The flute has a very long and interesting history. The earliest flutes that have been found date back to around 7000 B.C. in Egypt and China and are made out of anything from wood, clay, and bones to reeds and bamboo. These instruments consisted of a hollow tube and were played simply by blowing a stream of air across the end of the tube to create a sound. Over time it was discovered that if a v-shaped notch was cut in the end of the tube, the instrument was easier to play. A huge advancement occurred when musicians began to cover the end of the tube and cut a hole in the side of the tube to blow into. The size and shape of this hole could be controlled, creating a better sound.
Musicians experimented not only with the ways in which they could create a sound but also with how they could change the pitch of that sound. They discovered that pipes of different lengths would create notes of different pitches, and so they tied together a series of pipes of varying lengths to create panpipes. A huge breakthrough occurred around 200 B.C. in Egypt when it was discovered that a single pipe with holes which could be covered by the fingers would create a variety of pitches. Flutes with holes were soon made all over the world. The ancient Greeks, for example, made flutes with six finger holes so that they could play all the notes in the mode or scale.
Early flutes were quite diverse. The nose flute was played by breathing out through the nose and was said to be the instrument of lovers. The tabor was a flute with three holes designed to be played with one hand while simultaneously playing a drum and dancing. The double flute had a single mouthpiece that was connected to two different tubes and allowed the flutist to play two notes at once. These early flutes were first used by hunters and shepherds, and gained popularity as they were adapted for use in religious ceremonies. Over time the varieties of early flutes were standardized to become the recorder, also known as the fipple flute because it had a beak-like mouthpiece.
By 1100 A.D., this recorder was gaining in popularity throughout Europe. The instrument was made of wood and came apart into two pieces. It had six tone holes that could be covered by the fingers, plus a hole in the back for the left thumb. It had a range of two octaves, and it could play all the notes in a chromatic scale. Some of these notes, however, required awkward cross fingerings, which meant that the musician would have to flatten the pitch of a note by adding additional fingers of the right hand. For example, an F could be played by fingering an F# and then adding some additional fingers to lower the pitch by a half step.
In spite of some awkward fingerings, the recorder was very popular among royalty. Recorders came in sets with instruments of several different sizes for playing chamber music. Many monarchs collected recorders and hired musicians and composers to entertain their courts. The recorder was also popular with the lower classes because it was so easy to play. In fact, popular sheet music of the time was sold with recorder parts, much like the voice/piano/guitar arrangements of pop music that are sold today.
Nevertheless, the recorder had several serious flaws that eventually caused it to be abandoned as an orchestral instrument. It was very quiet, and this limited volume made it difficult for orchestral players to project their sounds. In addition, the second octave was very hard to play and often quite out of tune. This made the practical range of the instrument much too small for an orchestra. Musicians had a very hard time playing expressively on the recorder because it allowed them such a limited variety of tone colors. This lack of range, dynamic contrast, and tone colors that the recorder provided frustrated both musicians and composers alike, and by about 1600 they were looking for better alternatives.
The transverse flute, an instrument that was held sideways rather than up and down, existed in Europe long before the 1600s, but it was relatively uncommon. The biggest use for the flute was in the military. A transverse flute called the fife, which had no keys, was used to relay commands to the troops. Soldiers memorized the meanings of a variety of short tunes that could then be used to signal the troops both at home and during battles. The fife and drum was first used by the Swiss military in 1476, and after tremendous military success due in a large part to the tight coordination of troops, the fife and drum became very popular in military operations throughout Europe. French musician Pierre Trichet described the popularity of the fife in Europe in a book that he wrote in 1640. "It is certainly true that at present the fife is hugely popular� not only among the Swiss and the Germans but also among several other nations which use them in their military exercises, accompanying it with the drum�" Trichet went on to say that the fife was best for the "warlike harmony" of public assemblies while the recorder was better suited to the performance of chamber music.
Despite their popularity in the military, transverse flutes were not used extensively for concert music until the 1600s when the recorder began to decline in popularity. Like recorders, concert flutes came in sets of varying sizes and had a range of approximately two octaves. These flutes had 6 holes spaced in two groups of three. The sizes of the holes were varied to fix the intonation problems caused by their spacing. The flute could play a complete chromatic scale by using a series of cross fingerings, except for the note D#. In 1637, Marin Mersenne published a book entitled Harmonie Universelle in which he suggested that more holes could be added to the flute which could be covered by keys and would allow the instrument to have a larger range.
The first key was not added to the instrument, however, until 1660, when the well-known French baroque flutist Jean Hotteterre redesigned the flute. Hotteterre's new one-keyed flute had a closed D# key which could be pushed by the fourth finger of the right hand to open a new, seventh hole on the flute, allowing the flutist to play D#. In addition to the new key, the flute was divided into three sections and pitched in the key of D. It had a conical bore, which meant that the width of the tube tapered to its narrowest point at the end of the instrument. This made the pitch flatter and the tone less shrill. It also improved the intonation of the instrument in the high register. Smaller finger holes were also used to improve the intonation of the instrument. The one drawback of the conical bore and small tone holes, however, was that they eliminated many of the overtones present in the sound, which created a very light, bright tone quality and a weak low register. In addition, the flutes were often made out of boxwood. This wood was known for its ability to absorb water, which would cause the instrument to swell and develop even more intonation problems than it already had.
