The Story of the Flute/Chapter 1

by Henry Macaulay Fitzgibbon

Layout 2

The
Story of the Flute.

CHAPTER I.

Flutes of the Ancients.^[1]

Antiquity of the flute—Classic legends—Egyptian origin—The Arab "Nay"—Development—The Fipple—Fingerholes—Double flutes—Popularity amongst the Ancients—Ancient players of note—Their position and costume.

It is often asserted that the flute is the oldest of all musical instruments: in one sense this is true; in another it is not accurate. It would seem that all the world over a pipe of some sort was theAntiquity
of the
Flute earliest form of musical instrument (the primitive drum can hardly be so termed), and preceded the invention of any kind of stringed instrument; but what we now call a flute—i.e., a tube held parallel to the lips and blown through a hole in the upper side—is in all probability of comparatively modern origin. The term "flute" was formerly applied to all Instruments of the pipe or whistle class, either with or without reeds. According to Hawkins and Grassineau, the name was derived from fluta, a lamprey or small Sicilian eel, which has seven breathing-holes on each side below the eyes, like the finger-holes on the primitive pipe or flute. Surely it is much more probable that the eel may have been called after the instrument! Cotgrave, in his Dictionary (1632), says, "A lamprey is sometimes called a Fleute d'Aleman, by reason of the little holes which he hath on the upper part of his body." The true origin of the name is to be sought for in the Latin flatus, a blowing or breathing.

The origin of the primitive pipe is lost in the mists of antiquity, and its early history is extremely difficult to Classic
Legendstrace. The legendary date of its invention is given in the Parian Chronicle in the Arundelian Marbles (now in Oxford) as 1506 B.C. It was probably suggested by the whistling of the wind over the tops of the river reeds—"there's music in the sighing of a reed" (Byron). The classical legend relates how

"fair trembling Syrinz fled,
Arcadian Pan, with such a fearful dread";

and how her prayer that she should be changed by the Naiads into reeds by the river bank was granted—

"Poor nymph—poor Pan—how he did weep to find
Nought but a lovely sighing of the wind
Along the reedy stream! a half-heard strain,
Full of sweet desolation—balmy pain."—Keats.

Thinking that they were concealing the nymph, Pan cut the reeds, and amorously sighing over them, they gave forth musical sounds, whereupon he fashioned them into pipes of various lengths and played upon them.

Ovid assigns the invention of the flute to Minerva, who, finding herself laughed at by Juno and Venus whenever she played it,

"Flung it aside, when she her face surveyed
Distorted in a fountain as she played.
Th' unlucky Marsyas found it and his fate
Was one to make the bravest hesitate."
—Longfellow

Alcibiades abandoned the flute for a like reason, saying that a man's most intimate friends would hardly recognise him when playing it. Hence Greek sculptors never represented a player actually blowing into the flute, and the ancient players often wore veils.

To return to Pan and Marsyas. The former challenged Apollo to a contest between flute and lyre (Apollo's special instrument). Midas, King of Phrygia, who acted as judge, decided in favour of Pan and his flute, and was decorated with asses' ears in consequence. Apollo then challenged Marsyas, a famous flute-player, whom he defeated, because Apollo accompanied his lyre with his voice. Marsyas complained that this was unfair at a trial of instruments only, to which the god rejoined that Marsyas also used both his fingers and his mouth. This puzzled the judges, and another trial was ordered, at which Marsyas was again defeated. Apollo, irritated at this presumption on the part of a mortal, with his own hand flayed poor Marsyas alive. This is said by Pausanias to have been a condition of the contest. Plato and other early authorities allege that Marsyas was a real person, a native of Celænæ in Phrygia, and son of King Hyagnis, to whom Apuleius attributes the invention of the double-flute.

Several ancient writers attribute the origin of the instrument to Osiris, the Egyptian Water-god. There Egyptian
Origin of
Fluteseems to be no doubt that Egypt, as Kircher asserted, was the land of its birth. Primitive flutes have been found in Egyptian tombs dating centuries before the Christian era.

