All About the Flageolet

by Howard Fosdick © FolkFluteWorld.com

When you hear the word flageolet, do you think of the modern tin whistle? That's one of its names, along with penny whistle and Irish whistle.

But "flageolet" also refers to a family of older woodwind instruments. Popular for over three hundred years, today they're all but forgotten.

Composers like Henry Purcell, George Handel, and Frédéric Chalon wrote for the historic flageolet, and its amateur enthusiasts included Samuel Pepys and Robert Louis Stevenson.

The photo shows the difference between the modern "flageolet" and older ones. The tin whistle has no keys, and usually it's made of metal (or perhaps plastic or wood).

Historic flageolets were nearly always made of wood. Some have keys, while others don't. Fingering patterns differed.

This article covers the historic flageolet, an instrument that competed with the recorder and other wood flutes for centuries. It's a fascinating little flute that today is only known to the cognoscenti. We'll tell you everything about it.

Oh, and about the modern tin whistle: some call it the flageolet because it's considered the modern replacement for the historic instrument.

How They Sound

Before exploring the instruments, let's hear how they sound. Click on a link or two to hear musicians play these old instruments.

The flageolet sounds different from either the recorder or a modern metal tin whistle. It definitely has a "woody" sound that makes it unique. Flageolets are sometimes used in films or television shows to give an air of authenticity to period reenactments.

Origins

Flageolets were conceived in the late 16th century. They survived until about the first World War, by which time they had gradually faded away.

These instruments were not standardized and many varieties were produced. Some had keys; others did not. They came in all lengths from about six inches to a several feet. Their pitches thus ranged across the scale.

All kinds of woods were employed in their crafting. Rare pieces were made of ivory.

Flageolets are usually categorized as English, French, Bird, Double, and Triple. We'll describe these categories momentarily. First, let's discuss some general characteristics.

Mouthpieces

All flageolets are fipple flutes, just like recorders. Also known as duct flutes, their mouthpiece directs the player's breath into a sharp edge to produce sound. (This design contrasts with flutes where the musician is responsible for splitting his breath by means of proper embouchure, such as the modern concert flute.)

The animation shows how a sharp edge splits the musician's breath to create sound waves:

You can spot the splitting edge on these flageolets in an open notch near the mouthpiece:

This composite photo shows the three kinds of flageolet mouthpieces.

On the left is the mouthpiece you're familiar with from recorders. With flageolets, they often refer to it as the beak mouthpiece, because in a side view it looks like a bird's beak.

The second and third pieces from the left illustrate the windcap mouthpiece. That's the white ivory or bone mouthpiece at the top of the instrument.

The rightmost two flageolets have simple unadorned blowholes.

You'll note one other distinction in this photo. In the three middle specimens, the splitting edge that produces the sound waves is located a good distance away from where the musician blows.

This so-called pump design was thought to produce a better sound. The bulbous extension near the mouthpiece acts as a sound resonator.

It would also collect moisture from the player's breath and protect the instrument. Many flageolets had this extended air chamber in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Flageolets share this extended air chamber design with Native American flutes. Those distinguish between their slow air chamber and their sound chamber. (Click here for a diagram of the Native American flute's dual chamber design.)

Keys

Some flageolets are like recorders; they have no mechanical keys. Others have so many keys that the instrument is covered with them.

Most rank somewhere in the middle. They have a few keys but not as many as modern instruments like concert flutes or clarinets.

This photo shows the variation in keys. The top instrument is a bird flagelet, a tiny instrument designed to imitate birds. It's so small it has no room for mechanical keys.

The middle flageolet epitomizes the designs of the 19th century. It has the mouthpiece air chamber and a smattering of mechanical keys to assist in playing accidentals.

The bottom example uses the Boehm fingering system invented in the 19th century. It maximizes the number of keys to support this.

Mechanical keys serve several different purposes. Those attached to the body of the instrument were primarily for playing sharps and flats. Keys on the head joint were for trills, or for altering the instrument's volume. Sometimes an octave key would assist playing notes in the upper octave of the instrument's two-octave range.

Fingerings and base notes vary between different kinds of flageolets. Let's continue by discussing how flageolets are categorized.

French Flageolets

The flageolet was born in France in the late 1500s. Manufacture, performance, and composing remained strong in France for the next three centuries. The last flageolets faded out with the passing of the Belle Époque and outbreak of the Great War.

The earliest French flageolets looked like recorders. A beak mouthpiece, no mechanical keys, and with four top and two bottom thumb holes. The top instrument in this photo shows the type.

The number of fingering holes and the manner in which notes are fingered is what distinguishes early flageolets from recorders. It's usually considered the very definition of what constitutes a French flageolet: 4 top and 2 bottom tone holes.

Here's the fingering for whole notes for a standard French flageolet. Flageolets have a full two-octave range:

Here's a full chart that includes all sharps and flats. Fingering the accidentals requires lots of split fingering patterns and a bit of half-holing (covering half a hole with your finger).

Over time, French flageolets evolved into various shapes, including the classic mouthpiece air chamber design. Keys were added to flageolets large enough to accept them. Some simplified fingering, especially for sharps and flats.

Ultimately, some late period flageolets were smothered with keys and supported a different fingering systems, called the Boehm system.

