A Brief History of the (European) Flutes
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- Опубликовано: 12 сен 2024
- A Brief History of the (European and American) Flute up to 1900
This is a presentation I made for the National Flute Associations Summer Festival presenting a quick history of the flute. It touches on the Renaissance flute and continues to the development of the modern flute. More than 16 historical flutes are demonstrated in the video.
Special thanks to Joseph Monticello and Boaz Berney who assisted in demonstrations as well as Mark Edwards who plays harpsichord in the Buffardin example.
Please support the making of these videos by joining my Patreon page / michaellynnflutes
0:01 Intro - Noe Freres 1-key - Devienne flute quartet, op?
5:40 Renaissance Flutes - La Bamba - V. Ruffo
9:55 Hotteterre Flute - Hotteterre Echos
18:00 Buffardin Flute - B**** Sonata
20:18 Richard Potter ivory 1-key flute- Haydn Trio III, Moderato
24:55 Crone 1-key - CPE Sonata in G major Wq. 127
26:41 Prudent 1-key - Tromlitz Partita IV
40:42 Milhouse 7-key - Wendling, Allegro from Trio V
43:08 Triebert 6-key - Tromlitz Partita V
45:14 Drouet 8-key - Broderies Furstaneu
55:50 Buffet Crampon conical Boehm - Donjon Tendre souvenir
01:01:25 Boehm & Mendler cylindrical Boehm - Boehm Andante
01:05:25 Lefevere cylindrical Boehm - Fauré - Morceau de Concours
01:07:06 Louis Lot cylindrical Boehm - Fauré - Morceau de Concours
01:11:56 American flutes by Peloubet- Ye Banks and braes o’ Bonnie Doon, Arr. Saust - Oh Nanny Wilt Thou Gang With Me - Saust
01:19:12 HF Meyer 10-key - Broderies
01:27:55 Rudall & Rose 8-key - Day Break
I had a deep, innate love of flutes as a young child, but suppressed it after having a bad teacher early on. Thank you for helping me remember why I love them!
Thanks - I'm happy you got pleasurable memories from it!
The difference in softness and quality of the baroque flute is much like on the Japanese shakuhachi with メリ (meri, flattened) or カリ (kari, sharpened) notes which are much darker and softer sounding which is intentional. Players will often even exaggerate the difference in loudness and quality for more contrast
This is just great - incredibly helpful for anyone interested in the history of flutes. The demonstrations are exactly what is missing from traditional books on organology. Michael Lynn and RUclips to the rescue! Thanks so much for doing this.
Thanks John!
@@MichaelLynnFlute WASH DIRTY TROUSER.... 🌹
What a viewer friendly, inspiring flute history video you have made
Thanks Florence, I appreciate that.
Very insightful! Thanks for taking the time to make this! A very good primer on the flute!
Thanks TFC
Thank you for this wonderful, informative video. I especially loved the point about the different fingering changed the colours in the early flutes. It illustrates how music in different keys changed the colour of a piece of music, thus changing the colour again should the music be transposed up or down. The whole video is a real joy. thank you
Thank you - the color of different keys on the baroque flute is really fundamental to what makes it such a wonderful instrument!
A must see for anyone aspiring to play the flute.
Thanks Stavros!
This fills in all the gaps, and should make all flautists play better.❤
Thanks Charlotte - I hope more flutists will watch it,
If I had been able to watch this video in my 20s, my life would have been completely different. Unfortunately, I am currently in my forties and still, with great pleasure, I follow the magic of historical sounds. You have prepared an amazing content for all flut lovers. Thanks a lot🙏
Thanks very much Mehmet!
wonder demostration for the historic flute
Thanks!
Thank you very much!
The video that kicked off my 3 year odyssey to make 3D printed Baroque flutes! :)
excellent!
Bravo Michael my friend , this is so good and insteuctional, and covers so much information. A hug from Italy!
Thank you!
