Flageolet
Woodwind instrument | |
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Classification | |
Related instruments | |
The flageolet is a
Origins
Flageolets have varied greatly during the last 400 years. The first flageolets were called "French flageolets", and have four tone-holes on the front and two on the back. This instrument was played by Hector Berlioz, Frédéric Chalon, Samuel Pepys, and Robert Louis Stevenson. Henry Purcell and George Frideric Handel both wrote pieces for it. An early collection of manuscript Lessons for the Flajolet, dating from about 1676, is preserved in the British Library.[5] Small versions of this instrument, called bird flageolets, were also made and were used for teaching birds to sing. These tiny flageolets have, like the French flageolet, four finger holes on the front and two thumb holes on the back.
The number of keys on French flageolets ranges from none to seven, the exception being the Boehm system French flageolet made by Buffet Crampon which had thirteen keys. The arrangement of the tone holes on the flageolet yields a scale different from that on the whistle or recorder. Whereas the whistle's basic scale is D-E-F#-G-A-B-C#-d, the flageolet's basic scale is D-E-F-G-A-B-C-d. Cross-fingerings and keys are required to fill in the gaps.
Extensions
In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, certain
In 1805 William Bainbridge made a double flageolet out of one piece of wood. In December 1805 his rival Thomas Scott was granted a patent for "an instrument on the flageolette principle, so constructed as a single instrument that two parts of a musical composition can be played thereon at the same time by one person".
Design
The mouthpiece of the initial French design resembled that of a recorder. A later design placed an elongated windcap around the entrance to the duct and became the standard for the English instrument. The mouthpiece was a flat bit of ivory or bone. The chamber inside the windcap was intended to collect moisture and prevent it from entering the duct, employing differing devices for that purpose.
The stream of air passing through the duct crosses the window and is split by the labium (also lip or edge) giving rise to a musical sound. There body (or bodies, in a double or triple flageolet) contains the finger holes and keys. The windcap is not essential to the sound production and the instrument can be played by blowing directly into the duct as in the initial recorder-type design.
The flageolet was eventually entirely replaced by the tin whistle and is rarely played today.[4] However, it is a very easy instrument to play and the tone is soft and gentle. It has a range of about two octaves.
See also
References
- ^ Head, Jacob. "Biographies of famous Flageolet Players". Flageolets.com. Retrieved 13 April 2017.
- ISBN 1-56159-174-2
- ^ Head, Jacob. "William Bainbridge". Flageolets.com. Retrieved 13 April 2017.
- ^ a b others, Jacob Head and. "The Pleasant Companion—The Flageolet Site". Flageolets.com. Retrieved 13 April 2017.
- ^ British Library Sloane MS 1145, ff. 35–39.
- ^ The Pleasant Companion: The Flageolets Site "The Flageolet Family" Archived 2008-01-16 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ British patent No. 2995 (1806)
- ^ John Purkis. Scott & Purkis's Delecta Harmonia or Patent Double-Flageolet, a complete Tutor for the above Instrument (London, c. 1806)
- JSTOR 842521.
External links
- flageolets.com — a site devoted to the flageolet
- leflageoletfrancais.com — a French-language blog devoted to the French flageolet (original URL is dead)