The Babel Flute

by Ludwig Böhm, great-great-grandson

***We continue the publication of a series of articles by Ludwig Böhm from“Commemorative Writing on the occasion of Theobald Böhm’s 200th Birthday, Munich 1994”, gradually approaching the celebration of Theobald Böhm’s 230th birthday on April 9, 2024.

• On the Trail of my Great-great-grandfather Theobald Böhm, Flautist, Composer, Flute Maker, 1794–1881
• History of Theobald Böhm and correct spelling
• Theobald Böhm as a flutist
• Theobald Böhm as a composer
• Theobald Böhm as a flute maker
• Theobald Böhm’s comment on the open G sharp key
• The Inventor of the Bb thumb lever on the Böhm flute: Theobald Böhm or Giulio Briccialdi?
• Open Questions in the Theobald Böhm Research

1) Professional career as a flute maker

After some time of playing, Theobald Böhm became dissatisfied with his flageolet and with his simple one-keyed flute by Proser, which is housed today in the Library of Congress, Washington, Miller 152.

So in 1810, he built his first flute copying a four-keyed model by Grenser and made some improvements together with his flute teacher Johann Nepomuk Kapeller (1776–1825). He had obtained the technical skill in his father’s jewellery workshop, which he continued to run up until 1817 and from 1819 to 1822.

In 1812, he became first flautist of the Isartortheater and in 1818 joined the Munich Court Orchestra. Besides, he had a small additional income from selling flutes, which he ordered to be made according to his instructions by instrument makers in Munich.

a) First Workshop of Theobald Böhm, 1828–1839

In 1828, he opened his own flute workshop, as he was not satisfied with the quality of the flutes by other instrument makers. On 20th May 1829, he received a patent for ten years for the construction of his im-proved conical wooden flutes of old construction. It was extended for another five years.

A new invention by him was to mount the round columns of the keys without plates. The mounting of the round columns fixed on plates had existed since c. 1805. But Theobald Böhm was also not satisfied with his own flutes and he was particularly annoyed by the impure tones C², C sharp², E flat³, E³, F sharp³, G³, A³, E¹ and E² (see flute prospectus of 1834).

In London during a concert tour 1831, he was so impressed by the powerful flute tone of Charles Nicholson that he decided to undertake a completely new construction. Whilst there, he began the first experiments on a flute which was made in the workshop of Gerock & Wolf with his assistance.

In 1832, he invented the conical ring-keyed flute made of wood with Böhm system, the first model of the Böhm flute. The essential innovations were the correct position of the tone holes according to acoustical principles and the invention of an ingenious key system, which enabled the player to close or open the main-ly open 14 tone holes simultaneously with the 9 available fingers.

Theobald Böhm described the three basic principles of his key system in the first paragraph of his article “Description of an improved key mechanism for woodwind instruments” (In: Kunst- und Gewerbeblatt, Munich May 1856, p. 263–264):

• By pressing down the E and F keys, the G key is closed at the same time.

• By pressing down the F sharp key, the G and B keys are closed at the same time.

• By pressing down the B flat key, the B key is closed at the same time.

• On the Gerock & Wolf flute of 1831, by pressing down the E and F sharp key, the G key is closed at the same time. The other requirements of Theobald Böhm’s final key system were not yet fulfilled.

Theobald Böhm didn’t demand a patent for his new ring-keyed flute. He performed on it for the first time on 1st November 1832 in a concert in Munich. The instrument was awarded a silver medal at the Munich industrial exhibitions of 1834 and 1835.

The explanation for the initially limited expansion and production is that Theobald Böhm was mainly oc-cupied from 1834 to 1839 with introducing a procedure of steel purification in Bavarian and Austrian facto-ries, developed together with Prof. Karl von Schafhäutl whilst in England. For his achievements in that field, he was awarded the Knight’s Cross of the order of merit of St. Michael by King Ludwig I. in 1839.

