Page:The story of the flute (IA storyofflute1914fitz).djvu/56

Story of the Flute

Bacon's Sylva Sylvarum: having described the method of blowing the recorder, he says, "Some kinds of instruments are blown at a small hole in the side, . . . as is seen in flutes and fifes, which will not give sound by a blast at the end, as recorders do." This was written certainly before the end of 1626, as Bacon died in that year, and the book was published posthumously in the following year.

SECTION II. — FLUTES WITH KEYS.

Hitherto all flutes were made of wood (generally boxwood), with a round mouth-hole—the oval mouth-hole did not appear till about 1724—with six finger-holes only, without any keys, and pitched in the major diatonic scale. The application of additionalThe D♯
Key holes stopped by keys dates from about 1660-70, when Lulli first introduced the flute into the orchestra. About that date some now unknown inventor, probably of French origin, introduced the D♯ key, which is found on the Chevalier flute (c. 1670), and is shown in a picture dated 1690. Virdung, Agricola, Mersenne, Prætorius, and Bartholinus (1677) all give representations of a bass flute-à-bec with a key enclosed in a perforated casing for a low note (see Fig. 11); but this device does not appear to have been applied to transverse flutes of the period. The invention of this D♯ key was the first really important step in the improvement of the flute. The innovation was at once adopted by Philbert (who

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