Flute
The flute is a member of a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, producing sound with a vibrating column of air. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute produces sound when the player's air flows across an opening. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, flutes are edge-blown aerophones.[1] A musician who plays the flute is called a flautist or flutist.
This article is about the whole family of instruments. For the flute commonly used in orchestras and bands, see Western concert flute. For other uses, see Flute (disambiguation).
Paleolithic flutes with hand-bored holes are the earliest known identifiable musical instruments. A number of flutes dating to about 53,000 to 45,000 years ago have been found in the Swabian Jura region of present-day Germany, indicating a developed musical tradition from the earliest period of modern human presence in Europe.[2][3] While the oldest flutes currently known were found in Europe, Asia also has a long history with the instrument. A playable bone flute discovered in China is dated to about 9,000 years ago.[4] The Americas also had an ancient flute culture, with instruments found in Caral, Peru, dating back 5,000 years [5] and in Labrador dating back about 7,500 years.[6]
The bamboo flute has a long history, especially in China and India. Flutes have been discovered in historical records and artworks starting in the Zhou dynasty. The oldest written sources reveal the Chinese were using the kuan (a reed instrument) and hsio (or xiao, an end-blown flute, often of bamboo) in the 12th–11th centuries BC, followed by the chi (or ch'ih) in the 9th century BC and the yüeh in the 8th century BC.[7] Of these, the bamboo chi is the oldest documented transverse flute.[7][8]
The cross flute (Sanskrit: vāṃśī) was "the outstanding wind instrument of ancient India", according to Curt Sachs.[9] He said that religious artwork depicting "celestial music" instruments was linked to music with an "aristocratic character".[9] The Indian bamboo cross flute, Bansuri, was sacred to Krishna, who is depicted with the instrument in Hindu art.[9] In India, the cross flute appeared in reliefs from the 1st century AD at Sanchi and Amaravati from the 2nd–4th centuries AD.[9][10]
According to historian Alexander Buchner, there were flutes in Europe in prehistoric times, but they disappeared from the continent until their arrival from Asia, by way of "North Africa, Hungary, and Bohemia".[11] The end-blown flute began to be seen in illustration in the 11th century.[11] Transverse flutes entered Europe through Byzantium and were depicted in Greek art about 800 AD.[12] The transverse flute had spread into Europe by way of Germany, and was known as the German flute.[12]
Etymology and terminology[edit]
The word flute first appeared in the English language during the Middle English period, as floute,[13] flowte, or flo(y)te,[14] possibly from Old French flaute and Old Provençal flaüt,[13] or possibly from Old French fleüte, flaüte, flahute via Middle High German floite or Dutch fluit. The English verb flout has the same linguistic root, and the modern Dutch verb fluiten still shares the two meanings.[15] Attempts to trace the word back to the Latin flare (to blow, inflate) have been pronounced "phonologically impossible" or "inadmissable".[14] The first known use of the word flute was in the 14th century.[16] According to the Oxford English Dictionary, this was in Geoffrey Chaucer's The Hous of Fame, c. 1380.[14]
A musician who plays any instrument in the flute family can be called a flutist,[17] flautist,[18] or flute player. Flutist dates back to at least 1603, the earliest quotation cited by the Oxford English Dictionary. Flautist was used in 1860 by Nathaniel Hawthorne in The Marble Faun, after being adopted during the 18th century from Italy (flautista, itself from flauto), like many musical terms in England since the Italian Renaissance. Other English terms, now virtually obsolete, are fluter (15th–19th centuries)[19][20][21] and flutenist (17th and 18th centuries).[15][22]
Acoustics[edit]
A flute produces sound when a stream of air directed across a hole in the instrument creates a vibration of air at the hole.[42][43] The airstream creates a Bernoulli or siphon. This excites the air contained in the usually cylindrical resonant cavity within the flute. The flutist changes the pitch of the sound produced by opening and closing holes in the body of the instrument, thus changing the effective length of the resonator and its corresponding resonant frequency. By varying the air pressure, a flutist can also change the pitch by causing the air in the flute to resonate at a harmonic rather than the fundamental frequency without opening or closing any of the holes.[44]
Head joint geometry appears particularly critical to acoustic performance and tone,[45] but there is no clear consensus on a particular shape amongst manufacturers. Acoustic impedance of the embouchure hole appears the most critical parameter.[46] Critical variables affecting this acoustic impedance include: chimney length (hole between lip-plate and head tube), chimney diameter, and radii or curvature of the ends of the chimney and any designed restriction in the "throat" of the instrument, such as that in the Japanese Nohkan Flute.
A study in which professional flutists were blindfolded could find no significant differences between flutes made from a variety of metals.[47] In two different sets of blind listening, no flute was correctly identified in a first listening, and in a second, only the silver flute was identified. The study concluded that there was "no evidence that the wall material has any appreciable effect on the sound color or dynamic range".
Breathing techniques[edit]
There are several means by which flautists breathe to blow air through the instrument and produce sound. They include diaphragmatic breathing and circular breathing. Diaphragmatic breathing optimizes inhalation, minimizing the number of breaths. Circular breathing brings air in through the nose and out through the mouth, enabling a continuous sound.