Stabule, also known as stebule or stabuļa, is a Latvian

woodwind instrument Woodwind instruments are a family of musical instruments within the greater category of wind instruments. Common examples include flute, clarinet, oboe, bassoon, and saxophone. There are two main types of woodwind instruments: flutes and ...

made from various materials like wood, bark, and reeds. It consists of a tube with a whistle and finger holes, typically producing a diatonic scale. The oldest known Latvian bone stabule dates back to 3,000–2,000 BCE.

Background

The name can apply to variety of wind instruments, but in general sense it is a pipe with 4-8 finger holes. These instruments are 1.5–2.5 cm in diameter and can be anywhere from 20 to 40 cm in length. Stabules have either

fipple The term fipple specifies a variety of end-blown flute that includes the flageolet, recorder, and tin whistle. The Hornbostel–Sachs system for classifying musical instruments places this group under the heading "Flutes with duct or duct flut ...

or reed. Reed stabules were usually made from wood or reed with mouthpiece also made either from reed or wood. Fipple stabules were usually made of wood, although in some areas clay and bark stabules of this type were made and

bone A bone is a rigid organ that constitutes part of the skeleton in most vertebrate animals. Bones protect the various other organs of the body, produce red and white blood cells, store minerals, provide structure and support for the body, ...

stabules have been found by archaeologists. A similar more simple type of stabule without finger holes can be made from

willow Willows, also called sallows and osiers, of the genus ''Salix'', comprise around 350 species (plus numerous hybrids) of typically deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist soils in cold and temperate regions. Most species are known ...

bark. This type of instrument differs in that its end (opposite to mouthpiece) is plugged. The plug is generally meant for tuning the stabule, but sometimes also used as a

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to adjust tone while playing. All bark stabules were usually made in spring when bark is looser – the features of the stabule are carved right on a fresh broom of willow and the bark is then slid off; the remaining branch is then used to make the fipple and, for the simpler type of stabules, the plug. Due to the natural shrinkage of bark they were short-lived.

Construction

The making of the stabula and reed stabula is described in Andrejs Jurjāns' article "Latvian Folk Music": The stem was cut from various trees - pine , aspen , blackberry , alder , willow , etc. The wood was warped in the heat and then the core was cut out, through which the barrel emerged; a ready-made barrel - reed was also taken. The stem consisted of two parts - the body and the reeds or reeds (see above). If the body was quite long and thin, then a reed was made at the thin end, turning the reed and thinning it, then six to eight holes were cut into the body, depending on the length, so that a diatonic row of tones came out. If the body was thick, then a reed was placed at the thin end, either from a thinner tree or reed. To soften the sound, a torn reed was wound around the thick end. — Andrejs Jurjāns “Latvian Folk Music”

References

{{Flutes Fipple flutes Latvian musical instruments