Flute (Fr. flûte, Ger. flöte, Ital. flauto), one of the oldest of wind-instruments, which originally had several varieties: one, in more modern times called flûte à bec, now developed into the Flageolet (q.v.); another, which was sounded by means of a hole in the side like the modern flute; and a third, used by the ancient Egyptians, in which the sound was produced by blowing into the open end of the tube. A modification of this last instrument is used still by the peasantry along the Nile.
The modern cone-bore flute consists of a tapered tube, in which the sound is produced by blowing with compressed lips into a large orifice near the top or wider end, which is stopped with a cork. Six holes in the lower end, to be covered by the first three fingers of both hands, serve to make the scale, supplemented by keys numbering from one to fourteen. The flute is what is called an octave-scaled instrument—i.e. by covering all the holes and lifting the fingers one by one in regular order, beginning at the bottom, the notes from D below the stave to C are made; then, by repeating this process and blowing a little sharper into the mouth aperture, the same notes, an octave higher, are produced. Another octave can be produced by cross-fingering, the total compass being about three octaves. Two additional keys at the bottom of the tube, worked by means of levers by the little finger of the right hand, give the notes C and C below the stave.
The faults of this flute are that, as the holes must be placed where the fingers can reach them, they are not always in the exact places to be perfectly in tune, and the notes are not equal in quality. To meet these defects the flute has undergone more changes and improvements in modern times than any other musical instrument. The most important of these have been the cylinder bore and the system of fingering introduced by Theobald Boehm in 1832, and patented in England by Rudall and Rose in 1847. The modern cylinder flute, from the head downwards, is cylindrical, or all one width of bore, while the head-piece has a slight parabolic taper, and when combined with the Böhm fingering it forms a nearly perfect instrument, with all the notes in tune and of practically equal quality of tone. The holes are placed where they make the correct notes, and to facilitate manipulation they are stopped by means of keys which can be worked conveniently by the fingers. The fingering of the scale on the Böhm flute is quite different from the ordinary flute; and many other modified systems, more or less founded on the old, have been devised, among which may be mentioned those of Siccam, Clinton, and Carte. It would occupy too much space to describe their methods in detail. The general appearance of the Böhm cylinder flute may be seen in the figure.
Flutes are usually made in cocoa-wood, ebonite, silver, and gold, and vary in price from a shilling or two to about £180 for one made in 18-carat gold. The Böhm flute is very often made in silver, which is easily sounded and gives a fine liquid tone; it costs about 30 guineas. The ordinary cocoa or ebonite Böhm flute costs from 18 to 30 guineas, according as it is mounted in German silver or silver. Except for military flutes, which are still made conical, the cylinder has almost completely superseded the cone bore.
The flute described above is what is known as the concert flute; but flutes are also made in a variety of smaller sizes for various purposes in E♭, F, B♭, and C; there are also D, E♭, and F piccolos or octave flutes, which are much used in modern orchestral music. In construction, however, they are all much alike, and need not be further described. A bass flute, too, is sometimes used, the Böhm variety being simply a large flute, 32 inches long and 1 inch in diameter, and having a compass from the upper G of the bass stave upwards. Also, see FIFE.
The concert flute, from the sweetness of its tone and the comparative simplicity of its execution, is extremely popular as an amateur instrument, and a great variety of music is published arranged for flute and pianoforte; and, as it plays the same notes as the voice and piano, it can be made useful in all kinds of music. The flute is made great use of in classical music; Bach, Haydn, Handel, Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, and all the later writers giving it a leading part in their works; while Quantz, Kuhlau, and many others devoted themselves almost specially to writing for it. See T. Böhm's Essay on the Construction of Flutes, and C. Welsh's History of the Böhm Flute.—The so-called 'flute-stop' is one of the many stops of the Organ (q.v.).