This article was originally written for the British Flute Society in 2016 and has been shared with the permission of the author, Trevor Wye.

Boehm's flute of 1832 was a big step forward as it allowed players to manage technically difficult passages more smoothly and additionally, it was far easier to play in the remote keys. Anyone who has played music from before this time will have noticed that pieces are largely centred around G or D major, the natural scale (or hexachord) of the eight-keyed flutes when removing fingers in succession from low notes to high. From here on, we see a string of alterations, modifications and improvements to Boehm's design where makers made small but significant changes to the axles, rods, sleeves and even tone hole placements. Later, the same thing happened when the 1847 Boehm flute was introduced. What players mostly objected to in the 1832 model was the open G#. Boehm made the point that keys should stand open until a finger is placed on them to be closed and so this key had to be held down for notes below G. Of course, the same argument can be made for the D# key, but in that case, the little finger on the key steadies the instrument when playing from open C2 or C#2 to D2 for example. It seemed that players of the time were willing to accept certain small changes and perhaps even a large one if it showed positive results, but too many changes resulted in rebellion. The established players argued that an open G# is awkward with no practical advantages except perhaps to be able to play an easier E3, the top E.

Boehm had begun flute making and general tinkering from 1810 onwards but he was so inspired by Charles Nicholson's tone (1795 - 1837) that he altered his own flutes and then changed the open holes to ring keys as we saw on the 1832 flute.

Jean-Louis Tulou, the virtuoso flutist and composer (1786–1865) was Professor of Flute at the Paris Conservatoire from 1829. He had begun flute making in 1828 and supplied flutes to the Paris Conservatoire until he left. He played a four-keyed flute which many believed was capable of performing early 19th century music with elegance and subtlety, because of its mechanical simplicity. Tulou was strongly opposed to Boehm's flutes and even when a special study course on the 1832 flute was proposed at the Conservatoire in 1839, Tulou objected to it and so it was never approved. He thought the 1832 flute tone was 'thin, without fullness, which sounded too much like an oboe'. Of course, the fact that he was the supplier of his own manufactured flutes to the Conservatoire I am sure never entered into the equation! It was not until 1860 when Tulou had stepped down and Louis Dorus became professor, that the cylindrical Boehm silver flute was adopted. Tulou's strong personality is illustrated by the letter below in which he complains of his name being attached to a composition with which he had no involvement.

But we are jumping ahead: in 1806 Claude Laurent’s beautiful glass flutes were introduced. The flute below is cut glass with 'fluted' decoration and silver mounted. A threaded silver socket at the end of the head joint contains a removable silver cap containing a cut crystal jewel. What a delightful instrument to look at.

Transverse flute in D-flat. Claude Laurent. 1813 (The Met Museum)

A treble flute and alto flute. Monzani & Co. c.1815 (Author’s collection)

In 1821 Charles Nicholson’s Preceptive Lessons were published and received wide acclaim being reprinted many times over the years. This leads us to realise the great upsurge of interest in flute playing during the rest of this century. The quantity of new flutes and music, particularly duets, trios and quartets for flutes, points to a great demand by the public.

Enter a controversial figure, Captain W. Gordon, of French and Scottish birth, an amateur player of great enthusiasm spending most of his time trying to perfect the flute. He seems to have been imaginative but without practical engineering skills. Rudall and Rose made his new flutes for him and though the new designs did have some merit, they had technical problems. He met Boehm in London in 1831 and there seems little doubt that Boehm was not only interested in Gordon's flutes but was influenced by them just as he was by any other new mechanical ideas.

Let us imagine a serious amateur player around 1833 looking to purchase a new flute, just after Boehm's new model appeared. In the past 150 years, the flute had acquired about 8 or more keys, but even with those additions, it was still a flute which was widely recognised for its elegance, simplicity and reliability. From here on, there were radically new models and 'improvements' appearing almost every year. The traditional 8-keyed player perhaps felt threatened as younger players were playing louder and faster and were performing with extraordinary nimbleness in difficult keys on flutes with extra keys. Older players, naturally, found it harder to accept new ideas. This next biography should serve to illustrate this state of affairs.

