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The transverse flute and its features. The Magic Flute: The True Breath of Music Flute Structure

Flute- a common name for a number of musical wind instruments from the woodwind group. It is one of the oldest musical instruments in origin. Unlike other wind instruments, flute sounds are formed as a result of cutting the air stream on the edge, instead of using the reed. A musician who plays the flute is commonly referred to as a flutist.

Types

The head of the flute family is the Great Flute. Each of the members of this instrumental family is nothing more than a reduced or enlarged copy of it. There are the following types:

  • Block flute(German: Blockflöte - a flute with a block) - a kind of longitudinal flute. This is a woodwind musical instrument from the whistle family. The design of the head part uses an insert (block). Related instruments: flute, sopilka, whistle. The recorder differs from other similar instruments by the presence of 7 finger holes on the front side and one on the back - the so-called octave valve. The two lower holes are often made double. 8 fingers are used to close the holes when playing. To take notes, the so-called. fork fingerings (when the holes are closed not in turn, but in a complex combination). Among the varieties of the longitudinal flute, the recorder is defined as the most important. In European countries, it has been spreading since the 11th century; subsequently, the popularity of this instrument increased, as a result of which, in the period from the 16th to the 18th century, the recorder was the most actively used and frequently encountered variety of flute. The instrument is characterized by a soft, warm, cantilene (that is, melodious) timbre, but at the same time, it has limited possibilities in terms of dynamics. The recorder is often used in the musical works of such composers as J. S. Bach, A. Vivaldi, G. F. Handel and others. Due to the fact that the sound of the recorder is rather weak, its popularity gradually decreased due to the spread of the transverse flute. However, this variety is currently enjoying some interest for several reasons; among them - the trend towards the revival of early music and the possibility of using the recorder as a teaching instrument (since the technique of playing it is relatively simple)
  • transverse flute(often just a flute; Italian flauto from Latin flatus - “wind, breath”; French flûte, English flute, German Flöte) is a woodwind musical instrument of the soprano register. The pitch on the flute changes by blowing (extracting harmonic consonances with the lips), as well as by opening and closing holes with valves. Modern flutes are usually made of metal (nickel, silver, gold, platinum), less often - from wood, sometimes - from glass, plastic and other composite materials. The name is due to the fact that during the game the musician holds the instrument not in a vertical, but in a horizontal position; the mouthpiece, respectively, is located on the side. Flutes of this design appeared quite a long time ago, in the era of late antiquity and in ancient China (9th century BC). The modern stage in the development of the transverse flute begins in 1832, when the German master T. Boehm improved it; over time, this variety replaced the previously popular longitudinal flute. The transverse flute is characterized by a range from the first to the fourth octave; the lower register is soft and muffled, the highest sounds, on the contrary, are piercing and whistling, and the middle and partly upper registers have a timbre that is described as gentle and melodious.
  • Piccolo flute(often called simply a piccolo or small flute; Italian flauto piccolo or ottavino, French petite flûte, German kleine Flöte) is a woodwind musical instrument, a kind of transverse flute, the highest sounding instrument among wind instruments. It has a brilliant, in the forte - a piercing and whistling timbre. A small flute is half the length of an ordinary one and sounds an octave higher, and it is impossible to extract a number of low sounds on it. The piccolo range is from d² to c5 (re of the second octave - up to the fifth octave), there are also instruments that have the ability to take c² and cis². Notes for ease of reading are written an octave lower. Mechanically, the piccolo flute is arranged in the same way as the usual one (except for the absence of the “D-flat” and “C” of the first octave) and, therefore, is characterized by the same performance features in general. Initially, within the framework of the orchestra (starting from the second half of the 18th century), the small flute was intended to amplify and extend upwards the extreme octaves of the grand flute, and it was recommended to use it more in opera or ballet than in symphonic works. This was due to the fact that in the early stages of its existence, due to insufficient improvement, the small flute was characterized by a rather sharp and somewhat rough sound, as well as a low degree of flexibility. It should also be noted that this type of flute is quite successfully combined with ringing percussion instruments and drums; in addition, the piccolo can be combined in an octave with the oboe, which also gives rise to an expressive sound.
  • Syringa(Greek σῦριγξ) is an ancient Greek musical instrument, a kind of longitudinal flute. The term first occurs in Homer's Iliad (X,13). There were single-barreled syringa (σῦριγξ μονοκάλαμος) and multi-barreled syringa (σῦριγξ πολυκάλαμος); the latter was later assigned the name of Pan's flute. Russian translators traditionally render σῦριγξ with the somewhat indistinct word "pipe". The Greek word served as the anatomical name for the vocal organ of birds (see syrinx). Syringa is known as a traditional wind instrument of shepherds and peasants in antiquity. This variety often appears in ancient Greek poetry; was also used for musical accompaniment of stage performances, including in ancient Rome. Subsequently, the instrument also penetrated into later European folk music.
