FLUTE

The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind group. Unlike woodwind instruments
with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound
from the flow of air across an opening. According to the instrument classification of
Hornbostel-Sachs, flutes are categorized as Edge-blown aerophones.

A musician who plays the flute can be referred to as a flute player, a flautist, a flutist, or
less commonly a fluter.

Flutes are the earliest known musical instruments. A number of flutes dating to about
40,000 to 35,000 years ago have been found in the Swabian Alb region of Germany.
These flutes demonstrate that a developed musical tradition existed from the earliest
period of modern human presence in Europe.

History
Further information: paleolithic flutes and prehistoric music
The oldest flute ever discovered, though this is disputed, may be a fragment of the femur
of a juvenile cave bear, with two to four holes, found at Divje Babe in Slovenia and dated
to about 43,000 years ago. In 2008 another flute dated back to at least 35,000 years ago
was discovered in Hohle Fels cave near Ulm, Germany.[4] The five-holed flute has a V-
shaped mouthpiece and is made from a vulture wing bone. The researchers involved in
the discovery officially published their findings in the journal Nature, in June 2009. The
discovery is also the oldest confirmed find of any musical instrument in history. The
flute, one of several found, was found in the Hohle Fels cavern next to the Venus of
Hohle Fels and a short distance from the oldest known human carving. On announcing
the discovery, scientists suggested that the "finds demonstrate the presence of a well-
established musical tradition at the time when modern humans colonized Europe".
Scientists have also suggested that the discovery of the flute may help to explain "the
probable behavioural and cognitive gulf between" Neanderthals and early modern human.
[6]

A three-holed flute, 18.7 cm long, made from a mammoth tusk (from the Geißenklösterle
cave, near Ulm, in the southern German Swabian Alb and dated to 30,000 to 37,000 years
ago) was discovered in 2004, and two flutes made from swan bones excavated a decade
earlier (from the same cave in Germany, dated to circa 36,000 years ago) are among the
oldest known musical instruments.

Flute acoustics

A flute produces sound when a stream of air directed across a hole in the instrument
creates a vibration of air at the hole.

The air stream across this hole creates a Bernoulli, or siphon, effect leading to a von
Karman vortex street. This excites the air contained in the usually cylindrical resonant
cavity within the flute. The player changes the pitch of the sound produced by opening
and closing holes in the body of the instrument, thus changing the effective length of the
resonator and its corresponding resonant frequency. By varying the air pressure, a flute
player can also change the pitch of a note by causing the air in the flute to resonate at a
harmonic other than the fundamental frequency without opening or closing any holes.

To be louder, a flute must use a larger resonator, a larger air stream, or increased air
stream velocity. A flute's volume can generally be increased by making its resonator and
tone holes larger. This is why a police whistle, a form of flute, is very wide for its pitch,
and why a pipe organ can be far louder than a concert flute: a large organ pipe can
contain several cubic feet of air, and its tone hole may be several inches wide, while a
concert flute's air stream measures a fraction of an inch across.

The air stream must be directed at the correct angle and velocity, or else the air in the
flute will not vibrate. In fippled or ducted flutes, a precisely formed and placed windway
will compress and channel the air to the labium ramp edge across the open window. In
the pipe organ, this air is supplied by a regulated blower.

In non-fipple flutes, the air stream is shaped and directed by the player's lips, called the
embouchure. This allows the player a wide range of expression in pitch, volume, and
timbre, especially in comparison to fipple/ducted flutes. However, it also makes an end
blown flute or transverse flute considerably more difficult for a beginner to produce a full
sound on than a ducted flute, such as the recorder. Transverse and end-blown flutes also
take more air to play, which requires deeper breathing and makes circular breathing a
considerably trickier proposition.

Generally, the quality called timbre or "tone colour" varies because the flute can produce
harmonics in different proportions or intensities. The tone color can be modified by
changing the internal shape of the bore, such as the conical taper, or the diameter-to-
length ratio. A harmonic is a frequency that is a whole number multiple of a lower
register, or "fundamental" note of the flute. Generally the air stream is thinner (vibrating
in more modes), faster (providing more energy to excite the air's resonance), and aimed
across the hole less deeply (permitting a more shallow deflection of the air stream) in the
production of higher harmonics or upper partials.

