For example, wooden flutes are known for creating a richer, more powerful sound than metal flutes, which can make them especially popular when playing folk music. In addition, they are quite rare, which means those who opt for this instrument are likely to produce a unique sound. There also are some drawbacks to this type of flute, including the fact that it takes more power to play it, but this can be remedied by slightly thinning out the wood.
The sound produced by a wooden flute tends to be more solid than the metal type, and it also often has an earthy tone to it. For this reason, it is usually more appropriate for traditional folk music than concert orchestras. In carat gold, gold, silver, and copper are blended together-higher levels of copper give the metal a reddish hue, and higher levels of silver produce a yellowish gold. In a concert hall, red carat gold really sparkles like gold. As a musical instrument, it is important that a flute's sound be beautiful-however, for aesthetic purposes, the design and the material also need to be beautiful.
A carat gold flute weighs approximately grams, while a solid-silver flute weighs approximately grams. There are also platinum flutes, which weigh more than gold instruments and produce a correspondingly stronger sound. These highly spectacular instruments seem to fill every corner of the concert hall with sound.
For this reason alone, the player of a platinum flute experiences fairly strong resistance. However, the instrument has a long history of being made out of wood, and even today, professional model wooden flutes can be found. But to know the wooden flute, is to explore the history of the western concert flute, as well as to examine some other manifestations of the instrument in cultures around the world.
The side-blown, or transverse, flute which is the direct ancestor of the modern concert flute has been around for centuries. Often times when people things about wooden flutes, they think about flutes from the late renaissance and early baroque era.
Flutes in the 16th Century were simple in construction, consisting of six finger holes, a blowhole, and a cork stopper on one end. With this type of construction, it was difficult to play in more than one key, and as such, families of flutes were constructed of different lengths to allow the instrument to be playable in many different situations.
As music became more expressive, so did the instruments that played them, and the flutes chief competition, the violin, was winning on versatility. It was in response to this development that the Jean Hotteterre family, a family of musicians and flute makers employed by the French court, developed what we now identify as the Baroque Flute.
This flute retains the six finger holes, but adds an Eb key. This development allowed the instrument to play all chromatic pitches through the use of cross fingerings. However, intonation was challenging, and it was common to add additional joints to body of the instrument to adjust the key, so it could play more in tune with other instruments.
Even though exceptional performers were able to play in tune in all keys, flute makers continued to figure out ways to improve on the intonation of the instrument. Additional keys were added, including G , Bb, and F. The range of the instrument was also expanded by added a low C and C key not unlike the modern flute. Very few changes have been made in the basic design of the modern transverse flute since the middle of the nineteenth century.
Flutemakers will continue to find ways to make small but critical changes in individual instruments to fit the needs of individual musicians.
Two seemingly opposite trends hint at the future of flutemaking. Many performers of music from the Renaissance, Baroque, and Classical periods prefer to use flutes that resemble the instruments used during those times. Such instruments are believed to be more suited to older music than modern flutes, which developed during the Romantic period. On the other hand, many performers of jazz, rock, and experimental music use electronic devices to alter the sounds of flutes in new ways.
Despite these two trends, the instrument originally designed by Theobald Bohm is likely to dominate flutemaking for many years to come. Meylan, Raymond. The Flute. Amadeus Press, Wong, Kate. Toggle navigation. Made How Volume 5 Flute Flute. Flutes are comprised of hundreds of components, ranging from the relatively large body to tiny pins and screws. The keys are die cast and fitted with pads made from layers of cork and felt. Tone holes are formed in the body of the flute by either pulling and rolling or by cutting and soldering.
In the pulling and rolling method, the holes are drilled in the tube, and a machine pulls the metal from the edges of the hole and rolls it around the hole to form a raised ring. If the tone holes are to be cut and soldered, die cut metal rings are soldered to the drill holes.
Periodicals Wong, Kate. Other articles you might like:. Also read article about Flute from Wikipedia. User Contributions: 1. Ramesh A. Flute made-out of wood,after well seasoned by oil is produces better sound.
Alexis macchiaroli. I am a 7th grade flute player I have a Gemeinhardt open-hold flute have made Northern Region Middle School Festival band and Jazz band every time I'v tryed out and loved it. At my school I am in band, Jazz band, the flute Quintet, and I also play for the chorus when they sing at there concert hopefully you can tell playing my flute is my favorite thing to do in my day.
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