Did you know it was possible to make a musical instrument from rhubarb? Indeed, the Mongolian Uriankhai people of the Altai region play music in an ancestral way with a flute called “Tsuur”, made with the hollow flower stalks of rhubarb, or sometimes wild celery. This instrument and this music are an integral part of their daily lives. It has its roots in the ancient practice of worshiping nature and its guardian spirits, which consisted of imitating natural sounds. This endangered music has been classified as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO.
It is a relatively simple wind instrument in the form of a vertical pipe with three finger holes. There is no bevel and the end nozzle is free. This flute is traditionally made from the flower stem of rhubarb or wild celery, two plants that have the peculiarity of having hollow and rigid stems. The dried stem is hollowed out to remove the soft pith. Then a heated metal tip drills the three holes.
Traditional music on the UNESCO World Heritage List!
The music produced on the tsuur flute is based on a technique that is both instrumental and vocal: a mix of sounds produced simultaneously by the instrument and by the musician’s throat. The pressure of the front teeth on the mouthpiece of the flute and the simultaneous use of the throat creates a unique timbre consisting of a clear, soft sound and a drone. The tsuur flute is traditionally played as an incantation for a good hunt or for good weather, as a blessing to ward off danger during a journey or for weddings and other festivities. Music, also a performing art, translates the intimate feelings of the lonely traveler and connects man with nature.
Nevertheless, the tsuur flute tradition has been lost for several decades, due to neglect and hostility to popular customs and religious belief, leaving many places without a tsuur player or families with a tsuur flute. Only forty instruments would remain within the group of the Uriankhai Mongols that are handed down solely thanks to the memory of successive generations: this characteristic makes this art extremely vulnerable to the risk of disappearance, which is why traditional music on the tsuur flute was inscribed in 2009 by UNESCO on the list of intangible heritage in urgent need of protection.
By training as a landscape gardener and geographer, I am passionate about the plant world and its countless curiosities. Founder of the Rexania blog and activist for gardening in harmony with nature, I am also an Alsatian gardener, fervent defender of old, free and reproducible varieties.