In 1837, the Böhm flute was introduced in France by Paul-Hippolyte Camus (1796–?), flautist at the Italian Opera in Paris. It is true that Theobald Böhm had already presented his ring-keyed flute during his short visits in 1833, 1834 and 1836 to other people besides Camus, e. g. to the flute makers Aristide Farrenc (1794–1865), Clair Godfroy (c. 1814–1878) and Claude Laurent (c. 1780–1850), but he didn’t leave any flute for examination. Only in May 1837, when he spent two weeks in Paris, did Camus receive his own instrument, which enchanted the new owner so much that from that time onwards, he only played exclusively on the Böhm flute.

On 8th May 1837, Theobald Böhm presented his flute to the Academy of Science in Paris. Shortly afterwards, the flute was adopted by Louis Dorus (1812–1896), flautist at the Paris Opera, and from 1860 onwards professor at the Conservatory, and by Victor Coche (1806–1881), assistant professor at the Conservatory in Paris. In October 1837, Clair Godfroy built the first Böhm flute with the help of his son-in-law Louis Lot (1807–1896), who added a closed G sharp key by order of Dorus.

Victor Coche had tried to improve the flute with the help of Louis Auguste Buffet (c. 1805–1885) and in October 1837, he asked for a judgement by the Academy of the Beautiful Arts. In fact, in its report from 24th March 1838, not the achievements of Theobald Böhm, but the so-called improvements by Victor Coche are praised. On 17th November 1838, Louis Auguste Buffet received a patent for several changes to the Böhm flute.

Presumably annoyed by the fact that Theobald Böhm didn’t want to establish business relations with him, Victor Coche propagated in his writings the rumour that not Böhm but James Gordon (1791–1838) was the true inventor of the new flute. It is based on a letter by Mrs. Gordon from 20th May 1838, who utters such a suspicion. However the fact is that Gordon had neither the technical nor the musical qualifications to make improvements to the flute and therefore all his attempts were doomed to failure from the beginning.

Theobald Böhm writes that he had examined Gordon’s flute in 1831 in London, that he had found it defective and that it had simply strengthened his conviction that only a completely new construction could really improve the flute (On the Construction of Flutes and the latest Improvements, Munich 1847, p. 5).

Also Farrenc had thoroughly examined Gordon’s flute in 1831 and he too stated that it was defective acoustically, that the key system was much too complicated and that it had no similarity at all with the Böhm system (Revue et Gazette Musicale, Paris 9th September 1838, p. 364–365). From 10th May to 13th July 1833, Gordon built his “flute diatonique”, which was also defective, in Böhm’s workshop with the help of one of his workers.

Theobald Böhm and James Gordon were always on friendly terms, there was in fact no controversy and in his flute prospectus of 1834, Gordon remarks expressly that he was thankful for Theobald Böhm’s idea to remove the double F key and to replace it with a simple F sharp key.

The conical flutes of old and new construction made by Theobald Böhm were first stamped “T. BOEHM / MÜNCHEN”, later “TH. BOEHM / A / MUNICH”. The number of flutes which he made is unknown, per-haps around 150. According to a letter from Theobald Böhm to the Ministry of Interior Affairs dated 26th November 1830, 65 flutes were made between 30th May 1828 and 24th November 1830.

b) Workshop of Böhm & Greve, 1839–1846

On 6th May 1839, Theobald Böhm sold the flute workshop to his assistant Rudolf Greve (1806–1862), who had worked with him since 1829. After the sale they remained partners and Theobald Böhm allowed him to use his name until 1846. From then onwards, Greve had to leave the name Böhm off his flutes.

The essential reason for the sale was the royal order for Theobald Böhm to introduce a procedure of using blast furnace gases to fire iron melting furnaces in the Bavarian steel factories. This order caused much trouble and annoyance to Theobald Böhm from 1839 to 1843 and it failed in the end due to resistance from the Bavarian iron and steel administration.

In 1843, the Böhm flute was introduced in England by John Clinton (1810–1864), professor at the Royal Academy of Music in London. It is true that Theobald Böhm had performed on his new ring-keyed flute in concerts in London on 29th June 1833, in May 1835 and on 17th June 1836, but as in Paris, he never left any flute for examination. Only at the end of 1841 did Clinton acquire a Böhm flute, in 1842 he began to play on it and in 1843 he made it known to a wide public by his “Essay”.