Categories of flute

Playing the zampoña, a Pre-Inca instrument and type of pan flute.In its most basic form, a
flute can be an open tube which is blown like a bottle. There are several broad classes of
flutes. With most flutes, the musician blows directly across the edge of the mouthpiece.
However, some flutes, such as the whistle, gemshorn, flageolet, recorder, tin whistle,
tonette, fujara, and ocarina have a duct that directs the air onto the edge (an arrangement
that is termed a "fipple"). These are known as fipple flutes. The fipple gives the
instrument a distinct timbre which is different from non-fipple flutes and makes the
instrument easier to play, but takes a degree of control away from the musician.
Another division is between side-blown (or transverse) flutes, such as the Western
concert flute, piccolo, fife, dizi, and bansuri; and end-blown flutes, such as the ney, xiao,
kaval, danso, shakuhachi, Anasazi flute, and quena. The player of a side-blown flute uses
a hole on the side of the tube to produce a tone, instead of blowing on an end of the tube.
End-blown flutes should not be confused with fipple flutes such as the recorder, which
are also played vertically but have an internal duct to direct the air flow across the edge
of the tone hole.

Flutes may be open at one or both ends. The ocarina, xun, pan pipes, police whistle, and
bosun's whistle are closed-ended. Open-ended flutes such as the concert flute and the
recorder have more harmonics, and thus more flexibility for the player, and brighter
timbres. An organ pipe may be either open or closed, depending on the sound desired.

Flutes can be played with several different air sources. Conventional flutes are blown
with the mouth, although some cultures use nose flutes. The flue pipes of organs, which
are acoustically similar to duct flutes, are blown by bellows or fans

The Indian bamboo flute

Pannalal Ghosh, a legendary Indian flutist, was the first to transform a tiny folk
instrument to a bamboo flute (32 inches long with seven finger holes) suitable for playing
traditional Indian classical music, and also to bring to it the stature of other classical
music instruments. The extra hole permitted madhyam to be played, which facilitates the
meends (like M N, P M and M D) in several traditional ragas.

Indian concert flutes are available in standard pitches. In Carnatic music, the pitches are
referred by numbers such as (assuming C as the tonic) 1 (for C), 1-1/2 (C#), 2 (D), 2-1/2
(D#), 3 (E), 4 (F), 4-1/2 (F#), 5 (G), 5-1/2 (G#), 6 (A), 6-1/2 (A#) and 7 (B). However,
the pitch of a composition is itself not fixed and hence any of the flutes may be used for
the concert (as long as the accompanying instruments, if any, are tuned appropriately)
and is largely left to the personal preference of the artist.

Two main varieties of Indian flutes are currently used. The first, the Bansuri, has six
finger holes and one embouchure hole, and is used predominantly in the Hindustani
music of Northern India. The second, the Venu or Pullanguzhal, has eight finger holes,
and is played predominantly in the Carnatic music of Southern India. Presently, the eight-
holed flute with cross-fingering technique is common among many Carnatic flutists. This
technique was introduced by T. R. Mahalingam in the mid-20th century. It was then
developed by BN Suresh and Dr. N Ramani[citation needed]. Prior to this, the South
Indian flute had only seven finger holes, with the fingering standard developed by
Sharaba Shastri, of the Palladam school, at the beginning of the 20th century.[23] In
1998, based on his research on Bharata Natya Shastra's Sarana Chatushtai, Avinash
Balkrishna Patwardhan developed a methodology to produce perfectly tuned flutes for
the ten thatas currently present in Indian classical music.

Chinese flute
Chinese flute are called “di” (笛). There are many varieties of di with different sizes,
structures (with or without resonance membrane) and number of holes (from 6 to 11) and
intonations (playing in different keys) in China. Most are made of bamboo. One peculiar
feature about Chinese flute is the use of a resonance membrane mounting on one of the
holes which vibrates with the air column inside the tube. It gives the flute a bright sound.
Commonly seen flutes in modern Chinese orchestra are bangdi (梆笛), qudi (曲笛) ,
xindi (新笛) , dadi (大笛). The bamboo flute playing vertically is called “xiao”(簫)
which is a different category of wind instrument in China.

Japanese flute
The Japanese flute, called the fue, encompasses a large number of musical flutes from
Japan.

String
The sring (also called blul) is a relatively small, end-blown flute with a nasal tone
quality[25] and the pitch of a piccolo,[citation needed] found in the Caucasus region of
Eastern Armenia. It is made of wood or cane, usually with seven finger holes and one
thumb hole,[25] producing a diatonic scale. The sring is used by shepherds to play
various signals and tunes connected with their work, and also lyrical love songs called
chaban bayaty, as well as programmatic pieces.[citation needed] The sring is also used in
combination with the def and the dohl to provide music for dancing.[citation needed] One
Armenian musicologist believes the sring to be the most characteristic of national
Armenian instruments.[26]