Conventions and Definitions
Information for this catalog was compiled in fifteen computer database fields, in the following order. The names of the fields do not appear in the catalog. Any field for which information is unavailable or which does not apply has been omitted.
Transverse Flute Elements Named in This Catalog
The transverse flute works most efficiently when the embouchure piece or joint has a wall thickness sufficient for the embouchure hole to be adequately undercut. This practice, making the hole larger on the inside than on the outside of the instrument, addresses several acoustical aspects without requiring mechanical devices. Undercutting is critically important, for while it enables both fingerholes and embouchure to be large...
Key and Key Mounting Nomenclature
Pin in block refers to the early methods of including key mounts as an integral part of the tubing or body materials of woodwinds, whether carved from wood or ivory (DCM 0088). Oversize ferrules or beads were left during the outer turning operation and designated to be channeled and drilled to mount one or more keys. The entire ferrule supporting such keywork either remained...
Flute Misnomers
Of all woodwind categories, the flute seems to suffer the most from confusing nomenclature. Before the nineteenth century, "flute," by any of its variant ethnic European names or spellings, usually referred to the vertical instrument, i.e., the recorder. The transverse model then frequently required some modifying word indicating its horizontal nature such as Flauto traverso (or just traverso) in Italian, or Querflöte in German....
Fife vs. Band Flute
The fife, most accurately described, is any cylindrically bored transverse flute, usually in one piece (but sometimes two), usually somewhat longer than the piccolo and having only six fingerholes with no keys. It is intended and usually used for outdoor music, often connected with the military, and sometimes for signal purposes with or without field drum and other fifes of the same pitch. Flute,...
Meyer-Albert: Systematic Misnomers
Museums occasionally receive inquiries about the discovery of yet another late-nineteenth- or early-twentieth-century simple system conical bore flute. Its archaic design may lead the discoverer to assume that it is quite old and valuable, a hope that may be further raised if the instrument still has its quaint period carrying case. Many such flutes are unmarked or marked with a trade name that does...
Conventions and Definitions Information for this catalog was compiled in fifteen computer database fields, in the following order. The names of the fields do not appear in the catalog. Any field for which information is unavailable or which does not apply has been omitted.
Transverse Flute Elements Named in This Catalog The transverse flute works most efficiently when the embouchure piece or joint has a wall thickness sufficient for the embouchure hole to be adequately undercut. This practice, making the hole larger on the inside than on the outside of the instrument, addresses several acoustical aspects without requiring mechanical devices. Undercutting is critically important, for while it enables both fingerholes and embouchure to be large...
Key and Key Mounting Nomenclature Pin in block refers to the early methods of including key mounts as an integral part of the tubing or body materials of woodwinds, whether carved from wood or ivory (DCM 0088). Oversize ferrules or beads were left during the outer turning operation and designated to be channeled and drilled to mount one or more keys. The entire ferrule supporting such keywork either remained...
Flute Misnomers Of all woodwind categories, the flute seems to suffer the most from confusing nomenclature. Before the nineteenth century, "flute," by any of its variant ethnic European names or spellings, usually referred to the vertical instrument, i.e., the recorder. The transverse model then frequently required some modifying word indicating its horizontal nature such as Flauto traverso (or just traverso) in Italian, or Querflöte in German....
Meyer-Albert: Systematic Misnomers Museums occasionally receive inquiries about the discovery of yet another late-nineteenth- or early-twentieth-century simple system conical bore flute. Its archaic design may lead the discoverer to assume that it is quite old and valuable, a hope that may be further raised if the instrument still has its quaint period carrying case. Many such flutes are unmarked or marked with a trade name that does...