The London flautist Richard Carte (1809–1891) writes in the preface of his Flute School that in 1843, he had performed publicly with the Böhm flute as the first English flautist. Also in the same year, the London firm of Rudall & Rose began manufacturing Böhm flutes. The first flutes were made with the help of Rudolf Greve, who travelled to London for that purpose. In 1845, Alfred G. Badger in New York embarked on the construction of Böhm flutes. The first Böhm flute in the USA was made about one year earlier by James D. Larrabee, New York.

The conical flutes of old and new construction made by Böhm & Greve were stamped “BOEHM & GRE-VE / A / MUNICH”. The number of the flutes made in that period is unknown, perhaps around 100.

c) Second Workshop of Theobald Böhm, 1847–1861

Actually the conical ring-keyed flute didn’t satisfy Theobald Böhm completely, especially the high and low notes. Therefore he studied the acoustical conditions with conical and cylindrical tubes under guidance of his friend Schafhäutl for two years. He finally concluded that cylindrical tubes offer better acoustical con-ditions than conical tubes and that metal tubes permit a more precise position of the tone holes according to acoustical principles than wooden tubes.

At last in June 1847, with the flute no. I, he succeeded in inventing the second, improved model of the Böhm flute, the cylindrical metal flute. The essential innovations were, besides the cylindrical tube of brass (no. 1 and 2), silver or German silver, the enlarged tone holes, which were closed on the two sample flutes no. I and II, on no. 5 and 6 and from no. 12 on with covered keys and on no. 1–4 and 7–11 with ring-keys.

The new flute was protected by patents in Bavaria, France and England. In the same year, the French patent was acquired by Vincent Hippolyte Godfroy and Louis Lot for 6000 Francs and the London patent was acquired by Rudall & Rose.

In February 1849, Theobald Böhm made for the first time on a Böhm flute (no. 24) a Bb thumb lever under the C thumb key. In May/June 1849, Giulio Briccialdi, who had presumably seen the flute no. 24, changed this device by making a Bb thumb lever above the C thumb lever. This change, which prevailed on the market, is as illogical as the closed G sharp key.

Read more: The Inventor of the Bb thumb lever on the Böhm flute: Theobald Böhm or Giulio Briccialdi?

In 1854, Theobald Böhm invented an improved key mechanism, which however was only used on a small number of flutes. From November 1854 onwards, he returned to working in wood and made a few cylindrical flutes, the two first of which were sold to Philipp Ernst in New York. In 1850, he was awarded a silver medal at the industrial exhibition in Leipzig, 1851 the highest medal at the industrial exhibition in London, 1854 the highest medal at the industrial exhibition in Munich and in 1855 the gold medal at the world exhibition in Paris.

In 1858, he invented the cylindrical alto flute in G with Böhm system, later his favourite instrument. The first alto flute was sold in January 1858 to Marcel Ciemirsky in Lemberg according to the workshop ledger.

The cylindrical flutes of Theobald Böhm were stamped “Th. Boehm / in / München” and they were given a serial number up to about no. 73. After that, besides the serial number, sometimes also the word “in” was left off, some wooden flutes are stamped exceptionally “TB”. The number of the flutes made in that period amounts to about 150. According to a testimony for Karl Mendler, from June 1847 to 15th May 1861 144 flutes were made, that is, on average, 10 per annum.

d) Workshop of Böhm & Mendler, 1862–1888

In 1854, the watchmaker Karl Mendler entered the workshop of Theobald Böhm, who sold him the inventory in 1860 and made him a partner. In 1861, Mendler received his licence as a maker of musical instruments and most probably from 1862 onwards, the instruments were stamped “Boehm & Mendler”. The date of this year is also confirmed in a letter to Dr. Karl Böhm of 27th November 1925 by Robert Leibl, who had worked with Karl Mendler jr. from 1889 to 1891.

The remark of Theobald Böhm in a letter to Broadwood of 20th May 1867 “Our firm will soon be known as ‘Böhm & Mendler’ ” can most probably be understood to mean that the printing of new flute prospectuses with the name “Böhm & Mendler” was planned.

In 1862, Theobald Böhm’s pupil Martin Heindl contributed much by his concert tour in the USA to the spread of Böhm & Mendler flutes there. In the same year, Theobald Böhm sent his “Schema to determine the Position of Tone Holes on Woodwind Instruments” to the industrial exhibition in London and in 1867 a revised version to the world exhibition in Paris.

