Chapter XIII: Part 13

Musical instruments, such as flutes, in which a column of air is set
in vibration by regular pulsations derived from a current of air
directed by the lips of the executant against the side of the orifice
serving as embouchure, appear to be of very ancient origin. The
Hindus, Chinese and Japanese claim to have used these modes of blowing
from time immemorial. The ancient Egyptians had a long pipe held
obliquely and blown across the end of the pipe itself at its upper
extremity; it was known as _Saib-it_[12] and was frequently figured on
the monuments. The same instrument, called "nay," is still used in
Mahommedan countries. The oblique aulos of the Greeks,
plagiaulos,[13] was of Egyptian origin and was perhaps at first blown
from the end as described above,[14] since we know that the Greeks
were familiar with that method of blowing in the syrinx or pan-pipe.
The instruments preserved at the British Museum[15] having lateral
embouchures show, however, that they were also acquainted--probably
through the Hindus--with the transverse flute, although in the case of
these specimens a reed must have been inserted into the mouth-hole or
no sound would have been obtained.

The high antiquity of a lateral embouchure in Europe is generally
admitted; the flute evidently penetrated from the East at some period
not yet determined. A transverse flute is seen on Indian sculptures of
the Gandhara school showing Greek influence, and dating from the
beginning of our era (fig. 3). But although the transverse flute was
evidently known to the Greeks and Romans, it did not find the same
favour as the reed instruments known as auloi. We have no evidence of
the survival of the transverse flute after the fall of the Roman
empire until it filtered through from Byzantine sources during the
early middle ages. Instances of the flute occur on a group of
caskets[16] of Italo-Byzantine work of the 9th or 10th century, while
of purely Byzantine origin we find examples of flutes in Greek
MSS.[17] preserved in Paris, at the British Museum and elsewhere.
There is moreover in the cathedral of St Sophia at Kiev[18] an
orchestra depicted on frescoes said to date from the 11th century;
among the musicians is a flautist.

The first essentially western European trace of the transverse flute
occurs in a German MS. of the 12th century, the celebrated _Hortus
deliciarum_ of the abbess Herrad von Landsperg.[19] Fol. 221 shows a
syren playing upon the transverse flute, which Herrad explains in a
legend as _tibia_; in the vocabulary the latter is translated swegel.
In the 13th century it occurs among the miniatures of the fifty-one
musicians in the beautiful MS. _Las Cantigas de Santa Maria_ in the
Escorial, Madrid.[20] Eustache Deschamps, a French poet of the 14th
century, in one of his ballads, makes mention of the "flute
traversaine," and we are justified in supposing that he refers to the
transverse flute. It had certainly acquired some vogue in the 15th
century, being figured in an engraving in Sebastian Virdung's
celebrated work,[21] where it is called "Zwerchpfeiff," and, with the
drums, it already constituted the principal element of the military
music. Agricola (op. cit.) alludes to it as the "Querchpfeiff" or
"Schweizerpfeiff," the latter designation dating, it is said, from the
battle of Marignan (1515), when the Swiss troops used it for the first
time in war.

From Agricola onwards transverse flutes formed a complete family, said
to comprise the discant, the alto and tenor, and the bass--[notes] or
[notes] respectively. Praetorius[22] designates the transverse flute
as "Flauta traversa' Querpfeiff" and "Querflot," and gives the pitch
of the bass in [notes] the tenor and alto in [notes] and the discant
in [notes] as varieties then in use. A flute concert at that time
included two discants, four altos or tenors, and two basses. The same
author distinguishes between the "Traversa" and the "Schweizerpfeiff"
or fife (which he also calls "Feldpfeiff," i.e. military flute),
although the construction was the same. There were two kinds of
"Feldpfeiff," in [notes] and [notes] respectively; they were employed
exclusively with the military drum.

Mersenne's[23] account of the transverse flute, then designated "flute
d'Allemagne" or "flute allemande" in France, and an "Air de Cour" for
four flutes in his work lead us to believe that there were then in use
in France the soprano flute in [notes] the tenor or alto flute in
[notes] and the bass flute descending to [notes]. The museum of the
Conservatoire Royal of Brussels possesses specimens of all these
varieties except the last. All of them are laterally pierced with six
finger-holes; they have a cylindrical bore, and are fashioned out of a
single piece of wood. Their compass consists of two octaves and a
fifth. Mersenne's tablature for fingering the flute differs but little
from those of Hotteterre-le-Romain[24] and Eisel[25] for the diatonic
scale; he does not give the chromatic semitones and the flute had as
yet no keys.

The largest bass flute in the Brussels museum is in [notes] at the
French normal pitch A 435 double vibrations per second. It measures
0.95 m. from the centre of the blow orifice to the lower extremity of
the tube. The disposition of the lateral holes is such that it is
impossible to cover them with the fingers if the flute is held in the
ordinary way. The instrument must be placed against the mouth in an
almost vertical direction, inclining the extremity of the tube either
to the right or the left. This inconvenient position makes it
necessary that the instrument should be divided into two parts,
enabling the player to turn the head joint that the embouchure may be
most commodiously approached by the lips, which is not at all easy.
The first and fourth of the six lateral holes are double in order to
accommodate both right- and left-handed players, the holes not in use
being stopped up with wax. The bass flute shown in fig. 4 is the
facsimile of an instrument in the Museo Civico of Verona. The
original, unfortunately no longer fit for use, is nevertheless
sufficiently well preserved to allow of all its proportionate
measurements being given. The lowest note, E[flat], is obtained with a
remarkable amplitude of sound, thus upsetting a very prevalent opinion
that it is impossible to produce by lateral insufflation sounds which
go a little lower than the ordinary limit downwards of the modern
orchestral flute.[26]

FIG. 4.--Bass Flute. From Museo Civico, Verona (facsimile).

FIG. 5.--Bass Flute. Brussels Museum.]