  • Pan flute(panflute) - a class of woodwind instruments, a multi-barreled flute, consisting of several (2 or more) hollow tubes of various lengths. The lower ends of the tubes are closed, the upper ones are open. The name is due to the fact that in the era of antiquity the invention of this type of flute was mythologically attributed to the deity of forests and fields, Pan. When playing, the musician directs the flow of air from one end of the tubes to the other, as a result of which the air columns enclosed inside begin to oscillate, and the instrument produces a whistle of a certain height; each of the tubes emits one basic sound, the acoustic characteristics of which depend on its length and diameter. Accordingly, the number and size of the pipes determine the range of the panflute. The tool may have a movable or fixed stopper; depending on this, various ways of fine-tuning it are used.
  • Di(笛, 笛子, from the old Chinese hengchui, handi - transverse flute) is an ancient Chinese wind instrument, a transverse flute with 6 playing holes. In most cases, the di stem is made of bamboo or reed, but there are di made from other types of wood and even from stone, most often jade. Di is one of the most common wind instruments in China. It is assumed that this type of flute entered the country from Central Asia in the II-I centuries BC. e. The hole for blowing air is located near the closed end of the barrel; in the immediate vicinity of the latter there is another hole, which is covered with a thin film of reeds or reeds (there is, however, a variant without a film, which is called "mandi"). For adjustment, the remaining four holes are used, which are located at the open end of the barrel. Playing on this instrument is performed in the same way as on a transverse flute. Depending on its application in works of certain genres, two types of di are distinguished: quidi and baidi.
  • Irish flute(English Irish flute) - a transverse flute used to perform Irish (as well as Scottish, Breton, etc.) folk music. It is a transverse flute of the so-called. a simple system - its main 6 holes are not closed by valves; when playing, they are closed directly by the performer's fingers. The Irish flute is found in versions with valves (from one to ten), and without. Despite the appropriate name, the Irish flute has no direct connection with Ireland in its origin. It is essentially the English version of the transverse wooden flute, which for quite some time was known as the "German flute"; the British subjected it to certain modifications, and the most significant of them were introduced by the English inventor and performer C. Nicholson Jr. Many classical and some modern variations on this flute include the use of metal valves and additional tone holes to achieve a partial or complete chromatic scale.
  • Kena(Quechua qina, Spanish quena) is a longitudinal flute used in the music of the Andean region of Latin America. Usually made from cane. It has six upper and one lower finger hole. It is usually made in G tuning. The quenacho flute (quechua qinachu, Spanish quenacho) is a lower-pitched variant of the quena, in D tuning. . In most cases, the instrument was used in specific song compositions, however, individual groups, such as Illapu, for example, resorted to its capabilities regularly. Subsequently, in the 1980s and 1990s, kena was also used by rock bands such as Soda Stereo or Enanitos Verdes. The instrument is also found in ethnic music.
  • Svirel- Russian wind instrument, a kind of longitudinal flute. Sometimes it can be double-barreled, with one of the trunks usually having a length of 300-350 mm, the second - 450-470 mm. At the upper end of the barrel there is a whistle device, at the bottom there are 3 side holes for changing the pitch of sounds. The barrels are tuned to each other in a quart and generally give a diatonic scale in the volume of a seventh. In addition, the flute can also be understood as an outdated wind instrument, which was characterized by a double tongue inserted into a special cup; subsequently, on its basis, by some simplification of the design (in particular, the refusal to use a cup), an oboe was developed. In this sense, the flute correlates with the bombarda, a woodwind instrument that was the forerunner of the bassoon. The flute was historically the first and smallest of its kind.
  • Pyzhatka- Russian folk musical instrument, a wooden flute, traditional for the Kursk region of Russia. It is a wooden tube with a diameter of 15-25 mm and a length of 40-70 cm, at one end of which a wooden cork ("wad") with an oblique cut is inserted, directing the blown air to the pointed edge of a small square hole ("whistle"). The term "pyzhatka" can also be considered as a synonym for the concept of a sniffle - a type of longitudinal whistle flute, which is also a traditional Russian folk wind instrument, the most ancient of those that were in circulation among the Eastern Slavs. This variety was characterized by a diatonic scale and a range of up to two octaves; by changing the strength of the air flow and using special fingering, a chromatic scale was also achievable. It is actively used by amateur groups both as a solo and as an ensemble instrument.
  • whistle(from English tin whistle, literally translated “tin whistle, pipe”, pronunciation options (Russian): whistle, whistle, the first is more common) - a folk longitudinal flute with six holes on the front side, widely used in the folk music of Ireland, Scotland, England and some other countries. The most popular are small whistles in the key of D. They are tuned an octave higher than other wind instruments (a regular flute, for example, or bagpipes), and notes for them, respectively, are written an octave lower. However, the popularity of the so-called. low whistle - a longer modification of the instrument, which sounds approximately in the same range as a regular flute. Whistles also exist in other keys; they are defined as being transposed (that is, all whistles are considered instruments in the key of D, even if they actually sound higher or lower).
  • Ocarina- an ancient wind musical instrument, a clay whistle flute. It is a small egg-shaped chamber with four to thirteen finger holes. Multi-chambered ocarinas may have more holes (depending on the number of chambers). Usually made in ceramic, but sometimes also made of plastic, wood, glass or metal.

