East Texas Quarterly Magazine Summer 2014 | Page 11

of his music. “I talk to them about the fatigue and depression that goes with the disease. A lot of people, According to Barger , there are two types especially loved ones of cancer victims, of Native American flutes; the Native American don’t understand the constant pressure of fatigue.” flute which is handmade and the Native As for Rod Barger, he has his “practice buddy” and his American style flute which is machine music to help him cope with the fatigue. made. Barger currently owns 15 flutes, each coming in a different key. He used eight The Native American flute is an end-blown flute fashioned either from cane (such as river cane), hardwood (such as walnut), or softwood (such as cedar). Theoretically, the instrument’s arch type is the Anasazi flute developed by the Ancient Pueblo people of Oasisamerica. The Anasazi flute seems to derive from Mesoamerican flute designs. One study that surveyed the physiological effects of playing Native American flutes found a significant positive effect on heart rate variability, a metric that is indicative of resilience to stress. There are many stories about how different Native American peoples invented the flute. In one tale, woodpeckers pecked holes in hollow branches while searching for termites; when the wind blew along the holes, people nearby heard its music. The oldest existing Native American flute made of wood was collected by the Italian adventurer Giacomo Costantino Beltrami in 1823 on his search for the headwaters of the Mississippi River. It is now in the collection of the Museo Civico di Scienze Naturali in Bergamo, Italy. Rodney’s first album, “Boundless Passage can be purchased by contacting Rodney at [email protected] or online at I-Tunes or Amazon.com Earlier flutes of river cane have been found - the earliest being a flute in the collection of the Museum of those flutes in recording his first CD Collections of the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. “Boundless Passage”. The CD has ten original tracks, all composed by Barger. The Native American flute is the earliest flute recognized to have two air chambers. An “I have written about fifteen tunes in the internal wall (sometimes called a plug) inside the last two years,” says the former JP. “I am instrument partitions the two chambers: the working on music for a second album.” slow air chamber (also called the compression chamber or mouth chamber) and the sound Barger offers to perform concerts for different chamber (otherwise known as the pipe body, groups and his concert can range from twenty minutes to two hours. He has performed in Colorado, Louisiana, and several locations in Texas, including heritage festivals in Milam and Woodville. “I try to get the audience to participate in the music,” he explains. “I give them native drums and rattles and try to get the audience to play along with me. Children are fascinated by the flute.” As for his battle with leukemia, Barger says the cancer has “stabilized.” “I talk to a lot of people who have cancer,” he explains 9