Controversy after Böhm's Death
new "Equisonant" flute—attributing the invention to Gordon. A much stronger, though less oratorical, supporter of Böhm's claims, Mr. Richard Carte (1845), pointed out that Gordon would hardly have remained on such friendly terms with Böhm if the latter had robbed him of his invention in 1832. Fetis, the French musical historian (c. 1865), rather favoured Gordon.
Nothing further was heard about the matter till after Böhm's death. In several of the foreign obituary notices Gordon was again put forward asContro-
versy
Revived
on Böhm's
Death entitled to the credit of the invention, and in the London Figraro of December 28th, 1881, Gordon's madness was said to be due to "seeing the results of his own talent attributed to Bohm." To this article Mr. Walter Stewart Broadwood, an enthusiastic flautist and a personal friend of Bohm, replied in the same paper and also in the Musical World of January 1st, 1882; and Schafhäutl wrote a paper—a translation of which appeared in the Musical World of February 18th, 1882—strongly advocating Bohm's claims.
The controversy slept once more till 1890, when Mr. R. S. Rockstro, in his elaborate treatise The Flute, took up the cudgels for Gordon, and treated BöhmRockstro's
Attack as more or less an impostor. An able and conclusive reply to Rockstro was furnished by Mr. C. Welch in his History of the Böhm Flute, 3rd ed., 1896. Böhm's latest champion is Mr. H. Clay Wysham, an enthusiastic American flautist, in his little work The Evolution of the Böhm Flute.
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