The bass flute cited by Mersenne should not differ much from that of
the Museo Civico at Verona. We suppose it to have been in [notes], and
that it was furnished with an open key like that which was applied to
the recorders (_flutes douces_) of the same epoch, the function of the
key being to augment by another note the compass of the instrument in
the lower part. A bass flute in G similar to the one in fig. 5 is
figured and described in Diderot and D'Alembert's encyclopaedia [27]
(1751). According to Quantz,[28] it was in France and about the middle
of the 17th century that the first modifications were introduced in
the manufacture of the flute. The improvements at this period
consisted of the abandonment of the cylindrical bore in favour of a
conical one, with the base of the cone forming the head of the
instrument. At the same time the flute was made of three separate
pieces called head, body, and tail or foot, which were ultimately
further subdivided. The body or middle joint was divided into two
pieces, so that the instrument could be tuned to the different pitches
then in use by a replacement with longer or shorter pieces. It was
probably about 1677, when Lully introduced the German flute into the
opera, that recourse was had for the first time to keys, and that the
key of D# was applied to the lower part of the instrument.[29] The
engraving of B. Picart, dated 1707, given in Hotteterre's book,
represents the flute as having reached the stage of improvement of
which we have just spoken. In 1726 Quantz,[30] finding himself in
Paris, had a second key applied to the flute, placed nearly at the
same height as the first, that of the [notes], intended to
differentiate the D# and the E[flat].[31] This innovation was
generally well received in Germany, but does not appear to have met
with corresponding success in other countries. In France and England
manufacturers adopted it but rarely; in Italy it was declared
useless.[32] About the same time flutes were constructed with the
lower extremity lengthened sufficiently to produce the fundamental C,
and furnished with a supplementary key to produce the C[sharp]. This
innovation, spoken of by Quantz,[33] did not meet with a very
favourable reception, and was shortly afterwards abandoned. Passing
mention may be made of the drawing of a flute with a C key in the
_Music-Saal_ of J.F.B. Majer (Nuremberg, 1741), p. 45.

The tuning of the instrument to different pitches was effected by
changes in the length, and notably by substituting a longer or shorter
upper piece in the middle joint. So wide were the differences in the
pitches then in use that seven such pieces for the upper portion of it
were deemed necessary. The relative proportions between the different
parts of the instrument being altered by these modifications in the
length, it was conceived that the just relation could be
re-established by dividing the foot into two pieces, below the key.
These two pieces were adjusted by means of a tenon, and it was
asserted that, in this way, the foot could be lengthened
proportionately to the length of the middle joint. Flutes thus
improved took the name of "flutes a registre." The register system
was, about 1752, applied by Quantz to the head joint[34] and, the
embouchure section being thus capable of elongation, it was allowable
to the performer, according to the opinion of this professor, to lower
the pitch of the flute a semitone, without having recourse to other
lengthening pieces, and without disturbing the accuracy of intonation.

The upper extremity of the flute, beyond the embouchure orifice, is
closed by means of a cork stopper. On the position of this cork
depends, in a great measure, the accurate tuning of the flute. It is
in its right place when the accompanying octaves [notes] are true.
Quantz, in speaking of this accessory, mentions the use of a nut-screw
to give the required position to the cork.[35] He does not name the
inventor of this appliance, but, according to Tromlitz,[36] the
improvement was due to Quantz himself. The invention goes back to
1726.

When the _Method_ of Quantz appeared there were still in use, besides
the orchestral flute in D, the little fourth flute in G, the low
fourth flute in A, and the flute d'amour a note higher; in France they
had, moreover, the little octave flute in D (octave). A bass flute in
D had also been attempted (see fig. 5). When Ribock published his
_Bemerkungen uber die Flote_[37] the flute had already the five keys
here shown. [notes] This author states that the inventor of these new
keys is not known to him, but that either Kusder, a musical
instrument-maker in London, or Johann Georg Tromlitz of Leipzig was
the originator, since he has not been able to trace those keys on the
flutes of any other maker. Although Tromlitz does not claim for
himself the invention of the keys for F, G[sharp] and B[flat], he
states that "he had occupied himself for several years in applying
these keys so as not to augment the difficulty of playing, but on the
contrary to render the handling of them as easy as possible."[38] In
the later work published in 1800,[39] however, he seems to attribute
the invention of these keys to Richard Potter of London; he says that
he has never yet been fortunate enough to come across a good flute by
that maker--"the flute has certainly gained by the addition of the
keys for F, G[sharp] and B[flat], but this is not everything, for on
such a flute much must perforce be left unattempted.... Only a flute
with eight keys according to my invention is capable of everything."
It would seem, moreover, from circumstantial evidence stated clearly
and on good authority by Rockstro[40] that the keys for F, G[sharp]
and B[flat] must have been used first in England and made by Richard
Potter before 1774. The higher key of C adopted from 1786 by Tromlitz,
we believe to have been first recommended by Ribock (1782).[41]
Tromlitz in _Uber Floten_ describes at length what may be termed the
first systematic effort to overcome the difficulties created by the
combination of open holes and closed keys. He attempted to solve the
question by determining the positions of the holes according to the
exigencies of fingering instead of subordinating them to the more
arbitrary theories connected with the musical scale.

In 1785 Richard Potter improved Quantz's slide applied to the head
joint as well as to the register of the foot by a double system of
tubes forming double sliding air-tight joints. In the document[42]
describing this improvement Potter patented the idea of lining the
holes with silver tubes and of adapting metal conical valves to the
keys. Potter's patent conical valves were an adaptation of the
contrivance first invented by J.F. Boie or Boye of Gottingen,[43] who
used pewter for the plugs, and silver for lining the holes. The keys
mentioned in the patent were four--D[sharp], F, G[sharp], A[sharp].
The idea of extending the compass of the flute downwards was taken up
again about the same time by two players of the flute in London named
Tacet and Florio. They devised a new disposition of the keys C and C#,
and confided the execution of their invention to Potter. In Dr
Arnold's _New Instructions for the German Flute_ occurs a tablature,
the engraving of which goes back to the end of the 18th century, and
bears the following title, "A Complete Drawing and Concise Scale and
Description of Tacet and Florio's new invented German Flute, with all
the additional keys explained." It explains the use of six keys--C,
C#, D#, F, G#, A#--that are not always figured, because the employment
of so many keys was at once admitted. Tromlitz himself, who, however,
made flutes with nine keys--adding E[flat], another F, and C[natural],
declared that he was not in favour of so great a complication, and
that he preferred the flute with only two keys, D[sharp] and E[flat],
with a register foot joint and a cork nut-screw at the head joint.
This instrument met all requirements. He was always much opposed to
the use of the old keys for C[natural] and C[sharp], because they
altered the recognised quality of tone of the instrument. When
Tromlitz published his method, the family of flutes had become
modified. It comprehended only the typical flute in D, the flute
d'amour a minor third lower, a "third" flute a minor third higher,
and, finally, the little octave flute.