I have been playing flute for 50 years, so many things about the flute that I did'nt know...😳
Very interesting & informative. I loved that Louis Lot flute !
Thanks, glad you found it interesting.
This video is awesome -- thank you for uploading it. I'm a 19th century player (a modern "Irish" flute by Dave Copley (although I don't play ITM), so it's optimized for loudness), and I adore historical flutes. I love the dark, reedy sound of them, and I always say they sound like a flute one of whose grandparents was a clarinet. :-)
Thanks very much - really glad you enjoyed it. You should look through my other videos - there is a good one on English flutes you might like.
@@MichaelLynnFlute Might you ever have uploaded anything on the relationship between the flute and the piccolo? I tend to think of the piccolo as just a tiny simple system flute since it has the same conical bore (and some of the same intonation oddities although magnified by being an octave up). You'd know better than I whether this is actually the case, though.
@@jcortese3300 I'm not at all a piccolo expert although I have some nice examples in my collection. They were often know as "little flute" so I imagine they really were thought of that way. I don't think they are dealt with much in early treatises, so I think the techniques must have been thought of as very similar. From my experience, tuning as more difficult on piccolo than on the concert flute. The player has to do the tuning and not expect the instrument to do it for them.
Awesome presentation!
As a flutist myself, I'd love nothing more in terms of an instrument than a conical bore Boehm flute. I just love how they sound! The perfect blend of old and new! ❤
Thanks Dan - I agree, the conical Boehm is an instrument that should get a lot more attention, both for historical and musical reasons
Thanks Dan
Fantastic! Thank you for sharing such a wealth of knowledge! I especially loved the examples of the flutes paired with the music of the era. Many thanks!
Thanks Sandra!
You are such an excellent player and please give my regards to the gentleman who so excellently--and truly exceptionally--played the Boehm flutes.
Thanks very much
This video is amazing, thank you very much! Best regards from Argentina
Thanks very much - glad you enjoyed it!
Very enjoyable plus super educational
Thanks Ron, I'm glad you enjoyed it!
Dear Michel, I purchased one of these knock-off Meyer flutes from you years ago. It's anything but cheap. I love it. The sweetest tone and and intonation is excellent. The low register is booming. Upper is sweet and perhaps not the most accesible but still just fine. I hate saying it's a Noch Meyer. I wonder how much was paid for it back then and who might have enjoyed it.
That is great to hear. They can be very good flutes - often condition is an important factor.
Lovely video and beautiful flutes! I can only imagine the headache of oiling them all, though.
Thanks - Haha, I very seldom oil any of the keyed flutes. The general plan is if you keep them at a good humidity, around 45%, the wood doesn't usually dry out.
Great presentation. I knew about the big milestones (renaissance, baroque, modern Boehm) but it was interesting to hear about all the intermediates and abandoned systems.
Thanks, glad you found it interesting
Thank you so much for this. And although the focus is on the flutes themselves, I gotta say: Joseph Monticello's mind blowing low register made me yellow with envy. New target acquired.
Wow!! Thank you! I'm so glad you've uploaded this to RUclips. Thank you for sharing your knowledge, beautiful playing demos, and the collection of amazing flutes.
Thanks Stephanie - I'm glad you enjoyed it!
What would a modern 3 piece conically bored simple system keyless Irish Blackwood flute be modeled after?
the modern Irish flutes are usually modeled loosely (depending on the builder) on English flutes of Rudall & Rose or Pratten. They usually are based on large hole models.
thx for this amazing video and recordings and i love the August Buffet 🤗
Thanks Jordan!
This is fantastic! Sharing with my students. Thank you!
Thanks Shelley - I hope your students enjoy it as well
@@MichaelLynnFlute Yes, they have. We watched it in (virtual) flute studio at Delta State University this week. So wonderful to have something so enriching to share during the pandemic.
@@shelleycollins terrific!
I would love to see a video like this with the recorder history!
