The modern Western flute family has a surprising number of members, many of which are represented in the Space Coast Flute Orchestra.  Most people are familiar with at least two of its more common members, the piccolo and the concert or C-Flute.   Other more exotic members include the Eb soprano, alto, bass, contra-alto, contrabass,  subcontrabass, double contrabass and hyperbass. 

 

Each lend their own unique color to the flute orchestra and some can be compared in voice, to instruments in a typical symphony orchestra.  For example, the C-flute would be the violin in a string orchestra, the alto would be comparable to the viola, the bass flute would be a cello,  and the flute orchestra's contrabass would be the string double bass .  You may notice from the the first paragraph, the flute family has members with no comparable representation in a symphony orchestra such as the contra-alto, subcontrabass, double contrabass and hyperbass.