This woodcut shows how to hold the standard French flageolet. The musician places his left hand at the top of the flute, using his first two fingers to cover the first two fingering holes.

The right hand goes below. Again, the first two fingers cover the top holes. Each thumb covers a thumb hole beneath the instrument.

French flageolets were crafted in many different keys. Earlier ones tend to be in D, F, G, or A. By the 19th century, A had become most common. This means these flutes were high-pitched, because we're talking about the A that is a sixteenth above middle C on the piano (A5).

The scale for the A-keyed instruments may not be what you would assume. It follows this progression:

Note that both C and G are naturals, not sharps.

Late Period French Flageolets

This photo shows the most popular design for French flageolets from the 1800s to their disappearance by the first World War. It has the typical windcap and a few keys. Its distinctive feature is its long, bulbous mouthpiece air chamber.

Many of these instruments were in the key of A, which became a de facto standard.

Another development during this period was the Boehm-system flageolet. This was an attempt to rationalize and optimize the flageolot's design. The idea was to bring the historic flageolet into the modern era of orchestral instruments.

Boehm flageolets are covered with keys. These make fingering sharps and flats easier and reduce cross-fingering. The holes of the instrument are placed and sized according to scientific study.

Bird Flageolets

A notable subclass of French flageolets are the so-called bird flutes. These tiny high-pitched instruments were intended to teach birds to sing. They could also imitate bird calls and composers sometimes used them for bird-like parts in ensembles.

Bird flutes are less than six inches long. This topic is so unusual and intriguing that I've written a complete article on it you can read here.

English Flageolets

What are termed "English fageolets" emerged later than the continental versions of the instrument. They didn't become popular until the 19th century.

Some early models had 7 top holes and were pitched in the key of C, just like a descant recorder. They also had a backside thumbhole for jumping the octave.

But very quickly what is considered the definitional English flageolet emerged: 6 top keys and in the key of D. (At D5, just like today's tin whistle.) So though the instrument was produced in all different keys, D became the de facto standard.

Most English flageolets look like the classic French ones of the same era. They feature a windcap and an elongated breath chamber prior to the sound edge. The photos illustrate these characteristics.

Most consider the 6-holed English flageolet a bit easier to finger than its French counterpart (with its 4 top holes and 2 thumb holes). Both instruments are pretty easy for fingering whole notes but become harder with the accidentals. Of course, one of the main goals of adding keys to the instruments was to make it easier to play sharps and flats.

The most important English flageolet maker was William Bainbridge (1768-1831). He made numerous small improvements to the instrument. His are easily recognized by the small ivory studs he placed between fingering holes. That's a Bainbridge you see in the middle of the above photo, with the white points between the tone holes.

Double and Triple Flageolets

William Bainbridge invented the double flageolet in 1804.

The double flageolet is very unusual in that it allows playing in harmony with itself. Click on the photo to hear how this sounds.

In contrast, most kinds of dual-pipe flutes only use the secondary tube as a drone that plays a one background note at a time.

This instrument consists of two conjoined flageolets. But the pipes have different tone holes, and mechanical keys allow unique harmonization.

The double flageolet remained popular in Britain until about 1870, by which time its makers had died.

A few triple flageolets were made as well. The third pipe is basically a drone.

Triple flageolets were unwieldy and expensive. They never caught on and few were made. Today, they're quite rare.

What Ever Happened to Flageolets?

After over three hundred years of use in several nations, why did flageolets completely disappear in the early 20th century?

The invention of the modern tin whistle is a big part of the answer.

Robert Clarke invented the penny whistle in 1843 near Bury St. Edmunds, England. The instrument had the same 6 top of holes of the English flageolet. So it had the same range of the flageolet, yet its fingering was easier because of overblowing.

The metal tube design was portable and virtually indestructible. And, very importantly, the metal whistle cost much less to produce than handmade wooden instruments. (That's why it was called the "penny whistle.")

So the wood flageolet was automated out of existence. The new tin whistle was marketed as a flageolet in the 1800s and some still call it by that name today.

Another reason for the flageolet's decline was the rise of modern orchestral instruments. Machine-manufactured metal instruments such as the concert flute and saxophone came to dominate. The Boehm system attempted to update the flageolet to this new world but it never developed sufficient following.

In the end, the flageolet was squeezed out. It was too expensive and delicate to compete with the cheap, portable tin whistle, and it wasn't sophisticated enough to join the elite world of concert instruments.

Buying a Flageolet

Flageolets today are rare and expensive. Only a few elite flute makers in the entire world handcraft them for professional musicians. That means they're quite costly.

Occasionally you'll see historic flageolets available on websites like Ebay or Etsy. Unfortunately, online buying means you can't try them before you buy. That's a real concern with any instrument over 100 years old. You can't accurately assess it or detect any flaws without hands-on access.

Final Thoughts

Today, old wooden flageolets are curiosities that occasionally emerge from attics or cellars. Those who find them must research to discover what they are.

You'll see them in museums, but never at a live event -- unless it concerns the history of musical instruments.

Perhaps someday the flageolet will undergo the resurrection the recorder enjoyed in the 20th century.

Or maybe there was only a single revival on offer, and the flageolet lost out to the recorder. Time will tell.

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Further Information

For more about the flageolet, you may wish to visit the two major websites on this topic: Flageolets.com and instrument maker Philippe Bolton at Flageolet.fr.

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