THE Flageolet is the last example in present use of the "flûtes douces," or "à bec" (German Blockflöten), bored with reversed cones, that is to say, with the embouchure at the larger end. It is referred to by Pepys in his Diary (1st March, 1666): "Being returned home I find Greeting, the flageolet-master, come, and teaching my wife, and I do think my wife will take pleasure in it, and it will be easy for her, and pleasant;" and again (20th January, 1667): "To Drumbleby's the pipe-maker, there to advise about the making of a flageolet to go low and soft; and he do show me a way which do do, and also a fashion of having two pipes of the same note fastened together, so as I can play in one and then echo it upon the other, which is mighty pretty."
The double flageolets in the Plate were made by W. Bainbridge, London, who had a speciality for such instruments. The flûtes douces—in Shakspeare's Hamlet the "Recorders"—were made in families like viols, cromornes, shawms, and other well-known Elizabethan instruments, a fashion that modern instrumentation shows a tendency to return to. Evelyn, in 1679, mentions them as "now in much request for accompanying the voice." A bass and treble flute is drawn, also a one-keyed German or transverse flute which, in the last century, from its beauty and tone, although defective in intonation, was a favourite instrument, and supplanted the flûte douce in public favour. In the concerts of ancient music given in July, 1885, by members of the Brussels Conservatoire in the Music Room of the Inventions Exhibition, South Kensington, a movement from a Concerto by Quanz (music-master to Frederick the Great) was played by Mr. Dumon on a single-keyed ivory flute. In the same concerts, Mr. Dumon and his pupils played a March of the Lansquenets, of the time of the Peace of Cambrai (1519), on eight flûtes douces (flauti dolci), in parts, accompanied by a drum. This was the military music of that period.
The German flute is the second instrument in the Plate; the flûtes douces are the third and fifth from left to right. These instruments and those drawn in the next Plate are the property of Messrs. J. & R. Glen, Edinburgh.
PLATE XXXIX.
DOLCIANO. OBOE. BASSOON.
OBOE DA CACCIA. BASSET HORN.