The oboe and bassoon have
double reeds, and the clarinet a single reed, made of a species of
cane, as intermediate agents of sound production. There are other
flutes than that of _embouchure_--those with flageolet or whistle
heads, which, having become obsolete, shall be reserved for later
notice. There are no real tenor or bass flutes now, those in use being
restricted to the upper part of the scale. The present flute dates
from 1832, when Theobald Boehm, a Bavarian flute player, produced the
instrument which is known by his name. He entirely remodeled the
flute, being impelled to do so by suggestions from the performance of
the English flautist, Charles Nicholson, who had increased the
diameter of the lateral holes, and by some improvements that had been
attempted in the flute by a Captain Gordon, of Charles the Tenth's
Swiss Guard. Boehm has been sufficiently vindicated from having
unfairly appropriated Gordon's ideas. The Boehm flute, since 1846, is
a cylindrical tube for about three-fourths of its length from the
lower end, after which it is continued in a curved conical
prolongation to the cork stopper. The finger holes are disposed in a
geometrical division, and the mechanism and position of the keys are
entirely different from what had been before.
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