Early Egyptian wall paintings depict the flute more frequently than any other instrument; a long, thin,

Fig. 1.
Egyptian oblique flute-player

straight pipe (called Saib, or Sebi) held obliquely and blown across the open end, which was held at an angle. (Fig. 1.) In addition to the fingerholes (closed with the second joint of the fingers, as is still done in Japan and parts of Spain and Italy), the left hand was often used to vary the notes by closing or partly closing the lower end of the tube—just as horn-players until quite recent times used to thrust the hand up the bell. In one of the tombs in the Gizeh Pyramid (c. 2000 B.C.) a band of seven players is depicted, performing on slanting flutes of various lengths, accompanying a soloist who is standing, the rest being either on their knees or sitting. He is apparently a noted performer, as he alone is fully clothed; possibly he is a conductor. The other players all have their lower hand on the inner side of the pipe, but his is on the outer side. In these old designs it is always the hand away from the spectator that is stretched to the end of the flute; but though the players are very frequently represented as being left-handed, we learn from Apuleius (Met., lib. xi. 9) that the custom was (as now) to hold the tube to the right side : "Obliquis calamus ad aurem porrectum dextram." In the reproduction of this highly interesting picture given by Engel (Mus. Insts. 13) the flutes of the three players nearest to the soloist are not at their mouths, and he suggests that the division of the players into two groups may possibly represent firsts and seconds. The flutes are very long, the players' arms being extended to their full length in order to reach the furthest hole. Mr. Flinders Petrie discovered two ancient flutes of slender make in the tomb of the Lady Maket, dating about 1450 B.C. These probably had originally reed mouthpieces, now lost, or were blown across the open top. They were encased in larger reeds to preserve them. One has four oval holes and the other three, of unequal size, getting rather larger towards the bottom. They are both about 17 1/2 inches long, and are not absolutely cylindrical, tapering slightly towards the bottom end. These Maket pipes are very interesting as being "the oldest evidence of the world's earliest music" (Herman Smith). Juba, in his Theatrical History describes an Egyptian oblique flute called Photinx, or the crooked flute, owing to its being in the shape of a bull's horn. Possibly it was originally nothing else, or perhaps a cow's horn may have been added to the straight pipe. M. Gevaert, however, thinks it was a side-blown flute like ours. It is mentioned by Apuleius as used in the mysteries of Isis, and the players were consecrated to Serapis.

The Nay played by the Arabs and other kindred nations to-day (readers will recollect the Arab The Arab
"Nay"Nay-player in Mr. Hitchen's Barbary Sheep, perpetually playing the same monotonous tune) greatly resembles these early Egyptian flutes; similar primitive instruments have been found in China, North America, Mexico, Madagascar, and Africa. The Bulgarians still use an instrument of this type called the Kaval. A remarkable feature about these ancient flutes is their small diameter as compared with their length, which would tend to evidence a knowledge of harmonics.

The words αὐλός, or tibia, are used very indefinitely by classical writers to signify various kinds of pipes. Development:
The Fipple:
Finger-holesThe original form of the instrument was a simple vertical pipe blown across the top, which was open. The first step in advance was the cutting or a V-shaped notch in the edge of the open top of the pipe; this facilitated the production of sound. (Fig. 2.) The inventor of this device is unknown. It is found in very ancient Chinese flutes and is still used by the natives in Bolivia, in Uganda and the Soudan, and elsewhere. I have in my possession a flute of this kind with a very small V-notch. It is comparatively modern, and has five finger-holes in front and a thumb-hole and a double-hole at the back for the little finger for either a left or right-handed player.

Fig. 2.
The V-Notch.

Next came the idea of partly filling up or plugging the open upper end of the tube and cutting an opening with a sharp edge a little lower down, as in the ordinary whistle. The breath is thus directed in a thin stream against this lower edge. The date of this innovation cannot be ascertained, but it is certainly of very early origin, and was known to the Greeks. It is also met with in ancient Hindu sculptures. Bruce mentions an Abyssinian flute, called "kwetz," with this fipple mouthpiece as being quite common in that country and much used in war: "Its tone is not loud, but is accompanied by a kind of jar, like a broken oboe, not owing to any accidental defect, but to construction and design, as it would not be esteemed without it." Certainly there is no accounting for tastes!

The number of finger-holes was at first two, three, or four: they were afterwards increased to six and a thumb-hole at the back. Some specimens found at Pompeii, and now in the museum at Naples, have no less than fifteen holes. They are straight tubes of ivory, and were originally fitted with tight bands of metal (probably silver), one for each hole. These bands were each pierced with a hole to correspond with a hole in the tube, and they could be turned round so as to open or close the hole (and thus fix the mode), for which purpose they were sometimes fitted with a hook-like
Fig. 3.—double flute-player. (from an etruscan mural painting.)projection. Flutes of this description were termed "bombux"; Pausanias attributes their invention to Pronomus.

