Richard Carte (23 February 1808 – 1891) was an English flute-maker, flautist and composer. One of his sons was the impresario

Richard D'Oyly Carte Richard D'Oyly Carte (; 3 May 1844 – 3 April 1901) was an English talent agent, theatrical impresario, composer, and hotelier during the latter half of the Victorian era. He built two of London's theatres and a hotel empire, while also establi ...

, producer of the

Gilbert and Sullivan Gilbert and Sullivan was a Victorian era, Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the dramatist W. S. Gilbert (1836–1911) and the composer Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900), who jointly created fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which ...

operas.

Life

Carte was born in

Silchester Silchester is a village and civil parish about north of Basingstoke in Hampshire. It is adjacent to the county boundary with Berkshire and about south-west of Reading. Silchester is most notable for the archaeological site and Roman town of ...

, Hampshire. He studied with George Rudall on an eight key "Nicholson" flute. By 1824 he was giving regular concerts in London both as soloist and orchestra player. He married the former Eliza Jones (1814–1885); they had eloped, to the disappointment of her father, Thomas Jones, a clergyman. Two of his six children, Henry W. Carte (1856–1926) and

, were both to become important in their own fields: the first as flute-maker and the second for staging the

comic operas. The other children were Blanch (1846–1935), Viola (1848–1925), Rose (1854–1940) and Eliza (1860–1941). Richard Carte was a popular lecturer on the development of the flute and was secretary of the newly founded "London Society of Amateur Flautists" in 1866. He was friend of

Louis Spohr Louis Spohr (, 5 April 178422 October 1859), baptized Ludewig Spohr, later often in the modern German form of the name Ludwig, was a German composer, violinist and conductor. Highly regarded during his lifetime, Spohr composed ten symphonies, ...

, and in 1843 was a member of

Jullien Jullien is a French surname. Notable people with the surname include: * André Jullien (1766–1832), French vintner * André-Damien-Ferdinand Jullien (1882–1964), French cardinal * Bernard Jullien (1798–1881), French linguist and academic * Ch ...

's famous band. At the height of his career (1844) he adopted

Theobald Boehm file:Theobald Böhm.jpg, Theobald Böhm, photograph by Franz Hanfstaengl, ca. 1852. Theobald Böhm (or Boehm) (9 April 1794 – 25 November 1881) was a German inventor and musician, who perfected the modern Western concert flute and improved ...

's flute with the open G-sharp, and two years later brought out a manual for it, the copyright for which he sold for £100. His best known flute pupil was

Richard Shepherd Rockstro Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from Old Frankish and is a compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' and ''*hardu-'' 'strong, brave, hardy', and it therefore means 'strong ...

. In 1850 he became a partner at the prominent flute-making firm of Rudall, Rose & Co., instigating many improvements and additions to Boehm's systems, all of which culminated in his popular 1867 model. After he became a partner in the business, it changed its name to Rudall, Rose, Carte and Co. and later to Rudall, Carte & Co."New Music". ''The Era''. 21 March 1869. Rudall, Carte and Co was still trading in the West End in 1954: see ''The Times'', 16 December 1954, p. 1

Compositions

*Complete Instruction for the Boehm flute (1845) *Concertants Duets for two flutes *Fantasias *Grands Solos for flute and piano

Notes

References

*Fairley, Andrew (1982). ''Flutes, Flautists and Makers''. London: Pan Educational Music. 140 pp. *

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Carte, Richard 1808 births 1891 deaths Flute makers 19th-century British people 19th-century classical composers English male classical composers English classical composers 19th-century English musicians 19th-century British composers 19th-century British male musicians