Lizzo may now be the only person to play crystal flute that belonged to James Madison
The crystal flute dates back to 1813 and was lent to Lizzo by the Library Of Congress
Music Features Lizzo
Last night, during a show in Washington, D.C., Lizzo played a 19th-century crystal flute that once belonged to James Madison, fourth president of the United States and “Father Of The Constitution”.
This is not a series of words that we expected to write today. We did not know, for example, that James Madison owned a crystal flute. We did not know that such a flute was in the possession of the Library Of Congress. And we did not expect that Lizzo would one day perform this strange instrument in front of a crowd of excited fans.
But, as the video below shows, all of this has now happened.
Stereogum wrote about this unexpected event, explaining that the crystal flute was given to Madison “in honor of his second inauguration in 1813" and is one of only two such flutes known to exist. It was made by “Parisian craftsman Claude Laurent, who created ornate bejeweled glass flutes that were popular among royalty and heads of state in the early 19th century.” After Madison received the flute—and presumably spent a lot of his alone time dancing merry jigs around the White House while playing it—it ended up on display at the Library Of Congress.
Last week, the Library Of Congress’ Carla Hayden invited Lizzo, the world’s foremost flutist pop star, to check out the institution’s collection of the instrument—which is apparently the largest in the world—during her Washington, D.C. tour stop. Lizzo responded with a quote tweet showing her immense enthusiasm for playing “that crystal flute.”
Rather than keep the mysterious sounds of the flute to themselves, the instrument was brought out by representatives of the Library Of Congress to Lizzo’s Capital One Arena concert last night so its tones could be heard by all.
In the video that accompanies Lizzo tweeting that she’s now “the first & only person to ever play this presidential 200-year-old crystal flute,” we see her carefully retrieve the instrument, walk it over to a mic, then prepare to use it by noting “it’s like playing out of a wine glass, so be patient.”
She briefly plays the flute, dancing very carefully at the same time, then returns it to a Library Of Congress rep before shouting out: “Bitch, I just twerked and played James Madison’s crystal flute from the 1800s!” She looks around the crowd, then continues: “We just made history tonight!”
What Lizzo doesn’t address is what it could mean for the nation as a whole that the mysterious crystal flute has now been heard once more, perhaps for the first time in more than a century—or ever. We can only hope that its otherworldly tones signal the coming of a great new utopian era, one where everyone is given a crystal flute to play as they stroll down sunny streets, sending happy sounds out over the country.
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36 Comments
“After Madison received the flute—and presumably spent a lot of his alone time dancing merry jigs around the White House while playing it—it ended up on display at the Library Of Congress.”
But that can’t be possible because Lizzo is pretending that she’s the first person to ever play it!
Yeah clothes choices please. If you are a nearly dead level of obese, cover that up.
I have just one question. Why? Why dodnour government do this stunt? And for what cultural benefit? Why?
Fun factsA person who plays flute is a flautistJames Madison wore that same outfit when he played but his twerk was not up to snuff
Time for downer facts!James Madison was a slave owner, and while many of the other slave-owning founding fathers on their deathbeds begrudgingly admitted that owning humans was not exactly in line with their ardent beliefs in personal liberty and freed their slaves – Madison never did. He willed all his slaves to his wife Dolley, who sold most of them to other plantations to pay off his debts, and they died in servitude.So, the fact that a rich successful black woman is playing his prized flute adds a nice coda to the story.
Imagine how much he would hate it. It’s perfect.
Yeah- even the twerking works as she’s playing beautifully and twerking is a descendent of traditional African dances. It would make him so mad and that’s great. History is cool
Years ago, James Galway appeared on the “Tonight Show” when Johnny Carson was the host. After he performed, he went over to talk, and Carson asked him “Should we call you a ‘flutist’ or a ‘flautist’?” Galway, from Belfast, held up his flute and said, “This thing here that I’m playin’, it ain’t called a ‘flaut’!”
But do we know what monster was summoned by the playing of that flute yet?
I’m picturing one of those Final Fantasy summons with a crazy amount of wings and legs. Lizzo would make a good party member
Darn, foxnews . com doesn’t seem to have picked it up yet.
Lizzo is the ONLY person who could pull off declaring, “Bitch, I just sucked a 200-year-old glass dick live on stage!” without it being a “self-diss.” Shine on, you crazy diamond…
She made beautiful music with that dick which is a brag if I ever heard one
Has Madison Rising been informed yet?
Bird up!
Ian Anderson must be very sad that he is no longer the person everybody thinks first of, as a popular music fl(a)utist. Still, at least he still has his Heavy Metal Grammy.
When he plays live he makes the crowd shut the hell up or else he doesn’t play, it’s great!
Hmm – I saw him in 2019 and he didn’t do that.
This would have been 2012 or so I think. Maybe it depends on the room? I saw him in a like 2500 person venue and it was sold out.
Mine was at Forest Hills, so keeping people quiet would have just accentuated the sound of the LIRR trains passing by.
Ah yeah mine was at Penn’s Peak so totally different venue situation right there.
“We did not know, for example, that James Madison owned a crystal flute.”We did know, however, that he owned slaves, which makes a Black woman freely using his property doubly hilarious and awesome.
Inside the flute is a small piece of paper detailing his crimes, which he wrote while dying of infectious dyptheria.
My god she is so gross.
Oh blow it out your woodwind.
The unmitigated nerve of some people, not being attractive to you, specifically. I guess she’ll just have to comfort herself with her international success and her great fortune.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
But…but…HIS BONER IS SAD!!!
Nope! You’re gross X 10!!!
I’m sure people are putting you on the cover of magazines.
i have questions:1) is she REALLY the first human to play that? i mean, i didn’t know that James was even interested in flutes, but if he was gifted one, wouldn’t the giver have done it because either James Madison (or Dolly) played one? otherwise, kind of a lame gift2) since when did the national history museum have such a huge collection of flutes? the largest? really? wild. they need a show just about flutes in their collection, apparently.
Weirder, it’s the library of congress, not the Smithsonian. So they’re in a drawer occasionally being looked at by researchers.
Library of congress is pretty cool.
I figure a lot of famous people are sent lavish gifts they don’t actually use (i.e. the Queen of England’s golden Wii), so it wouldn’t surprise me.
Still can’t lose weight
They should let that Jethro Tull guy have a whack at it as well.or maybe whoever’s left from Canned Heat or the Marshall Tucker Band
Or Ann Wilson.
She can stick it where the sun don’t shine and it still won’t defile authentic America.