"The flute is the coloratura soprano of the woodwind choir. Its timbre ranges from teh poetic to the brilliant. Its tone is cool and velvety in the expressive low register, and smooth in the middle. In the upper part of the range the timbre is bright, birdlike, and stands out against the orchestral mass. The present-day flute, made of a silver alloy rather than wood, is a cylindrical tube that is held horizontaly. It is closed at one end. The player blows across a mouth hole (embouchure) cut in the side of the pipe at the other end. The flute is much prized as a melody instrument and offers the player complete freedom in playing rapid repeated notes, scales, and trills."
-Joseph Machlis

Flute

Fist of the woodwinds we salute

The clever rogue who plays the FLUTE

He points his pipe the other way

Fixes his lips and starts to play.

The sound those notes - so chaste, so pure -

He blows across the embouchure

Which gives him, pardon the disgression,

A strangely squirrel-like expression.

These queer highhanded players know

Another tirck - the PICCOLO -

Just half as long and twice as shrill

It paralyses ears at will.

(Our artist, I deplore the fact,

Has caught him in the very act.)

The flautist's task is the pursuit

Of toot and nothing but the toot.

-Laurence McKinney

Flute Noise

For those of you who care, I play a Yamaha 225SII. It's just a student model, nothing fancy, not silver or open hole or anything. Just plain and simple.