The Flute family consists of four different instruments, which look almost the same except for their length. They include (from the smallest) the Piccolo, the Concert Flute, the Alto Flute, and the Bass Flute. (The Bass Flute is folded on both its sides so that the practical length of the instrument is reduced). Here, we shall deal only with the Concert Flute and the Piccolo which are regular members of the symphonic orchestra.
The Concert Flute:
The Flute is, without doubt, one of the most ancient musical instruments; it played a very important role in religious rituals of various religions. On the reliefs of Amaravati, in India, is carved a Flute player with a Flute. It is believed that when the Great Krishna himself played the Flute, "The spirits were enchanted, the rivers paused and stopped flowing, the birds halted their flight, flew down and listened to his music with great jealousy, and all the inanimate things on earth and under the sun grew brighter".
The Flute seems to have appeared in Europe during the Middle Ages, from Asia and through the Byzantinian Kingdom. We later find it coupled with the cylindrical small drum in military ensembles, known to this day as "Fife and Drums". Nearly up to the start of the 17th century, the Flute was made of one piece; it could not be tuned by changing its length. For this reason, the instrument was produced in various lengths in order to produce different pitches or scales. The form of its original bore was conical.
A short time later, Flutes comprised at least two pieces, which were very tightly fitted together, thus allowing the player to tune his instrument by adjusting the length of the whole tube. The Concert Flute of today is made of three joints.
It was the flutist Theobald Boehm (1794-1847) who greatly perfected the Flute. He changed the form of the bore from conical to cylindrical and added a parabolic head, thus creating two very important changes: making the pitch much more accurate; and equalizing the timbres of the various registers of the instrument.
Boehm also developed the system which bears his name, and upon which his fame rests to this day. In his system, the holes on the tube were to be created as large as possible. The positions of the holes depended solely on acoustical correctness and were not based on the player's comfort. Taking the player's comfort into account, he created an appropriate arrangement of keys and levers to cover all the holes, even those that were too far for the fingers of the player.
Though originally made of wood, Flutes had to be constructed of metal. They were very thin, and many elements were bored into them; a wooden flute would have broken. Still, they are members of the woodwind family. Today, there are silver and gold flutes.
The Flute is held almost parallel to the floor, and on the player's right. The player blows across the sharp edge of a mouth-hole on the left side of the instrument. The different notes are obtained by opening and closing the holes using the keys and levers, thus lengthening or shortening the vibrating column of air in the tube. The longer the column, the higher the pitch and vice versa. It is important to note that the different Octaves are obtained with nearly the same fingering. Only the manner of blowing and tonguing are changed, thus making the control of pitch quite difficult.
Throughout its different ranges (registers), the Flute is extremely agile. This makes it possible for the player to play very fast scales or passages, as well as stirring and exciting leaps or skips. The Flute's higher register is characterized by brilliant sounds, while the lower range of notes is enveloped by a warm and velvet-like atmosphere.