Story

The flute is one of the oldest musical instruments; official sources date its appearance to 35,000-40,000 years BC. But perhaps this amazing musical instrument is much earlier.
The prototype of the flute is an ordinary whistle, the sound in which appears when an air stream of air vibrates, which is cut against the sharp edge of a tree or other material.
Whistles were of different types, they were made of clay, stone, wood. They existed among most peoples as various signaling devices, children's toys and as musical instruments.
Later, holes were cut in the whistle tube, clamping which it was possible to adjust the pitch of the sound. Chromatic frets were formed with the help of finger combinations and by closing the holes by half or a quarter. Raising the sound by an octave occurred with the help of an increase in the strength and / or direction of breathing. Gradually, the whistle tube became longer, and there were more holes. The sound range expanded, melodies and playing techniques became more complicated.
The period of the Middle Ages is characterized by the appearance of instrumental ensembles at courts. The longitudinal and transverse flutes were in fashion. During the Renaissance, the finest wind instruments were made in Venice and Bologna. Until the end of the 16th century, performers used longitudinal flutes of various sizes - treble, alto, tenor, bass. Their range ranged from 2 to 2.5 octaves. Their sound was pleasant, soft, but very weak, inexpressive, uneven in strength and not always accurate in pitch. The reason was that the playing holes were located where it is convenient to close them with your fingers, and not based on acoustic requirements. The flutes formed ensembles of 20 people.
In the 17th century, the first orchestras arose. Monteverdi in the opera "Orpheus" introduced only one small flute into the group of wind instruments of the orchestra, which played serene shepherd tunes, creating a pastoral flavor for a number of scenes. As the orchestra developed, the role of flutes increased, and in the operas of the German composer G. Schutz they not only accompanied singing, as in others, but enriched it, supplemented and competed with it. There is an assumption that the transverse flute originated in Germany. It was made from one piece of wood, had 6 holes covered with fingers and one for blowing air. The old German flute covered 2.5 octaves - from D first to la third. The bore was conical, tapering towards the end, so that the sound was soft, gentle, but not strong (although louder than that of the longitudinal one), and most importantly, more expressive. The lowest sound was obtained by shaking the air column in the flute tube, other shortening it, i.e. all sounds corresponded to the main holes, and intermediate "chromatic" steps were obtained using "forked fingering" or "fork grip". The drilling of the tube of the old German flute had a reverse-conical drilling, in which the largest span of the diameter fell on the "head" of the flute, and the smallest - on its "foot", i.e. the drilling tapered towards the bottom of the instrument, which made it possible to comfortably place the fingers on the surface of the flute. In England during the Renaissance, the theater orchestra used the flute in wedding scenes. At the same time, the famous English composer Purcell wrote the Sonata for flute for the first time.
The most significant works for flute at the beginning of the 12th century were created by J.S. Bach. He wrote a large number of works for the flute and with its participation. The composer perfectly knew the technique of playing the flute, its timbre and color possibilities, loved its light, silvery, singing tone. The flute sonatas of J.S. Bach, written under the influence of the famous virtuoso flutist Johann Joachim Quantz, who introduced Bach to all the techniques of playing the flute, stand out.
