Daily entries from the 17th century London diary
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Wikipedia
A flageolet is a woodwind musical instrument and a member of the fipple flute family. Its invention is ascribed to the 16th century Sieur Juvigny in 1581.[1] It had 4 holes on the front and 2 on the back. The English instrument maker William Bainbridge developed it further and patented the "improved English flageolet" in 1803 as well as the double flageolet around 1805.[2] They were continued to be made until the 20th century when it was succeeded by the tin whistle.
Flageolets have varied greatly during the last 400 years. The first flageolets were called "French flageolets", and have four tone-holes on the front and two on the back. This instrument was played by Frédéric Chalon, Samuel Pepys, and Robert Louis Stevenson. Henry Purcell and George Frideric Handel both wrote pieces for it.
Small versions of this instrument, called bird flageolets were also made and were used for teaching birds to sing.
The number of keys on French flageolets range from none to seven, the exception being the Boehm system French flageolet made by Buffet Crampon which had thirteen keys.
In the late 18th and early 19th century certain English instrument makers started to make flageolets with six finger-holes on the front. These instruments are called "English flageolets" and were eventually produced in metal as tin whistles.[citation needed] The keys range between none and six. Some were produced with changeable top joints which allowed the flageolet to be played as a flute or fife[3].
An English maker, William Bainbridge, in around 1810 patented a double flageolet [1] which consisted of two English flageolets joined together so that the player could harmonise the tunes that he played. He also produced a triple flageolet which added a third, drone pipe which was fingered in a similar way to an ocarina.
![[1]](http://members.tripod.com/~Music_Treasures/flgroup7.jpg){kind=link}
The flageolet was eventually entirely replaced by the tin whistle and is rarely played today.[citation needed] However, it is a very easy instrument to play and the tone is soft and gentle. It has a range of about two octaves.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Stanley Sadie (editor). Norton/Grove The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 1980/1995 ISBN 1561591742
- ^ The Pleasant Companion: The Flageolet's Site "William Bainbridge Biography"
- ^ The Pleasant Companion: The Flageolets Site "The Flageolet Family"
[edit] External links
- flageolets.com — a site devoted to the flageolet
Annotations
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a wind instrument. similar to a recorder or oboe. in ‘single’ & ‘double’
formats. made of wood &/or silver. commonly tuned to key of D -
Repost of information collected from various annotations to entries of January - May 1660.
A small wooden pipe, having six or more holes, and a mouthpiece inserted at one end. It produces a shrill sound, softer than of the piccolo flute, and is said to have superseded the old recorder.
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Repost from ‘other instruments’ page
music-flageolet picture of same
http://www.kawells.fsnet.co.uk/flageolet.htm
http://musicologie.free.fr/sites/flageolet.html
double flageolet -
The Flageolet used by SP is known as the “french flageolet
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I bought a tin/penny whistle for my son, some years ago…
… and it was referred to as a flageolot throughout all the documentation. -
Waits playing three hautboys and a sackbut, from a drawing in London & Westminster Prints and Drawings Volume II, Pepys Library, Magdalen College, Cambridge.
See:
http://www.waits.org.uk/pictures/originals_undated.htm#17th%20Century%20Waits -
Today, 14 April 2005, Sotheby’s London is offering for sale (says the TLS for 8 April) “The Pleasant Companion; or, New Lessons and Instructions for the Flagelet,” by Thomas Greeting, a friend of Pepys’s. Four copies of the 2nd edition, 1673, are held in Stockholm and Washington. The auction copy “of this delightful work, containing pieces by, among others, Matthew Locke and Pelham Humprey, is expected to fetch between L3,000 and L4,000.”