Books › A descriptive catalogue of the musical instruments recently exhibited at the Royal Military Exhibition, London, 1890 …, 1891 › scan 23
Scan 23
A descriptive catalogue of the musical instruments recently exhibited at the Royal Military Exhibition, London, 1890 …, 1891
6 lines. Read by computer on 1 October 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1In the time of Père Mersenne (Harmonie Universelle, 1636-7) we find that flûtes-à-bec were played in sets of four or even more. They had, nevertheless, undergone considerable improvement as regards their construction, both in the manner of keying, and also in the method of boring. Mersenne tells us how performers sometimes hummed the bass to an air as they played, but with no articulation of the voice, the wind proceeding from the mouth being sufficient to make the instrument sound, so that one player could perform a duet thus. The bore had come to be almost invariably an inverted cone; a cylindrical bore was, however, applied to little instruments, having three finger-holes only, and which will presently be described.
3There were usually upon all flûtes-à-bec seven finger-holes upon the top, of which the lowest (for the little finger) was made in duplicate, in order that the instrument might be played upon by either right or left handed persons; there was also a thumb-hole at the back. The duplicate hole not used was stopped with wax. The instrument at a later time was made with the lower joint moveable, and this hole could therefore be adjusted to the side at which it was required. A device of this kind was almost always to be met with upon the English Recorders of the 17th century. The flûtes-à-bec thus constructed were simple enough in appearance, but yet by the aid of cross fingerings were capable of giving a scale of considerable compass. Humphry Salter, in the Genteel Companion (London 1683), has given a very complete method for the Recorder, which at that period, and since, was generally constructed in f; and from the Genteel Companion it seems that the fingering then commonly employed, in some respects, differed from that given by Mersenne.
5In the larger varieties of flûtes-à-bec the lower finger-holes were closed by means of keys, which, though of rude construction, nevertheless fulfilled their purpose adequately enough. These keys had usually double touch-pieces, to suit right or left-handed players, and they were protected by means of a wooden envelope pierced with holes to allow full egress for the sound. The lowest note upon the flûte-à-bec had, at the beginning of the last century, come to be called f, whatever might have been its real pitch. The instrument appears to have been used in concerts in conjunction with viols and also violins, though not very generally. The elder Stanesby, the instrument maker, invented, about
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