Working on improving the flute. Quantz made an adjusting screw for the plug of the head of the tool. In 1770, P. Florio made an additional valve, and he was so afraid that someone would find out about this that he covered this part of the flute with a case. Additional valves for the flute were invented at different times by other masters (D. Tessit in England. I. Tromlitz in Germany; P. Pegersen in Denmark, etc.). This made it possible to obtain semitones, making it easier to play, but did not save the flute from the shortcomings that still exist: inaccurate intonation, uneven sound in different registers.
The 19th century became a huge laboratory for the constructive improvement of the flute, which affected the development of performance, pedagogy and repertoire. This was also facilitated by the emergence of professional orchestras in the United States and Western Europe.
The most significant figure in the field of flute playing in the 19th century was Theobald Böhm (1794-1881). A famous German musician, he toured extensively in Europe and his performances were a great success. Böhm is the author of many compositions (for example, 24 capriccio etudes) and teaching aids for the flute. His musical talent was combined with passion and ingenuity. Once in London, Boehm met with the English flutist W. Gorden, who impressed him with his playing. It turned out that Gorden developed a new flute design, but failed to bring it to the end. This is what Böhm did, proposing in 1832 a new model equipped with annular valves. But the designer himself did not like it, because. was imperfect. Second model (1846-1847). embodied everything. what was required of the flute in terms of its acoustic, expressive and virtuoso data. Boehm made a revolution in design: he replaced the conical bore (reverse conical drilling) with a cylindrical one, improving the quality and fidelity of sound, greatly expanding the boundaries of the instrument to three full octaves or more, positioned the playing holes in strict accordance with the acoustic calculation, made their diameter large ( on an old flute, the holes were very small), and he provided all the holes with conveniently located cymbal and ring valves, which made it possible to achieve evenness of sound and the ability to more easily perform various complex gamma-shaped and arpeggiated passages, trills, tremolo. Now, by closing one valve, you can open the auxiliary port at the same time. A complex system of valves made it possible to close several holes at once by pressing the lever of one valve. Böhm based his calculations not on the convenience of the arrangement of holes and valves, but on the “acoustic principles of better resonance”, precisely setting the scale (the ratio of the length to the diameter of the tube). The performer's finger now did not completely cover the holes, which resulted in an ingenious system of valves so conveniently located that it was possible to cope with the most difficult technical formations.
Although until now the flute has not been freed from some annoying flaws in its device, due to only partial use of the proposals of outstanding master flute players. But these shortcomings are not so significant - a few unexecutable trills and especially difficult moves. Supporters of the old German flute complained that the Böhm flute destroyed the beauty of sound inherent in the old flute (and this is partly true). But the sound of the Boehm flute is fuller, juicier, rounder, the most complex technical patterns are accessible to it, which it overcomes with amazing ease and outward lightness. Its sound is crystal clear, melodious, but cold. As a result of all the improvements, the flute received even greater recognition from the largest composers, enriching their work, decorating orchestral scores with new timbre colors.
The main ways of development of the history of performance were determined by the famous works for flute by G. Fauré (“Fantasy”). S. Shaminad ("Concertino"), A. Dvorak ("Serenade") and others.

