Bass Flute
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The bass flute is a member of the flute family pitched one octave below the concert flute. The tubing length is twice as long at , which requires a J-shaped head joint to bring the
embouchure Embouchure () or lipping is the use of the lips, facial muscles, tongue, and teeth in playing a wind instrument. This includes shaping the lips to the mouthpiece (woodwind), mouthpiece of a woodwind or brass instrument. The word is of French lan ...
hole within reach of the player. Despite its name, its lowest note of C or B places its lowest octave only in the tenor range. Its soft dynamic range means in large ensembles it is easily obscured unless amplified or lightly scored; however its unique
timbre In music, timbre (), also known as tone color or tone quality (from psychoacoustics), is the perceived sound of a musical note, sound or tone. Timbre distinguishes sounds according to their source, such as choir voices and musical instrument ...
in the low register can be very effective, especially in solo works, small ensembles, and flute choirs. The "bass flute in F" produced by Kotato & Fukushima is a contra-alto flute.


Alternative terminology

Prior to the mid-20th century, the term "bass flute" was sometimes used, especially in Great Britain, to refer to the
alto flute The alto flute is an instrument in the Western concert flute family, pitched below the standard C flute and the uncommon flûte d'amour. It is the third most common member of its family after the standard C flute and the piccolo. It is chara ...
; for example, the part for "bass flute in G" in Holst's '' The Planets'', and many works by Britten. In 1910, Abelardo Albisi invented a bass flute known as the albisiphone which was used in scores by Mascagni and Zandonai among other composers during the first half of the 20th century.


Range and construction

The instrument's sounding range is from C3 (or B2 if a B Foot Joint), one octave below middle C, to C6, two octaves above middle C. Bass flute music sounds an octave lower than it is written, which is the typical concert flute range (C4 to C7). Notes written above A6 are not often used as they are difficult to produce and have inferior tone unless the instrument is tapered through the curve. Because manufacturers do not taper the flute body through the curve, intonation of all notes beginning with written D6 and higher tends to be sharp. The player can bend them in tune with the embouchure, or use alternative fingerings. Bass flutes often have a C foot rather than the B foot common to other flutes. The shorter tube reduces acoustic resistance, which quickens the response and makes the tone brighter, livelier, and more resonant. The shorter tube also makes the instrument somewhat lighter and less fatiguing for the player to hold. Bass flutes are most often made with silver-plated bodies and head joints. Most basses come with trill keys which allow the player to stabilize some otherwise unstable middle register notes as well as trill between otherwise impossible notes. Kotato basses have addressed the weight problem of bass flutes by designing a graphite rod that screws onto the underside of the instrument and then rests on the chair seat between the player's legs. Adjustable rods have also been developed by Jeff Amos. Other manufacturers have added a left hand thumb support called a ''crutch'', which helps some players with physical control of the instrument. Dutch flute maker Eva Kingma has created a vertical design for the bass flute which allows the weight of the instrument to be supported by the floor.


