The Innovation of the Modern Flute

I was a little girl when I first heard my mom play her flute. I thought it had such a unique and pretty sound. What I didn't know then is that humans have been playing similar instruments for a long time. Although instruments resembling the flute have been around for thousands of years, the modern flute was not introduced until much later. 

Renaissance Flutes

Picking up the story during the Renaissance, we see that during this time flutes were still relatively simple instruments. They were cylinders of various sizes (to produce different ranges of pitches) and these cylinders had holes in them so that the flutist could manipulate the sound. These flutes were typically made of various types of wood according to Kate Clark and Amanda Markwick in their book, The Renaissance Flute: A Contemporary Guide. Here is an example of what a typical flute sounded like during the Renaissance:

The piece that these gentlemen are playing was composed in the Netherlands during the 1500s by Clemens non Papa, whose real name was Jacobus Clement as stated by the editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. These instruments have a sort of tender, wooden sound to them. In addition to their uniquely muffled timbre, these flutes have a different set of pitches than modern flutes can play. Without keys, these flutes could not play all of the chromatic pitches in western music. Flutes, in general, were similar to these Renaissance flutes through the Baroque era and into the 1800s. 

The Birth of the Modern Flute

Theobald Boehm is credited with creating the predecessor to the modern flute in the 1800s. According to music director Jason Brame, the main difference between Boehm's flute and other flutes of the time was that a musician playing Boehm's flute could open or close multiple holes with the same finger. In other words, he added keys to the flute. This meant that all the notes of the chromatic scale could be played. Yamaha, a company that sells many modern instruments, says that Boehm also introduced the lip plate. Boehm's improvement to the flute was essential for the development of the modern flute. In fact, Brame says it was the "most major evolution in the flute's history." Without it, flute music today would likely sound much different. Here is an example of what a typical modern flute sounds like:

This piece, called L'Arlésienne, was composed by Georges Bizet in France and debuted on October 1, 1872. In this example, a different but similar timbre is heard. The sound of the modern flute is clearer and crisper than the wooden flutes which came before it. These qualities in the sound of the modern flute are likely due, in part, to its construction from metal instead of wood. It also has more individual pitches that it can play. Thanks to the keys first introduced by Theobald Boehm, the modern flute can produce all of the chromatic pitches. While a few changes have been made to flute designs since then, the basic concept of what a modern flute consists of hasn't changed very much since Boehm brought his version of the flute into the world.

Conclusion

I actually enjoy listening to both types of flutes. However, I personally prefer the modern flute because of its beautifully clear sound and its ability to play more pitches. Modern flutes have a sound that is unlike instruments of the same type, no matter how old they are. The sound of the modern flute is varied and remarkably elegant compared to other instruments of its kind. Thank you for discovering its story with me!

Sources

Brame, Jason. "The Wooden Flute: A History of Innovation." Notestem, October 2, 2020. Accessed October 19, 2020. https://www.notestem.com/blog/wooden-flute/

Clark, Kate, and Amanda Markwick. The Renaissance Flute: A Contemporary Guide. Oxford University Press, USA, 2020.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. "Jacobus Clemens." Encyclopædia Britannica, March 21, 2016. Accessed October 19, 2020. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jacobus-Clemens

Yamaha. "Genealogy of the Flute Family." Yamaha Music USA. Yamaha Corporation of America and Yamaha Corporation, August 01, 2018. Accessed October 14, 2020. https://hub.yamaha.com/genealogy-of-the-flute-family/