(ital. - flauto, French - Flyte, grande flyte,
German -
Flote, English - Flute,)

The name "flute" unites a whole group of wooden wind musical instruments. True, nowadays flutes are also made from other materials: plastic, nickel, silver. The name of the instrument came from the Latin word "Flatus", which means "breath" in translation. The flute is considered one of the oldest musical instruments in the world. It is almost impossible to give a specific date for the invention of the flute, but judging by the finds of archaeologists, the first flutes existed as early as 35-40,000 BC.

Range and registers of the flute

In general, the sound of the flute is whistling and slightly vibrating.
Orchestral range - from before first octave to before fourth octave.

The lower register has a matte, full and somewhat cold sonority

The middle register is characterized by a gentle and weaker sound compared to other registers.

The upper register has a clear, light and brilliant character.

There are many varieties of flutes, but they mainly differ in longitudinal and transverse. For longitudinal flutes, the wind hole is located at the end; when playing, the musician holds the longitudinal flute perpendicular to the line of the lips.

At the transverse, the hole is on the side, so you have to keep it parallel to the line of the lips.
One of the most common types of longitudinal flute is the recorder. It is similar to the flute and whistle. The main fundamental difference between the recorder and these instruments is that in addition to seven finger holes on the front, there is one more - an octave valve, which is located on the back.
The recorder began to be actively used in their works by European composers as early as the 16th century. Bach, Vivaldi, Gendal and many others very often included a recorder in their works. With the advent of transverse flutes, a serious minus of the recorder became noticeable - not loud enough. But, despite this, this instrument is still quite often present in the orchestra.
Despite the fact that transverse flutes appeared long before our era in China, the popularity of longitudinal flutes for a long time did not allow them to be widely used. Only after the design of the transverse flute was improved in 1832 by the master from Germany, Theobald Behm, did it begin to appear in orchestras no less often than the longitudinal one. The transverse flute allows you to play sounds from the first to the fourth octave.

Say "flute" and an image involuntarily appears before your eyes: an uncle (aunt) holds in both hands a long silver stick as thick as a finger and with a bunch of valves. How does uncle hold a stick? - in both hands, with one side at the lips, with the other it sticks out to the side. Those. not along the body, like a clarinet, but across. Because it is transverse - the most common flute used in the usual sense in European classical music. This is a template. But after all, her place is not only in the symphony orchestra, because she plays not only the classics, because she does not always look like that. The flute is a woodwind, a woodwind instrument.

Here is the first dissonance - not a silver pipe, but a wooden one. They learned how to make pipes out of metal a couple of hundred years ago, and earlier they made them out of wood. And not from a bar of black African wood, as it is now, but from reeds, reeds, bamboo, hogweed, depending on the geography of the distribution of plants with a hollow trunk. And the surviving ancient flutes are generally made of tubular bones (as in the legend of Ken's flute). In the old days, they did not know how to drill holes, there were no drills.

And here is the second dissonance - not necessarily the flute when playing is located across the body of the musician, it happens that along (a nozzle), or maybe diagonally (kaval). Flutes are different and depending on the method of sound extraction they are held differently. Where there is a whistle, they hold it straight, where they blow into the butt, sharpened along the entire diameter, diagonally there, and where there is an embyuchure hole on the tube itself, they hold the flute across.

