ALC 342 FLUTE LIT 1

UNIT 1 – THE HISTORY OF THE FLUTE

PRE- 1600

 Flute was one-piece with a cylindrical bore

 Six finger holes spaced into two groups of three to fit the human hand
 Tuning & acoustical issues not really considered – not easy to play in tune
 1 ½ octave range
 Fingerings were awkward
 During the Renaissance used primarily to double singers and play dance music
 https://youtu.be/64vuv2a7PRA
 1660-1670

• Hotteterre, family of instrument makers in France redesign the flute

• One-keyed flute – D# Key with 3 joints
• Cylindrical headjoint & tapered bore
• Commonly made of boxwood, but also used other woods such as ebony as well as ivory
• 2 ½ octave range
• Home key – D Major
• Complicated fork fingerings used to perform chromatic pitches outside of the key of D Major
1720

• As flutists began to travel to perform, they had a problem adjusting the instrument’s
intonation to compensate for the different pitch centers in each city
• Flute was divided into 4 joints
• Corps de rechange – upper middle joint made in different sizes in order to adjust tuning
of instrument
• Telemann Fantasy in D Major - https://youtu.be/CJQElWBWBX4?t=116
• Bach Partita in a minor mvt 3 Sarabande - https://youtu.be/onB39cumbF4?t=514
1760-1820

• Flute makers begin to add keys to the instrument in order to ease complicated cross
fingerings and aid in better intonation on chromatic pitches
• 8-keyed flute generally considered the standard instrument, but the one-keyed flute
continues to prosper well into the 19th century
• Soussman Etude in G Major - https://youtu.be/40CFVsBY2Is
19TH CENTURY

• As orchestras became larger, there was a greater demand for more projection
• British virtuoso flutist, Charles Nicholson, experimented with making the tone holes and
the embouchure hole larger for greater projection
1820-1851

• Theobald Boehm, a goldsmith and flutist from Munich, began making flutes
• Placed tone holes where it was more acoustically appropriate rather than where fingers
could reach
• Created a mechanism of rods, pins and springs to enable keys that could not be reached
by the hand to open and close
• Covered finger holes with keys containing pads
• Made flutes out of metal – silver, gold, brass for greater projection
PICTURES OF 19TH CENTURY FLUTES
BOEHM SYSTEM FLUTE – MODERN FLUTE

• 1838 – Boehm System Flute officially introduced at the Paris Conservatory

• 1850 – Italian flutist, Giulio Briccialdi designed the thumb Bb key
• Boehm system flute quickly became popular in France and England
• First manufactured in the United States in 1851
• Telemann - https://youtu.be/mQ5awx9K6Zo?t=195
• Telemann - https://youtu.be/mQ5awx9K6Zo?t=368
• Marcel Moyse Debussy Syrnx - https://youtu.be/DqGvditSf34
• Pahud Debussy Syrnx - https://youtu.be/YEyKM13yf_4?t=33