While Tromlitz was struggling in Germany with the idea of augmenting
the compass of the flute downwards by employing open keys for
C[natural] and C[sharp], an Italian, Giovanni Batista Orazi,[44]
increased the scale of the instrument downwards by the application of
five new keys, viz. B, B[flat], A, A[flat], and G. At the same time
that he produced this invention [45] he conceived the plugging of the
lateral holes by the valve keys then recently invented by Potter. But
it was hardly possible to obtain a perfect plugging of seven lateral
holes with the aid of as many keys, for the control of which there
were only the two little fingers, and therefore this invention of
Orazi proved a failure.

In 1808 the Rev. Frederick Nolan,[46] of Stratford, near London,
conceived an open key, the lever of which, terminating by a ring,
permitted the closing of a lateral hole at the same time the key was
being acted upon. The combination in this double action is the embryo
of the mechanism that a little later was to transform the system of
the flute. Two years later Macgregor,[47] a musical-instrument maker
in London, constructed a bass flute an octave lower than the ordinary
flute. The idea was not new, as is proved by the existence of the bass
flute mentioned above. The difference between the two instruments lies
in the mechanism of the keys. That employed by Macgregor consisted of
a double lever, a contrivance dating from before the middle of the
18th century, of which the application is seen in an oboe of large
dimensions preserved in the National Museum at Munich.[48]

In 1811 Johann Nepomuk Capeller invented the extra D[natural] hole and
key, which is still in constant use on every flute of modern
construction.[49]

About 1830 the celebrated French flautist Tulou added two more keys,
those of F[sharp] and C[sharp], and a key, called "de cadence," to
facilitate the accompanying shakes.

To increase the number of keys, to improve their system of plugging,
and to extend the [notes] scale of the instrument in the lower
region,--these had hitherto been the principal problems dealt with in
the improvement of the flute. No maker, no inventor to whose labours
we have called attention, had as yet devoted his attention to the
rational division of the column of air by means of the lateral holes.
In 1831 Theobald Boehm, a Bavarian, happening to be in London, was
struck with the power of tone the celebrated English performer Charles
Nicholson drew from his instrument. Boehm learned, and not without
astonishment, that his English colleague obtained this result by
giving the lateral holes a much greater diameter than was then usually
admitted. About the same time Boehm made the acquaintance of an
amateur player named Gordon, who had effected certain improvements; he
had bored the lateral hole for the lower E, and had covered it with a
key, while he had replaced the key for F with a ring. These
innovations set Boehm about attempting a complete reform of the
instrument.[50] He went resolutely to work, and during the year 1832
he produced the new flute which bears his name. This instrument is
distinguished by a new mechanism of keys, as well as by larger holes
disposed along the tube in geometrical progression.

Boehm's system had preserved the key of G[sharp] open; Coche,[51] a
professor in the Paris Conservatoire, assisted by Auguste Buffet the
younger, a musical-instrument maker in that city, modified Boehm's
flute by closing the G[sharp] with a key, wishing thus to render the
new fingering more conformable to the old. He thus added a key,
facilitating the shake upon C[sharp] with D[sharp], and brought about
some other changes in the instrument of less importance.

Boehm had not, however, altered the bore of the flute, which had been
conical from the end of the 17th century. In 1846, however, he made
further experiments, and the results obtained were put in practice by
the construction of a new instrument, of which the body was given a
cylindrical bore, while the diameter of the head was modified at the
embouchure, the head-joint becoming parabolic (see fig. 2). The
inventor thus obtained a remarkable equality in the tones of the lower
octave, a greater sonorousness, and a perfect accuracy of intonation,
by establishing the more exact proportions which a column of air of
cylindrical form permitted.

The priority of Boehm's invention was long contested, his detractors
maintaining that the honour of having reconstructed the flute was due
to Gordon. But an impartial investigation vindicates the claim of the
former to the invention of the large lateral holes.[52] His greatest
title to fame is the invention of the mechanism which allows the
production of the eleven chromatic semitones intermediate between the
fundamental note and its first harmonic by means of eleven holes so
disposed that in opening them successively they shorten the column of
air in exact proportional quantities.[53] Boehm (_Essays_, &c.)
published a diagram or scheme to be adopted in determining the
position of the note-holes of wind instruments for every given pitch.
This diagram gives the position of the intermediate holes which he had
been enabled to establish by a rule of proportion based on the law of
the lengths of strings.

The Boehm flute, notwithstanding the high degree of perfection it has
reached, has not secured unanimous favour; even now there are players
who prefer the ordinary flute. The change of fingering required for
some notes, the great delicacy and liability to derangement of the
mechanism, have something to do with this. In England especially, the
ordinary flute retains many partisans, thanks to the improvements
introduced by a clever player, Abel Siccama, in 1845 (Patent No.
10,553). He bored the lateral holes of E and A lower, and covered them
with open keys. He added some keys, and made a better disposition of
the other lateral holes, of which he increased the diameter, producing
thus a sonorousness almost equal to that of the Boehm flute, while yet
preserving the old fingering for the notes of the first two octaves.
But in spite of these improvements the old flute will not bear an
impartial comparison with that of Boehm.