There's a channel called Team Recorder by Sarah Jeffery, a professional recorder player, and she has a ton of videos up about lots of recorder-related topics, including history. If you play recorder, you should definitely check it out.
Thank you for this wonderful presentation. Historical flutes are uniquely fascinating.
I have one remark, and one question if you don't mind.
The evolution of the flute seems to parallel the evolution of harpsichord and piano: up to the 18th century, it was accepted that the timbre should be noticeably different in different registers (different octaves, to put it simply) - it wasn't a bug, it was a feature - whereas from the 19th century onwards, the goal was to produce a similar sound from the bass to the treble, or at least to make the transition as smooth and unnoticeable as possible. And with bigger and bigger concert halls, the louder the better!
Now for the question.
One thing that never occurred to me before now: does it make sense to talk of "temperament" for historical flutes, as is the case for keyboard instrument tuning?
[IIRC, Renaissance keyboards were tuned in mean-tone, with pure thirds but flat fifths; remote keys were so out of tune they were unplayable. From Baroque to Classical periods, keyboards started out mean-tone, then transitioned to "well tempered" (a compromise where remote keys sounded just a bit out of tune) to equal temperament - exactly when the transitions happened is controversial: some people will swear blind that JS Bach used ET, others swear the opposite.]
I do know that when I bought my first guitar, age maybe 12, after several years playing recorder, I was shocked by the wide equal temperament thirds - my immediate reaction was "This thing is out of tune! The frets must be in the wrong place ☹"
So... does it make sense to describe the tuning of a transverse flute as following one temperament or another? Or does the pitch depend so much on intonation (i.e., embouchure and air flow), and maybe different choices of cross-fingerings for the early flutes, that the question is meaningless?
And, if the above DOES make sense, what can we say about the way historical flutes were tuned? If modern Boehm flutes are ET, and Renaissance flutes were mean-tone, then how and when did the tuning change?
Thanks for your comments and questions. They are all good and I'll try to answer them briefly. I think it is true that the baroque flute produced a more varied, and perhaps more interesting sound than later flutes. This really started happening even around the 1760s but it became more so in the 19thC culminating in the ideas of Boehm. I think it didn't actually have that much to do with volume until the 2nd half of the 19th. A nice things, and difficult thing, about flutes is that they are a flexible pitched instrument, not fixed like a keyboard. How they are flexible is a bit complicated in that some notes might be flexible upwards and other notes downwards. On the baroque flute, I use 6th coma meantone #s as a reference, which works pretty well, but the goal is to be as in tune as possible with the harmony around you. Often referred to as Just tuning. Harpsichordists often seem to think that because they have a fixed pitch, every one else should too. This is definitely not the case, for one thing it is very difficult in many situations for the player or audience to actually hear distinct pitch from harpsichord. One has to pay attention to the pitch of the bass line but we listen to the cello or gamba much more than the harpsichord. EqualT sounds very bland and ugly for most baroque music and it certainly forces a baroque flute to play some notes in uncomfortable places, pitch wise. As we get into the 19thC thing do get more equal but there is still discussions of ensembles playing in tune, where soloists have more freedom for things like high leading tones, and keyboard are fix in equal or near equal. I hope that helps.
@@MichaelLynnFlute Thanks, that makes it much clearer. The moral is, a flute (and woodwinds in general I suppose) allows for flexible intonation almost on a par with the violin family. (I found out recently that violinists and their ilk actually learn to play differently when there's a piano around: with a piano they have to play in equal temperament, otherwise different rules apply. Up till then I had thought micro-tonality was a fringe topic in classical music, but these people have been doing it all the time!)
I'm guessing that it would just never occur to a Baroque musician to ask a flautist to play in something like A flat (lots of flats) or B (lots of sharps), so the problem didn't arise... while nowadays almost everything my choir does has modulations in it, except for a few pop songs; even folksong and gospel song arrangements usually have a modulation or two to keep things interesting!
