Books › A special loan exhibition of musical instruments, manuscripts, books, portraits, and other mementoes of music and musicians, formed to commemorate the tercentenary of the granting by King James I of a charter of incorporation to the Worshipful company of musicians in 1604 .., 1904 › scan 110
Scan 110
A special loan exhibition of musical instruments, manuscripts, books, portraits, and other mementoes of music and musicians, formed to commemorate the tercentenary of the granting by King James I of a charter of incorporation to the Worshipful company of musicians in 1604 .., 1904
10 lines. Read by computer on 1 October 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1Flutes, Hautboys, Clarionets, and Similar Wind Instruments.
3PREFACE.
5IN ancient Greek times the word "aulos," commonly translated "flute," appears to have been used in a very general way, and indeed usually signified an instrument in which a reed was employed as the medium for production of tone. Confining our attention, however, to the period covered by the history of this Company, the name flute has always signified an instrument in which a lamina of air is employed to excite vibrations in the tube. This air reed proceeds either direct from the nearly closed lips, or from a slit in a mouth-piece of the whistle type. Although there is but little evidence of the use of the lips in ancient times, exactly as required by the modern transverse flute, yet it is certain that the lips were used to produce a current directly across a cut reed or tube in the ancient Egyptian néy, and therefore it is impossible to state whether the whistle or the lip-blown flute is the older form.
7The modern transverse flute was preceded by the flute with a whistle mouth-piece, known as the fipple-flute or recorder, or by the French name. flûte-à-bec, now surviving only in the flageolet and the penny whistle. Although flutes on this principle were made in families and covered a far greater range of compass downwards than the modern transverse flutes, yet the lack of artistic capability in their tone fully accounts for their disappearance. Contrasted with these, the instrument now known as the flute, possesses in a high degree the power of yielding every gradation of tone and expression.
9The transverse flute in its simplest form was a cylindrical tube with a mouth-hole or embouchure
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