Books › A descriptive catalogue of the musical instruments recently exhibited at the Royal Military Exhibition, London, 1890 …, 1891 › scan 21
Scan 21
A descriptive catalogue of the musical instruments recently exhibited at the Royal Military Exhibition, London, 1890 …, 1891
12 lines. Read by computer on 1 October 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1A CATALOGUE
2OF
3MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS.
5I.
6CLASS—FLUTES.
7FAMILY: Flûtes-à-bec.
9THE flûte-à-bec, or flûte douce, so much in use some centuries ago, survives now only in the fast disappearing flageolet. The name flute is, according to Hawkins, derived from the Latin fluta, a small eel found in the Sicilian seas, which has seven breathing holes, and thereby resembles the instrument; the word bec is an old Gallic word meaning the beak of a bird. Hence the term flûte-à-bec, or beak flute, is very appropriate. Philologists, however, dispute this derivation, and possibly with some reason. Instruments of this description were called by the Germans plockflöten, and according to Vincentio Galilei (Dialogo della Musica antica e moderna, 1581) flauti diretti, in contradistinction to the flauti traversi, now generally known as "flutes."
11The application of the whistle to the pipe goes back to a higher antiquity than has been supposed, and flutes sounded by this means were known in the East at a period almost prehistoric. Among the ancient Aryans an instrument thus constructed was known by the name of Algoa, and is described in many of the Sanskrit treatises upon music that are still extant. It figures frequently upon ancient Hindu sculptures, and, according to recent investigation, would appear also to have been known in China at a period equally remote. Among the ancient Greeks flute playing was looked upon as the fashionable pastime of the élite, and consequently the instrument was considerably improved by various players from time to time; and flutes of the most careful and delicate workmanship have been discovered, and prove this to have been the case.
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