The author believes the flute’s music to be “the most universal and most particular” of all music. This is one musical instrument which is common to all cultures. We have the reed neh, the recorder, the Japanese shakuhachi, the deep bansuri of Hindustani classical music, the breathy flutes of South America, the high-pitched Chinese flutes, etc. Even though each of these flutes has its own specific fingering and compass yet the author feels that to hear any flute is “to be drawn into the commonality of all mankind”. This is because the sound produced by flute is very similar to the same living breath of humans which runs through all of them. Similarly, despite the differences in our caste, culture, religion, region, all human beings are the same.
