Fiona M Simpson	9705782s@student.gla.ac.uk

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"Generically, a flute is any instrument having an air column confined in a hollow body and activated by a stream of air from the players lips striking against the sharp edge of an opening, producing what acousticians term an ‘edge tone’."

- New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, book 6, pages 664-665

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Little is known about the precise origin of the flute. The term "flute" applies to a large number of instruments, including the modern orchestral woodwind instrument and the folk or art instruments of many different cultures. These can be split into two categories - the end-blown, or fipple, flute (eg. recorder) and the side-blown, or transverse, flute (eg. today’s concert flute).
g

gtIn the recorder, the "fipple" is the plug at the mouthpiece, gtthrough which air is blown (A on the diagram to the left).
gtThe air then hits off the thin edge halfway down the head
gt(B) and reverberates through the inner tube of the instrument,
gtcausing the sound which is heard. There are six fingerholes
gtin the middle piece (C), and one single hole on the foot
gtjoint (D).

gtIn contrast, the transverse flute (seen on the right) is held to the right hand side, and the air is blown across the hole gtin the mouthpiece (E), which then reverberates through the inner tube. Although the fingering is similar, the addition of gtkeys in the 17th-19th centuries (F-I) meant that the flute could reach more notes with abetter quality of sound.

There are several gaps in the knowledge of the earliest flute history, especially its use and circulation in Western Europe. However, from the time of its general use, in the 16th century, to the present day, it has gone through two main changes – the transformation at the end of the 17th Century and the experiments in the 19th Century by Theobald Boehm leading to its mechanisation.

In this website, I am going to outline the main developments in the history of the flute, and, using images and sound, try to explain why I find this such a fascinating topic.

Contents | The Flute | Earliest Times | 17th Century | 18th Century | 19th Century | Boehm's Flute | 20th Century | Conclusion | Bibliography

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© Fiona M Simpson, April 2001