It’s not often you can point people towards a viral pan flute video, but that’s precisely what’s about to happen.

David Döring is an internationally-renowned pan flute player whose music video of “Amazing Grace” set in the mountains of Austria has been viewed over 6 million times since it was posted to YouTube in 2012.

While the music was clearly recorded in a studio, the majestic background lends an even more powerful air (no pun intended) of the sacred to the 18th-century Christian hymn.

But why the pan flute?

Well, for starters, despite its relative obscurity it does make a beautiful sound. In fact, it sounds exactly like you would expect a wooden flute to sound.

While most pan flutes are made from some type of hard wood, others are made from bamboo, local reeds, plastic, metal, and even ivory (which we can only hope was sustainably harvested).

There’s nothing “pan”-like about the flute, however. It’s simply named after the Greek god Pan, who is often depicted on ancient vases as well as later paintings and sculptures carrying such an instrument (then called the syrinx).

However, it has the rare characteristic of being found in different places around the world thousands of years ago, among civilizations with no contact with one another.

Pan flutes now come in all shapes, sizes, and styles as well and can still be found all over the world. The instrument is played by holding it with two hands and blowing across the top end of each tube. Different notes are produced with different lengths of tubes, by equal length tubes blocked at different points by wax, or as a function of how hard a player blows.

Döring’s instrument appears to be made of wood with 25 tubes for him to play a wide range of notes. It’s quite a large instrument and requires him to move around a bit to access the entire length of it.

It appears to be made in the Romanian style, judging by its curved structure and different length pipes all glued together (rather than tied like many of the Central and South American versions).

Still, it’s portable enough to take to the mountains.

We’d be curious to know how it sounded in the great outdoors, bouncing off the giant rocks, but that’s not ideal for posting audio online, so we have to settle for something pre-recorded.

Nevertheless, the locations of Rifflsee and the Nature Park House in Austria are the perfect backdrop for a haunting performance.

Döring chose the song “Amazing Grace” because it means a lot to him. In the caption for his video, he says it has a “special power” and that it describes the life experience of a man who has experienced a lot in his life, has seen positive as well as negative” but in the end knows that it’s God’s grace that brings salvation.

He even calls for a return to grace in a world that seems to have lost the meaning of the term (at least among Christians, for whom it has the specific meaning he refers to).

Even among the non-religious, it’s a well-known song that is considered quite moving. The right performer can make it sound heavenly to anyone.

That’s precisely what Döring’s performance does for many viewers.

If you’re interested in the instrument, you can even take online lessons by clicking here.

In the meantime, be sure to scroll down to see the video of his performance.

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Source: David Döring via YouTube, Ancient History Encyclopedia