William Best (1806 ‑ 1859) began playing when quite young and in due course studied at the newly formed Royal Academy of Music in Marylebone Road, London. He progressed rapidly and in 1832, at the age of 26, became principal flute of the prestigious London Orchestra and Professor at his former school. He was in demand as a soloist and became one of the most eminent players in England and his opinion was sought far and wide on all matters to do with flute playing and teaching. He was at the top of the tree.

His students asked his opinion on the new 1832 Boehm flutes which were being produced under licence in London by Rudall and Rose. Best had tried one in their showroom, but told the salesman he preferred the traditional flute. He owned several of these, his favourite being a beautiful 10 keyed example with ivory mounts and engraved silver keys. During the next few years, Best was also asked about the latest alterations and additions to the mechanism, but he resolutely defended the traditional flute. In 1847, Boehm came to London to exhibit his latest model, a silver cylindrical flute with its newly designed keys arousing great interest amongst players. Once again, his devoted students consulted him about it and Best replied that he had taken a look at the new flute but felt that it had altered in an unacceptable way. 'I play a wooden flute, just like my father before me, the traditional flute which was, at one time, part of a tree. It grew! It was alive, like the great string instruments played today. I cannot imagine playing music on a piece of plumbing!'

He strongly advised his students to play the traditional flute and they at first complied ‑ they had to - though one or two secretly tried out the new Boehm flute at Rudall and Rose's shop and were very impressed.

In June 1851, William's elderly orchestral colleague and second flute died suddenly and auditions were promptly held for his position. William was present at the auditions as were most of the orchestra in those times, and they heard eight very good players. Then came the ninth candidate, George Dunn, who performed on one of the new silver Boehm flutes. Dunn played very well indeed and flew effortlessly through all the difficult orchestral passages with a big ringing tone. William was irritated, and if the truth be told, he was jealous. The majority of the orchestra voted to accept Dunn though William voted against him, but finally had to agree to his being offered the job.

After Dunn's appointment, the first few weeks were pleasant enough and William found George to be a diligent and thoughtful colleague. One day, due to an oversight, William arrived at the hall very early and heard George in the dressing room, believing he was alone, sailing effortlessly through some really difficult orchestral passages.

At the Royal Academy of Music, a few of William's students were secretly practising the new Boehm flutes and a few complained to the Principal about their professor, William Best. Eventually, some students had private lessons with a Boehm flute player outside of the RAM. As the years passed, William also found that he had fewer RAM students and fewer private students too. Engagements as a soloist were rarer and, with his family commitments, he began to find life rather hard. Whenever the opportunity offered itself, he still spoke out openly against the new flute, ridiculing it in public, though his listeners were mainly the already converted; the younger players had moved on to the new flute. William's health began to suffer. He started to drink heavily and finally, the orchestral committee met and suggested he stand down and retire. George Dunn was offered his position and gratefully stepped into William's shoes. The RAM Principal, too, suggested that he retire.

With no job, William had little money and was eventually obliged to sell his precious flutes. His final years saw him as an angry, bitter and disillusioned man. He died shortly after his 53rd birthday. A few of his former colleagues remembered him, and came to the funeral. His widow died a few months later.*

* This is not a true story; William Best and George Dunn were created by the author but they could have existed. There were some ‘William Bests’ in history who refused to accept new ideas and allowed jealousy and bigotry to destroy them.