A flute constructed on a radically new system by Signor Carlo Tommaso
Georgi and introduced in 1896 places the technique of the instrument
on an entirely new and simple basis. The principal features of this
flute consist in an embouchure placed at the upper extremity of the
tube instead of at the side, which allows the instrument to be held in
a perpendicular position; no tuning cork is required. There are eleven
holes mathematically placed in the tube which give the semitones of
the scale; there are no keys. The eleven holes are fingered by the
fingers and thumbs, the C[sharp] hole being closed by the side of the
left fore-finger. All the notes are obtained by means of simple
fingering as far as G[sharp] of the third octave, the remaining notes
of which are produced by cross-fingering. For the convenience of
players with short fingers keys can be added, and the head of the
Georgi flute can be used with any cylinder flute. The compass of the
Georgi flute [notes] is almost the same as that of the concert flute;
viz. If the lower C and C[sharp] are required, extra holes and keys
can be added. Everything that is possible on the Boehm flute is
possible on the Georgi and more, owing to the simplicity of the
fingering; each finger having but one duty to perform, all trills are
equally easy. The tone is the true flute tone, brilliant and
sympathetic.[54]

The old English _fipple flute_, or _flute a bec_, is described under
the headings RECORDER and FLAGEOLET. (V. M.; K. S.)

2. In architecture the name "flute" is given to the vertical channels (segmental, semicircular or elliptical in horizontal section) employed on the shafts of columns in the classic styles. The flutes are separated one from the other by an "arris" in the Doric order and by a "fillet" in the Ionic and Corinthian orders. The earliest fluted columns are those in Egypt, at first with plain faces without any sinking, subsequently at Karnac (1400 B.C.) with a segmental sinking equal in depth to about one-seventh of the width of the flute. The columns flanking one of the "beehive" tombs at Mycenae have segmental flutes and are the earliest Greek examples. In two of the earliest Doric temples at Metapontum and Syracuse (temple of Apollo) the flutes are also segmental, but in later examples in order to emphasize the arris they were formed of three arcs and are known as "false ellipses," and this applies to nearly all the fluting in Greek examples whether belonging to the Doric, Ionic or Corinthian orders. The number of flutes varies, there being 52 in the archaic temple of Diana at Ephesus and from 30 to 52 flutes in the Persian columns according to the diameter of the column. In the Greek Doric column 20 is the usual number, but there are 16 only in the temples of Sunium, Assos, Segesta and the temple of Apollo at Syracuse; 18 in one of the temples of Selinus and the temple of Diana at Syracuse, and 24 in the temple of Neptune at Paestum. The depth of the flute also varies; in the Propylaea at Athens the radius is equal to the width of the flute and the flute is segmental. In the Parthenon the radius of the central part of the flute is greater than the width, but the smaller arcs on either side accentuate better the arris. A similar accentuation is found in the Ionic and Corinthian orders, where the flutes are separated by fillets, and their section is always elliptical in Greek work, the depth of the flute, however, being always greater than in the Doric order. Thus, in the temple of Ilissus and the Ionic column in the cella of the temple at Bassae, the depth is about one-quarter of the width, in the Propylaea at Priene it is about one-third, and in the Erechtheum and other examples of the Greek Ionic order it is little more than one-half. The width of the fillet also varies, being as a rule one quarter of the width of the flute; and the same applies to the Greek Corinthian order. In the Roman Doric, Ionic and Corinthian orders, the flute is either segmental or semicircular, its depth being about one third of the width in the Doric column, and in all Ionic, Corinthian and Composite columns half the width of the flute. The fillet also is much broader in Roman examples, being about one-third of the width of the flute. In Roman columns sometimes the flutes of the lower part of the shaft, about one-third of the height, are partly filled with a convex moulding, "cabling" being the usual term applied to this treatment. The French architects of the 16th and 17th centuries carried this decorative feature much farther, and in the Tuileries and the Louvre carved a series of leaves in the flutes. In a few Italian buildings, instead of the fluting of the column being vertical, it twines round the column and is known as spiral fluting; a fine example is found in the Bevilacqua palace at Verona by San Michele. Fluting is sometimes introduced into capitals, as in the tomb of Mylasa, and in friezes, as in the theatre at Cnidos, the Incantada at Salonica, and a doorway at Patara. In one of the museums at Rome is a fine sarcophagus, the sides of which are sculptured with flutes in waved lines. The coronas of many of the Roman temples were carved with flutes. In medieval buildings, fluting was occasionally introduced in imitation of Roman work, as in the churches of central Syria and of Autun and Langres in France, but in the south of Italy and Sicily it would seem to have been brought in as a variety of treatment, in the decoration of the shafts carrying the arches of cloisters, as at Monreale in Sicily and in those of St John Lateran and St Paul-outside-the-Walls at Rome. (R. P. S.)

FOOTNOTES:

[1] See E.F.F. Chladni, _Die Akustik_ (Leipzig, 1802), p. 87.

[2] See Sonreck, "Uber die Schwingungserregung und die Bewegung der
Luftsaule in offenen und gedeckten Rohren," _Pogg. Ann._, 1876, vol.
158.

[3] _The Flute_ (London, 1890), S 90-105, pp. 34-40.

[4] _Theorie der Luftschwingungen in Rohren mit offenen Enden_
(Berlin, 1896). Ostwald's _Klassiker der exacten Wissenschaften_, No.
80.

[5] V.C. Mahillon, _Experimental Studies on the Resonance of
Trunco-Conical and Cylindrical Air Columns_, translated by F.A. Mahan
(London, 1901); D.J. Blaikley, _Acoustics in Relation to Wind
Instruments_ (London, 1890); Friedrich Zamminer, _Die Musik und die
musikalischen Instrumente, &c._ (Giessen, 1855); _idem._ "Sur le
mouvement vibratoire de l'air dans les tuyaux," _Comptes rendus_,
1855, vol. 41, &c.

[6] _Op. cit._, S 73, pp. 87-88, note 1.

