Flageolet
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Theflageoletis awoodwind instrumentand a member of the family ofduct flutesthat includes recorders and tin whistles. Its invention was erroneously[1]ascribed to the 16th-centurySieurJuvigny in 1581.[2]There are two basic forms of the instrument: the French, having four finger holes on the front and two thumb holes on the back; and the English, having six finger holes on the front and sometimes a single thumb hole on the back. The latter was developed by English instrument maker William Bainbridge, resulting in the "improved English flageolet" in 1803.[3]There are also double and triple flageolets, having two or three bodies that allowed for adroneandcountermelody.Flageolets were made until the 19th century.[4]
Origins[edit]
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 byHector Berlioz,Frédéric Chalon,Samuel Pepys,andRobert Louis Stevenson.Henry PurcellandGeorge Frideric Handelboth wrote pieces for it. An early collection of manuscriptLessons 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 teachingbirdsto 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 theBoehm systemFrench flageolet made byBuffet Cramponwhich had thirteen keys. The arrangement of the tone holes on the flageolet yields a scale different from that on the whistle orrecorder.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[edit]
In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, certainEnglishinstrument makers, most notably William Bainbridge, started to make flageolets with six finger-holes on the front. These instruments are called "English flageolets" and were eventually produced in metal astin whistles.The keys number between none and six. Some were produced with changeable top joints which allowed the flageolet to be played as afluteorfife.[6]
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".[7]With the blind organistJohn Purkis,the Scott & Purkis partnership was formed to manufacture the new instruments, and a tutorial book was published.[8]But Bainbridge continued to improve his model, which gained the most popularity and he was granted a patent in around 1810 for a double flageolet.[9]Bainbridge also produced a triple flageolet which added a third,dronepipe which was fingered in a similar way to anocarina.
Design[edit]
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. The 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 thetoneis soft and gentle. It has a range of about twooctaves.
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^Head, Jacob."Biographies of famous Flageolet Players".Flageolets.com.Retrieved13 April2017.
- ^Stanley Sadie (editor). Norton/GroveThe New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians,1980/1995ISBN1-56159-174-2
- ^Head, Jacob."William Bainbridge".Flageolets.com.Retrieved13 April2017.
- ^abothers, Jacob Head and."The Pleasant Companion—The Flageolet Site".Flageolets.com.Retrieved13 April2017.
- ^British Library Sloane MS 1145, ff. 35–39.
- ^The Pleasant Companion: The Flageolets Site "The Flageolet Family"Archived2008-01-16 at theWayback 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)
- ^Waterhouse, William (1 January 1999). "The Double Flageolet - Made in England".The Galpin Society Journal.52:172–182.doi:10.2307/842521.JSTOR842521.
External links[edit]
- flageolets.com— a site devoted to the flageolet
- leflageoletfrancais.com— a French-language blog devoted to the French flageolet (original URL is dead)
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