flute

Listen to the sound

of the flute

History

The transverse flute is first mentioned in Asia in the 9th century BC, it was a bamboo flute with 6 holes. It is said to have appeared in Europe in the 2nd century BC. It appears in iconography and literature around the second half of the 12th century in association with the Harp, then more regularly from the 13th century onwards, notably on the stained glass windows and statues of Chartres Cathedral which testify to its widespread use.

It was in thesecond half of the seventeenth century that Jean-Baptiste Lully introduced it into the opera orchestra and from the eighteenth century onward the instrument was assigned an important function as a soloist because of its diaphanous sound and agility

Factor

For centuries, flutes were made of wood, which is why they are classified in the wood family, even when they are of metal.

The wood was gradually replaced for metal during the nineteenth with the appearance of the flute of “Boehm”, a composer who added to it aningenious mechanical system, which allowed a more powerful sound, of better precision.

Sources: the conservatory of Cergy Pontoise / Wikipedia