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Jan 1, 1500
Early Modern Flute
Flutes at the time were very simple in the way they were built. All they were was a wood tube with one end filled with cork and the other end left alone. They also only had 6 holes compared to the 12 keys an average flute has today. Their lengths were changed to enable them to play in different keys. http://www.gemeinhardt.com/connect/gemeinhardt-education/flute-history.html -
Improved Early Modern Flute
In the late 1600's a flute in the key of D was modified to have three parts, the headjoint, body, and footjoints. The body and footjoint were made to be conical and the headjoint stayed cylindrical like the flute it was derived from. An extra hole was added so the instrument could play the note D# making it possible for the instrument to play chromatically. This brought the hole count to seven. https://vsl.co.at/en/Concert_flute/History -
More Parts
In the 1720's the length of the flute's different parts changed. Also the body was cut into two parts and there was an extra joint added. This improvement allowed the musician to alter the tuning of the flute to match that of different orchestras. http://www.gemeinhardt.com/connect/gemeinhardt-education/flute-history.html -
More Fingerings
Quantz and Tromlitz developed many different fingerings for each note. This varied the pitch of the notes very slightly and different fingerings were used to fit with different chords. These fingerings also allowed musicians to play notes that were inherently sharp or flat in tune. http://www.gemeinhardt.com/connect/gemeinhardt-education/flute-history.html -
No More Overlapping Fingerings
Flutemakers at the time wanted to fix the problem of one fingering being used to play several different notes because it was very easy to play the wrong note. So they decided to add the G#, A#, and F keys to the body, bringing the key count to a total of ten. This eliminated most of the cross-fingering issues, and allowed more amateur flutists to play well. http://www.gemeinhardt.com/connect/gemeinhardt-education/flute-history.html -
Even More Keys
Motzart and Hayden were starting to use the flute a lot in their compositions at the time, so flutemakers decided to find ways to make the flute even better. Of course, they decided to add more keys. Flute makers added the low B, C, and C# keys, bringing the key count to thirteen, the amount an average flute has today. The addition of these keys lets the flute play 3 notes lower and one note higher than before. http://www.gemeinhardt.com/connect/gemeinhardt-education/flute-history.html -
Flute Finally Set in Stone
In 1847 a person by the name of Theobald Boehm made the final big change to the flute. Boehm first made the flute out of metal, specifically out of German silver, which he thought produced the best tone. He also made the tone holes larger and added felt pads to the keys to prevent air from leaking. The new pin spring system, developed by Boehm, allowed more than one hole to be covered by a key press. This is the modern flute that we use today https://vsl.co.at/en/Concert_flute/History
