# The Story of the Flute/Chapter 1

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The Story of the Flute.
CHAPTER I.
Flutes of the Ancients.
Antiquity of the flute—Classic legends—Egyptian origin—The Arab "Nay"—Development—The Fipple—Fingerholes—Double flutes—Popularity amongst the Ancients—Ancient players of note—Their position and costume.
It is often asserted that the flute is the oldest of all musical instruments: in one sense this is true; in another it is not accurate. It would seem that all the world over a pipe of some sort was theAntiquity of the Flute earliest form of musical instrument (the primitive drum can hardly be so termed), and preceded the invention of any kind of stringed instrument; but what we now call a flute—i.e., a tube held parallel to the lips and blown through a hole in the upper side—is in all probability of comparatively modern origin. The term "flute" was ​formerly applied to all Instruments of the pipe or whistle class, either with or without reeds. According to Hawkins and Grassineau, the name was derived from fluta, a lamprey or small Sicilian eel, which has seven breathing-holes on each side below the eyes, like the finger-holes on the primitive pipe or flute. Surely it is much more probable that the eel may have been called after the instrument! Cotgrave, in his Dictionary (1632), says, "A lamprey is sometimes called a Fleute d'Aleman, by reason of the little holes which he hath on the upper part of his body." The true origin of the name is to be sought for in the Latin flatus, a blowing or breathing.
The origin of the primitive pipe is lost in the mists of antiquity, and its early history is extremely difficult to Classic Legendstrace. The legendary date of its invention is given in the Parian Chronicle in the Arundelian Marbles (now in Oxford) as 1506 B.C. It was probably suggested by the whistling of the wind over the tops of the river reeds—"there's music in the sighing of a reed" (Byron). The classical legend relates how
and how her prayer that she should be changed by the Naiads into reeds by the river bank was granted—
​Thinking that they were concealing the nymph, Pan cut the reeds, and amorously sighing over them, they gave forth musical sounds, whereupon he fashioned them into pipes of various lengths and played upon them.
Ovid assigns the invention of the flute to Minerva, who, finding herself laughed at by Juno and Venus whenever she played it,
Alcibiades abandoned the flute for a like reason, saying that a man's most intimate friends would hardly recognise him when playing it. Hence Greek sculptors never represented a player actually blowing into the flute, and the ancient players often wore veils.
To return to Pan and Marsyas. The former challenged Apollo to a contest between flute and lyre (Apollo's special instrument). Midas, King of Phrygia, who acted as judge, decided in favour of Pan and his flute, and was decorated with asses' ears in consequence. Apollo then challenged Marsyas, a famous flute-player, whom he defeated, because Apollo accompanied his lyre with his voice. Marsyas complained that this was unfair at a trial of instruments only, to which the god rejoined that Marsyas also used both his fingers and his mouth. This puzzled the judges, and another trial was ordered, at which Marsyas was again ​defeated. Apollo, irritated at this presumption on the part of a mortal, with his own hand flayed poor Marsyas alive. This is said by Pausanias to have been a condition of the contest. Plato and other early authorities allege that Marsyas was a real person, a native of Celænæ in Phrygia, and son of King Hyagnis, to whom Apuleius attributes the invention of the double-flute.
Several ancient writers attribute the origin of the instrument to Osiris, the Egyptian Water-god. There Egyptian Origin of Fluteseems to be no doubt that Egypt, as Kircher asserted, was the land of its birth. Primitive flutes have been found in Egyptian tombs dating centuries before the Christian era.
Fig. 1. Egyptian oblique flute-player
The Nay played by the Arabs and other kindred nations to-day (readers will recollect the Arab The Arab "Nay"Nay-player in Mr. Hitchen's Barbary Sheep, perpetually playing the same monotonous tune) greatly resembles these early Egyptian flutes; similar primitive instruments have been found in China, North America, Mexico, Madagascar, and Africa. The Bulgarians still use an instrument of this type called the Kaval. A remarkable feature about these ancient flutes is their small diameter as compared with their length, which would tend to evidence a knowledge of harmonics.
The words αὐλός, or tibia, are used very indefinitely by classical writers to signify various kinds of pipes. Development: The Fipple: Finger-holesThe original form of the instrument was a simple vertical pipe blown across the top, which was open. The first step in advance was the cutting or a V-shaped notch in the edge of the open top of the pipe; this facilitated the production of sound. (Fig. 2.) The inventor of this device is unknown. It is found ​in very ancient Chinese flutes and is still used by the natives in Bolivia, in Uganda and the Soudan, and elsewhere. I have in my possession a flute of this kind with a very small V-notch. It is comparatively modern, and has five finger-holes in front and a thumb-hole and a double-hole at the back for the little finger for either a left or right-handed player.
Fig. 2. The V-Notch.
Next came the idea of partly filling up or plugging the open upper end of the tube and cutting an opening with a sharp edge a little lower down, as in the ordinary whistle. The breath is thus directed in a thin stream against this lower edge. The date of this innovation cannot be ascertained, but it is certainly of very early origin, and was known to the Greeks. It is also met with in ancient Hindu sculptures. Bruce mentions an Abyssinian flute, called "kwetz," with this fipple mouthpiece as being quite common in that country and much used in war: "Its tone is not loud, but is accompanied by a kind of jar, like a broken oboe, not owing to any accidental defect, but to construction and design, as it would not be esteemed without it." Certainly there is no accounting for tastes!
The number of finger-holes was at first two, three, or four: they were afterwards increased to six and a thumb-hole at the back. Some specimens found at Pompeii, and now in the museum at Naples, have no less than fifteen holes. They are straight tubes of ivory, and were originally fitted with tight bands of ​metal (probably silver), one for each hole. These bands were each pierced with a hole to correspond with a hole in the tube, and they could be turned round so as to open or close the hole (and thus fix the mode), for which purpose they were sometimes fitted with a hook-like Fig. 3.—double flute-player. (from an etruscan mural painting.)projection. Flutes of this description were termed "bombux"; Pausanias attributes their invention to Pronomus.
Fig. 4.—Double Flute. (From Hoissard's "Roman Antiquities.") Fig. 5.—Double Flutes, with several bulbs.
Fig. 6.—AULETES. (From the frieze of the Parthenon.)
Fig. 7.—Plagiaulos, or Ringed Flute, with Projecting Mouthpiece
Fig. 8.—Capistrum and Bulbed Double Flute