And dissonance number three is the valve system, a great idea of ​​​​homo mechanicus is not at all necessary. Of course, the mechanics of modern flutes are complex, precise, miniature. It expands the playing capabilities of the instrument: the valves uniquely cover the playing holes and air does not leak through the fingers, and most importantly, it allows you to make such long tubes (read, they allow you to extract very low sounds) that the length of human fingers would not be enough if these valves were not there. . Yes, and the number of fingers is limited, someone like it 🙂 Here I have ten of them. On the chromatic sopilka, I play with all ten, and on the Moldavian kaval, even five are enough - so many historically established holes that meet the modal requirements of Moldavian folk music. And we already have 12 notes. This is where the miracles of mechanics came in handy, where pressing two adjacent valves with one finger, as well as combinations of pressed valves, allows you to accurately take all the notes of the full scale. But it is possible from without valves. Valves are an option.

A transverse flute (colloquially, a transverse) in its minimalist definition is a tube of any material hard enough to hold its shape, with one closed and one open end, one hole on the side of the tube near its closed end to blow into, and a system of holes for overlapping with fingers to shorten the air column in the tube (raising the sound). Well-chosen dimensions of the tube (length, inner diameter, wall thickness), dimensions and center-to-center distances of playing and ambyuchure (where to blow) holes, and the craftsman's curvature reduced to a minimum make up three pillars on which a successful musical instrument is built - a transverse flute.

Cross-section examples:

  • Bansuri (India)
  • Karnatic flute (South East India)
  • Diji (China)

  • Irish
  • Baroque

Considered one of the most ancient on earth. And indeed, the first flutes, not at all similar to modern ones, appeared a very, very long time ago. Until now, in the villages you can meet people who in a few minutes can make a primitive flute from dry wood, as was done thousands of years ago. Flutes were distributed all over the world and had many different names.

What's unusual?

As a rule, the sound in wind instruments is produced using a reed or reed, but not in the case of a flute. In it, music is born from the fact that the air flow is cut in two. Some types of flutes have whistles designed in the same way as a regular sports whistle, and then the flutist simply needs to blow air and play. If there is no whistle, the musician himself must direct the stream of air so that it cuts on the edge. This mechanism is implemented in the orchestral transverse flute, as well as some folk ones, for example, Japanese (shakuhachi).

Types of flutes

As a rule, folk varieties of flutes were longitudinal, that is, they were located vertically when played. Most often there was also a whistle (hence the name of the whistle family). This includes Irish whistles, Slavic pipes, flutes and ocarinas. All of them have their own characteristics, but the recorder is the most difficult in terms of execution technique. It has a large range compared to the rest, and is not tied to a specific key (for example, whistles can only play in one key, and musicians have to change several whistles from song to song).

The recorder has seven holes on the front and one on the back. In turn, there are varieties of recorders associated with the range: bass, tenor, alto, soprano and sopranino. The technique of playing them is identical, only the system differs and the size of the instrument increases with decreasing range. Until the 18th century, the bluffkleite was used in the orchestra, but was supplanted by the transverse flute, which has a loud, bright sound and a large range.

for orchestra

In orchestral playing, as a rule, a transverse flute is used, unless the piece being played requires another (for example, a piece for a recorder). Its range is more than three octaves, starting from B in the small octave and ending with the note F-sharp in the fourth octave. Notes for the flute are recorded in different timbres: somewhat muffled, whispering in the lower, clear and transparent in the middle, loud, harsh in the upper ... The transverse flute is a musical instrument that is used in both symphony and brass bands, and often in various chamber ensembles. The oldest transverse flute was discovered in the fifth century BC, in one of the tombs in China.

The first major design changes were made in the Baroque era. In the 18th century, transverse flutes of a new design began to compete with the recorders used in orchestras, and then completely replaced them. However, it was only in the twentieth century that tools made of metal became widespread.

Flute melody can be very complex: orchestral solos are often assigned to it, and many works require serious performing technique from the flutist. There are several varieties that are also associated with lowering or raising the register: bass flute, alto, piccolo flute and some others, less common. An interesting fact: one of Mozart's most difficult operas is called The Magic Flute.

Straight from Greece

There is another species that bears the beautiful name "syringa". Siringa (flute) is a musical instrument of the ancient Greeks, closely related to the modern longitudinal flute. She is even mentioned in the Iliad. There were single-barreled and multi-barreled syringas (the latter were later called "Pan flutes"). As a rule, this word is translated into Russian as "pipe". Ancient shepherds and peasants brightened up their leisure time by playing the syringa, but it was also used for musical accompaniment of various stage actions.

