Flutes made out of animal bones were used in Europe in the Paleolithic era. These ancient instruments can be considered the flute ancestors. It was not until the Renaissance period that the prototype of the modern flute emerged and came into wide use. 

The term "flute" was originally applied both to pipe instruments held sideways and pipe instruments held vertically. Thus, the vertically held recorder was also called a "flute." Indeed, up until around the middle of the 18th century (the era of Baroque music), the word "flute" was commonly used to describe the recorder. To distinguish the transverse flute from the recorder, it was referred to in Italian as the flauto traverso, in German as the Querflöte, and in French as the flûte traversière-all of which mean "sideways held flute."

FIRST KEY ADDED, BIRTH OF THE BAROQUE FLUTE 

Many improvements have been made to the flute since the Renaissance period. Old flutes during the Renaissance were very simple, made of a cylindrical body with a mouthpiece hole and seven finger holes. During the seventeenth century, flutes with conical body and a single key began to appear. Having a single key allowed the flutist to play virtually all of the semitones on the flute. This instrument is know as the “baroque flute.”  

ROAD TOWARDS PERFECT FLUTE

Theobald Boehm, the German wind instrument manufacturer, demonstrated a revolutionary new type of flute at the Paris Exhibition of 1847. This flute had a metal tube with numerous keys attached. With earlier flutes, it had been difficult to even get a note out of them, and the intervals between the notes had been variable. Boehm's instrument was a dramatic improvement, however, and overcame these shortcomings.

With his major refinements, Boehm essentially created the modern-day flute.

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