Flute, tubular or sometimes globular musical instrument enclosing air that is set in vibration when the player's breath is directed against the sharp edge of the hole. Usually additional holes in the flute wall can be opened or closed to produce different pitches. In transverse, or horizontally, held flutes, such as the Western orchestral flute and the Chinese di, the mouth hole, or embouchure, is cut into the side of the tube. In end-blown, or vertically held, flutes the hole may be at the end of the tube (for example, the Arabic ney). In duct flutes, such as the end-blown penny whistle and the recorder and the police whistle and ocarina, a mouthpiece channels the breath against the edge of a sound hole.
The transverse flute, the typical flute of Western music, was known in China by about 900 BC. By about AD 1100 it reached Europe, where it became a military flute in German-speaking areasΓÇöhence its old name, German flute. Families of flutes from soprano to bass were played in 16th- and 17th- century chamber music. Made in one piece, these flutes had a cylindrical bore and six fingerholes. The flute was redesigned in the late 1600s by the Hotteterre family of French woodwind makers. They built it in three sections, or joints, with one key and a conical bore tapering away from the player. This flute displaced the recorder as the typical orchestral flute in the late 1700s. Gradually, more keys were added to improve the intonation of certain tones; by about 1800 a four-keyed flute was common, and eight-keyed flutes were developed in the 19th century.
In 1832 the German flute maker Theobald Boehm created an improved conical-bore flute, and in 1847 he patented his cylindrical-bore flute, which is the model in widest use in the 20th century. The cylindrical Boehm flute is made of metal or wood and has thirteen or more tone holes controlled by a system of padded keys. Its range extends three octaves, from middle C upward. Other orchestral flutes include the piccolo (an octave higher than the ordinary flute) and the alto and bass flutes.
