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Modern Times
1832
Theobald Boehm
finally developed a completely
new flute.
Almost nothing stayed the same.
Instead of wood he used metal,
the thickness of the tubes wall,
the number, dimension
and arrangement of the holes
even the mouth-hole
were modified by him.
Despite critics (first of all
Tulou) at the beginning,
the new instrument succeeded at last.
It finally gained acceptance
when in 1860 Dorus got the chair
at the Paris conservatory.
The model of 1832 was
a flute with ring keys.
The holes for the
keys were exclusively
placed by acoustical experiments.
As not all of them
could be reached with
the fingers,
the instrument was
supplied with a
completely new
key work.
This first prototype
still had a cylindric
headjoint, the conical
drilling starting only
from the middle joint.
As Boehm was not
satisfied with this result
a new model was built in
1847.
Following the studies
of acoustics, the new
grouping of the keys
was strictly based on
exact calculations.
The inner drilling was
so to speak reversed:
the new flute had
a parabolic head joint
and cylindrical foot and
middle joints.
The first golden flute
was built in 1869 by Louis Lot.
Besides silver and gold
flutes today are built
of the following materials:
gold-plated silver, whitegold,
new silver (alloy made of copper,
zinc and nickel), platinum and
palladium.
Boehms far-reaching
improvements the flute
were followed by
a fast spread of the flute.
The enhanced intonation and
more flexible finger action
inspired many composers
to write music for the
new flute.
With the new literature
the musical performance
was improved and
new technics like
flutter-tonguing
were introduced.
Teachers like
Taffanel,
Gaubert and of course
Moyse made France
the most important country
in the world of flutes
at the end of the
19th century.
Today the flute
can rightly be called
an instrument being all
fashion. The clearest
sign of this fact are
the continuously overflowing
flute classes at
music schools.
Flutists like
James Galway, James Newton
or Ian Anderson of the band
Jethro Tull are winning
flute lovers by
opening up new
musical fields for
the flute.
Of course there
are still experiments and
new developments made to improve the flute.
Especially the field
of key pads is
influenced by available
artifical materials.
Adaptions for very young
flutists
are second big
market.
Technical developments
underlying new play technics
are leading mainly to
additional keys and
holes.
As example I would
like to introduce the
Matusi
flute by
Matthias Ziegler
and the Kingma-flute.
The first distinguishs
itself
by an additional hole
near the thumb, closed
by an membrane.
While playing the
membrane vibrates and
causes a sound
similar to chinese
bamboo flutes.
There is a mute
to stop this
effect on demand.
The Kingma-flute
allows to play
multiple sounds, glissandi
and quarter-tones.
Another new flute
is made of new materials.
For example the
tube and headjoint
of the Matit-flute
are made of carbon
fibres.
The pins of the key work
are replaced by
magnets. There are
no pads any longer.
There is a
slide flute called
Flautus Tremendus
made of three pieces.
This technic was
developed especially
to play glissandi.
Last update: 17.02.2010
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