[7] "Akustik der Blasinstrumente," _Allgem. musikal. Zeit._ (Leipzig,
1816), Bd. xviii. No. 5, p. 65 et seq. See also Ernst Euting, _Zur
Geschichte der Blasinstrumente im 16. und 17. Jahrhundert_. Inaugural
Dissertation, Friedrich-Wilhelms Universitat. (Berlin, 15th of March
1899), p. 9.

[8] _Lehre von der Tonempfindung_ (Braunschweig, 1877).

[9] See additions by D. J. B. to article "Flute" in Grove's
_Dictionary of Music and Musicians_ (London, 1904).

[10] _Musica instrumentalis deutsch_ (Wittenberg, 1528).

[11] See also L'Artusi, _Delle imperfettioni della musica moderna_
(Venice, 1600), p. 4; Gottfried Weber in Cacilia, Bd. ix. p. 99.

[12] See "Les Anciennes Flutes egyptiennes," by Victor Loret in
_Journal asiatique_ (Paris, 1889), vol. xiv. p. 133 et seq., two
careful articles based on the ancient Egyptian instruments still
extant. See also Lauth, "Uber die agyptische Instrumente," _Sitzungs.
der philos., philolog. und histor. Klasse. der Kgl. bayer. Akad. zu
Munchen_ (1873).

[13] See Albert A. Howard, "The Aulos or Tibia," _Harvard Studies_,
iv. (Boston, 1893), pp. 16-17.

[14] Representations of flutes blown as here described have been
found in Europe. See _Comptes rendus de la commission imperiale
archeologique_ (St Petersburg, 1867), p. 45, and atlas for the same
date, pl. vi. Pompeian painting given by Helbig, _Wandgemalde_, No.
7607; Zahn, vol. iii. pl. 31; Museo Borbonnico, pl. xv. No. 18;
Clarac, pl. 130, 131, 139; Heuzey, _Les Figurines_, p. 136.

[15] There are two flutes at the British Museum (Catal. No. 84, 4-9
and 5 and 6), belonging to the Castellani collection, made of wood
encased in bronze in which the mouthpiece, consisting of the head of
a maenad, has a lateral hole bored obliquely into the main tube. This
hole was probably intended for the reception of a reed. The pipe is
stopped at the end beyond the mouthpiece as in the modern flute.
There are six holes. See also the plagiaulos from Halicarnassus in
the British Museum described by C.T. Newton in _History of
Discoveries at Halicarnassus_ (London), vol. ii. p. 339. The Louvre
has two ancient statues (from the villa Borghese) representing satyrs
playing upon transverse flutes. Unfortunately these marbles have been
restored, especially in the details affecting our present subject,
and are therefore examples of no value to us. Another statue
representing a flute-player occurs in the British Museum. The
instrument has been supposed to be a transverse flute, but
erroneously, for the insufflation of the lateral tube against which
the instrumentalist presses his lips, could not, without the
intervention of a reed, excite the vibratory movement of the column
of air.

[16] Florence, Carrand Collection. See Museo Nazionale Firenze,
_Catalogo_ (1898), p. 205, No. 26 (description only). Illustration in
_Gallerie nazionali italiane_, A. Venturi, vol. iii. (1897), p. 263,
L'Arte (Rome, 1894), vol. i. p. 24, Hans Graeven, "Antike Vorlagen
byzantinischer Elfenbeinreliefs," in _Jahrb. d. K. Preuss.
Kunst-Sammlungen_ (Berlin, 1897), Bd. xviii. p. 11; Hans Graeven,
"Ein Reliquienkastchen aus Pirano," id., 1899, Bd. xx. fig. 2 and pl.
iii.

[17] Greek MS. 510, Gregoir de Nazance 10th century, Bibliotheque
Nationale, Paris; illustration in Gustave L. Schlumberger, _L'Epopee
byzantine a la fin du dizieme siecle_ (Paris, 1896 and 1900), vol. i.
p. 503. British Museum, Greek Psalter, add. MS. 19352, fol. 189b.
written and illuminated cir. 1066 by Theodorus of Caesarea. A
cylindrical flute is shown turned to the right, the left hand being
uppermost. Smyrna, Library of the Evaggelike Schole B. 18, fol. 72a,
A.D. 1100, illustration by Strzygowski, "Der Bilderkreis des
griechischen Physiologus," in _Byzantinisches Archiv_ (Leipzig,
1899), Heft 2, Taf. xi.; N.P. Kondakoff, _Histoire de l'art byzantin_
(Paris, 1886 and 1891), pl. xii. 5; "Kuseyr' Amra," issued by _K.
Akad. d. Wissenschaften_ (Vienna, 1907), vol. ii. pl. xxxiv.

[18] A fine volume containing coloured drawings of these frescoes has
been published in St Petersburg (British Museum library catalogue,
sect. "Academies," St Petersburg, 1874-1887, vol. iv. Tab. 1325a).

[19] This manuscript, written towards the end of the 12th century,
was preserved in the Strassburg library until 1870, when it was burnt
during the bombardment of the city. See the fine reproduction in
facsimile published by the _Soc. pour la conservation des monuments
historiques d'Alsace_. Texte explicatif de A. Straub and G. Keller
(Strassburg, 1901), pl. lvii., also C.M. Engelhardt, _Herrad von
Landsperg und ihr Werk_ (Stuttgart and Tubingen, 1818), twelve
plates.

[20] MS. j. b. 2. Illustrated in _Critical and Bibliographical Notes
on Early Spanish Music_ (London, 1887), p. 119.

[21] _Musica getutscht und auszgezogen_ (Basel, 1511).

[22] _Organographia_ (Wolfenbuttel. 1618), pp. 24, 25, 40.

[23] _Harmonie universelle_ (Paris, 1636), _Livre_ v. p. 241.

[24] Principes de la flute traversiere ou flute d'Allemagne, de la
flute a bec et du hautbois (Paris, 1722), p. 38.

[25] _Musicus [Greek: autodidaktos] oder der sich selbst informirende
Musicus_ (Erfurt, 1738), p. 85.

[26] Fetis, _Rapport sur la fabrication des instruments de musique a
l'Exposition Universelle de Paris, en 1855_.

