Page:The story of the flute (IA storyofflute1914fitz).djvu/76

 to accomplish this he determined to construct a totally new flute, "which should combine accuracy of intonation with power and equality of tone, and on which all music written within its compass could be executed by a new kind of key-mechanism." He decided to abandon the old fingering and to adopt a system of ring-keys, by means of which two or more notes could be closed by one movement of a single finger. That Böhm's views underwent a considerable change after he had seen Gordon's flute, and that this was also one of his reasons for abandoning attempts with the old fingering, is undeniable; but to what extent he was influenced by Gordon's rather clumsy efforts it is impossible to say with any precision.

Böhm returned from London to Munich some time in 1831, and set to work, choosing ("je me fixai au") the system of ring-keys—a system which he says he had already thought of. It is to be observed that ring-keys of a primitive kind were used in the earlier flutes of both Gordon and Böhm, and were certainly known, though little used, before either adopted them. Nolan used a ring-key in 1808 (as we have seen; p. 45, ante), and Lefevre, of Paris, used one on clarinets before 1826. Neither Gordon nor Böhm ever claimed to have invented the ring-keys. But Böhm developed them and thus rendered the production of an entirely open-keyed flute possible. About the middle of 1832 he produced his new model (Page 51, Fig. 5), selected from three with different fingerings. He performed on it at a concert in Munich