In London, the jury declared itself not competent for its judgement, in Paris, the organ maker Aristide Cavaillé-Coll (1811–1899) thought that Theobald Böhm made “slight mistakes of calculation”, but he confessed in a later article from 1883 that he himself had made a mistake. Another unjustified negative judgement by the jury member François Fétis was pronounced on the alto flute in G, which had also been sent to Paris.

There exist several statements that even after selling the workshop equipment to Karl Mendler, Theobald Böhm not only played daily on his alto flute in G and managed the correspondence and the bookkeeping, but that he continued indefatigably to work at flute improvements.

So, for example, we read in a letter from Theobald Böhm’s son Karl to his brother Theobald of 28th November 1878:

“His [dad’s] diligence is the same as 20 years ago. In the morning […] always entirely occupied with writing letters, calculating and drawing, he made up his mind several times to give up the business, but only to start with it again with even greater devotion”.

In general, Theobald Böhm enjoyed good health and only in his later years, he com-plained sometimes of his fading eyesight (see letters to Broadwood of 22th February 1873; to Mills of January 1874; to Lermer of 16th March 1876).

The cylindrical metal flutes of Böhm & Mendler were stamped “Th. Böhm & Mendler / in / München”, the cylindrical wooden flutes were stamped “BOEHM & MENDLER / MÜNCHEN”. The number of flutes made in this period amounts to around 400, that is on average 15 per annum, about one half of silver, the other half of wood.

According to an entry in the workshop ledger, from 1847 to 1876 364 flutes were made (that is from 1862 to 1876 about 215) and up until 1879 another 47 (that is from 1862 to 1879 about 260). Proceeding on the assumption that the same number of flutes was made until Karl Mendler’s retirement in 1888, we come to about 400 flutes. But it cannot be ruled out that after Theobald Böhm’s death in 1881, the orders decreased or that fewer instruments were made than before because of other factors.

Statements of Theobald Böhm concerning his dedication to the workshop of Böhm & Mendler:

• Letter to Broadwood of 15th November 1868: “You see that I, although nearly 75 years old, didn’t cease in my efforts to make my instruments as perfect as possible.”

• Letter to ? of 19th April 1870: “I’m still able to work and play, although my 77th birthday has passed.”

• Letter to Moritz Fürstenau of 29th November 1870: “I’m still working diligently on the flutes.”

• Letter to Macauley of ? August 1877: “It is the last flute that I will ever make and the best that I have ever made.”

• Letter to ? of 16th February 1879: “I have now finished a new flute model which is the best flute that I ever had in my hands. By a slight change in the acoustical proportions, the tone, intonation and embouchure are greatly improved.”

2) Appreciation as a flute maker

All flutes of Theobald Böhm, Böhm & Greve and Böhm & Mendler excel in highest quality of workman-ship. For Theobald Böhm quality always had priority over quantity and he never permitted more than two workers to be occupied in his workshop. In order to reach the greatest possible perfection, the working time per instrument amounted to about four to six weeks and no instrument left the workshop without having been thoroughly examined and found good by Theobald Böhm.

Prof. Dayton C. Miller speaks in greatest admiration of the conscientious accuracy of the details and the excellent quality of workmanship of the instruments (The Flute and Flute Playing, 1922, p. 93). This judge-ment is also fully confirmed by flute makers and flautists of today.

Statements of Theobald Böhm concerning the quality of his flutes:

• Letter to Popp of 2nd July 1865: “My best worker needs 5 weeks for a flute of silver.”

• Letter to Broadwood of 20th May 1867: “For 14 years I have had a learned watchmaker [Mendler] as assistant to whom I transferred my workshop four years ago. He is as honest as skillful. I never allow him to occupy more than two workers because quality is more important than quantity.”

• Letter to Koch of 21st September 1868: “If you want to have such a [wooden] flute with B foot, gold springs, built most carefully and with all requisites, it can be sent to you six weeks after reception of your order.”