Amazing. Thank you so much for creating this video and for making it available for all to view!!
Thanks Krista!
Thank you so much for this, I majored in flute in my youth, but have not had the opportunity to see such a collection!
glad you found it interesting
Dear Prof. Lynn, I am immensely grateful for this presentation! I'm writing my doctoral thesis in Budapest, Hungary about Carl Stamitz's flute concertos, and it's very helpful to me.
Thanks Rebeka - I'm glad this was useful to you. Feel free to let me know if you have questions and good luck with your thesis.
Excellent explanation!
Thanks!
Great introduction I enjoyed it very much one of the most important introductions I’ve heard so far you have inspired me to make reproduction for romantic flutes 8 keys as well,
Thanks very much! What flute are you copying?
I am copying Monzani Flute, 8 keys. I just Got on 1820 original one to start my copying
@@ariellouisart does it play well? - they often have fairly bad tuning
Michael Lynn oh I wasn’t aware of that yet. I just got the flute. Perhaps I will copy koch. Is it possible to have you email?
@@ariellouisart sure - Michael.lynn@oberlin.edu
Thank you so very much for this amazing lecture ! I learned a lot. I had no clear view about the variety of flutes along their history. Your video opened up all about it.
Thanks Marc - I'm really glad you enjoyed it!
@@MichaelLynnFlute Dear Michael, do you know any flutemaker who can make a conical Boehm system flute ? In my folk music, I love using the finger holes (vibrato,slides,cuts,crans) but I also love the chromatic ease of the Boehm system. Thanks!
@@Nachtuil36 I think there is no one making them. They would be very expensive to make and they would sell very few of them. Buying antique ones would be much cheaper but always remember to figure in a good amount of $$ for restoration. Also it is very hard to find ones that work at A=440.
I played the triangle shaped instrument too 🎵 and the organ 🎵 I love instruments ❤️
Thank you for the highly comprehensive and interesting video! Having the musical examples really helps to understand the difference between the flutes. I certainly learned a lot! And I found the American flutes intersting-I never knew about that “scene”.
Thanks Anat - I'm really glad you liked it!
Thank you for sharing all this knowledge! This is really valuable information!
Thanks Isabel
Such a beautiful collection
Thanks you!
Thankyou Michel Lynn! This video is so much helpful!
Thanks!
Thank You for this: it clarifies a lot of things for me...
Very instructive, I played the baroque flute for a while on a Moeck Grenser copy... not bad but very ''basic''. Now I play a wooden Boehm made in China that is surprisingly good. Since I play jazz and latin music it is a perfect match. It would be interesting to know more about the genesis of other low pitched flute (G, lowA, Bass etc...) All the best for your retirement years ahead.
Thanks Pierre!
Thank you!
Good personality good présentation 👍
Thanks!
What an amazing video! Very strange that only 500 liked it, considering the number of flute enthusiast around here... Does someone know where to find music sheets for Renaissance flute? I have a nice Renaissance tenor replica of a Claude Rafi (16th century, France) flute but I find it challenging getting tunes without D# even from Hottetere, Rameau or van Eyck. Any help from the community would be much appreciated :-)
Hi Fabrice, Thanks for your comments. I hope this video will have a long life and that more flutists will watch it. Music for the Renaissance flute is usually concert music, pre-1600 or so. Composers like Hotteterre, or anyone after him, are not really going to work. Some van Eyck is possible but certainly D# isn't going to work. The instrument really favors music with F natural, as opposed to baroque flute which favors F#, at least for non advanced players. I would recommend getting the new book "The Renaissance Flute..." by Kate Clark and Amanda Markwick, published by Oxford. It is an excellent book and contains lots of music as well as being a good guide to finding more. There is also a Renaissance Flute group on Facebook that would be very useful to you.
@@MichaelLynnFlute Many thanks for your insightful answer, I will definitely read this book.
great video, thank you for making it
Thanks - glad you enjoyed it!
