The flute is among humanity's oldest instruments: finds date back 40,000 years. The modern concert flute was invented by Theobald Böhm (1847): a silver or gold metal body, a complex key system, a full chromatic range of three octaves.
The flute's sound is transparent, light — sometimes resonant, sometimes mysterious. Composers used it to depict birds (Saint-Saëns in The Aviary from The Carnival of the Animals), pastoral scenes (Debussy in Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun), magic (Mozart in The Magic Flute). Ukrainian flutists: Serhiy Zaika, Maria Vorotna. The sopilka and floyara are the Ukrainian sisters of the world flute.
