He was introduced to John Mitchell Rose in c.1820 and their long association began. George Rudall was an amateur player of some importance who studied for a time under the junior Nicholson before teaching on his own. Ĭharles Nicholson with flute, 1834 portraitįrom the latter part of the 19th century, there were two main styles of large-holed flutes made by two London-based companies: Rudall & Rose and later Boosey & Co., which produced the Pratten flute devised by Robert Sidney Pratten, a prominent flautist of the 1840s and 1850s. There were several manufacturers of this type of flute, among whom was English inventor and flautist Charles Nicholson Jr, who developed a radically improved version of the transverse wooden flute. Simple-system flutes are usually made of wood (cocus, grenadilla (African blackwood), rosewood, ebony, etc.). The simple system, conical-bore flute is what people played before the advent of the modern, Boehm system, Western concert flute in the mid-19th century. The Boehm flute has a cylindrical bore (with a parabolic bore in the head) and uses keys to enable the tone holes to be in the ideal place and to be of the ideal size.ĭespite the implication of this commonly used name, the Irish flute is not an instrument indigenous to Ireland. Theobald Boehm completely redesigned the flute to more easily access the chromatic scale. For many technical reasons, a simple system D wooden flute more closely mirrors a concert C modern Boehm system flute in the pitches achieved in its fingering positions as opposed to a simple system flute pitched in C. This is due to the added keys that allow one to reach low C, yet when one covers just the six main finger-holes (with thumb key covered) on a modern metal Boehm system flute, (XXX-XXX) the note achieved is D. There is some confusion with modern players in that a modern Boehm keyed system flute is typically pitched in C. This has the effect of shortening the flute for a given pitch. This bore is largest at the head end, tapering down to a smaller bore at the foot. Wooden flutes have a cylindrical bore in the head and a conical bore in the body. #ARTLEY FLUTE 18 0 SERIAL NUMBERS FULL#As the scale progresses, XXX-XXO = E, XXX-XOO = F#, XXX-OOO = G, XXO-OOO = A, XOO-OOO = B, OOO-OOO = C#, with XXX-XXX or OXX-XXX being the higher octave D for the full D major scale. For a D flute (the most common variety), with X symbolizing a covered finger-hole and O symbolizing an uncovered finger-hole, all holes covered, (three fingers per hand) can be represented as XXX-XXX = D. The E-flat, B-flat and C versions are transposing instruments. The name D-flute comes from the fact that the simplest 6-hole wooden flute has D as its lowest note and plays the scale of D without any cross-fingering. Although referred to as a D flute, this is a non-transposing instrument, so if you finger C, a concert-pitch C is sounded. Though most commonly pitched in the key of D, simple system flutes are available pitched in other keys, and are often heard in Irish music pitched in E flat, B flat and C. Most Irish flute players tend to strive for a dark and reedy tone in comparison to classical flautists. Due to its wooden construction, characteristic embouchure and direct (keyless) fingering, the simple system flute has a distinctly different timbre from the Western concert flute. Most flutes from the Classical era, and some of modern manufacture include metal keys and additional tone holes to achieve partial or complete chromatic tonality. The Irish flute is a simple system, transverse flute which plays a diatonic (Major) scale as the tone holes are successively uncovered.
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