DICTIONARY OF MUSIC - El Atril

60 FLAGEOLET FLAT
In the whistle, and in the English Flageolet,
the scale is simply that of the Flute ; indeed,
flutes are made from \\'hich the usual head can
be removedaud that of the Flageolet substituted.
The French Flageolet is similar in its upper
part, but possesses a more complicated scale,
and an abundance of auxiliary keys.
The inventiou of the Flageolet is ascribed by
Burney {Hist. iii. 278 note) to the Sieur .Juvigny,
who played it in the famous ' Ballet comique de la
Royiie,' 1,581. In the time of llersennus (l,588-
1648) the principal teacher and player was Le
Vacher (Hawkins, chap. 126). It appears to
have superseded the more ancient Recorder,
much as the Violin did the Viol. The two were
obviously for a time in use together in this
country ; for the ' Genteel Companion, being
exact directions for the Recorder, carefully composed
and gathered by Humphrey Salter,' is
dated from tlie ' '
Lute in St. Paul's churchyard
in 1683, whereas the 'Pleasant companion, or
new lessons and instructions for the Flagelet 1 ly
Thomas Greeting, Gent, ' was
' printed for J
Playf trd, and sold at his shop near the Temple
Church' inl682. The former work gives a plate
of a long bulky Recorder, reaching lialf-way
down to the player's knee, whereas the latter
represents him sitting over a table on which lies
his book, holding in his mouth and hands the
'Flagelet,' a pipe not more than nine inches
long ; on the table lies one somewhat larger,
apparently about twelve inches in length. ' It
may be carried in the pocket, and so without any
trouble be a companion by land and by water.'
In the same way the early Violins were termed
piecoli Violini alia Frances^ in opposition to the
more bulky A'iol. Both the flageolet and the recorder
read from a staff of six lines, each of which
represents a hole to be stopped. In the Recorder
music the tune, with proper notes and time, is
placed on a staff above, whereas in the Flageolet
a single symbol above the staff shows the time,
but not the intervals of the melody. [See Recorder.]
The flageolet has only six holes,
stopped by a different arrangement ; their closure
being appropriated successively to the thumb,
first, and second fingers of the left, followed in
order by the first finger, thumb, and secon