When Boehm presented his new model, the 1847 Boehm flute in London, this was a really defining moment in our history as not only was the instrument and mechanism quite different to look at, the bore had changed which radically altered the tone. Previously, the main flute body was conical, as indeed was the 1832 flute, and the head, cylindrical. During Boehm's time in Munich, he consulted his friend Professor Schaufhautl who may have suggested a major bore alteration. As all flute makers were aware, to play with a good tone and with a three octave compass, the flute tube must be conical in at least part of its internal shape. Boehm decided that to make the flute tone stronger, he would make the main tube cylindrical and place the conical part in the head. Well, sort of conical: what he did was to taper the head joint down from 19mm (just a fraction under 3/4 inch) to 17mm but incorporating a slight curve into the taper. This curve has been termed 'parabolic' though it is strictly only partly a parabola.* As well as this, Boehm adopted a more square shaped embouchure hole than the previous oval hole. Already, the blow hole had undergone a change from a round, smaller hole in the 18th century to a larger oval hole. Boehm continued to advise an open G#.

One other point is that Boehm himself used and recommended a 'crutch', a T shaped device which screwed into a socket engaging the player's left hand between the thumb and first finger to help support the flute. This device is rarely seen now except on our larger alto and bass flutes.

Apart from a few modifications, the flute of 1847 is the same as the flute we all play today and that really should be the end of this story, but it is very far from being so.

A new controversy started up where some believed that Theobald Boehm had 'stolen' Captain Gordon's ideas and this heated discussion engaged players for many more years before Christopher Welch’s book, ‘History of The Boehm Flute’ was published in 1883 that the facts were examined and the theory finally laid to rest.

Of course, there were other flute makers in Britain too, some who remained long established such as William Henry Potter, Tebaldo Monzani, Muzio Clementi and William Card, the latter a fine flute player and known as 'Old Card'. Later in the century, cheap flutes were imported from Markneukirchen in Germany, where several makers worked making countless numbers of flutes and the birthplace of Kurt Gemeinhardt and Christian Hammig whose successors are still producing flutes today.

(Footnote: * More correctly a truncated parabolic conoid.)

This was the beginning of an outbreak of flute making activity worldwide. As we saw, Paris wouldn't accept the new flutes; Germany, like England, partially accepted the Boehm flute and other European countries were also slow to change. The Conservatoire in Madrid was said to have used the Tulou flutes until changing to Boehm's in 1888. The Rampone catalogue in Milan, Italy of about 1923 offers a number of Tulou System Flutes with up to 13 keys, showing that the old flutes were still around almost a hundred years later. The first Boehm flutes were made in the USA around 1845 and William S. Haynes and his brother George began making the 1847 model Boehm flutes in Boston in 1888. In 1879 the Boehm flute was introduced in Vienna.

At this point, enter Louis Lot, the great French flute maker whose early flutes are thought to be the peak of tonal quality and are still highly sought after today. Louis Lot (1807-96) was the official flute maker to the Paris Conservatoire, as we already learned, after the appointment of Dorus. Lot and his partner Vincent Hypolite Godfroy made the first models of Boehm's ring-keyed flute, the 1832 model, in 1837, and after the introduction of Boehm's 1847 flute, paid for the right to make them in France. There were three makers of the new silver Boehm flutes: Boehm himself in his Munich workshop, Louis Lot in Paris and Rudall and Rose of London. They were also copied in the USA by Alfred G. Badger as there was no patent agreement at that time with the USA.

At the Paris exhibition of 1867, Louis Lot presented a new modification to Boehm's design having a thicker tube, larger tone holes and a bigger, more square embouchure hole, together with a sturdier mechanism in which the modern 'independent' closed G# key replaced the Dorus G#.

In 1887 Charles Mol brought the first silver Louis Lot B-foot flute (No. 4358, 1887) to the Boston Symphony orchestra, the first of a long succession of French Conservatoire graduates who nearly all played Louis Lot flutes. Thus when George W. Haynes (1866-1947) and his brother William S. Haynes (1864-1939) set up a flute making and repair shop in Boston they copied the Louis Lot flutes played by the Boston professionals as well as Boehm & Mendler designs. The Haynes company established the silver Lot-pattern flute as the standard professional instrument, to be followed by other manufacturers including Verne Q. Powell and the numerous band instrument manufacturers in Elkhart, Indiana in the early 20th century.

