baroque flute

C5

Impedance

Acoustic and Fingering Schematic a covered tone hole or key pressed an uncovered tone hole or key not pressed a partly covered hole Details in fingering legend. Non-specialist introduction to acoustic impedance Non-specialist introduction to flute acoustics

This fingering is a cross fingering: the first hole is open (as for C#5) but the two closed holes downstream increase the end effect and lower the pitch to C5. The higher minima are not at harmonics of the fundamental, so the higher harmonics in the sound spectrum are relatively weak. This gives it a dark timbre. Although variations in timbre on adjacent notes is considered undesirable on a modern flute, designed to play in all keys, this variation is often considered desirable in classical or folk instruments, especially when playing in G major. This fingering is also used for D6, which is the third minimum (the second is unplayable), and can play a multiphonic of the two notes.

Sound

Sound spectrum of a baroque flute played using fingering for C5 with key.

Sound Clip

You can hear C5 played by Matthew Ridley.