These instruments were used in a family, usually of
eight members, viz., as many sizes from treble to bass; or in three,
treble, alto or tenor, and bass. A fine original set of those now rare
instruments, eight in number, was shown in 1890 in the music gallery
of the Royal Military Exhibition, at Chelsea; a loan collection
admirably arranged by Captain C.B. Day. They were obtained from Hesse
Darmstadt, and had their outer case to preserve them exactly like the
recorder case represented in the painting by Holbein of the
ambassadors, or rather, the scholars, recently acquired for the
National Gallery. The flageolet was the latest form of the treble,
beak, or whistle head flute. The whistle head is furnished with a
cavity containing air, which, shaped by a narrow groove, strikes
against the sharp edge and excites vibration in the conical pipe, on
the same principle that an organ pipe is made to sound, or of the
action of the player's mouth and lips upon the blowhole of the flute.
As it will interest the audience to hear the tone of Shakespeare's
recorder, Mr. Henry Carte will play an air upon one.
The oboe takes the next place in the wood wind band. The principle of
sound excitement, that of the double reed, originating in the
flattening of the end of an oat or wheat straw, is of great antiquity,
but it could only be applied by insertion in tubes of very narrow
diameter, so that the column of air should not be wider than the
tongue straw or reed acting upon it.
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