The flute is an instrument of Biblical proportion
1 kings 39 Zadok the priest now took the horn of oil out of the tent and
anointed Solomon; and they began to blow the horn, and all the people broke
out saying: "Let King Solomon live!" 40 After that all the people came
on up following him, and the people were playing on flutes and rejoicing
with great joy, so that the earth was split by the noise of them.
Matthew 11-15 Let him that has ears listen. 16 "With whom shall I compare
this generation? It is like young children sitting in the marketplaces
who cry out to their playmates, 17 saying, 'We played the flute for YOU,
but YOU did not dance; we wailed, but YOU did not beat yourselves in grief.'
18 Correspondingly, John came neither eating nor drinking, yet people say,
'He has a demon'; 19 the Son of man did come eating and drinking, still
people say, 'Look! A man gluttonous and given to drinking wine, a friend
of tax collectors and sinners.' All the same, wisdom is proved righteous
by its works."
Revelations 18-22 And the sound of singers who accompany themselves on
the harp and of musicians and of flutists and of trumpeters will never
be heard in you again, and no craftsman of any trade will ever be found
in you again, and no sound of a millstone will ever be heard in you again,
The History of the Fife by Philip Belpasso
The first musical pipes were cut bamboo lengths and tied together. It was
the various lengths of the pipes which gave them pitch. However, the lengths
were random and it wasn't until the invention of drilling holes in one
pipe that began the uniformity called the Chromatic Scale. The piper found
that by blocking the holes with fingers one single pipe length could make
the sound of many different length pipes.
This new technique had limitations as, the amount of fingers which could
be used, and the distance they could reach between holes. The pinkie finger
and the thumb were needed for support during the open pipe position leaving
only six fingers for covering holes. The first note called "DOE" is made
with all holes covered. An eight note which is called an octave "a higher
pitch DOE" again uses the same all holes covered position, however, a different
wind velocity is blown creating the full eight note octave.
It is the need to have a conformable distance between the finger holes
which designates the primary pitch between most notes. However, there are
two adjustable distances, one between the two hands and the other between
the first set of hand holes and the mouth hole called the "Embouchure."
These two adjustable positions are where we find the half steps in the
octave at the notes B and E.