Despite these problems, the one-keyed flute continued to grow in popularity. It had soon replaced the recorder as the instrument of choice, and musicians and inventors now turned their attention to improving the one-keyed flute. One of the biggest problems facing the flute was its tuning. There was not a standard tuning pitch like the A=440 that is used today, so instrument makers had to find a way to make an instrument that could be tuned to a wide variety of pitches. The first solution was invented in 1720 and it was called the corps de r�change. The flute was divided into four sections, and each instrument came with three to six different lengths of the second section based on different pitch standards. French flutist Pierre Gabriel Buffardin invented another solution which he called the register. To the end section of the flute, called the foot joint, he added a series of telescoping tubes that could be used to change the length of the instrument. Flutist Johann Joachim Quantz invented the solution used by flutists today. He made the connection joint between the head and body sections of the flute longer to create a tuning slide so the player could adjust the intonation of the instrument. Quantz also invented the screw that allows flutists to adjust the tuning cork found in the flute's head joint.
In about 1760, three new keys were added to the flute. These keys were for G#, Bb, and F, and they eliminated all the cross fingerings except for the cross fingering for C. They also improved the tone quality and intonation of the instrument. For the first time the flute could play in keys with more than three flats or sharps. In 1774, two more keys were added to the end of the flute to extend the range down to middle C. These keys had been added briefly to the design first in 1722, but were later removed because they were believed to hurt the tone and intonation of the instrument. This brought the number of keys on the flute up to 6. Two more keys were later added to the flute: a closed key for C in 1782 to eliminate the last cross fingering, and a key for F in 1786 to fix a difficult fingering. The eight-keyed flute that was created was also known as the German or the old-system flute.
Despite the great advances made to the instrument in this time period, however, flutists were slow to switch to the new instruments. Many flutists did not want to learn a new system of fingerings each time a new flute was made, and they were worried that the new mechanical keys would not work properly. But the biggest reason that the flutes did not catch on at first was pride. Flutists believed that talented musicians should be able to make the older flutes sound good, and they believed that switching to a newer flute would be like admitting that they were not good enough to play an older one. In 1759, flutist Antoine Mahaut described his feelings about the new flutes and their intonation in his flute method. "One rarely hears an orchestra whose flutes are in tune: the player incorrectly casts the blame on the instrument, while he ought to blame only his ear, which he has not trained enough." Flutist Lew Granom seconds this opinion in his book Plain and Easy Instructions for Playing on the German-Flute, written in 1766:
Blowing in tune does not depend so much upon the Flute as upon the
Player; for a Performer, who has a good Ear, will play in Tune, even on
a very different Instrument, so soon as he has found its defects; which is
not hard to conceive, since every Note on the flute may be blown either
Sharper or Flatter at the will of the Performer.
Despite the slow reception to changes in the flute's design, flutemakers continued to try to improve the eight-keyed flute, some more successfully than others. More keys were added throughout the 1800s, and one flute had seventeen keys and a range that extended a fourth below that of the eight-keyed flute, down to low G. In 1808, the Revered Frederick Nolan invented the ring key. This was a device that connected two keys together, so that by closing one key the flutist could cover two or more holes. In 1811, J.N. Capeller added a second trill key to his flute to trill from C# to D, and from this time a series of other trill keys was added. In 1822, a key was added which would raise the pitch of any note by an eighth of a step and allow the flutist to crescendo or decrescendo, but this key was later removed.
Flutists also began to experiment with different materials for the construction of the body of the instrument. The flute had traditionally been made of wood, but wooden flutes were prone to cracking and tended to swell with humidity. A new material was needed. In 1806 Claude Laurent patented a glass flute with sliver keys and posts, and in 1810 George Miller created a metal flute with a cylindrical bore. The tube of his instrument had the same diameter throughout rather than tapering to the end as flutes traditionally had done.
As the flute was improving, an important cycle was taking place. Improvements to the instrument made it easier to play and allowed flutists to play better, faster, and more musically. This caused composers to write more and better music for the flute, which in turn required improvements to the instrument. Due to these tremendous improvements, the flute began to be used extensively in orchestral music in the 1800s, and composers like Beethoven featured the flute in their compositions. This caused the flute to become popular among amateur musicians and among students, and as a result even more music was written. Music scholar Edward R. Reilly described this cycle in his book Quantz and the Transverse Flute:
Although it is tempting to see the history of instruments in terms of
mechanical 'improvements' in their manufacture- and there has been a
strong tendency to link these developments with technological progress�
at times musical ideals and goals may be much more influential, and may
guide the shaping of instruments more specifically and concretely than
is often realized.
