How to Design Wind Instruments for a Race With Snouts

Question

Wind instruments--such as flutes, panpipes, and even glass bottles--are able to create sounds due to air being blown over the top of or into an opening on a given instrument. This is largely possible because humans are able to form the correct embouchure with their cheeks and lips, allowing for a steady stream of air and an overall clearer, fuller sound. A creature with a snout, however, lacks these traits and would not be able to make sounds with our wind instruments, instead opting to create their own.

My question, then, is whether it would be possible for a race with snouts to create wind instruments, and if so, how these would work?

Answer 1

Fipples

Other answers have mentioned fippled flutes, otherwise known as whistles, where an unshaped stream of air is blown over a shaped piece of material (bone, wood, ceramic, metal, etc). The player provides the air, but has very limited ability to shape the tone because it's produced by the fipple. Recorders, native american flutes, organs, and Irish whistles are all examples of fippled wind instruments.

Would a snout really stop them?

I'm not convinced that a snout would truly prevent a traditional flute, as long as the creature had sufficient control over the shape of their mouth. A flautist makes a very small hole in the lips to blow a focused stream of air over the flute's chimney. If the whole mouth was open, a human would have nearly as much difficulty as an animal with a snout whose mouth was open. This is true playing both transverse flutes like the westen classical flute or upright flutes like the panpipes. If your creatures communicate verbally, they're likely to have a similar level of control as humans, even with a snout. Whether they can play a wind instrument will depend on their facial musculature more than the shape of their mouth.

Answer 2

Everyone¹ in the UK grew up with the plastic descant recorder and the horrible noises made when these tortured instruments were handed out to a primary school class.

Why the descant recorder though?

For two basic reasons

1. It's cheap
2. Embouchure doesn't matter, it'll make a noise

The total lack of consideration for embouchure by the average child is compensated for by the shape of the mouthpiece. The shrieks emitted from these poor instruments merely a function of how hard said child blew down it.

While this particular instrument may not be ideal for your situation, the basic principle of design would certainly be transferable.

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¹ For a given value of everyone

Answer 3

Probably something like how a whistle works, where the air enters a chamber, goes through a windway, and then over the mouth opening:

If the windway was shaped similar to how human lips form the air then you could get a pretty consistent flow and sound.

Answer 4

They might use their nostrils. I have a friend who can play a regular flute with her nose, there's no reason your snouted creatures would not be able to play an instrument specifically created to be played this way.

Also, if your creatures have such a hard time plying wind instruments, they might simply never invent them or the instruments might never become popular.

Answer 5

A bagpipe could work. The bag itself is what supplies the air to the chanter (melody pipe) and drones. The mouthpiece is just used to keep the bag filled, and there are pipes that use a bellows instead of needing the player to supply the wind.

A simple bagpipe with a single chanter and no drones could sound very similar to a clarinet, though with a constant tone throughout the performance.

Answer 6

The answers already given regarding fipple flutes (recorders, whistles, etc) and bagpipes are excellent, but there might be more options.

Most woodwind instruments depend on the position and tension of the lips (the "embouchure") to control the speed and direction of the air column and the vibration of the reed. It might be possible to exert similar control by using hand¹ pressure; imagine a rubber tube, say, coming from the player's snout and stretched over the mouthpiece of a clarinet. The player could then wrap their fingers¹ around the mouthpiece and apply pressure to control the reed.

You might be able to manage a transverse flute or a brass instrument in a similar way, but I suspect the results would be better with reeds.

¹For sufficient values of "hand" and "finger"

Answer 7

They would place a bag over their snout enabling them to blow into their instrument despite the obstacle of their snout

Answer 8

"Have a snout" is too general to give a good answer. You have to know how well this race can direct/manipulate a stream of air before you can wonder which kinds of wind instruments they could use. The more control it has, the larger the range of instruments it can play.

Wind instruments are instruments where the sound comes from agitating a column of air. This agitation can be done by the vibrating lips of the player (brass instruments -- even if the instrument is made from wood), or because air is blown over or against something (a reed for instance) which makes the air vibrate.

But this can also be done indirectly, or mechanically. A bagpipe player only uses his/her month to pressurize a bag (and to keep it pressurized). The bag is then squeezed causing the chanter and drones to create a sound. Pipe and pump (or reed) organs use pumps to blow air into pipes, no mouth required. Squeezeboxes use bellows to vibrate framed reeds. And then there are the mechanical organs, which are either hand cranked or machine driven, and which use music books, barrels or rolls to direct air flow to pipes.