The Story of the Flute

Front matter

THE FLUTE PLAYER (Meissonier)

The Story of the Flute By

H. Macaulay Fitzgibbon, M.A., SEN. MOD. (T.C.D.), AUTHOR OF "The early English and Scottish Poets and their Works."

Chapter 1: Flutes of the Ancients

Flutes of the Ancients.

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 the 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 trace. 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 seems 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, 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 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. The 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.

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 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 more 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. 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; above 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 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 celebrated 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 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 the 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 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."

Chapter 2: Flute À Bec and Recorder

CHAPTER II. FLUTE-À-BEC AND RECORDER. Beaked Flutes—Recorders—Double and Triple Recorders—Popularity—Gradual decline—Flageolet and other early pipes.

With the extinction of the ancient Egyptians. Greeks, and Romans there comes a gap in the history of the flute. We hear nothing of it for several centuries, till it appears in the form of the flute-douce, or flute-à-bec, so called from the resemblance of the mouth-piece to the beak of a bird—the direct descendant of the ancient whistle-flute. The number of finger-holes varied from three upwards. (See Figs. 9 and 10.) There were many varieties of this instrument, the English one being called Recorder. This name, rendered familiar by the famous passage in Hamlet (iii. 2)—which, by the way, one learned commentator explains as referring to "the legal official of a city" (!), who in thieves' slang is known as "The Flute"—is derived from an obsolete use of the verb "to record" as applied to the singing of birds: "The nightingale records again What thou dost primely sing" (Browne's Shepherd's Pipe ii. 75). Early writers have spoken of it as "the English flute" (a term still

applied to the tin whistle in France) in contradistinction to "the Helvetian [i.e., transverse] flute," but it certainly was not an English invention, though it is depicted in a Psalter of the twelfth century preserved in the Library of Glasgow University. A Cornish miracle-play of the fourteenth century includes "recordys" among the instruments played by King David's minstrels.

The Recorder was an open pipe fitted with a fipple-head and mouthpiece like a whistle, having seven finger-holes, with a thumb-hole at the back. The lowest hole was sometimes in duplicate for the use of left-handed players (hence the French called it "Flute à neuf trous"); the hole not required was stopped with wax. Later examples have an open key over this lowest hole, enclosed in a perforated wooden case and. fitted with double "cusps" or "touches." (See Fig. 11.) There were regular sets of recorders (called "chests," because they were all kept in one box) of different pitches and varying dimensions, ranging from sopranino to double bass, which last was over eight feet long, and was blown through a bent crook, somewhat like a bassoon, but coming out of the top. It sometimes had two pedal keys played by the feet of the performer, between which the end rested on the ground, the sound escaping through a side hole. Prætorius (1620) says that a complete set consisted of eight instruments and that a full flute band numbered twenty-one players, and Burney (1773) mentions one of from thirty to forty. Two "chests" still exist—the Nuremburg set of eight, dating from the sixteenth century, and the Chester set of four—discant, alto, tenor and bass—dating two centuries later.

There were also double and triple recorders. The double recorder consisted of two pipes, generally of unequal length and pitch, running into a common headjoint. The melody was played on one pipe, whilst the other furnished an accompaniment. The triple recorder had the third pipe standing out quite separately, but running into the side of the head-joint near the mouthpiece.

The recorder's tone was very soft and pleasing, but it was practically impossible to increase its volume or vary its quality. Little variety of expression was possible, and the second octave was difficult to produce; moreover, it was defective in tune. Mersenne mentions the curious detail that some players could hum the bass to an air while they played it!

These instruments long enjoyed great popularity all over Europe. The English excelled as performers, as Giovanni B. Doni tells us in his De Præstantia Musicæ Veteris, 1647; it is frequently mentioned in our early literature, and numerous tutors and much music was published for it. King Henry VIII, played it daily. Recorder-players were included in the royal band from the reign of Henry VII. down to that of Charles 11. One, named Nicholas Staggins, of bibulous tendencies—in 1695 he owed £120 for beer—accompanied King William to Holland. John Banister, leader of the Drury Lane band till 1720, was a famous performer. In 1695 the Royal Academy in Charles Street, Covent Garden, advertised in The Athenian Gazette that they gave lessons on the recorder. A typical fop of the period is depicted in a full-trimmed blue suit, with scarlet stockings rolled above his knees, a large white peruke, and playing on a recorder nearly an ell long. The instrument was frequently included in the scores of Handel and Bach, the last great composers to use it. It began to die out in France about 1750, but was played at a concert so late as 1800. In the end it was ousted by the new transverse or "German" flute (the recorder being then known as the "common" flute). It is now replaced by the more perfect clarinet, which also dealt a death-blow to the flageolet, a whistle-pipe with a receptacle for holding a sponge, introduced by Sieur Juvigny in 1581. John Hudgebut, in the preface to his Vade-mecum for the lovers of Musick (1679), contrasts the two instruments thus:—"Though the Flagilet like Esau hath got the start, as being of a more Antient standing, The Rechorder like Jacob hath got the Birth-right, being much more in Esteem and Veneration with the Nobility and Gentry, whilst the Flagilet sinks down a servant to the Pages and Footmen."

