Despite the difficulties of the third octave, it is not uncommon to find the flute's range extended beyond e'". One notable example is J. S. Bach's Partita in a minor for solo flute where we find an a"' at the end of the first movement.
In the latter part of the eighteenth century, notes beyond e'" appear with increasing frequency. Flute construction during this period tended to favor the high register a little more and the third octave spoke with greater ease.
ON THE PARTS OF THE FLUTE
Because there were many instrument makers, and because the one-keyed flute evolved and changed over the course of more than a century, many variations of the one-keyed flute exist. Although some makers added keys, foot registers, and tuning slides, the simpler one-keyed flute described below was the most standard flute in use during the eighteenth century and remained in use well past the beginning of the nineteenth century.
Three-Piece Flute
The earliest one-keyed flute had three parts: a head joint, a middle joint, and a foot joint. Today one such three-piece flute is referred to as the “Hotteterre” flute because it resembles one with distinctive ornamental turnings attributed to the Hotteterre family of instrument makers.
A “Hotteterre” Flute
Four-Piece Flute
By about 1720, makers had divided the middle joint of the flute into two parts, an upper-middle joint and a lower-middle joint. Four-piece flutes are replicated more frequently by today's flute makers than the three-piece instrument described above.
head joint…………upper-middle joint…lower-middle joint…foot joint
The Tenon
The tenon is that part of the flute joint which fits into the socket of the adjacent joint. Tenons are traditionally wrapped in thread (silk, cotton, or linen) that has been rubbed with wax.1 Modern replicas sometimes have cork-covered tenons. Regardless of whether the tenons are wrapped with cork or thread, they must be waxed or greased regularly.
The Cork
The cork at the end of the head joint is movable and its placement is critical for good intonation. First, set the cork somewhere between .75 and 1 inch (20–25 millimeters) from the center of the blow hole. An easy way to measure cork placement is with a wooden dowel rod. Purchase a 12-inch (30 centimeters) length measuring about one-half inch (12.5 millimeters) in diameter (available at craft shops or lumber yards) and simply measure and mark the dowel rod with a pencil about .75 inch (20 millimeters) from one end. The dowel rod, placed inside the head joint, serves the same purpose as the metal rod furnished with today's modern flutes; adjust the head cork so that the pencil mark falls in the center of the embouchure hole.
Next, you must further refine the cork's placement to suit your own way of playing. Each flutist may have a slightly different cork placement, reflecting individual embouchures and ways of blowing. Using the fingerings from the Basic Fingering Chart on page 63, tune d' with d" and d'" If the octaves are true, the cork placement is correct. However, if you find the d's are not in tune, you will need to adjust the cork (and subsequently your pencil mark on the dowel rod). Quantz (1752, p. 33) recommends the following adjustments.
If d' is flat…and d'" is sharp,
correct by drawing the cork away
from the embouchure hole.
If d' is sharp…and d'" is flat,
correct by pushing the cork in
toward the embouchure hole.
The cork must also be adjusted if the player chooses to use a longer or shorter upper-middle joint. (See Corps de réchange on page 9.) Lengthening or shortening the flute in this way disturbs the correct proportions of the instrument and the intonation suffers.2 To remedy this problem, the cork is pushed in toward the embouchure hole when a long upper joint is used and drawn back when a short upper joint is used. The cork can be moved by using the same half-inch dowel rod you used to measure the cork placement.
The Screw Cap
Some flutes are fashioned with a screw attached to the cork. The screw cap is a simple mechanism for adjusting the position of the cork and is especially useful when changing middle joints. The player simply turns the end cap to draw the cork out. The following illustration of a Quantz head joint (Reilly translation of Quantz, Versuch, 1985) shows the cork with a screw attached.
The Screw Cap
The Foot Register
Some flutes may have a foot register, which is a telescoping, adjustable foot joint useful for making adjustments in tuning when changing middle joints. The foot joint is made a little shorter for each shorter middle piece (corps de réchange). Some makers of modern replicas offer the foot register as an option. Quantz (1752) was among those eighteenth-century flutists who strongly opposed the use of the foot register because, in his opinion, it throws the flute out of tune.
Flute with a Foot Register
ON PITCH
Pitch was not standardized in the eighteenth century. It varied greatly from country to country, from city to city, and even within the same city. We find evidence that flutists were required to play at every imaginable pitch standard from very low (A-c.392 and lower) to very high (A-440 and higher).
Quantz's (1752) personal preference was for lower-pitched flutes, which he found to be more pleasing, moving, and majestic; he found higher-pitched instruments to be more penetrating.
Modern Replicas
A-415 has been adopted as a useful compromise for today's performers of most baroque music. Modern replicas of one-keyed flutes are most commonly, but not exclusively, made at A-415.
A-415 flute
Modern replicas may also be pitched a whole step low (A-c.392) or lower. “French chamber pitch,” as this is sometimes called, is appropriate for the music of early eighteenth-century French composers and the music of J. S. Bach, and was the preference of Frederick the Great.
A-c.392 flute
Some twentieth-century flute makers will make a modern replica at A-440, referred to as “modern pitch,” to accommodate players who are working with other musicians using this pitch standard.
A-440 flute
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