T. Boehm

Theobald Boehm is well-known as the inventor of the modern flute. However, it is less known that he has been playing and producing simple system flutes of his invention throughout the first part of his career. He established a workshop in Munich in 1828, where flutes of his design where made by him and his foreman, Rudolph Greve. Boehm knew and studied flutes by the best makers of the time; French, English, Viennese and German, but has come up with his own design, using the best features of all these flutes. In a famous letter to the king Ludwig I of Bavaria, Boehm describes the following qualities of his new model: Purity of intonation, evenness of tone, facility of operation, speaks well throughout its range from the highest to the lowest notes, beautiful and elegant profile and thoroughly neat and solid workmanship.

There is no doubt that flutes from Boehm's workshop show these qualities. The workmanship is exquisite, the design is simple and elegant and the flutes have a lovely singing voice throughout their entire range. Between the years 1828 and 1846 Boehm's workshop (later Boehm & Greve) continue to produce a range of flutes; block- or pillar-mounted simple system flutes, alongside his 1832 ring-key conical bore flutes. Interestingly enough, the simple system flutes continued to be popular far after the introduction of the ring key model. This is possibly because players were very familiar with the key system and the flutes cost about a quarter of the price of the newer model.

The flute I make is based on an original in the New York Metropolitan Museum. It is a very early flute by Boehm, stamped “TH. BOEHM/MUNCHEN”. Based on the stamp, we can date this flute to ca.1828. The original is block mounted; with one pillar mounted Bb lever that could be a later addition by Boehm. The original is pitched a little higher than A=440, and with a tuning slide (based on other originals by Boehm) this flute works well for A=435-442. The original is made in ebony with silver keys.