Baroque Flute Handbook
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The Baroque flute was popular for about a hundred years, from the latter half of the 1600s into the latter half of the 1700s. It's known by several names (of which "Baroque flute" would not have been one during what we now call the Baroque period):
- Traverso
- German flute
- One-keyed (or single-keyed) flute
On purely historical grounds, traverso is arguably the most appropriate name. This book will, however, use Baroque flute because it's probably more familiar to modern readers.
Even though multi-keyed flutes gradually overtook the Baroque flute, one-keyed flutes continued (and continue) to be made and used into modern times. The flutes used for Irish music are probably the best example of these. However, these differ in some important respects from true Baroque flutes because they are designed to hold their own when playing with a group of other Irish instruments. In general, the Baroque flute has the following characteristics:
- Made of wood, of which the most commonly used are boxwood, ebony, and grenadilla.
- Having a conical bore that tapers to become significantly more narrow at the bottom than at the top.
- Relatively small embouchure and finger holes.
- 6 finger holes plus a 7th hole at the end that is opened by the single key.
- Divided into 3 or 4 joints: a headjoint, 1 or 2 middle joints (in the latter case, the single middle joint is divided in 2), and a footjoint having the 7th hole and key.
The Baroque flute has returned to popularity in recent decades with the growth of interest in music, instruments, and performance practices of earlier times. While this has made it easier to find information on the Baroque flute than was once the case, that information tends to be scattered across a variety of sources, much of it in the form of "oral tradition" within the community of makers and players. Furthermore, opinions on some matters vary widely. For the newcomer, this can be at times confusing and frustrating. The purpose of this handbook is to collect some of this material in one place, hoping it will be useful for beginners as well as more advanced players.
