Fipple flute

Nomenclature

By this description, the fipple is a plug that nearly closes one end of the pipe, open only for the duct that "straitens” (that is, constrains) the channel of air blown axially into the instrument. The solid "stop" near the mouth hole or embouchure on a pipe that is blown transversely is analogous to it. This provides historical justification for using the term "fipple flute" to designate a recorder (cf. the German term Blockflöte). Subsequent authors have used the term in that sense but differ in the element of the mechanical aggregate illustrated above that they regard specifically as the fipple. That word is used variously to designate the block, the edge, the full block-duct-edge structure, and the entire instrument. This ambiguity is detailed in the article headed Fipple in Grove Music Online, which concludes, "Since nobody can agree what the term means, to avoid further confusion its use should be abandoned." In the text below, what might otherwise be termed a fipple flute is referred to as a duct flute.