The double flute was largely used by the ancient Assyrians, Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans, and it is Double
Flutesmore frequently depicted in their works of art than the single pipe. (Fig. 3.) An Egyptian mural painting (of which a copy exists in the British Museum), dating from before 1300 B.C. represents a woman playing a double flute at a festival in honour of the god Ptah. Double flutes are still used in Greece and by the boatmen on the Nile, who call them "Archool," or "Zimmerah." Mr. Herman Smith thinks that the double pipe, with three or four holes on each pipe, preceded the six-holed single pipe. By the Greeks it was termed δίαυλος, and by the Romans Tibia Pares, or Gemini, when of equal length, and Impares when unequal. It consisted of two distinct pipes, sometimes united in one common mouthpiece. (Fig. 4.) As a rule the two pipes were not in unison; the longer and deeper pipe, called the Male (as representing a man's voice), was generally on the right, and it (according to the taste of the age) played the melody.

Fig. 4.—Double Flute. (From Hoissard's "Roman Antiquities.")
Fig. 5.—Double Flutes, with several bulbs.

The shorter or Female pipe played the accompaniment, which was pitched higher than the melody. One pipe may have been sometimes used as a drone. When both were played together it was termed γαμήλιον αὔλημα = married piping. Sometimes the instrument was played with reversed hands, the right hand playing the left pipe and vice-versa. In Egypt the double flute would appear to have been played by women only. On Etruscan vases, dating about 400 B.C., we find double flutes depicted with one or more bulbs at each of the mouth-ends (which were not connected). (Figs. 5 and 8.) This is called the Subulo, or Greco-Etruscan flute, and no specimen is extant. The bulbs may have been merely for ornament, but Herman Smith suggests that they were detachable pieces, which could be arranged by the player, and that they contained a concealed reed, which could be transferred from one bulb to another in order to alter the pitch. The Hebrews also had a double flute, the "Mashrokitha," and we find double flutes depicted on Indian monuments, such as the Sanchi Tope Gate, c. 100 A.D. The flute was employed by the ancient Greeks and Romans in almost every scene of life, public or private; Popularity
of the
Flute
amongst
the
Ancientsabove all at the festivals of Artemis and Dionysius. The sacrificial auletes at Athens played a solemn air on the flute close to the ear of the priest during the sacrifice, in order to keep off inattention or distraction. (Fig. 6.) Flutes accompanied the chariot race in the Olympic games; the Etrurians boxed to the sound of flutes; Roman orators were wont to station flute-players behind them, so that when they raised their voices to too high a pitch the flute might sound a lower note (Caius Gracchus employed a slave named Liscinius for this purpose). They were played at death-beds (a custom found also among the Jews), hence the saying Jam licet ad tibicenes mittas: "Now you may send for the flute-players," when one was about to die. Tibicenes were also employed on vessels to cheer the rowers and to mark the time. Special names were given to each variety of flute-players and their instruments—Fetis mentions thirty-seven—according to their special employment. Thus players at funerals were called "Tumbauloi," "Paratretes," or "Siticenes," and in order to check extravagance it was found necessary

Fig. 6.—AULETES. (From the frieze of the Parthenon.)

to limit their number to ten. Those employed at weddings were termed "Hymeneemes"; the horse-keeper's laurel flute was called "Hippophoiboi"; the sailor's flute was "Trierikos." Others again were named after the country whence they originated—the Lybian flute, the Berecythian or Phrygian flute, etc.

