1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990
Recordings of flute-players (the earliest c1890) become more common. A female flutist in Germany records in 1906, but women are still excluided from orchestral positions until after World War 2. 1925: electric microphones,"high fidelity" recording, and radio encourages a few flutists to record extensively. Wayman Carver (Chick Webb band) becomes the first well-known jazz flute specialist (1932). He is followed by many more during the 1950s.   1962: Frans Brüggen, the first international star of the recorder and baroque flute, begins recording. Commentators begin to notice that recordings and rapid travel are making flute-playing, at least in mainstream music, sound more uniform and less individual.  

Pre-1940 Boehm flutes are no longer used by mainstrem professional flutists, who now nearly all play the same "French model" flute, with in-line, perforated keys, B-foot, Cooper embouchure and Cooper scale. But by the late 1990s, wooden flutes have made a comeback in a new, Cooperized form.

 
    German amateur musicians become interested in the recorder and the baroque repertoire. German and English professional flutists begin to adapt to French-style playing with vibrato. The process continues until the 1970s. Editable magnetic tape and long-playing records begin a boom in the recording industry. Jean-Pierre Rampal begins a recording career with a vast quantity of unknown baroque repertoire.   1975: Stephen Preston records the Bach sonatas on a baroque flute. Facsimile editions of baroque music become more common. The baroque flute becomes a familiar sound in performances of 18th-century music.  
      The first "Urtext" edition (nothing added to what the composer wrote) of Bach's flute sonatas (1936) Performances and recordings on baroque flutes become more common in Germany and elsewhere after World War 2. New music (classical and jazz) begins to specify techniques not part of "proper" flute playing.   Folk and historical players are rediscovering and adapting earlier instruments and playing styles.
              Various alto and bass flutes are invented, for use in modern music and in flute ensembles. Composers use electronics and percussion more in combination with flute.   March 1996 Canadian flutist Larry Krantz begins his internet FLUTE list.
   

Silver modified-Boehm flutes become the commonest type in orchestras everywhere except Germany and England. By 1924 the leading flute maker, William S. Haynes Co. (Boston), has discontinued wooden flutes.

Japanese companies and a growing number of American ones are all producing standard French-type silver flutes for a worldwide market.

The London firm of Rudall, Carte & Co. ceases producing a wide variety of flute models ( Post Boehm flutes) with World War 2.

Adoption of a standard pitch of A=440 brings new instruments to military bands, Irish and Scottish flute bands, but many symphony flutists continue to play flutes designed for A=435.

Albert Cooper devises a new set of measurements to tune the flute at A=440, as well as new embouchure styles which change its tone.

Cooper's scale and embouchures adopted by the American, Japanese makers who dominate production. Modern flute page

Dutch maker Eva Kingma develops a quarter-tone flute.