Page:The story of the flute (IA storyofflute1914fitz).djvu/116



Popularity of the fluteIts toneVarious registersIts agilityHarmonicsDouble tongueingThe glideVibrato effectShakes and turnsTremoloBest keysHygenic aspect.

flute excites more enthusiasm among its votaries than any other instrument. There is a kind of free-masonry among flute-players. "Can any mortal mixture of Earth's mould breathe such divine, enchanting ravishment?" cries one. Mersenne says that "if the concert of angels had not the sole right to be called 'ravishing,' the flute would merit this superlatively admiring epithet." An American enthusiast writes: "'Tis so elegant, so stately, so powerful, so gracious, that I can think of nothing to liken it to, except a tall, slender, grey-eyed, manifold-cultured young Queen, pure with all the reverend characteristics of maidenhood, and at the same time eloquent with that instinctive understanding of the whole humanity of life, by which genius gives expression to emotions it does not need to experience." (!) The Paradisical pleasures of the Mohammedans are said to consist largely of playing on the flute.