in Oklahoma, I wondered what role the flute might have had in my ancestral traditions and culture. In January of 2011, the next step on my flute path began with Cornell Kinderknecht in Richardson, TX. That was the beginning of many classes, workshops, and private lessons with Cornell, Scott August, Clint Goss, and Peter Phippen. Everyday, I looked forward to practicing, learning different flutes, and trying new scales. I enjoyed discovering a world of flutes playing historic replicas (like Coyote Oldman’s Tohono O’odham and Hopi flutes), a quena, sulings, and recorders. A lot of patience was necessary for rim-blown flutes and the ney which took some time to produce a sound. It helped to have great teachers who demonstrated their patience and interest in world flutes. I was on a path toward greater cultural awareness, unexpected challenges, social activities, and new friends.

The first challenge I encountered was to play solo in class or at a flute gathering. Performance anxiety is a heart-thumping experience that musicians try to hide and don’t like to discuss, but it can be obvious to others if your hands tremble and the flute sounds breathless. With repeated opportunities to play, tolerance of the discomfort, and supportive friends, I was able to discover the joy of playing solo and making spontaneous music with others. After playing for a year, I presented my first programs at the Citizen Potawatomi Cultural Heritage Center during our annual festival. Since 2012, I’ve performed and presented a musical history of the native flute for that annual event, the 2016 Potawatomi Gathering of Nations, and the 2013 National Congress of the American Indian. At these events, people have shared their stories with me about the healing or transformative nature of flute playing in their lives.

Another challenge appeared early on my flute path… “playing from the heart.” Having been a music reader all my life, playing with backing tracks and other musicians helped me to let go, listen more, and think less. I experimented with playing my own songs and improvised melodies which often became a written song. Gradually, I realized that there are many ways to play the flutes we love and that all are good. Every player finds a unique flute voice with their own skills and styles. I found satisfaction and comfort with my style by respecting improvisation and notated songs. That realization allowed me to grow with the flute in a new personal direction — composing my own music with hand-written notation and Sibelius notation software which prints my composition as sheet music. A song-writing workshop and private lessons with Scott August helped me to develop writing and arranging skills. During the past year, I composed and arranged a collection of songs that culminated in a CD project to be released this fall. I often wonder, how do I write this music and where does it originate? I could say it comes from my heart or my imagination, but I believe it’s a gift from the Creator.

Exploring the historical traditions of American Indian flutes has been a rewarding aspect of my flute path. As a native Oklahoman and member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation,  I have a deep respect for the preservation of native heritage through music, art, narrative, language, and spiritual practices. Websites and CDs have made it possible to hear recorded oral narratives and flute songs of Belo Cozad (Kiowa), Woodrow Haney (Seminole), Woodrow “Woody” Crumbo (Potawatomi), Doc Tate Nevaquaya (Comanche), and Kevin Locke (Lakota and Anishnabe). Their stories inspired my curiosity about old flutes, construction, and the sacred nature of the flute for indigenous people. I’m also grateful for the contribution of scholars who have shared their passionate work with the flute world — Dr. Richard Payne, Michael Graham Allen, Robert Gatliff, and Clint Goss, to name a few.

The work of historical and modern-day contributors helped shape my presentations and sparked my desire to make a flute. After working with bamboo, I crafted a cedar flute with the tools and help of a nearby flute maker, Steve Petermann. That was another challenging flute experience which heightened my appreciation for the effort and skill required to craft a flute. The stories and historical knowledge have deepened my respect for flute makers who have been guided by spiritual traditions and their cultural influences as well as those who craft flutes for enjoyment.

Although it was many years before I could focus my attention on my first flute, and others that followed, the flute has impacted my life mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. It has connected me to history, world cultures, people across the country, and brought me full circle back to my love of music. My flute path continues, but I’d like to end my story here with words by Minisa Crumbo Halsey, a Potawatomi artist and daughter of flute-maker Woody Crumbo. She spoke about the importance of the flute to native people, “The flute is a caller of beauty and a speaker of beauty. And a caller of love and a massive manifestation of that beauty. The flute appears all over the world…. It’s breath — made manifest in song and breath is life.”

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Halsey, M.C. (2015, March 23). Minisa Crumbo Halsey Native American Artist (J. Erling, Interviewer). Retrieved from
http://www.voicesofoklahoma.com/interview/crumbo-halsey-minisa/
Photo credit of MGA flutes: Steve Petermann
Walnut flute, 5 holes, marked “1987” with Coyote logo F#, A, B, C#, E, F#, G#, A, A#
Rosewood Pan Flute, 8 holes, marked “1987” with Coyote logo G, Bb, C, D, F, G, Bb, C