SAUNDERS RECORDERS AUDIO

Anonymous 6 key blackwood flute.

Francois Devienne, "6 Duos for Flutes Op.18"
the
First movement of Duet No.6.
Hinrichsen, N 4097

I've recently become seriously interested in late nineteenth and early twentieth century flutes. These instruments are not rare and are used a lot in Irish folk music. There are many variations but there are usually eight keys. The eight keyed flutes go down to middle C. Flutes with six or fewer keys usually only go down to low D. It is possible to play chromatically on flutes with small holes and only one key, for D#. (Typically, the is a 'baroque' flute.) If the flute has large holes very few of the notes out of the scale of D are playable without using the other keys. Large hole completely keyless flutes are popular with folk musicians, who do not miss D# or F natural.

I have had to do a lot of research to work out how best to finger these flutes. The patterns are very different from the modern Boehm flute and one has to adopt a different approach. Their fingering is very dependent on context and on the characteristics of each particular flute. Fingering charts are not much help and I have found that the best way to approach the difficulties is through the works of the flautist composers of the period. While the music of Devienne, Koehler and Popp still features in modern books of studies it is there on account of its musicality not its technical relevance, except in the broadest flute playing terms. Besides being charming, these pieces gently probe the technical difficulties of fingering. By playing the pieces and assessing the options I have been able to develop a 'game plan' and become reasonably fluent.

The trigger for all this has been a pupil, and we play these pieces together. He is not yet quite able to hold his own with the reading and as he plays well by ear a recording seemed a good idea. Thanks to the computer I can be heard playing both parts and I thought that I would share the results with you.

There is a link from my flute pages on this site to a guide to playing classical music on these old flutes. It is very much 'work in progress' but unifying concepts are forming in my mind. Six hole flutes have been much maligned in books on musical history and I hope to do something to redress the balance.

The instrument I am playing is of black wood and has six finger holes and six keys. The crown and lower end of the bore are ornamented with a metal covering and I think the flute was made in Germany, near the start of the twentieth century. The lowest note is D. When I got this flute I had great difficulty in making it play in tune with itself. The tuning slide was very much longer than usual and the pitch was well below A=440. After a lot of thought and experimentation I had the tuning slide shortened by 15mm. This drastic step has been entirely successful and I can now play comfortably in tune at A=440 with the tuning slide extended by about 10mm. (It is usual to play this type of flute with the slide extended by about this amount.) As is normal with continental flutes, the finger holes are fairly small, similar to those of a treble recorder. Because of this I am able to regard the keys (other than the D# key) as optional. Notes played with a key are more resonant than those that are 'cross' or 'fork' fingered, but not always markedly so. Because the lowest note is D I can use much of the technique I have acquired playing the baroque flute. This is a real boon as the third octave notes on these early flutes are very dependent on the state of the D# key, in unexpected and illogical ways.

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The flute in its case. A pistol case! Just the job.