By about 1830, most flutists had accepted the inherent flaws in their instruments, and flutists were still using a combination of the one-keyed, four-keyed, six-keyed, and eight-keyed flutes, and just about everything else in between. A few flutists, however, were still not satisfied with their instruments and continued to look for ways to improve them. One of these people was Theobald Boehm, a German flutist and the son of a jeweler. At age 16, Boehm built his own four-keyed flute and just two years later he began to experiment with improvements to the instrument. In 1831, Boehm took a trip to London. While he was there, he attended a concert by famous flutist Charles Nicholson and fell in love with Nicholson's strong tone. Boehm was convinced that Nicholson's flute, a seven-keyed instrument with unusually large tone holes, was responsible. Boehm also met English flutemaker Gordon who had completely redesigned a flute of his own. Boehm decided that the flute needed a radical makeover, and he would be the one to complete it.
Boehm finished his first new flute in 1832, just one year after his visit to London. He called it the "Patent Flute" and it had five keys. The biggest improvement in this flute was that Boehm used acoustics to redesign the locations of the tone holes. To find the places for the holes, Boehm conducted an experiment. He made two flutes with no holes, then began to cut short sections off the end of the first flute until it was just long enough to play the pitch he desired. When this was accomplished, he would drill a hole at the corresponding location on the second flute. Boehm used mathematical calculations to support his tone hole placements; he explained all the math he did in a complex diagram which he called the Schema. Boehm's new flute was a success despite skeptical flutists. In 1838 the flute was analyzed by the French Academy of Fine Arts, and soon afterward it was used at the Paris Conservatory, the top flute school in the world at the time.
Despite his success, Boehm was not finished with his flute. He had been studying acoustics and the University of Munich and he was convinced that the flute still was not perfect. In 1847, Boehm released a second flute model. This flute had a cylindrical bore, which made the instrument easier to play, improved the tone of the low register, and made the high notes more in tune. The cylindrical bore instrument also played more of the overtones in each note, which created a richer sound. Boehm increased the size of the tone holes, and because the tone holes were now too large to be covered with a finger, he covered each hole with a key. To close all the holes he used ring keys, clutch keys (a similar invention that allowed a key to close a hole located far away from it) and thin springs to connect the keys. Boehm also experimented with the body material of his new flute, in the end choosing silver because it offered a wide variety of tone colors, and it was not prone to cracking like wood was.
Boehm was still not happy with his new flute, however. He wanted to create an instrument with a unique sound, one different than that of the C flutes. The new instrument that he invented in 1854 was based on the flute d'amour, a flute pitched in G which was used widely in the 1600s, and other lower pitched flutes which were invented during Boehm's lifetime. This new instrument was called the alto flute, and it was designed based on the same principles as the C flute. Again, Boehm based the hole placements and key mechanisms on his acoustical schema which he had made for the flute. He was very pleased with his new instrument, and critics say he liked it better than the C flute. In his book The Flute and Flute Playing, Boehm describes his success.
My ideal of tone, large, sonorous, and powerful, admitting of every
gradiation from pianissimo to fortissimo, is still the tone of my silver flute
in G. With a silver head-joint and a gold embouchure, the tone is very
brilliant, and no room is too large for it; while with a wood embouchure
on the silver head-joint, the tone gains in richness without losing in power.
Although Boehm may have been unsatisfied with his new C flute, the instrument was a great success. In fact, with a few modifications, Boehm's is the flute that flutists play today. Those modifications started almost immediately after Boehm finished his first flute. Flutist August Buffet moved all the rods and axles which hold the keys together to the inner side of the flute, made some improvements to the mechanism, and constructed the springs out of steel instead of brass. In 1839, Victor Coche invented a second trill key which would allow the flutist to trill between C# and D#, a standard on flutes today. The French drilled holes in the centers of five of the keys, creating the open-holed or "French Model" flute. In 1850, Giulio Briccaldi invented the Bb thumb lever, used to close the Bb hole and standard on all flutes today. In 1889 Djalma Julliot and Fran�ois Borne invented the split E key, used to improve the response of the troublesome high E.
Even today, flutists continue to experiment with the addition of trill keys, and with variations of Boehm's Schema. Flutists also continue to experiment with the metals used to make the body of the flute; in addition to silver, flutes are now made out of gold and platinum, among other metals. The springs that allow the keys to close are also made out of a variety of metals, ranging from steel to white gold. The two most notable technological improvements to the instrument made in the last 100 years were the invention of the O-ring, a synthetic tuning cork which does not expand and shrink with changes in temperature, and the Straubinger key pad, a synthetic rubber covering which prevents pads from tearing with use.
The number and magnitude of improvements to the instrument have decreased significantly since the 1800s as flutists have come to accept Boehm's design with numerous modifications. Flutists continue to look for new technology to improve the instrument, but there is a general consensus that most of the necessary improvements have been made. In the words of flutemaker and inventor Alex Murray, the flute is now "98 percent perfect."
