10 Fascinating Facts About the History of the Flute

The flute, in all its different shapes and forms, is one of the most common instruments throughout the globe, and it has a very long and interesting history. Here are 10 fascinating facts about the history of the flute (among many!).

1. The Flute Is the Oldest Instrument in the World

The oldest form of music making is most likely singing of course, but the oldest instruments ever found have been flutes.

A 50 to 60 thousand year old instrument called the Divje Babe flute was found in 1995, and it was actually made by Neanderthals. It was made from the bone of a cave bear femur. However, some archeologists debate as to whether or not the holes in the bone were intentionally carved to make an instrument or were just made by animals.

Therefore, the oldest confirmed flute and the oldest one made by homo sapiens was discovered in 2006. It is called the Hohle Fels flute, which is estimated to be between 35 and 40 thousand years old. It is also made out of bone but this time from the wing of a vulture.

And while these instruments do not function today, the oldest playable flute is still 9 thousand years old. Many flutes made out of the bones of a crane were discovered in Jiahu, China in 1984, and several of these still play.

2. The Flute Is Found in Mythologies and Religions Throughout the World

As the flute is the oldest instrument, it is to be expected then that it is found in many mythologies and religions throughout the world.

There are many figures in Greek mythology that played the flute. The goddess Athena was said to invent the flute, but tossed it aside when she was made fun of for the way she looked when she played. The satyr Marsyas then learned how to play her flute. There is also Euterpe who is the Muse of Music and Lyric Poetry and who plays the flute. Of course, there is the infamous half-goat god Pan found in many famous flute pieces (Debussy’s Syrinx, Mouquet’s La Flûte de Pan, Donjon’s Pan…) who was said to have made a pan flute out of the reeds of Syrinx, a nymph of his desire who did not return his affections. And Pan later teaches Daphnis, a cowherder and son of Hermes and a nymph, how to play, and the story of his love with Chloe was made famous (with an incredibly important flute solo) in Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloe.

While there are many mythological Greek flutists, there are also flute deities or spiritual figures found throughout the rest of the world. One of the most famous figures outside of Greece has to be Krishna, a very important Hindu deity, and he is often depicted as a blue figure playing the flute. Others include Kokopelli (a humpbacked flutist found in southwestern Native American cultures), Jizō Bosatsu (a Buddhist Bodhisattva in Japan who played a phoenix-headed flute), Bes (an Egyptian god who played a double flute), Han Xiangzi (one of the Taoist Eight Immortals that played the dizi, the Chinese flute), Ianuaria (a Celtic goddess from Gaul that played the panpipes), Eshu (a deity in Yoruba mythology that played a pipe), and Mulungu (the creator god of the Kamba who is actually a flute himself).

3. The Flute Was Loved by Royalty

Not only was the flute loved by deities, but there were many royal humans that have played the flute as well.

The most famous of all royal figures in the flute world is Frederich II of Prussia, or Frederick the Great (1712–1786). Not only was he the King of Prussia, but he loved to play the flute. He studied under the famous flutist/composer/pedagogue Johann Joachim Quantz and had Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (Johann Sebastian Bach’s son) write many flute works. His youngest sister, Princess Anna Amalia of Prussia (1723–1787) also played the flute and was a composer under her brother’s encouragement.

Outside of Prussia, there were other royal flutists, including both Nicholas I (1796–1855) and Nicholas II (1868–1918) of Russia from the Romanov dynasty; Marie Antoinette (1755–1793), the last queen of France; and even two famous kings of England, Henry VIII (1491–1547) and George III (1738–1820).

4. The Flute Was Played by Many Famous Historical Figures

There are still many other (non-royal and not deified) famous historical figures that played the flute.

The most famous of all is the Renaissance man himself, Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), who played the lyre and the flute, sang, wrote musical compositions, and invented musical instruments, in addition to his many other artistic and scientific talents. Obviously he was smart since he played the flute!

Other notable names who played the flute include John Quincy Adams (1767–1848), the sixth president of the United States; Noah Webster (1758–1843), famed for his dictionary; Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849), the famous poet of the mysterious and the macabre; and Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862), the transcendentalist philosopher and author of Walden.

5. The Flute Was Played by Many Composers and Songwriters Throughout History You Might Not Expect

Ok, one last section on famous flutists. When you think about famous composers and songwriters throughout history, flute unfortunately is rarely one of the main instruments that they played (apart from those virtuous who only played and wrote for flute alone)—with the exception of these wonderful musicians!

In the classical music world, there is Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767), the famous Baroque composer who is well-known in the flute world for his 12 Fantasies for solo flute. There is also the French composer of Symphonie Fantastique fame, Hector Berlioz (1803–1869), which might explain some of his gnarly piccolo writing. And of course, there is Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893). So yes, he knew just how hard the flute parts were in The Nutcracker, but he wrote them anyway!

