Flute The wood is usually African Blackwood. The standard concert flute is pitched in C and has a range of three octaves starting from middle C or one half step lower when a B foot is attached. This means the concert flute is one of the highest common orchestra and concert band instruments. The piccolo plays an octave higher than the regular treble flute. Lower members of the flute family include the G alto and C bass flutes that are used occasionally, and are pitched a perfect fourth and an octave below the concert flute, respectively. The contrabass, double contrabass, and
Eunuch flute Eunuch flute The eunuch flute, or onion flute, or mirliton (Fr. "flûte eunuque, flûte à l'oignon" and "mirliton"; Ger. "Zwiebelflöte") is a musical instrument of the woodwind family used during the 16th and 17th centuries, producing music akin to the comb-music of the nursery, and still manufactured as a toy ("mirliton"). The eunuch flute consists of a wooden tube widening out slightly to form a bell. The upper end of the tube is closed by means of a very fine membrane similar to an onion skin stretched across the aperture like the vellum of a drum. The mouthpiece, a simple