The Embouchure

The column of air enclosed by the tube of the flute is exactly

comparable with a stretched violin string. As the string is set into
transverse vibrations by the bow and thus is made to sound, so the
longitudinal vibrations of the air column of the flute are produced by
the blowing.
Further, as the clear quality of tone of the violin depends upon a
proper manipulation of the bow, so also the pure flute tone depends
upon the direction in which the air stream is blown against the edge
of the mouth-hole.
Depending upon whether the air stream I directed more or less
below the horizontal as it is blown across the flute, there develops
from the fundamental tone of the flute tube, with all the holes
closed, the so-called aliquot or harmonic overtones; e.e., for the
fundamental tone C3, the aliquot tones are C4, G4, C5 E5, G5, (B5flat),
and C6.
Each octave therefore requires a different direction of the air
stream, and when the correct one is found, not merely will a fine
quality of tone be brought out, but by increasing the force of the air
blast, the tone may be brought to the greatest possible strength
without any deterioration in quality or pitch.
However, by overblowing, that is by violently forcing the air, any
tone can be made to break over into the higher tones, even when
only a portion of the air goes in the right direction. Not only through
the air thus wasted, but also because of the poor embouchure, the
tone loses in purity, and there is produced at the same time a
buzzing and rushing noise.

Part II Flute Playing

XIII. The Development of Tone
Upon the supposition that the student has had elementary musical
instruction in regard to notes, time, keys, etc., such as may be found
in any printed Flute Instructor (especially in that of Hugot and
Wunderlich, Jos. Aibl, Munich) I will proceed to a consideration of the
playing of the flute itself, and shall begin with what I believe to be
the essential requisite, the tone formation.
A good embouchure depends for the most part upon a normal
formation of the lips and teeth. However, if one has a defective
embouchure, and also lacks a proper appreciation of beautiful tone
quality, that is if he does not have a proper tone sense, both of
these faults can be considerably improved by exercising in the
following manner.
Since a gradual transition is best in all things, by passing from the
easy to the more difficult, so one, in blowing a new flute, should not
begin with the higher and lower tones which are more difficult to
produce, but he should begin in the middle register, in which the
tone C4 is best produced by a beginner. [This tone is produced when
the first finger of the left hand only is placed on its key.]
When one has found the proper embouchure by which this tone can
be clearly sounded in a delicate piano, one should gradually, without
raising the pitch, swell it to a forte, and then bring it back again to
the faintest pianissimo.