Woodwinds · Flute family
Flute
The highest regular member of the woodwind section and the only one without a reed. The player blows across an open hole, much like blowing over a bottle.
- Section
- Woodwinds
- Family
- Flute family
- Classification
- Aerophone · edge-blown
- Transposition
- None (concert pitch)
- Clefs
- Treble
- Sounding range
- C4 – D7
Parts of the flute
Photo: Yamaha Corporation, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Labels added by Musicians Tools.
Range
D7 is the practical top; strong players go higher. Playback uses a neutral tone, not the instrument's own sound.
Writing for the flute
- The bottom octave is soft and breathy and is easily covered by the orchestra. Thin out the texture around it.
- Above about E6 the tone becomes brilliant and loud, and very quiet high notes are difficult.
- Very agile: fast scales, arpeggios, trills and double or triple tonguing are idiomatic.
- Flutists use a lot of air. Long phrases without breathing places tire the player faster than on reed instruments.
- Common extended techniques: flutter-tonguing, harmonics, key clicks, whistle tones, singing while playing.
History
Transverse flutes have been played in Europe since the Middle Ages. The baroque flute was a conical wooden instrument with one key. In the 1830s and 1840s Theobald Boehm redesigned it with a cylindrical metal tube, large tone holes and a ring-key mechanism, the system still used today.
Listen
Key works featuring the flute. Each link opens a YouTube search, so you can pick the recording you like.
- Debussy – Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune
- Bach – Partita in A minor for solo flute, BWV 1013
- Mozart – Flute Concerto No. 1 in G, K. 313
- Varèse – Density 21.5