The pan flute is one of the most unusual folk wind instruments. It is a system of tubes of different lengths, open on one side and closed on the other. This instrument plays only in one key, but the sound is familiar to almost everyone: the famous melody of the flute “The Lonely Shepherd” is played on the Pan flute.

In other peoples

Wind instruments were ubiquitous. In China, there was a transverse flute di, which was made not only from traditional reeds and bamboo, but sometimes even from stone, mainly jade.

There is also in Ireland, it bears the corresponding name - the Irish flute - and is mainly represented in the "simple system", when the holes (there are six in total) are not closed with valves.

In Latin America, the longitudinal ken flute is common, in most cases it has a G (sol) system.

Russian woodwind flutes are represented by the svirel, which can be single-barreled and double-barreled, the snot and its variety from the Kursk region - the pyzhatka.

A simpler instrument is the ocarina. It was made mainly from clay and played a big role in the music of ancient China and some other cultures. The oldest specimens of ocarina found by archaeologists are 12,000 years old.

In folk, and then in professional music, many more varieties of flutes are used. Get to know some of them and listen to their great sound.


or small flute; (Italian flauto piccolo or ottavino, French petite flûte, German kleine Flöte) is a kind of transverse flute, the highest sounding instrument among wind instruments. It has a brilliant, in the forte - a piercing and whistling timbre. A small flute is half the length of an ordinary one and sounds an octave higher, and it is impossible to extract a number of low sounds on it.


- an ancient Greek musical instrument, a kind of longitudinal flute. The term first occurs in Homer's Iliad (X,13). There were single-barreled and multi-barreled syringas.

The latter was later assigned the name of Pan's flute.


(panflute) - a class of woodwind instruments, a multi-barreled flute, consisting of several (2 or more) hollow tubes of various lengths. The lower ends of the tubes are closed, the upper ones are open.
The name is due to the fact that in the era of antiquity the invention of this type of flute was mythologically attributed to the deity of forests and fields, Pan.


Di(from the old Chinese hengchui, handi - transverse flute) - an old Chinese wind instrument with 6 playing holes. In most cases, the di stem is made of bamboo or reed, but there are di made from other types of wood and even from stone, most often jade. Di is one of the most common wind instruments in China.


(English Irish flute) - a transverse flute used to perform Irish (as well as Scottish, Breton, etc.) folk music. The Irish flute is found in versions with valves (from one to ten), and without. Despite the appropriate name, the Irish flute has no direct connection with Ireland in its origin. In essence, it is an English modification of the transverse wooden flute, which for quite a long time was known as the "German flute".


(Quechua qina, Spanish quena) is a longitudinal flute used in the music of the Andean region of Latin America. Usually made from cane. It has six upper and one lower finger hole. In the 1960s and 1970s, kena was actively used by some musicians who worked within the nueva canción direction.


- Russian wind instrument, a kind of longitudinal flute. Sometimes it can be double-barreled, with one of the barrels usually having a length of 300-350 mm, the second - 450-470 mm. At the top end of the barrel there is a whistle device, at the bottom there are 3 side holes for changing the pitch of sounds. The barrels are tuned to each other in a quart and generally give a diatonic scale in the volume of a seventh.


- Russian folk musical instrument, wooden flute. It is a wooden tube with a diameter of 15-25 mm and a length of 40-70 cm, at one end of which a wooden cork ("wad") is inserted.


- a variety of longitudinal whistle flute, which is also a traditional Russian folk wind instrument, the most ancient of those that were in circulation among the Eastern Slavs. This variety was characterized by a diatonic scale and a range of up to two octaves. It is actively used by amateur groups both as a solo and as an ensemble instrument.


(from English tin whistle, literally translated “tin whistle, pipe”, pronunciation options (Russian): whistle, whistle, the first is more common) - a folk longitudinal flute with six holes on the front side, widely used in the folk music of Ireland, Scotland, England and some other countries.



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