The reader may wonder if this article is biased toward British flute making and the answer is only partly yes, but that is partly because this country has always been a hotbed of flute innovation. Some nations simply preferred to meddle a little but in Britain, there has been a custom of altering, modifying and building new styles of flutes. Even in the past fifty years, there have been quite a number of tinkerers as we shall see later.

What did happen in the next thirty years was an explosion of new models of flutes with new fingering systems, which were either 'improvements' on the Boehm flute, or adaptations of the old 8 keyed flutes transposed on to new tubes with new keywork, or a mixture of the two.

At this time, it was somewhat helpful too, to have a Queen whose husband was musical and who wrote some rather pretty pieces. What he thought of the flute is not known, but Queen Victoria was once introduced to the new contra-bassoon. After the performer had played a few low notes, Victoria whispered, 'I hope it doesn't smell as nasty as it sounds!'

If these many flute systems seem confusing, how did a prospective customer fare when entering the premises of Rudall, Rose, Carte and Co. at 100 New Bond Street. (by Her Majesty's Royal Letters Patent) with their manufactory at 20 Charing Cross Road in about 1855?

Their price list included, of course, the ordinary 8 keyed flute with German silver keys and mountings at £4.40. The same flute could be had in cocoa wood, boxwood or ebony and again with silver keys, superior wood and a case. There follows a list of extra keys which included those for special trills or easier fingerings and keys to take the lowest note down to Bb.

Then there were 'improved' flutes made to Carte's Patent System and a cylinder flute with a parabola head (Boehm and Carte's Patents) with 'old system fingering' (£21.00) again with many optional extra keys and various styles of case. As if this wasn't enough, the company also offered military flutes and fifes as well as clarionets, (sic) oboes, bassoons, and pianofortes.

Composers are too numerous to mention for the growing interest in flute playing and the formation of the Birmingham Flute Society - perhaps the world's first? - reflects this

The Birmingham Flute Trio and Quartet Society was founded in 1856 by a talented amateur, James Mathews, its title later altered for brevity's sake. The catalogue contains 30 pages of solos, duets, trios and quartets for flutes available to members. Was this the first ever flute society?

In 1868, an 18 carat gold flute with silver keys was presented to James Matthews by his friends. Mathews was well known for his love of extra keys which can be seen in the photograph below showing him with 'Chrysostom', a flute with no less than 27 extra keys.

Robert Sidney Pratten was born into a musical family in Bristol in 1824. He had help learning the eight keyed 'simple system' flute from his family when he was young and at the age of twelve was playing solos in public. He also played the viola left handed and the piano. In 1845, at the age of 21, he became principal flute in the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden.

A rich and generous baronet, Sir Warwick Tonkin took him on tour in Europe to give him the opportunity to see some of the world, and give him the chance to play in the major European capitals which he did with great success. On his return, he changed to the Siccama System flute, another fingering and keywork system, though such was his skill that it didn't matter what kind of flute he played. His only objection was having too many extra keys on his flutes. Whilst pursuing his career in London, he composed a great deal for the flute, though much of his music has been forgotten.

According to the author R.S. Rockstro, he was 'one of the most generous, amiable and warm hearted of men'. His performing career earned him the respect of his colleagues and of the public, who were enthusiastic in their praise of him. In 1852 he began his experiments on the keywork and fingering system which later resulted in his 'Pratten's Perfected' flute, and this was manufactured by Messrs. Boosey & Co. He died in Ramsgate in 1868.

The letter below is from Pratten, an invitation to a roast pork dinner with duets to follow, dated Feb.19th 1866. It reads:

38 Welbeck St. Cavendish Squ. W. Monday ¼ to 3

Dear Nathuis(?) (this may have been a nick-name)

Loin of Swine with savoury perfume at 6.# Come in time to have a tuck in & we will blow out our Flutes afterwards. Hoping this will reach you in time. I am yours sincerely Timothy Blowhard alias R. Sidney Pratten.

Aside from the roast pork dinner followed by duets, how extraordinary that he posted this letter to arrive somewhere in London within the following three hours!

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