The flute is one of the oldest woodwinds. Throughout history, the flute has
evolved significantly, and there is an enormous variety of flutes that exist
today.
During the Renaissance, the flute was a cylindrical tube with an embouchure
hole and finger holes. Eventually, in 1830, Theobald Boehm, a German
goldsmith, watchmaker, and amateur flautist developed the modern flute. He
made the flute of metal instead of wood, and used ring keys on the keys
instead of just holes. The flute had a cylindrical bore, with modifications in
the sizes and positions of the finger holes.
Boehm also designed the Boehm fingering system which is the most
significant improvement in the flute.
In 1869, Louis Lot made the first gold flute. Since then, flutes have been
made of gold-plated silver, white gold, new silver (an alloy made of copper,
zinc, and nickel), platinum, palladium, and wood.
The piccolo is a smaller version of the flute which sounds one octave higher.
It was originally made of wood, but is now also made in metal, usually silver.
Flutes are used in a variety of music. Some musicians in different styles are:
James Galway - classical, Danilo Lozano - latin, Nestor Torres and Jim Walker
- jazz, and even Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull for rock.
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About the Oboe::
The predecessor to the oboe is the treble shawm, and the oboe first became
popular during the 17th century when a indoor shawm instrument was
created.
The oboe is a double-reed woodwind made of plastic or wood. It is the
smallest orchestral double-reedinstrument and because its pitch varies very
little with temperature, it plays the "A" which the rest of the orchestra tunes
to.
Some variations of the oboe are the shawm, the English horn, the Zurna, the
Suona, the Shanai, the Algaita, the Crumhorn (which sounds like a kazoo),
and the Japanese Hichiriki.
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About the Clarinet::
The chalumeau, the first single reed instrument is the predecessor to the
clarinet. It was created in the 1600s and had a range of 1.5 octaves.
Johann Christoph Denner from Nuremburg, are attributed to creating the
register key which gave the clarinet a larger range, because of this
improvement, Denner is said to be the creator of the modern clarinet.
While almost every other instrument has a conical bore, the clarinet is
individual in its cylindrical bore even though the bell of the clarinet gives the
impression that it flares.
The Boehm fingering system was adapted to the clarinet by Klose and Buffet
in about 1839 to 1843. The basic idea of this system is the holes are placed
acoustically, rather than for comfort.
Famous jazz players are Eddie Daniels and Benny Goodman.
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The bassoon is a double-reed, bass woodwind derived from a one piece
instrument known as the curtal. The curtal was two parallel tubes joined by
a "U" at the bottom with very few keys.
The modern bassoon is made of wood with a metal bocal ("neck"). It is a
very difficult instrument to play with an awkward key system, and because it
is very heavy. The name of the bassoon comes from the French term for
bass, but in other languages it is called the "Fagotto" which means "a bunch
of firewood" or "a bundle of sticks".
Some variations of the bassoon are the curtal, double bassoon, and Shawms
from the middle ages which could be played with either a single or double
reed and were common throughout Europe.
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