The contra-alto flute is a large member of the flute family, pitched between the bass and the

contrabass Contrabass (from it, contrabbasso) refers to several musical instruments of very low pitch—generally one octave below bass register instruments. While the term most commonly refers to the double bass (which is the bass instrument in the orchest ...

. It is a transposing instrument either in G (a perfect fourth below the bass and one octave below the

alto The musical term alto, meaning "high" in Italian (Latin: ''altus''), historically refers to the contrapuntal part higher than the tenor and its associated vocal range. In 4-part voice leading alto is the second-highest part, sung in choruses by ...

) or in F (a perfect fifth below the bass and a major ninth below the alto). The instrument's body is held vertically with an adjustable floor peg similar to that of the

bass clarinet The bass clarinet is a musical instrument of the clarinet family. Like the more common soprano B clarinet, it is usually pitched in B (meaning it is a transposing instrument on which a written C sounds as B), but it plays notes an octave bel ...

. The instrument maker Eva Kingma calls her contra-alto flute a "contr'alto flute in G," while Kotato & Fukushima call their instrument a "bass flute in F." Kotato & Fukushima's instrument sells for US$17,500.

References

Side-blown flutes {{Flute-stub