Thanks for all the information! 😎
Such a great presentation! also I wanted to ask someone, what’s the name of the composition, that sounds at the beginning of the video?
Best wishes
Thanks Daniel - the intro music is from a Devienne flute trio Op 16
I had a flute, love the sound, an instrument I ❤️
Very didactic. Thanks very much
Thank you very much 👍
good instrumental
Congratulations!
Thank you for this great presentation, Michael. I only started learning about pre-Böhm flutes and flute playing about half a year ago and the more I learn, the more the subject fascinates me.
One question: Is the piece at 5:40 (La Bamba - V. Ruffo) taken from a recording? I've been looking but can't seem to find anything. It's absolutely wonderful.
I'm glad you enjoyed this video. The piece in question is really called "La Gamba" - I think it may be from a CD but it might only be available from Boaz Berney, whose group is playing.
@@MichaelLynnFlute Thank you.
Thank you very much, professor. Enjoy your well earned retirement! 🇨🇦
Thanks Fred!
This is good and nice, but I don’t know where is the central european folk’s, and seepherd’s flutes
only so much I can put in the title - this isn't intended to include folk or ethnic flutes - that would be someone else's specialty...
Could you do a video on ancient flutes, like bird leg bone flutes - like prehistory flutes?
I'm afraid those are far from my area of knowledge...
Thanks for this very instructional video.
I've got two questions, one regarding the public opinion about changing the flute's body from wood to metal in the 19th century (the irony of being a woodwind instrument) and the other about the flute's original register.
Renaissance flutes were played in consort (descant, treble/tenor, tenor and bass or three tenors and bass), the tenor size in D being the standard for over 300 years; however, modern flutes in C are nowadays considered to be the soprano of the family. Would the modern alto in F somehow correspond to a (renaissance) bass in G?
Thanks Tony - I'll try to answer your questions as best I can. As I mention in the video, the issue wasn't just between wood or metal, or even between old system and new/Boehm flutes. The survival into the 20thC of the conical Boehm flute says a lot about the varied interests of flutists. In terms of the cylindrical Boehm flute, Boehm himself, and makers like Godfroy and Lot knew from the beginning that there would be special advantages to the metal flute. The flutists however often loved playing a wooden flute, just as some modern flutists prefer wooden Boehm flutes. We do know that as time passed, Lot made few and fewer cylindrical wooden flutes. There is also the fact that a silver flute cost more than a wooden one and some people couldn't come up with the money for a nice new silver flute. A Louis Lot silver flute cost many, many times more than a very fine wood simple system flute, so that probably kept some people not moving to the Boehm flute.
Renaissance flutes consorts were usually 3 tenors and a bass. The small sizes were not used much in consort, partially because they had a different sound quality and blend. The tenor flute being the main flute, it makes sense that the baroque flute would be based on the same pitch center - D. I guess in a modern sense today's alto flute would be like their bass flute.
@@MichaelLynnFlute Thank you so much for your answer. ☺
Yes, the ren bass and the modern alto have the same fundamental, but their function is very different. Modern flutes are not played in consort, so the alto Boehm is not used as a bass voice. There are EDIT flute END EDIT orchestras of modern flutes, but those have basses in C, and contrabasses in F or C to play the "bass line". On the other hand the ren bass flute was the lowest voice in a consort. Like a bass recorder.
@@victotronics I really appreciate your reply. Thank you for clarifying. 😊
@@TonyBittner-Collins Thanks. I note I made a really dumb error: I was talking about FLUTE orchestras. Also called flute choirs. They are kinda rare, but rather impressive to experience.
hi sir, thanks a lot for the information. could you tell me the name of the piece in the intro of the video? thank you!
the piece is Donjon Tendre Souvenir
Beuatiful, Thanks Sr.!!!! Please allow me to ask if are there books on structural analysis or plans to build these instruments?
I don't think there are any books that really address that issue. It is possible to buy dimensioned drawings of various old flute from a couple of museums and individuals who make drawings.
