Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

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always tell which flute he intends to be used, the third decade of the 19th century, long
for lie terms the Common flute Flauto ; the after that instrument had been banished from
German flute Traversa, Traversa, Traversiire, the orchestra, the second hautboy player used
Traversiera ;
sometimes, hut rarely, Flauto to play the part on a so-called flageolet at the
Traversa. Scarcely ever does Ije leave open Antient Concerts. As the society was established
in 1776, only seventeen years after
which flute is to be employed ; there is, however,
in 'Paniasso in Festa,' a passage marked Handel's death, it is reasonable to suppose that
Flauto ou Trav. 1., Flauto ou Trav. II. the practice was handed down from 'the time
Handel's orchestra is known to have contained of the great composer.
four hautboys and four bassoons ;
his flutes, as When the orchestra was remodelled by Haydn
will be shown, were still more numerous. He only the transverse flute was retained, the
once uses una traversa bassa. When he wrote Common flute being altogether rejected. The
iraversieri tviti, he no doubt expected not short German flute having thus captured its rival's
of four treble transverse flutes to respond. It place, proceeded to usurp its title of Flauto, and
seems certain that he had at his command as to drop its old name, Traversa. Its superiority
many Common flutes ; for the fourth scene of the for orchestral purposes was already so marked
first act of ' Giustino ' opens with a passage in as to cause Haydn's choice to fall upon it
which not less than four FlauK and a Bassa de' but during Haydn's career as a composer it
Flauti play together. We are not bound to received an improvement which gave the coup
suppose that Handel had in his pay ten de grdee to the old favourite. The improvement
consisted in boring new holes in the tube
musicians who devoted themselves exclusively
to the flute ;
performers on other instruments, and covering them with keys kept closed by
especially the hautboy, were expected to take springs. To make clear the importance of this
the flute when required.
step it is necessary to explain that in the onekeyed
flute, which was tlien in use, there were
Handel could call for not only five but six
fipple flutes, his ottavino being a fiauta piccolo, no holes for four of the notes of the chromatic
or octave Common flute, not a transverse instrument.
This does not seem to be even suspected,
yet the evidence is quite conclusive. Here one
proof must suffice. The accompaniment to
' Augelletti che cantate (the air in ' ' Kinaldo,
on the singing of which birds were let loose) is
marked in the conducting waT& flauto piccolo,
but in the autograph copy in Buckingham
Palace Handel has written ' Flageolett.' Now
Handel would never have called a transverse
piccolo a flageolet. The usual description of
this accompaniment, that it is scored for two
flutes and a piccolo, gives to the modern reader
a false impression, neither the flutes nor the
piccolo being the instruments we now call by
those names. It is a trio for three fipple flutes,
a. flauto piccolo and two flauti ; the flauto piccolo
playing a brilliant solo which th.e flauti support.
The accompaniment has been pronounced by a
musician to be the ' loveliest imaginable ' ;
the
scoffing Addison writes of it, The musick ' proceeded
from a concert of flagelets and bird-calls
which were planted behind the scenes. ' Handel
uses tYie flauto piccolo in a Tamburino in ' Alcina,
and in two movements of the Water Music. In
the latter two piccolos which play in unison are
employed. They are not in the same key as the
orchestral piccolo, but, like it, they were fipple
flutes. Thrice the flauto piccolo furnishes a florid
aceorapaniment to the soprano voice ; in Augelletti
che cantate, ' just mentioned, in a song in
'
' Kiccardo,' and in Hush, ye ' pretty warbling
choir,' in =Acis and Galatea.' The obbligato
in the last-named work to the bass solo, '
ruddier than the cherry,' is marked in the
score flauto, but seems to have been always
assigned to the flauto piccolo. As late as
octave. When the player was in want of
either of them, he muffled, and to some extent
flattened, the note above the accidental needed
by closing one or more holes below the hole
from which the note to be flattened issued.
Although tlie spurious notes thus obtained were
so impure, feeble, and out of tune as to make
the flute and those who played it bywords
amongst musicians, the one-keyed flute held its
ground for a period of not far short of a century.
Remonstrances on the subject of its imperfections
were put to silence by the dictum that
the flute, like the violin, was perfect ; the
player, it was asserted, not the instrument, was
at fault. At length a stand was made against
authority. The rebellion broke out in England,
where two professional players named Tacet and
Florio had the courage to adopt a flute with no
less than six keys. Their example was quickly
followed. Between 1770 and 1780 the sixkeyed
flute came into use in this country, and
by degrees, in spite of opposition, the keys were
introduced abroad.
The advantages conferred on the transverse
flute by the completion of the chromatic octave
were so immense that it is inconceivable that
the makers of the time should not have thought
of applying the system to the Common flute.
Why the idea was not carried out is unknown,
but it may be conjectured that mechanical
difficulties stood in the way. Of the ten digits
with which the hands of man are furnished
but nine are available for execution, the tenth
being required for holding the flute. As the
Common flute was pierced with eight holes,
only one finger was free when they were all
closed. Possibly, then, the makers may have
;