• Letter to Bornschein of 16th March 1870: “My flutes have gained a world wide reputation as the best and are of a more beautiful finish than has been attained in Paris or London, not to mention the factory-like workmanship of other places. I only have two workmen and one partner with whose help only two flutes per month can be made. I would like to employ more workmen, but I cannot find any and if I take the best which I can get, it takes four to six months until their work is good enough to meet my purposes. If you compare my flutes with others, you will find that the difference is the same as between a chronometer and an ordinary watch. […] Since last October, however, I have had so many orders that I transferred a greater number to Lot in Paris, who undoubtedly does the best work.”

• Letter to Broadwood of ? May 1870: “I wish I could carry out orders more quickly; but since my former pupil Heindl travelled through the United States, I have had more orders from America than I can fulfill; and though I offered to procure flutes from my friend Lot, in Paris, people prefer to wait for those made by myself.”

• Letter to ? of 3rd June 1878: “You want a certificate as proof of the perfection of the flute. There is my name on the flute, and it is known throughout the whole world that I never send off an instrument which is not as perfect as a flute can be. Anybody who understands anything of acoustics or mechanics knows that nothing is perfect and all that is said about it is only humbug.”

3) Comparison with other flute makers

Among the different flute types, characteristic tunes can be distinguished:

The conical flute of old construction has a delicate and lovely sound. However, Theobald Böhm was an-noyed by the impure tones C², C sharp², E flat³, E³, F sharp³, G³, A³, E¹ and E² (see prospectus of the ring-keyed flute, 1834) and the weaker volume of the lower notes.

The conical ring-keyed flute, the first model of the Böhm flute, invented in 1832, excels by having a more powerful sound and a purer intonation. Nevertheless, Theobald Böhm was not yet completely satisfied with the high and low notes.

The cylindrical metal flute, the second model of the Böhm flute, invented in 1847, has, in Theobald Böhm’s opinion, in its combination of silver with golden lipplate, in every respect the most perfect tone (prospectus silver flute, 1851). The tone permits a great modulation due to the particular thin-walled tubes. Besides, it can be described as especially warm and romantic.

The silver flute from 1862 onwards stamped Böhm & Mendler is a little more thick-walled than the earlier silver flute. But the sound is outstanding in its extraordinary warmth and beauty, especially with flutes at low pitch (a¹ = 435 Hz).

If you compare the sound of the Böhm flute with the sound of the flute of old construction, it is generally agreed that the tone of the Böhm flute is more even, purer and more powerful.

Whereas these advantages in-duced the best flautists in Paris and London to adopt the new flute and to undertake changing to a new key system, these advantages were often considered as disadvantages, particularly in Germany.

Anton Bernhard Fürstenau explains his rejection of the ring-keyed flute with the following words:

“Although it cannot be de-nied that the flute of Mr. Böhm has many good sides, particularly a beautiful equality of the tones, a pure in-tonation in all tonalities, easy embouchure and a very powerful tone, on the other hand, by a too great equality, the character of the flute gets lost, there is monotony and the charming sweetness of the instrument is missing and often you seem to hear (especially in the middle octave) by the sharp cutting tone an instrument other than the flute.”

(Historical-critical Examination of the Construction of our modern Flute. In: Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung, Leipzig 24th October 1838, p. 706).

Whereas the cylindrical metal flute obtained an enthusiastic reception, particularly abroad, e. g. Hector Berlioz declared that the old flute from now onwards was only apt for fairground music (see Welch, 1896, p. 5), it received often, particularly in Germany, a decided rejection. So it was called by Richard Wagner a “real power tube” (On Conducting. Leipzig 1870, p. 26) and a “canon” (see Tillmetz, Rudolf: Method for Theobald Böhm’s cylindrical and ring-keyed flute of conical bore. Leipzig 1898, p. VI).

Today, there exist only very few flautists who prefer the sound of the flute of old construction, particularly for the performance of old music.

If you compare the sound of the flutes of Theobald Böhm with the sound of the flutes of the other eminent flute makers of the 19th century, as for example Louis Lot in Paris and Rudall & Carte in London, your personal taste will decide, which sound you prefer.