[27] See _Recueil de planches_, vol. iv., and article "Basse de flute
traversiere," vol. ii. (Paris, 1751). See also _The Flute_, by R.S.
Rockstro (London, 1890), p. 238, where the wood cut is reproduced
together with a translation of the article. The Museum of the
Conservatoire in Paris also possesses a bass flute by the noted
French maker Delusse.

[28] _Versuch einer Anweisung die Flote traversiere zu spielen_
(Berlin, 1752).

[29] Unless the contrary is stated, we have always in view, in
describing the successive improvements of the flute, the treble flute
in D, which is considered to be typical of the family.

[30] "Herrn Johann Joachim Quantzens-Lebenslauf, von ihm selbst
entworfen," in the _Historisch-Kritische Beytrage zur Aufnahme der
Musik_, by Marpurg (Berlin, 1754), p. 239. Quantz was professor of
the flute to Frederick the Great.

[31] See Johann Georg Tromlitz, _Ausfuhrlicher und grundlicher
Unterricht die Flote zu spielen_ (Leipzig, 1791), 1, S 7, and _Uber
Floten mit mehrern Klappen_ (Leipzig, 1800), cap. vii. S 21.

[32] Antonio Lorenzoni, _Saggio per ben sonare il flauto traverso_
(Vicenza, 1779).

[33] See _Anweisung_, i. S 15.

[34] See _Lebenslauf_, _loc. cit._ p. 248, where Quantz states that
he invented the adjustable head for the flute.

[35] See _Anweisung_, i. SS 10-13 and iv. S 26.

[36] _Ausfuhrlicher und grundlicher Unterricht die Flote zu spielen_
(Leipzig, 1791), i. cap. S 20. Compare Schilling, _Univ.-Lexikon_
(Leipzig, 1835).

[37] Stendal, 1782 (published under his initials only, J. J. H. R.,
see p. 2).

[38] _Kurze Abhandlung von Flotenspielen_ (Leipzig, 1786), p. 27.

[39] _Uber Floten_, &c., pp. 133 and 134.

[40] See _The Flute_, pp. 242-244 and 561 and 562.

[41] See op. cit. pp. 51 and 62.

[42] English patent, No. 1499.

[43] See Rockstro, op. cit. p. 197.

[44] _Saggio per costruire e suonare un flauto traverso enarmonico
che ha i suoni bassi del violino_ (Rome, 1797).

[45] The idea of this large flute was taken up again in 1819 by
Trexler of Vienna, who called it the "panaulon."

[46] Patent, No. 3183. Part of the specification together with a
diagram is reproduced by Rockstro, op. cit. pp. 273-274.

[47] Patent, No. 3349. Part of the specification together with a
diagram is reproduced by Rockstro, op. cit. pp. 273-274.

[48] Another specimen, almost the same, constructed about 1775, and
called "Basse de Musette," may be seen in the Museum of the Paris
Conservatoire.

[49] See account of Capeller's inventions by Carl Maria von Weber in
_Allgem. musikal. Zeit._ (Leipzig, 1811), pp. 377-379, a translation
of which is given by Rockstro, op. cit. pp. 279 and 280.

[50] See _Uber den Flotenbau und die neuesten Verbesserungen
desselben_ (Mainz, 1847); and W.S. Broadwood, _An Essay on the
Construction of Flutes originally written by Theobald Boehm,
published with the addition of Correspondence and other Documents_
(London, 1882).

[51] _Examen critique de la flute ordinaire comparee a la flute
Boehm_ (Paris, 1838).

[52] They existed long before, however, in the Chinese _Ty_ and the
Japanese _Fuye_.

[53] The reader may consult with advantage Mr C. Welch's _History of
the Boehm Flute_ (London, 1883), wherein all the documents relating
to this interesting discussion have been collected with great
impartiality.

[54] For further details see Kathleen Schlesinger, _The Instruments
of the Orchestra_, part i. pp. 192-194, where an illustration is
given, and Paul Wetzger, _Die Flote_ (Heilbronn, 1906), pp. 23-24,
and Tafel iv. No. 20.

FLUX (Lat. _fluxus_, a flowing; this being also the meaning of the English term in medicine, &c.), in metallurgy, a substance introduced in the smelting of ores to promote fluidity, and to remove objectionable impurities in the form of a slag. The substances in commonest use are:--lime or limestone, to slag off silica and silicates, fluor-spar for lead, calcium and barium sulphates and calcium phosphate, and silica for removing basic substances such as limestone. Other substances are also used, but more commonly in assaying than in metallurgy. Sodium and potassium carbonates are valuable for fluxing off silica; mixed with potassium nitrate sodium carbonate forms a valuable oxidizing fusion mixture; "black flux" is a reducing flux composed of finely divided carbon and potassium carbonate, and formed by deflagrating a mixture of argol with 1/4 to 1/2 its weight of nitre. Borax is very frequently employed; it melts to a clear liquid and dissolves silica and many metallic oxides. Potassium bisulphate is useful in the preliminary treatment of refractory aluminous ores. Litharge and red lead are used in silver and gold assays, acting as solvents for silica and any metallic oxides present.

FLY (formed on the root of the supposed original Teut. _fleugan_, to fly), a designation applied to the winged or perfect state of many insects belonging to various orders, as in butterfly (see LEPIDOPTERA), dragon-fly (q.v.), may-fly (q.v.), caddis-fly (q.v.), &c.; also specially employed by entomologists to mean any species of the two-winged flies, or Diptera (q.v.). In ordinary parlance _fly_ is often used in the sense of the common house-fly (_Musca domestica_); and by English colonists and sportsmen in South Africa in that of a species of tsetse-fly (_Glossina_), or a tract of country ("belt") in which these insects abound (see TSETSE-FLY).

