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Flutes
The flute is one of the oldest musical instruments known: a flute made from a mammoth tusk, found in the Swabian Alb dates to 30,000 to 37,000 years ago, and a seven-hole flute made from a swan's bone in the Geissenklosterle Cave in Germany dated to circa 36,000 years ago are among the oldest known musical instruments. Early flutes were held vertically, and were blown from the end (like today's recorders). One way of classifying lutes is by whether they are "end-blown" or "side-blown".
You can find several ethnic and other types of end-blown flutes at Spirit Guide in the "Ethnic and Early Instruments" category in our store.
Transverse Flutes
Transverse flutes are depicted in Etruscan tombs and urns from the fourth century BC. The earliest reference to the transverse flute in Western Europe occurs in the middle of the twelfthe century CE. In the fourteenth century, the flute spread to most parts of Europe, especially Spain, France, and Flanders.
Construction
The main material used to make flutes was originally boxwood, but other materials, including silver were used, perhaps as early as 1360. Henry VIII had three flutes made of glass, and glass flutes were still being made in France in the early nineteenth century. During the nineteenth century, as international trade grew, flutes came to be mad of harder woods--e.g., South American granadilla, pallisando or rosewood, and African ebony. Starting in the 1840s, artifical materials were sometimes used, such as ebonite (ebonite is still used for instruments intended for beginners and schoolchildren. Today, silver and even denser metals (like gold and platinum alloys) are thought to enable the player to produce a more expressive tone, so wood is rarely used for transverse flutes.
Theobald Boehme and the "Boehme" System
The flute has always been an fairly difficult instrument to play, and over the years several people have tried to improve its mechanics. Theobald Boehme was one of the most important modifiers of the flute; in the 1830s he introduced a large-holed flute that seemed to overcome the acoustic difficulties of earlier flutes. He placed all of the tone holes where they sounded best acoustically, but this required enormous changes in the key mechanisms, so they could be managed easily. His "revolutionary" changes included changing the hitherto closed keys to open keys controlled by rings. By 1847, he had increased the size of the holes so much that they had to be closed with padded covers, worked by keys that operated both independently and in interaction with others--this type of flute is the one still played today.
Flute Sizes and Types
What today we consider a "standard" flute is pitched in C, and is called a concert flute.
The piccolo is pitched an octave higher than the concert flute, and is half its length. It evolved early in the nineteenth century.
The alto flute was invented by Boehme, and developed in the 1890s. It is pitched in G (a fourth lower than the concert flute), and produces an unmistakable, full, haunting tone in all registers. It is about 87 cm (34 inches) long, and is specially adapted so that players can reach the holes, which are more widely spaced than on the concert flute.
The bass flute is pitched an octave lower than the concert flute, The tubing is 130 cm (51 inches) long, and is bent back on itself near the mouthpiece for better manageability.
The fife is smaller than the flute. It also has a narrower bore, and thus a shriller, harsher tone. It was traditionally played to accompany marching and for giving signals during battle. It was used in the British army up until the 1890s, and in the United States today is still used in fife and drum corps for performing early American martial music.
Pictures of Transverse Flutes (Orchestral)
Here are some pictures of the various kinds of flutes mentioned above. While Spirit Guide has a variety of flutes available, the illustrations were chosen to best show you what the instruments look like; these exact instruments are probably not available here (but I can certainly help you find them)!
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Fifes
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Piccolo
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Alto Flute by Trevor James
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Bass Flute
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Information Sources
The information on this page was compiled principally from the following sources:
Kruckenberg, Sven (1993): The Symphony Orchestra and its Instruments. Gothenburg, Sweden: AB Nordbok (Crescent Books edition distributed by Random House).
Wade-Matthews, Max (2000): The World Encyclopedia of Musical Instruments. London, UK and New York, NY: Lorenz Books.
Wikipedia, the online free encyclopedia (found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page).
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