Theobald Boehm

The fingering system he devised, now known as the "Boehm system", has also been adapted to other instruments, such as the oboe and the clarinet.

• Illustration — Theobald Böhm portrayed by Michael Brandmüller. Born in Munich, in the Electorate of Bavaria, to the goldsmith Carl Friedrich Böhm and his wife Anna Franziska (née Sulzbacher), the daughter of a court haberdasher, Böhm learned his father’s trade of goldsmithing in his childhood. This skill enabled him to make his own flute. He became proficient enough to play in an orchestra at the age of seventeen, and at twenty-one was appointed first flautist in the Royal Bavarian Orchestra. Meanwhile, he experimented with constructing flutes out of many different materials—tropical hardwoods (usually Grenadilla wood), silver, gold, nickel and copper—and with changing the positions of the flute's tone holes. After studying acoustics at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, he began experimenting on improving the flute in 1832, first patenting his new fingering system in 1847. He published Über den Flötenbau ("On the construction of flutes"), also in 1847. His new flute was first displayed in 1851 at the London Exhibition. In 1871 Boehm published Die Flöte und das Flötenspiel ("The Flute and Flute-Playing"), a treatise on the acoustical, technical and artistic characteristics of the Boehm system flute. Boehm's experience as a goldsmith was a key factor in his ability to redesign the flute. For example, in The Flute and Flute-Playing he recounts having made a flute with movable tone holes, in order to determine the proper location of each hole for correct intonation—a remarkable piece of metal-working. Traditional flutes were limited in size because the player had to be able to reach all the tone holes in the span of two hands. By substituting mechanically covered tone holes, Boehm eliminated this limitation, and was able to make larger, deeper flutes, such as the alto flute. Boehm was very fond of the alto flute, and recounts a time he was playing it when someone mistook it for a French horn.

• Grand Polonaise in D Major, Op. 16 • Variations sur un air tyrolien, Op.20 • Fantasie sur un air de F. Schubert, Op.21 • Variations sur un Air Allemand, Op.22 • 24 Caprices-etudes, Op.26 • Souvenir des Alpes, Opp.27–32 • Andante for Flute and Piano, Op.33 • 24 Etudes, Op.37 • Elégie, Op.47

Theobald Boehm is recorded as inventor, composer, flautist and musical instrument maker.