A transverse flute is an instrument that you hold sideways or horizontally to play. You create sound by directing a stream of air toward the sharp edge of an opening (in the mouthpiece); different pitches are created by blocking groups of holes along the body of the flute with your fingers. These instruments can be made from metal, wood or bone or even glass.
One of the most amazing things about the transverse flute is its universality. Historically, the transverse flute has been used for more than a millennium throughout Asia ; in India, the image of Krishna is traditionally represented playing the transverse flute. The Chinese chi is possibly the oldest transverse flute in history. It was used in state rituals in China and Korea at least as early as 900 B.C., and is still used today, mainly in Taiwan for annual Confucian rituals. Played in ensembles, it is supposed to create a sense of harmony and spiritual peace. The embouchure (or mouthhole) is covered with a thin membrane of bamboo or other materials, which creates a slight buzzing sound as you play. In Japan, there are also several transverse flutes associated with traditional Gagaku, Noh and Kabuki theater.
The transverse flute came much later to Europe during the time of the crusades, via Byzantium around the twelfth century. Its appearance in the West, of course, has changed considerably. Early flutes were made from one piece of wood, bone or metal, but by the late-17th century, they were constructed in three pieces with adjustable joints that made it easier to fine tune the instrument's pitch.
Before the mid-19th century, western flutes only had open holes which a player covered with their fingers to create different tones. However during the 1830s, Theobald Boehm developed a system of keys and springs to replace many of the open holes. The Boehm invention required a complete fingering change for the flute and so was slow in gaining popularity, but today the Boehm flute is used almost exclusively in contemporary western orchestras.
Glass flutes, while considered novelties, are nonetheless fully-functional instruments. Though glass flutes had been made in Europe at least as early as the early seventeenth century, Parisian manufacturer Claude Laurent patented his glass flute in 1806 and dedicated his life to making flutes of crystal and cut-glass. While flutes of glass were most likely made only for show rather than for serious playing, many were perhaps more practical than expected; some have joints strengthened by silver or ivory and feature silver keys with steel springs. Unlike the popular wooden flute of the early nineteenth century , glass flutes are said to have an unearthly and ethereal character in their tone. Richard Rockstro, however, in his Treatise on the Flute of 1928, insists that glass flutes are simple tonally deficient experiments. 'A more inappropriate material,' he writes, 'could scarcely have been found. It possesses the single good quality of endurance--until broken'.
Hear the sound of a baroque wooden flute (AIFF, 490K, 23
sec.)
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