Flöte zu Flûte à Flute: A Survey of Transverse & Vertical Flute Terminology in London, 1575-1820

Abstract

For flute performers and music researchers alike, inconsistencies in terminology in the early modern period can frequently cause frustration and confusion when working with flute music or documents from that era. Historical documents refer to transverse flute and vertical flute – known commonly today as the flute and recorder, respectively – using a variety of terms that often overlap. This makes it virtually impossible at times to determine which instrument a piece may have been written for or a book may be referring to, which, in turn, puts the accuracy of a performer’s interpretation or a researcher’s work in serious jeopardy.

While some scholarship attempting to clarify these nomenclature discrepancies exist, those essays fail to thoroughly track the development of the nomenclature itself. This convenience-sampled survey of flute-related primary source documents published in London between 1575 and 1820 provides an in-depth look at how exactly the terminology used in reference to the transverse and vertical flute evolved in England. The documents utilized in this survey are drawn from a variety of sources, including, the Baldwin Wallace University Riemenschneider Bach Institute and the Library of Congress Dayton C. Miller Collection. By analyzing how these terms have evolved over time, this study not only provides important observations on shifts in nomenclature that will prove invaluable to ensuring accuracy in the work of performers and researchers alike, but it also prompts numerous topics of further studying, opening the door for further flute-specific etymological research.