Apart from the house-fly proper (_Musca domestica_), which in England is the usual one, several species of flies are commonly found in houses; e.g. the _Stomoxys calcitrans_, or stable-fly; _Pollenia rudis_, or cluster-fly; _Muscina stabulans_, another stable-fly; _Calliphora erythrocephala_, blue-bottle fly, blow-fly or meat-fly, with smaller sorts of blue-bottle, _Phormia terraenovae_ and _Lucilia caesar_; _Homalomyia canicularis_ and _brevis_, the small house-fly; _Scenopinus fenestralis_, the black window-fly, &c. But _Musca domestica_ is far the most numerous, and in many places, especially in hot weather and in hot climates, is a regular pest. Mr L.O. Howard (Circular 71 of the Bureau of Entomology U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Washington, 1906) says that in 1900 he made a collection of the flies in dining-rooms in different parts of the United States, and out of a total of 23,087 flies, 22,808 were the common house-fly. Its geographical distribution is of the widest, and its rapidity of breeding, in manure and door-yard filth, so great that, as a carrier of germs of disease, especially cholera and typhoid, the house-fly is now recognized as a potent source of danger; and various sanitary regulations have been made, or precautions suggested, for getting rid of it. These are discussed by Mr Howard in the paper referred to, but in brief they all amount to measures of general hygiene, and the isolation, prompt removal, or proper sterilization of the animal or human excrement in which these flies breed.

FLYCATCHER, a name introduced in ornithology by Ray, being a translation of the _Muscicapa_ of older authors, and applied by Pennant to an extremely common English bird, the _M. grisola_ of Linnaeus. It has since been used in a general and very vague way for a great many small birds from all parts of the world, which have the habit of catching flies on the wing. Ornithologists who have trusted too much to this characteristic and to certain merely superficial correlations of structure, especially those exhibited by a broad and rather flat bill and a gape beset by strong hairs or bristles, have associated under the title of _Muscicapidae_ an exceedingly heterogeneous assemblage of forms much reduced in number by later systematists. Great advance has been made in establishing as independent families the _Todidae_ and _Eurylaemidae_, as well as in excluding from it various members of the _Ampelidae_, _Cotingidae_, _Tyrannidae_, _Vireonidae_, _Mniotiltidae_, and perhaps others, which had been placed within its limits. These steps have left the _Muscicapidae_ a purely Old-World family of the order _Passeres_, and the chief difficulty now seems to lie in separating it from the _Campephagidae_ and the _Laniidae_. Only a very few of the forms of flycatchers (which, after all the deductions above mentioned, may be reckoned to include some 60 genera or subgenera, and perhaps 250 species) can here be even named.[1]

The best-known bird of this family is that which also happens to be the type of the Linnaean genus _Muscicapa_--the spotted or grey flycatcher (_M. grisola_). It is a common summer visitant to nearly the whole of Europe, and is found throughout Great Britain, though less abundant in Scotland than in England, as well as in many parts of Ireland, where, however, it seems to be but locally and sparingly distributed. It is one of the latest migrants to arrive, and seldom reaches the British Islands till the latter part of May, when it may be seen, a small dust-coloured bird, sitting on the posts or railings of gardens and fields, ever and anon springing into the air, seizing with an audible snap of its bill some passing insect as it flies, and returning to the spot it has quitted, or taking up some similar station to keep watch as before. It has no song, but merely a plaintive or peevish call-note, uttered from time to time with a jerking gesture of the wings and tail. It makes a neat nest, built among the small twigs which sprout from the bole of a large tree, fixed in the branches of some plant trained against a wall, or placed in any hole of the wall itself that may be left by the falling of a brick or stone. The eggs are from four to six in number, of a pale greenish-blue, closely blotched or freckled with rust-colour. Silent and inconspicuous as is this bird, its constant pursuit of flies in the closest vicinity of houses makes it a familiar object to almost everybody. A second British species is the pied flycatcher (_M. atricapilla_), a much rarer bird, and in England not often seen except in the hilly country extending from the Peak of Derbyshire to Cumberland, and more numerous in the Lake District than elsewhere. It is not common in Scotland, and has only once been observed in Ireland. More of a woodland bird than the former, the brightly-contrasted black and white plumage of the cock, together with his agreeable song, readily attracts attention where it occurs. It is a summer visitant to all western Europe, but farther eastward its place is taken by a nearly allied species (_M. collaris_) in which the white of the throat and breast extends like a collar round the neck. A fourth European species (_M. parva_), distinguished by its very small size and red breast, has also strayed some three or four times to the extreme south-west of England. This last belongs to a group of more eastern range, which has received generic recognition under the name of _Erythrosterna_, and it has several relations in Asia and particularly in India, while the allies of the pied flycatchers (_Ficedula_ of Brisson) are chiefly of African origin, and those of the grey or spotted flycatcher (_Muscicapa_ proper[2]) are common to the two continents.

One of the most remarkable groups of _Muscicapidae_ is that known as the paradise flycatchers, forming the genus _Tchitrea_ of Lesson. In nearly all the species the males are distinguished by the growth of exceedingly long feathers in their tail, and by their putting on, for some part of the year at least, a plumage generally white, but almost always quite different from that worn by the females, which is of a more or less deep chestnut or bay colour, though in both sexes the crown is of a glossy steel-blue. They are found pretty well throughout Africa and tropical Asia to Japan, and seem to affect the deep shade of forests rather than the open country. The best-known species is perhaps the Indian _T. paradisi_; but the Chinese _T. incii_, and the Japanese _T. princeps_, from being very commonly represented by the artists of those nations on screens, fans and the like, are hardly less so; and the cock of the last named, with his bill of a pale greenish-blue and eyes surrounded by bare skin of the same colour--though these are characters possessed in some degree by all the species--seems to be the most beautiful of the genus. _T. bourbonnensis_, which is peculiar to the islands of Mauritius and Reunion, appears to be the only species in which the outward difference of the sexes is but slight. In _T. corvina_ of the Seychelles, the adult male is wholly black, and his middle tail-feathers are not only very long but very broad. In _T. mutata_ of Madagascar, some of the males are found in a blackish plumage, though with the elongated median rectrices white, while in others white predominates over the whole body; but whether this sex is here actually dimorphic, or whether the one dress is a passing phase of the other, is at present undetermined. Some of the African species, of which many have been described, seem always to retain the rufous plumage, but the long tail-feathers serve to mark the males.

