Introduction

Before commencing the scholarly study of an artefact and its function, it is appropriate to define, or at least accurately describe, the object of the study. In the case of duct flutes such as the flageolet, however, precise definitions are seldom possible. The flageolet defies definition, for it is an instrument of protean form, although all flageolets may be classified as internal duct flutes with tone-holes. Flageolets were made in different sizes with differing distribution of tone-holes and, later, a variable pattern of keywork. The original flageolet of the seventeenth century (now called the French flageolet to distinguish it from the English flageolet of the nineteenth century) has four finger- and two thumb-holes, whereas the English instrument has six or seven finger-holes and, on some instruments, one thumb-hole. Prior to the development of the English flageolet around the year 1800, the French flageolet was the only known variety of the instrument. Although the first definitive description of the (French) flageolet was provided by Marin Mersenne in his Harmonie Universelle of 1636, it is possible to trace precursors of the instrument as far back as the Middle Ages.

The Middle Ages

The term ‘flageolet’ may be derived from the Latin flare (to blow) and in the eleventh century an end-blow duct flute of Asiatic origin appeared in the West, becoming known as flageole in France around the year 1180: the name is also encountered as flajos, flajol, flagueiol, flajox and other variants, and, in the diminutive, as flageolet. In the Middle Ages the instrument was probably a simple shepherd’s willow pipe, the mid-thirteenth century trouvère and jongleur Colin Muset (fl c1200–50) writing:

The notable French composer Guillaume de Machaut (c1300–77) referred to a flajos de saus (willow pipe) and also described Et de flajos plus de x paires, C’est a dire xx manieres … (Of flageolets, more than ten pairs …).