Abelardo Albisi

Abelardo, Albisi,
(b 1872; d Switzerland, Jan 1938). Italian flute maker, flautist and composer. He was a flautist at La Scala, Milan, from 1897.

In 1910 he invented his ‘Albisiphon’, a vertically-held, Boehm-system bass flute in C, with a T-shaped head, which he described in his Albisiphon: flauto ottava bassa (Milan, 1910). It was used by, among others, Mascagni in Parisina (1913), and Zandonai in Melenis (1912) and Francesca da Rimini (1914). The Dayton Miller Collection (Library of Congress, Washington, DC) possesses two models of an ‘albisiphon baritono’ in C and a tenor in F. There is also an example of another invention which Miller termed ‘half flute in C’ (that part of a regular flute played by the left hand, with a wooden handle for right hand) for which Albisi composed a concerto. He also made flutes in collaboration with the Milanese maker Luigi Vanotti in about 1913. He taught in Geneva in 1919–23. Albisi also composed studies for solo flute, suites for flute trio, as well as other chamber works for woodwinds.