Theobald Boehm

Theobald Böhm, photograph by Franz Hanfstaengl, ca. 1852.

Theobald Böhm (or Boehm) (9 April 1794 – 25 November 1881) was a German inventor and musician, who greatly improved the modern Western concert flute and its fingering system (now known as the "Boehm system"). He was a Bavarian court musician, a virtuoso flautist and a renowned composer.[1]

The fingering system he devised has also been adapted to other instruments, such as the oboe and the clarinet.[2]

  1. ^ Böhm, Theobald; Dayton Clarence Miller (1964). The flute and flute-playing in acoustical, technical, and artistic aspects. Dover Publications.
  2. ^ Philip Bate/Ludwig Böhm, Boehm, Theobald in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians edited by Stanley Sadie, volume 3, pages 777-778