Wow.
Mr. Lynn, many thanks for this impressive and instructive lecture, giving! As a beginner who would like to try historical performance, could I ask your kind suggestions on choosing the first instrument for daily practice? Are the resin traverso made by Vicent Bernolin or Aulos recommandable for beginners, or should I go straight to a wooden instrument if affordable?
Thanks Robert - I am a fan of the Bernolin flutes, slightly more expensive, but I think a lot better than the Aulos. Either the Rottenburg or Delusse, with original-style embouchure.
@@MichaelLynnFlute Thanks for your advice!
Who knew salman rushdie knew so much about woodwinds? Enjoy your retirement, sir 🫡
Danke
What an achievement to be able to retire, despite spending a fortune to acquire such an amazing collection. 😂
haha - actually, my collection is part of my retirement...
What would help me: How do I take something hollow like a piece of bamboo and make a flute out of it??
Same. thought. How do I take a pipe and know where to put the holes to make the proper sounds/
Hi Gary - I'm afraid that is not my thing but I'm sure their are RUclips videos that show how to make a bamboo flute - a good place to start
Can someone tell me what piece is playing in the background? I really want to play it with flute !!!!🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰
Hi - it is a really wonderful flute quartet by Devienne. You can hear the whole piece here: soundcloud.com/mloberlin/devienne-quartet - it is his Op 16 number 3
@@MichaelLynnFlute awwwwh thank you very much! 🥰🥰🥰
WHAT DID YOU NOT DO
haha, lots...
What was corrected??
just a bunch of typos in the titles and some bad formatting - nothing in the music or talking
what's the"name difference" in flutes that blow at the end in oppose to flutes that blow at the side
end blown would be a recorder while the "regular" type of flute is called a transverse flute, cross flute, traverso, German flute, and other names.
@@MichaelLynnFlute
wow
Thanks, I watched several RUclips videos that indepthly explained the history
but took for granted that all of us may not know the actual name.
I'm a painter
... painting a "Recorder"
Lol
Thanks Michael
Peace
I bought a Chinese bamboo flute but the mouth piece is very different then any flute i have seen. Could you try to help me identify it? Its 3 pieces. The mouth piece part is metal and the blow hole is more like a slit then hole. I play western flute but I can't seem to get this to play and I'm trying to identify it.
Key is F..typed on it.
Hi Christina - I'm afraid I don't know anything about Chinese flutes or reeds. There is a worldflute facebook group - you could post a photo there and someone would instantly tell you what you have.
Could it be a Bawu? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bawu
I tried an instrument with a slit embouchure once. There was a Chinese person helping me. He advised me to put both my lips over the width of the slit, and to blow really hard with a lot of support from the diaphragm. The resulting sound was loud and harsh, not like a gentle flute at all.
😄
A misleading title - it is a brief history of the EUROPEAN flute; hardly a comprehensive study as it ignores the long history of flutes in the rest of the world.
Indeed - I'm well aware of that. Trying to have a brief title for a brief history. It would be pretty much impossible for anyone to do a history of all types of flutes.
@@MichaelLynnFlute- better title, and a very interesting survey.
@@richardwebb2348 Thanks Richard
No se 😊el idioma que pena no comprenderlo gracias 2:21
I do not consider a near 1 hour & 30 minute video "brief".
haha, well it is brief compared to how long it could have been.....
😂
LA GAMBA, not "la Bamba". LOL
haha - but I like La Bamba better
I am loving this so much. I was serious about flute in high school. Now in the 30s I am getting back into it. This is an amazing video.
Thanks very much, Jessica!
i hope you are enjoying your retirement :)
Thanks - I guess I'm only semi-retired as I'm still busy
european centric history, you mean...
yes!
thank you though, I appreciate you sharing your knowledge a lot :)
1.5 hours is brief.😂
haha, it was hard to keep it to 90 minutes...