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The flute is a woodwind instrument that produces sound from the flow of air across an opening. Flutes are among the earliest known musical instruments, with paleolithic examples over 35,000 years old found in Europe. Asia also has a long history of flute use dating back over 9,000 years, while flutes in the Americas have been carbon dated to over 5,000 years ago. Historically, bamboo flutes have been especially prominent in China and India, with written sources documenting their use as early as the 12th century BC.

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77 views2 pages

Flute: Jump To Navigationjump To Search

The flute is a woodwind instrument that produces sound from the flow of air across an opening. Flutes are among the earliest known musical instruments, with paleolithic examples over 35,000 years old found in Europe. Asia also has a long history of flute use dating back over 9,000 years, while flutes in the Americas have been carbon dated to over 5,000 years ago. Historically, bamboo flutes have been especially prominent in China and India, with written sources documenting their use as early as the 12th century BC.

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Daniel Bobbitt
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Flute

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


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This article is about the whole family of instruments. For the flute commonly used in
orchestras and bands, see Western concert flute. For other uses, see Flute
(disambiguation).

Radha listening to Krishna's flute

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The flute is a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Unlike woodwind
instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that
produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening. According to the instrument
classification of Hornbostel–Sachs, flutes are categorized as edge-blown
aerophones.[1] A musician who plays the flute can be referred to as a flute player,
flautist, flutist or, less commonly, fluter or flutenist.
Flutes are the earliest known identifiable musical instruments, as paleolithic examples
with hand-bored holes have been found. A number of flutes dating to about 43,000 to
35,000 years ago have been found in the Swabian Jura region of present-day Germany.
These flutes demonstrate that a developed musical tradition existed from the earliest
period of modern human presence in Europe.[2][3] While the oldest flutes currently known
were found in Europe, Asia too has a long history with the instrument that has continued
into the present day. In China, a playable bone flute was discovered, dated
approximately 9000 years old.[4] The Americas also had an ancient flute culture, with
instruments found in Caral, Peru, dating back 5000 years [5] and Labrador dating back
approximately 7500 years.[6]
Historians have found the bamboo flute has a long history as well, especially in China
and India. Flutes have been discovered in historical records and artworks starting in
the Zhou dynasty. The oldest written sources reveal the Chinese were using the kuan (a
reed instrument) and hsio (or xiao, an end-blown flute, often of bamboo) in the 12th-
11th centuries B.C., followed by the chi (or ch'ih) in the 9th century B.C. and the yüeh in
the 8th century B.C.[7] Of these, the chi is the oldest documented cross flute
or transverse flute, and was made from bamboo.[7][8]

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