Although unfortunately none of the music played on these ancient flutes has survived, the names of many Ancient
Players
of Notecelebrated players have been preserved by classical authors. The Thebans were esteemed the greatest performers, and when their city was destroyed their chief anxiety was to recover from the ruins a statue of Mercury with this inscription: "Greece has declared that Thebes wins the prize upon the flute." Olympus, a Phrygian poet and composer about the year 630 B.C., has been credited, by Plato, Aristotle, and Plutarch, with the introduction of the instrument into Greece from Asia. He is referred to in The Knights of Aristophanes, "Let us weep and wail like two flutes breathing some air of Olympus." Pronomus, of Thebes (c. 440 B.C.), who taught Alcibiades, could play in three modes on his flute. Terpander (c. 680 B.C.) is said to have once quelled a tumult by his flute, and also to have invented notation. The flute of Telaphanes of Samos is said to have had equal power over man and brute. Philoxenes, another famous player, was a notorious glutton, and wished that he were all neck, so that he could enjoy his food more! Pindar—himself a flute-player—has written an ode (the twelfth) in praise of Midas "the Glorious," a Sicilian, twice winner of the prize for flute-playing at the Phrygian games. Pliny says that Midas was the inventor of a flute called πλᾰγίαυλος, or tibia obliqua or vasca, which had a small tube, almost at right angles to the main pipe, containing a reed, through which the player blew, holding the instrument sideways, (Fig. 7.) Servius considers that this was the instrument mentioned by Virgil in the line "Aut, ubi curva chores indixit tibia" (Æn. xi. 737), but more probably the Phrygian horn-flute was intended. Antigenidas, who increased the number of holes, so transported Alexander the Great by his playing of a martial air at a banquet that the monarch seized his weapons and almost attacked his guests. Epaminondas, the Theban general, when informed that the Athenians had sent troops into the Peloponnesus equipped with new arms, asked "whether Antigenidas was disturbed when he saw new flutes in the hands of Tellis" (a bad

Fig. 7.—Plagiaulos, or Ringed Flute, with Projecting Mouthpiece

performer). Plutarch speaks of a flute-player named Dorion and mentions one Theodorus as a celebrated flute-maker.

Aristotle says that at first the flute was considered an ignoble instrument, only suitable for mean people, and not for freemen, but that after the defeat of Position
and
Costume
of Playersthe Persians it was much valued, and it became a disgrace to a gentleman not to be able to play it. The Tibicenes or professional flute-players were latterly highly honoured in Greece, statues were raised to them, they were paid very large sums, and were generally very well to do. Xenophon says that if a bad player on the flute wished to appear to be a good player, he must imitate their example and expend large sums on rich furniture and keep many servants. In fact, the expression "to live the life of a flute-player" became proverbial as typifying luxury. Good players were paid as much as £200 for a concert. In the year 309 B.C. the Roman flute-players who performed at the sacrifices were deprived of the privilege of eating in the Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus. They accordingly struck and retired to Tivoli. They were beguiled back by a stratagem: having been all made drunk at a feast (but this is denied by some as impossible!), they were carried in waggons back to Rome and given three days' holiday

Fig. 8.—Capistrum and Bulbed Double Flute

in each year, and the right to eat in the Temple was restored to them. Professional flute-players wore a dress peculiar to themselves, generally of yellow or saffron, with green or blue slippers embroidered with silver, and had a bandage of leathern thongs, called ϕορβεία περιστόμιον, or Capistrum across the mouth, with a small hole for the breath to pass through. (Fig. 8.) Its object was to keep the lips and cheeks firm and prevent, undue distension, and also perhaps to hold up the instrument so as to leave the hands free to turn the rings on the flute. Competitions in flute-playing were frequent among the Greeks, and their endeavour was to produce the highest and loudest notes. Heliodorus (Æthop. ii.) describes a flute-player with eyes inflamed and starting" out of their sockets, and Lucian tells how one Harmonides killed himself by his efforts. The instruments themselves fetched very high prices, often £400 or £500, and Lucian says that Ismenias of Thebes gave over £1000 of our money for a flute at Corinth. He, however, was considered rather extravagant. Atheas, King of the Scythians, said he preferred the flute-playing of Ismenias to the braying of an ass—a doubtful form of compliment, possibly an allusion to the story of Midas. Plutarch relates how on one occasion this performer was engaged to play at a sacrifice. As no good omen appeared, the employer snatched the flute from Ismenias and began to play on it himself, whereupon a good omen at once appeared. "There," said he, "to play acceptably to the gods is their own gift," whereupon the witty Ismenias replied that the gods were so delighted with his playing they deferred the omen, so that they might hear him longer, "but were glad to get rid of your noise at any price."

1. Save where otherwise stated, the "flutes" referred to in Chaps. I. and II. were vertical pipes, and not transverse or side-blown flutes in the modern sense.