Repertoire

Many composers are beginning to write more pieces for the bass flute. These include Katherine Hoover's ''Two for Two'', Bill Douglas's ''Karuna'', Sophie Lacaze's ''Archelogos II'', Mike Mower's ''Obstinato'' and ''Scareso'', Gary Schocker's ''A Small Sonata for a Large Flute'', Lorenzo Ferrero's ''Ellipse'' and ''Shadow Lines'', Sonny Burnett's ''Stone Suite'', Catherine McMichael's ''Baikal Journey'' and
Ennio Morricone Ennio Morricone ( , ; 10 November 19286 July 2020) was an Italian composer, Orchestration, orchestrator, conductor, trumpeter, and pianist who wrote music in a wide range of styles. With more than 400 film score, scores for cinema and televisi ...
's ''Secrets of the Sahara''. Other important works include Tristan Murail's ''Ethers'' for solo bass flute and small ensemble,
Brian Ferneyhough Brian John Peter Ferneyhough (; born 16 January 1943) is an English composer. Ferneyhough is typically considered the central figure of the New Complexity movement. Ferneyhough has taught composition at the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg and ...
's ''Mnemosyne'' for bass flute and tape,
Mario Lavista Mario Lavista (April 3, 1943 – November 4, 2021) was a Mexican composer, writer and intellectual. Life and career Lavista was born in Mexico City. He enrolled the Composition Workshop (Taller de Composición) at the National Conservatory in 19 ...
's ''Lamento a la muerte de Raúl Lavista'' for solo bass flute, Michael Oliva's ''Moss Garden'' also for bass flute and tape, John Palmer's
Inwards
' for bass flute and live-electronics, ''She Cried'' by Shiva Feshareki, and Marc Tweedie's ''Zoli'', written for renowned flautist Carla Rees. Studies and concert etudes are beginning to appear that address the instrument's many challenges (physical balance, finger technique, air stream, overblowing, etc.). Low flute specialist Peter Sheridan has commissioned and arranged new compositions in this area, including a set of 'Etudes for Low Flutes' by Hilary Taggart. The sixth movement of Claude Bolling's '' Suite for Flute and Jazz Piano Trio'', 'Versatile' has the soloist playing the opening melody on a bass flute.
Morton Feldman Morton Feldman (January 12, 1926 – September 3, 1987) was an American composer. A major figure in 20th-century classical music, Feldman was a pioneer of indeterminacy in music, a development associated with the experimental New York School o ...
's composition "Crippled Symmetry" has a part for the bass flute, as does
John Cage John Milton Cage Jr. (September 5, 1912 – August 12, 1992) was an American composer and music theorist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and Extended technique, non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one ...
's late work "Seven2".
Hans Pfitzner Hans Erich Pfitzner (5 May 1869 – 22 May 1949) was a German composer, conductor and polemicist who was a self-described anti-modernist. His best known work is the post-Romantic opera ''Palestrina'' (1917), loosely based on the life of the ...
's 1917 opera ''
Palestrina Palestrina (ancient ''Praeneste''; , ''Prainestos'') is a modern Italian city and ''comune'' (municipality) with a population of about 22,000, in Lazio, about east of Rome. It is connected to the latter by the Via Prenestina. It is built upon ...
'' features an early (true) C bass flute part. Another piece featuring the bass flute is John Mackey's "The Frozen Cathedral" (2013) in two separate sections of the piece. For an extensive list of repertoire for bass flute and contrabass flute see ''Repertoire Catalogue for
Piccolo The piccolo ( ; ) is a smaller version of the western concert flute and a member of the woodwind family of musical instruments. Sometimes referred to as a "baby flute" or piccolo flute, the modern piccolo has the same type of fingerings as the ...
,
Alto Flute The alto flute is an instrument in the Western concert flute family, pitched below the standard C flute and the uncommon flûte d'amour. It is the third most common member of its family after the standard C flute and the piccolo. It is chara ...
and Bass
Flute The flute is a member of a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, producing sound with a vibrating column of air. Flutes produce sound when the player's air flows across an opening. In th ...
'' (2004) by Peter van Munster (Roma: Riverberi Sonori). Selected repertoire graded into ability levels with short descriptions and information about basses can be found in ''The Alto and Bass Flute Resource Guide'' published by Falls House Press, and specialist low flutes publishing company Tetractys has a growing catalogue of works for bass flute.


Other use

A handful of jazz musicians have used the bass flute, including flutist
Jeremy Steig Jeremy Steig (September 23, 1942 – April 13, 2016)Peter Keepnews, "Jeremy ...
, beginning with his 1975 album Temple of Birth, saxophonists Henry Threadgill, Brian Landrus, and James Carter, and drummer
Ronald Shannon Jackson Ronald Shannon Jackson (January 12, 1940 – October 19, 2013) was an American jazz drummer from Fort Worth, Texas. A pioneer of avant-garde jazz, free funk, and jazz fusion, he appeared on over 50 albums as a bandleader, sideman, arranger, and ...
who occasionally played bass flute as a second instrument. Hubert Laws features the bass flute on his recording of "Amazing Grace," in which he plays the first verse on bass flute, the second on alto, and the third on soprano. Steig later took up the Kotato & Fukushima bass flute in F. In electronic music, Jack Dangers has sometimes used bass flute as the leader of the
Meat Beat Manifesto Meat Beat Manifesto, often shortened as Meat Beat, Manifesto or MBM, is an electronic music group originally consisting of Jack Dangers and Jonny Stephens that was formed in 1987 in Swindon, United Kingdom. The band, fronted by Dangers (the only ...
. A bass flute is heard throughout George Bruns' score for ''
The Jungle Book ''The Jungle Book'' is an 1894 collection of stories by the English author Rudyard Kipling. Most of the characters are animals such as Shere Khan the tiger and Baloo the bear, though a principal character is the boy or "man-cub" Mowgli, who ...
'' and the original Pirates of the Caribbean attraction. Perhaps the best-known work to feature the bass flute is the album ''Wave'' by
Antônio Carlos Jobim Antônio Carlos Brasileiro de Almeida Jobim (25 January 1927 – 8 December 1994), also known as Tom Jobim (), was a Brazilian composer, pianist, guitarist, songwriter, arranger, and singer. Considered as one of the great exponents of Brazilian ...
. The soundtrack of Guerrilla Games' '' Horizon Forbidden West'' features bass flute prominently, such as in "By The Cold Light of Stars", "As Certain as Stone" and "These Stones Unturned".


References


External links

* http://Lowflutes.com * https://kingmaflutes.com/wpfk/bass-flutes/ * https://web.archive.org/web/20101104012435/http://www.hogenhuis-flutes.com/pages/bassflute.html Bassflute Jelle Hogenhuis {{Authority control Side-blown flutes C instruments Bass (sound)