History Of The Flute
Byzantine paintings from as early as the 10th Century portray a transverse flute, often played to the left instead of to the right. Bronzes and wall paintings from this period also show evidence of the existence of transverse flutes. These early examples more closely resemble fifes than they do our modern conception of the flute.-Most flutes are tubular, but some are globular or other shapes. Some flutes are played by blowing air into a mouthpiece, which directs the air against the edge of a hole else-where in the flute.
These instruments, known as whistle flutes, include the tubular recorder and the globular ocarina. Other flutes are played by blowing air directly against the edge of the hole.The flute is the oldest melody instrument made by man. One made of bone was found in Eastern Europe in 1995 that has been dated to between 43,000 and 80,000 years old. While not completely intact, it can play the top half of a modern diatonic scale.Flutes throughout history, have been made of many materials including bones, reeds, stone, bamboo, hard woods such as maple, baked clay, porcelain, ivory, glass, metals such as silver, hard rubber, and modern plastics.
Wind instrument of ancient origin formerly made of wood but now of silver and other metals. From medieval times two methods of producing sound were used: (a) blowing across a round mouth-hole as on the panpipes or transverse (side-blown) flute; (b) blowing into a whistle mouthpiece (end-blown) as on the recorder or flageolet. The word flute was used indiscriminately to denote both types during medieval times, but in the baroque period flute or flauto specifically meant the end-blown recorder.
The modern flute is descended from the German (transverse) flute. Whereas today it is cylindrical in bore, stopped at one end, until the early 19th century it was conical. The player's breath sets in vibration the column of air inside the tube. Acoustically, the tube acts as an open one; the mouth-hole serves to prevent its acting as stopped and thus sounding an octave lower.
The body orginally had one thumb-hole and from four to eight finger-holes. The first key was added in 1677, the second in 1726 by Quantz, flute teacher of Frederick the Great. The great flute virtuoso of the Bavarian Court Orchestra, Teobald Boehm, used an eight key flute, but revolutionized the instrument in 1832 with his 'ring key' system. In 1847, he produced a fifteen hole metal instrument with 23 keys and levers.
Boehm was from Munich and during the 1830’s he created a complex key-system which revolutionized the flute. Today his design still remains greatly unchanged. “Boehm flutes,” can be found as wooden or metal instruments, and are played all over the world.
When the typical American thinks of a flute, he is thinking of a side-blown flute known as the Western classical flute. Flutes are instruments of a long history, but this flute came to Europe from the East in the 12th century.
Throughout the middle ages, the flute was most commonly associated with the military but by the mid 1600’s it had become a very important instrument of the opera and court orchestra.
This Western classical flute of Europe would take it’s first steps toward the modern flute in the late 1600’s. The French Hotteterre family is credited with making these changes and they are known as the first major design changes. The more important and even more radical changes to the western flute’s design were introduced by Theobald Boehm.