Other primitive forms of pipe, such as the Syrinz or Pan-pipes (still used as an orchestral instrument in Roumania, but with us relegated to the Punch and Judy man), the straw flute, the Eunuch flute, and the Tabor and Pipe—a long whistle pipe with two holes in front and one behind—are outside the scope of the present work.

The German Flute-Player ("The Modern Musick Master," 1731).

Chapter 3:Transverse Flute

THE TRANSVERSE FLUTE.

Sec. I.—Was it known to the Greeks and Romans?—The Chinese—India—Early representations and references—The Schweitzerpfeiff—Virdung—Agricola—Prætorius—Mersenne's description—In England.

Sec. II.—Flutes with keys—The D♯ key—Hotteterre—The conical bore—Structure of early flutes—Tuning slides—Quantz's inventions—The low C keys—Further keys added—Tromlitz's inventions—Open keys—The eight-keyed flute—Capeller and Nolan's keys.

SECTION I. — KEYLESS FLUTES.

The origin of the transverse or side-blown flute is involved in much obscurity. It was formerly thought to be comparatively modern, and Germany, Switzerland, and England have each been termed its birthplace. But more recent discoveries tend to prove that the transverse flute—though not so usual as the vertical flute—was probably known in Europe early in the Christian era. Possibly it was known to the ancient Greeks and Romans; but if so, it is very remarkable that no clear allusion to it can be found in any of the writings of either nation. Care must be taken not to confuse it with the plagiaulos (see p. 13, ante) or with ancient pipes blown across the open upper end and held sideways, which are never depicted with a lateral mouth-hole, and never have the end of the tube protruding beyond the mouth of the player.

Ward, in his Word on the Flute, citing Hawkins, mentions an engraving of a tesselated pavement in a temple of Fortuna Virilis at Rome, built by Sylla (c. 78 B.C.), in which he says there is a representation of a player with a transverse pipe "exactly corresponding with the German flute"; and Montfaucon, in his L'Antiquité Expliqueé gives two copies of bas-reliefs of a similar kind. Kircher (1650) also represents transverse flutes as known to the Egyptians many centuries before Christ. But the correctness of these statements and the accuracy of the copyist are extremely doubtful. In the case of ancient statues (such as The Piping Faun) the flute with a lateral mouth-hole is probably invariably a modern restoration. There is, however, in the British Museum a fragmentary flute found by Sir Charles Newton in a tomb at Halicarnassus, and one of the fragments has what certainly appears to be a side-blown mouth-hole cut in a wedge-like excrescence, beyond which the tube (of ivory) projects. But no undoubted and complete specimen of a real transverse side-blown flute, or absolutely authentic contemporary representation of such an instrument, has ever been found among the numerous relics of the ancient Greeks, Romans, or Egyptians. If the transverse flute was known in pre-Christian Europe, it certainly disappeared completely for many centuries.

Transverse flutes were known to the Chinese and to the Japanese from time immemorial, and Dr. Lea Southgate considers that probably the European transverse flute is derived from the Chinese Tsche, but he gives no evidence in support of this startling theory. In India also the instrument was certainly known at a very early period. Some carvings of the god Krishna (to whom the natives attribute the invention of the flute) on the eastern gateway of Sanchi Tope in Madras, and various ancient monuments in Buddist Temples in Central India, dating about 50 B.C., contain representations of transverse flutes. It is depicted on the Tope of Amaravati (now in the British Museum), which dates from the first century.

I can find no substantial evidence of the existence of transverse flutes in Europe till the tenth and eleventh centuries. Such instruments are portrayed on some ivory caskets of the tenth century Early in the National Museum at Florence, also in some Greek MSS. of the same date in the Bibliotheque National in Paris, and in an illuminated Byzantime MS. of the eleventh century in the British Museum. There is in the oldest portion of the Cathedral of Kieff, in Russia, a picture stated to have been painted early in the eleventh century, which includes a transverse flute. We find pictures of transverse flutes in Hortus Deliciarum, written in the twelfth century by Herrade de Landsberg, Abbess of Hohenbourg, and in the Codex to the Cantigas de Santa Maria, an illustrated Spanish MS. of the thirteenth century, written by King Don Alonzo of Sabio and preserved in the Escurial at Madrid. This last-mentioned picture has been reproduced in Don F. Aznar's Indumentaria Espanola, 1880, in Don Juan Riano's Notes on Early Spanish Music (App. Fig. 8, p. 118), London, 1887, and also in English Music, p. 139. It is to be noticed that the player is left-handed. Another early picture of a transverse flute occurs in The Romance of Alexander by Jehan de Guise, dated 1344, now in the Bodleian Library. There is in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford a china basin from Urbino, dating about 1600, depicting a feast, which portrays a long transverse flute, and beside the player lies a case for the instrument.

A Provençal poet, musician, and composer, named Guillaume de Machault, born c. 1300 (whose works were discovered in 1747), in his La Prise d'Alexandrie, includes "flaüstes traverseinnes" in a long list of the instruments of his day. This would appear to be the earliest known mention of the transverse flute in literature. It is also mentioned by Eustache Deschamps, another French poet of the fourteenth century. It certainly was well known in the time of Gallileo; and Rabelais, writing about 1533, describes Gargantua as playing on the Allman [i.e., German] flute with nine holes (Bk. I., ch. 23).