One of the earliest popular music songwriters to play the flute was Stephen Foster (1826-1854), known mostly for his American folk songs like “Oh! Susanna,” “Camptown Races,” and “Beautiful Dreamer.” Getting into the modern age, we have Henry Mancini (1924-1994) who scored a lot of film and television music like for The Pink Panther and Peter Gunn; Peter Gabriel (born 1950) from the band Genesis; Andrea Bocelli (born 1958), the famous Italian tenor who occasionally co-writes some songs in addition to performing; and Björk Guðmundsdóttir (born 1965), the Icelandic singer and songwriter who of course usually just goes by Björk.

6. The Flute Is Magical

Maybe one of the main reasons so many famous figures throughout history were attracted to the flute is because it is magical! There are many myths and legends about its magical properties.

One famous early story is The Pied Piper of Hamelin in Germany. In 1284, The Pied Piper played his pipe to lead all the rats out of the town. But when they did not pay him for his services, he played his flute again and lured away 130 of the town’s children. While this story is a fairytale, it is actually based in fact as there are records from the town about the disappearance of children at this time. So you should always pay the piper!

Interestingly, that was not the only time an event of this nature was said to have happened. In 1646 in Korneuburg near Vienna in Austria, Hans Mousehole played a black transverse flute to lure away rats and a golden flute to lure away the children when refused payment. There is also some bit of historical fact to this story as well!

7. Mozart Complained About Not Liking the Flute

Probably the most famous story about the flute being magical comes of course from Mozart’s opera Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute) written in 1791. Here Prince Tamino uses his magic flute to calm wild animals and help keep him safe during his trials.

So considering the fact that he wrote an entire opera about how amazing the flute is, you might be surprised to hear that Mozart once complained in a letter to his father about how he could not bear the flute. However, at the time (1777/1778), he was commissioned by a wealthy amateur flutist, Ferdinand de Jean, to compose three flute concertos and several quartets, and Mozart, while writing two concertos and three quartets, did not completely finish the commission and did not receive all the payment he expected. So it is possible that out of anger at his situation, he lashed out at the flute in general.

Also, the flute was going through a lot of developments in its construction, so it wasn’t always the easiest instrument to write for at the time.

8. Flutes Have Been Made from Almost Every Material You Can Think of

Speaking of the flute going through many developments, one main aspect of the flute that has been constantly experimented with is its material.

As stated at the beginning of this blog post, the oldest flutes that still exist are made out of bone, but clay is a close second. During Mozart’s time, the flute was generally made out of wood (boxwood, grenadilla, rosewood, and many others). Additionally, bamboo was and still is very common for non-western flutes. Later, when Theobald Boehm (1794-1881) came along (the inventor of the modern flute), the flute more frequently began being made from metal, especially silver.

One less common but particularly striking material the flute was made out of was glass. The most famous maker of crystal glass flutes were made by Claude Laurent in France beginning in 1806. His flutes were owned by a couple of important political figures, including the fourth president of the United States, James Madison (yes, the one Lizzo played), and Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte.

Today, the flute can be made out of any of these materials (well maybe bone is not used much anymore), plus many others, such as nickel silver, gold, brass, copper, platinum, titanium, and plastic. There are even alloys and fusions of metals or composite materials. Some flutes are even being 3D printed today out of resin! However, silver still tends to be the most common material for Boehm flutes.

9. The Flute Is Never Finished

The actual construction and key system of the flute has also gone through many developments throughout its history, including the beginning of the Baroque flute first constructed by the Hotteterre family in the later 17th century, the 2, 4, 6, 8, and many other keyed instruments of the 19th century, and Boehm inventing the modern concert flute by 1847.

The flute Boehm invented is essentially the one that is still commonly played today, although there have been a few little tweaks and editions. For example, the Bb thumb key was added by Giulio Briccialdi in 1849. Other additions have included a low B footjoint and a C# trill key among many, but it is still essentially a Boehm flute.

However, flute makers did not completely stop experimenting after Boehm. For example, Alexander-Murray invented a modified fingering system for the flute in the 1970s. There is also a quarter tone flute created by Eva Kingma and Bickford Brannen in the 1990s, able to play all the notes in a quarter tone (not half step like usual) chromatic scale. And between 1992 and 2004, Robert Dick invented the glissando headjoint for the flute which allows the lip plate to slide back and forth to bend the pitch up and down.

10. A Flute Can Be an Instrument and a Cane

The most practical and multi-use development of the flute though has to be the walking stick flute, or the flute cane. Flute makers beginning in the late 17th century through the 19th century made these handy instruments, with Ulrich Amman (1766-1842) of Switzerland being a prominent maker.

With a flute cane, you could be fashionable, have walking support, and be able to play music all in one go!

Take a Flute-Filled Time-Traveling Adventure

Want to learn more about the amazing history of the flute? Go on a time-traveling adventure with Flutie and Pickle as they discover the flute’s long and incredible past in Flutie and Pickle’s Journey Through Time!