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Story of the Flute
One Gerhard Hoffmann is reported to have used the G♯ and B♭ keys in 1722. They first appeared in LondonFurther
Keys
added shortly after 1770. By their means all the semitones (except C♮) could be played without fork-fingerings. They also greatly improved the tone of several other notes. It is a matter of wonder how the chromatic passages and shakes found in the flute compositions of Quantz and other early composers could have been played without them. The name of the inventor is uncertain. Ribock, Lavoix, and Mahillon ascribe the short F♮ key to the somewhat mythical Kusder in 1762. Some ascribe all three to Tromlitz, and others (with considerable probability) to Joseph Tacet, who certainly was one of the first to employ them. Tacet, who also experimented with large finger-holes, such as Nicholson afterwards tried, was a flute-maker, player and composer of some note. He was a grandfather of Cipriani Potter; and Richard Potter (the well-known London flute-maker) adopted these keys on a flute made in or before 1774, on which Vanhall performed at The Hague, and which he subsequently sold to Ashe, the Irish flautist. This doubtless is the instrument referred to in the Encyclopédie Methodique (1785)—"It is pretended that an English musician has constructed a flute with seven keys in order to obtain all the semitones." Potter in 1785 took out the first English patent for improvements in the flute; it included these keys, also a metal tuning-slide, a screw-cork in the head-joint, and conical metal valves on the keys. He, however, makes no claim to
Keys
added shortly after 1770. By their means all the semitones (except C♮) could be played without fork-fingerings. They also greatly improved the tone of several other notes. It is a matter of wonder how the chromatic passages and shakes found in the flute compositions of Quantz and other early composers could have been played without them. The name of the inventor is uncertain. Ribock, Lavoix, and Mahillon ascribe the short F♮ key to the somewhat mythical Kusder in 1762. Some ascribe all three to Tromlitz, and others (with considerable probability) to Joseph Tacet, who certainly was one of the first to employ them. Tacet, who also experimented with large finger-holes, such as Nicholson afterwards tried, was a flute-maker, player and composer of some note. He was a grandfather of Cipriani Potter; and Richard Potter (the well-known London flute-maker) adopted these keys on a flute made in or before 1774, on which Vanhall performed at The Hague, and which he subsequently sold to Ashe, the Irish flautist. This doubtless is the instrument referred to in the Encyclopédie Methodique (1785)—"It is pretended that an English musician has constructed a flute with seven keys in order to obtain all the semitones." Potter in 1785 took out the first English patent for improvements in the flute; it included these keys, also a metal tuning-slide, a screw-cork in the head-joint, and conical metal valves on the keys. He, however, makes no claim to
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