Today is Toot your Flute Day. 10 things you might not know about flutes:
Various materials have been used to make flutes throughout history, including reed, Bamboo, wood, Glass and bone. One of the earliest flutes ever found was made from a juvenile cave bear's femur, with holes bored into it. This dates back 43,000 years ago.
Today, flutes are made from metal, usually Silver or nickel. Gold, platinum, grenadilla and Copper might also be used.
A flute produces sound when a stream of air directed across a hole in the instrument creates a vibration of air at the hole. Any open tube that you blow into is technically a flute, even an empty coke bottle.
The material a flute is made of wood or metal changes its sound. The thickness of the metal also changes the sound.
A person who plays the flute is called a flute player, a flutist, a flautist, a fluter, or a flutenist.
Flutes have been called a number of different names through the ages. The earliest written reference to a flute is from a Sumerian-language cuneiform tablet dated to c. 2600–2700 BC. The first known use of the English word flute in writing is by Geoffrey Chaucer, at around 1380, in his poem, The House of Fame.
The Hindu god Krishna is said to have created the world by playing a flute, and Hindus believe the flute preaches love and freedom.
Despite being made of metal and not using a reed, the flute belongs in the woodwind section of the orchestra.
A standard concert flute is around 26 inches long and has a range of about 3 octaves (roughly between C4 and C7). There are 2-4 flutes in an orchestra. There might also be a piccolo, which is a half-size version of a flute which sounds one octave higher than the standard concert flute. The word piccolo means “small” in Italian.
The flute requires more breath than any other instrument, including the Tuba.
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