A few other groups are distinguished by the brilliant blue they exhibit, as _Myiagra azurea_, and others as _Monarcha_ (or _Arses_) _chrysomela_ by their golden yellow. The Australian forms assigned to the _Muscicapidae_ are very varied. _Sisura inquieta_ has some of the habits of a water-wagtail (_Motacilla_), and hence has received the name of "dishwasher," bestowed in many parts of England on its analogue; and the many species of _Rhipidura_ or fantailed flycatchers, which occur in various parts of the Australian Region, have manners still more singular--turning over in the air, it is said, like a tumbler pigeon, as they catch their prey; but concerning the mode of life of the majority of the _Muscicapidae_, and especially of the numerous African forms, hardly anything is known. (A. N.)

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Of the 30 genera or subgenera which Swainson included in his
_Natural Arrangement and Relations of the Family of Flycatchers_
(published in 1838), at least 19 do not belong to the _Muscicapidae_
at all, and one of them, _Todus_, not even to the order _Passeres_.
It is perhaps impossible to name any ornithological work whose
substance so fully belies its title as does this treatise. Swainson
wrote it filled with faith in the so-called "Quinary System"--that
fanciful theory, invented by W.S. Macleay, which misled and kept back
so many of the best English zoologists of his generation from the
truth,--and, unconsciously swayed by his bias, his judgment was
warped to fit his hypothesis.

[2] By some writers this section is distinguished as _Butalis_ of
Boie, but to do so seems contrary to rule.

FLYGARE-CARLEN, EMILIE (1807-1892), Swedish novelist, was born in Stromstad on the 8th of August 1807. Her father, Rutger Smith, was a retired sea-captain who had settled down as a small merchant, and she often accompanied him on the voyages he made along the coast. She married in 1827 a doctor named Axel Flygare, and went with him to live in the province of Smaland. After his death in 1833 she returned to her old home and published in 1838 her first novel, _Waldemar Klein_. In the next year she removed to Stockholm, and married, in 1841, the jurist and poet, Johan Gabriel Carlen (1814-1875). Her house became a meeting-place for Stockholm men of letters, and for the next twelve years she produced one or two novels annually. The premature death of her son Edvard Flygare (1829-1853), who had already published three books, showing great promise, was followed by six years of silence, after which she resumed her writing until 1884. The most famous of her tales are _Rosen pa Tistelon_ (1842; Eng. trans. _The Rose of Tistelon_, 1842); _Enslingen pa Johannesskaret_ (1846; Eng. trans. _The Hermit_, 4 vols., 1853); and _Ett Kopemanshus i skargarden_ (1859; _The Merchant's House on the Cliffs_). Fru Carlen published in 1878 _Minnen af svenskt forfattarlif_ 1840-1860, and in 1887-1888 three volumes of _Efterskord fran en 80- arings forfattarbana_, containing her last tales. She died at Stockholm on the 5th of February 1892. Her daughter, Rosa Carlen (1836-1883), was also a popular novelist.

Emilie Flygare-Carlen's novels were collected in thirty-one volumes
(Stockholm, 1869-1875).

FLYING BUTTRESS, in architecture, the term given to a structural feature employed to transmit the thrust of a vault across an intervening space, such as an aisle, chapel or cloister, to a buttress built outside the latter. This was done by throwing a semi-arch across to the vertical buttress. Though employed by the Romans and in early Romanesque work, it was generally masked by other constructions or hidden under a roof, but in the 12th century it was recognized as rational construction and emphasized by the decorative accentuation of its features, as in the cathedrals of Chartres, Le Mans, Paris, Beauvais, Reims, &c. Sometimes, owing to the great height of the vaults, two semi-arches were thrown one above the other, and there are cases where the thrust was transmitted to two or even three buttresses across intervening spaces. As a vertical buttress, placed at a distance, possesses greater power of resistance to thrust than if attached to the wall carrying the vault, vertical buttresses as at Lincoln and Westminster Abbey were built outside the chapterhouse to receive the thrust. All vertical buttresses are, as a rule, in addition weighted with pinnacles to give them greater power of resistance.

FLYING COLUMN, in military organization, an independent corps of troops usually composed of all arms, to which a particular task is assigned. It is almost always composed in the course of operations, out of the troops immediately available. Mobility being its _raison d'etre_, a flying column is when possible composed of picked men and horses accompanied with the barest minimum of baggage. The term is usually, though not necessarily, applied to forces under the strength of a brigade. The "mobile columns" employed by the British in the South African War of 1899-1902, were usually of the strength of two battalions of infantry, a battery of artillery, and a squadron of cavalry--almost exactly half that of a mixed brigade. Flying columns are mostly used in savage or guerrilla warfare.

"FLYING DUTCHMAN," a spectre-ship popularly believed to haunt the waters around the Cape of Good Hope. The legend has several variants, but the commonest is that which declares that the captain of the vessel, Vanderdecken, was condemned for his blasphemy to sail round the cape for ever, unable to "make" a port. In the Dutch version the skipper is the ghost of the Dutch seaman Van Straaten. The appearance of the "Flying Dutchman" is considered by sailors as ominous of disaster. The German legend makes one Herr Von Falkenberg the hero, and alleges that he is condemned to sail for ever around the North Sea, on a ship without helm or steersman, playing at dice for his soul with the devil. Sir Walter Scott says the "Flying Dutchman" was originally a vessel laden with bullion. A murder was committed on board, and thereafter the plague broke out among the crew, which closed all ports to the ill-fated craft. The legend has been used by Wagner in his opera _Der fliegende Hollander_.

FLYING-FISH, the name given to two different kinds of fish. The one (_Dactylopterus_) belongs to the gurnard family (_Triglidae_), and is more properly called flying gurnard; the other (_Exocoetus_) has been called flying herring, though more nearly allied to the gar-pike than to the herring. Some other fishes with long pectoral fins (_Pterois_) have been stated to be able to fly, but this has been proved to be incorrect.