The flutes of Theobald Böhm were produced in far fewer numbers, completely manually and they are thinner-walled than other flutes. Prof. Dayton C. Miller, who had gathered the greatest flute collection of the world, about 1600 flutes are housed today in the Library of Congress in Washington, wrote in 1922 that the flutes of Theobald Böhm have been played in the most important orchestras for 50 years, that he had carefully examined all his instruments and he liked most to play on a silver Böhm & Mendler flute with open G sharp key at low pitch (a1 = 435 Hz), the beauty of sound of which was unsurpassed by any other instrument (The Flute and Flute Playing, 1922, p. 49).

At this time, he possessed more than 200 flutes, among them the little damaged flute no. 19 by Theobald Böhm, about 15 silver and wooden flutes by Böhm & Mendler and several flutes by Louis Lot and Rudall & Carte.

I myself also played from 1985 to 1988 on a silver Böhm & Mendler flute with open G sharp key at low pitch and I hold the same opinion as Prof. Miller. This opinion was also confirmed to me by numerous more or less prominent flautists and flute makers, who either played on my original flute or who themselves possess a silver flute by Theobald Böhm or Böhm & Mendler.

If you compare the sound of a silver flute of Theobald Böhm or Böhm & Mendler with the sound of a silver or gold flute of today, you realize first that the flutes of Theobald Böhm, which were frequently criticised and rejected because of their loudness in the 19th century, particularly in Germany, are much less loud than modern flutes.

Presumably, Theobald Böhm didn’t see a reason to make his flutes louder, because their loudness was completely sufficient for the concert rooms of that time and in comparison with the other instruments of that time. According to the unanimous judgement of several famous flute soloists of our time such as Prof. András Adorján, Prof. William Bennett, Prof. Michel Debost and Prof. Aurèle Nicolet, the flutes of Theobald Böhm are not loud enough for the concert halls of today with about 2500 people and in comparison to the other instruments of the modern orchestra.

But on the other hand, they are excellently suited to chamber music in smaller concert rooms because of their beautiful warm sound, which offers many ways of modulating the tone colours.

Unfortunately, only very few concerts with flutes of Theobald Böhm or Böhm & Mendler take place nowadays, because so few flautists are sufficiently accustomed to the open G sharp key.

Statement of Theobald Böhm concerning the loudness of his flutes:

Letter to Broadwood of 18th August 1871:

“All Nicholson’s immediate successors had, more or less, a powerful tone, but they made a trumpet of the flute. Their tone was loud enough, but loudness alone is not what is wanted for singing. I always prefer quality to quantity.”

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Ludwig Böhm

ludwig.boehm@t-online.de | www.theobald-boehm-archiv-und-wettbewerb.de | www.theobald-boehm-shop.de

Address: Asamstrasse 6, 82166 Gräfelfing, Germany, tel. 0049-89-875367

Ludwig Böhm was born in Munich, where he studied English, French and Spanish at the University and was a teacher from 1981 to 1983. Inspired by a great exhibition in the Munich Municipal Museum in 1981 on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the death of his great-great-grandfather Theobald Böhm (flautist, composer, flute-maker, inventor of the Böhm flute, Munich 1794–1881), he dedicated his life from that time on to keeping the memory of Theobald alive. As a result of more than 30 years of research, he published in 2012 all 88 compositions and arrangements of Theobald together with Dr. Raymond Meylan and in 2013 20 books and 4 translations from and about him. He travelled to flute festivals in Japan, Australia, USA, Netherlands, Spain, Germany, Italy, Croatia, Luxembourg, Slovenia, China, Great Britain, Iceland, Thailand, Portugal, Chile, Poland and Armenia and presented a slide lecture about Theobald. He is the President of the Theobald Böhm Archive, founded in 1980, of the Theobald Böhm Society, founded in 1990 and of the Theobald Böhm Foundation, founded in 2014. In 2006, 2011 and 2016, he organized in Munich the 1st, 2nd and 3rd International Theobald Böhm Competition for Flute and Alto Flute.

List of professional open G# players

Current list of 480 professional open G sharp players can be seen in the homepage www.theobald-boehm-archiv-und-wettbewerb.de under “Open G sharp Key”. If you are a professional open G sharp player, who have not yet contacted Ludwig Böhm, please do so at ludwig.boehm@t-online.de to be added to the list.