A flautist or flutist is a musician who plays the flute.
The choice of "flautist" (from the Italian flautista, from flauto, and adopted due to 18th century Italian influence) vs "flutist" is the source of minor dispute among players of the instrument. "Flutist" is the earlier term, dating from at least 1603 (the earliest quote cited by the Oxford English Dictionary), while "flautist" is not recorded before 1860, when it was used by Nathaniel Hawthorne in The Marble Faun. While the print version of the OED does not indicate any regional preference for either form, the online Compact OED characterizes "flutist" as a United States usage.
The US player and writer Nancy Toff, in her The Flute Book, devotes a page to the subject, commenting that she is asked "Are you a flutist or a flautist?" on a weekly basis. She compares OED, Fowler's Dictionary of Modern Usage, Evans' Dictionary of Contemporary American Usage, and Copperud's The Consensus, finding that only the American sources prefer "flutist", which also corresponds with her own personal preference. Nancy Toff, The Flute Book (Scribners, 1985), "Flute or Flautist?" pp. xiv-xv
Notable jazz flute players include:
Notable Innovators/Contemporary Composers
Notable Progressive Rock Players Include:
Pt Pannalal Ghosh Pt Vijay Raghav Rao Pt Hari Prasad Chourasis Pt Bholanath Ji Maharaj Pt Rajendra Prasanna
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
It uses material from the
"Flautist".
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