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It has been suggested that the conical bores of early wind instruments may have been produced by first boring the wood in steps with a series of cylindrical boring bits and then blending the steps with a long-handled tool directed by hand. It is argued that this belief is mistaken. Documentary and artefactual evidences that suggests conical bores were produced suing tapered reamers is presented.

From their establishment in the 1820s Rudall & Rose dominated the large and lucrative market for flutes, at first with instruments of the highest quality but of little technological innovation. In the 1840s, they were advised and later joined in partnership by Richard Carte, whose business acumen guided the firm to an association with Theobald Boehm that led to the successful commercial exploitation first of Boehmâ s 1832 model flute and later of his final, cylindrical model of 1847. Carteâ s skill at understanding the market led him to develop models of flutes that would permit a player to benefit from many of the acoustical advantages of the Boehm flute without learning a new fingering system, and his understanding of his instrument led him to develop first his 1851 and later his 1867 patent flutes, which it may be argued were mechanically superior to the standard Boehm and which enjoyed considerable success well into the twentieth century. Rudall, Rose & Carte, later Rudall, Carte & Company, continued to be innovative flute makers, producing the first gold flutes, the first platinum flutes and the first flutes in Monel metal as well as flutes to the individual designs of a number of flute players. This thesis examines the social and business trends and the market pressures that inform the flute manufacturing business in the nineteenth century, with detailed technical discussion and illustration of the firmâ s instruments. The firmâ s parallel activities in publishing, retailing, military instrument manufacture and concert promotion (under the management of Carteâ s son, Richard Dâ Oyly Carte) are considered as contributing to their success.

MacMillan shows that the flageolet had largely passed out of common use in England by the turn of eighteenth century, when it was superseded by the more versatile recorder, and was little used until its revival in the nineteenth century, at a time when the transverse flute was hugely popular and an easier-to-learn instrument would have had, and indeed did have, considerable appeal. The book is printed on good-quality paper that displays the photographs well. Readings in the History of the Flute, a selection of monographs, essays, reviews, letters, and advertisements from nineteenth-century London; and Rudall, Rose & Carte: The Art of the Flute in Britain, which was awarded the Nicholas Bessaraboff Prize of the American Musical Instrument Society in 2013.

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Bob's father was a lawyer, and Bob was expected to become a lawyer himself. Bob Willoughby's many years on the faculty of the Oberlin Conservatory gave him the freedom to perform solo recitals and chamber music concerts and to play new music to an extent that few orchestral musicians could manage. (Editor's note: A CD of works performed by Willoughby, curated and produced by the NFA Special Publications committee, is available at the NFA Store.) My first contact with Bob's playing was on BBC Radio 3 many years ago, when I turned on my radio at the beginning of a broadcast of Frank Martin's Ballade. Bob Willoughby's final teaching position at Longy required him to employ a driver to pick him up each week at his home in Portsmouth and drive him to Boston, where he would stay overnight before being driven back.