I mostly used the term "large" to distinguish between these and the round embouchures that were common on flutes during the baroque period. Those were round in shape, but much smaller, say 8.8 mm by 8.8 mm. But I also wanted to make the point that the overall size of the opening of these large round embouchures is comparable to that of elliptical embouchures that have a much longer long access. So I was trying to draw attention to the fact that these historical round embouchures actually have a significantly longer short axis than is typical in an elliptical embouchure, antique or modern.
When you compare the dimensions to those found on antique American flutes, you find that the round antique English embouchures were generally around 10% larger in area than the elliptical antique American embouchures, despite the American ones having a longer long axis.
Here are some examples of embouchure dimensions on American flutes that work well for ITM. You can see that the area averages around the low 90s, compared to the low 100s for the large round English embouchures I listed. For comparison, measurements from a selection of flutes from modern makers seems to show fairly tight cluster around an area of 98 or 99, and a roundness factor of 1.17.
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long short roundness area
Riley 11.8 10.8 1.09 100
Peloubet 11.5 9.9 1.16 89
Peloubet 924 11.8 9.8 1.20 91
Firth Son & Co 11.8 10.3 1.15 95
Firth Hall Pond 11.4 10.25 1.11 92
William Hall 11.45 10.2 1.12 92
Firth Pond & Co 11.4 9.9 1.15 89
Klemm Bros 12.3 10 1.23 97
Pfaff (ivory) 12 10.1 1.19 95
Geib 12.3 10.4 1.18 100
Baack 11.5 10.5 1.10 95
Haynes 12.4 10.1 1.23 98
Meacham 11.7 10.2 1.15 94
I have a few other English flutes around, some of which are from a slightly later period, and they exhibit dimensions similar to modern elliptical embouchures. I've listed a few below.
All of this is anecdotal, of course, and there are all kinds of shapes and sizes used, but there does seem to be some clustering around distinct designs.
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long short roundness area
Keith Prowse & Co 11.25 10 1.13 88
Clementi 11.9 10.7 1.11 100
Rudall Rose Carte 12.4 10.8 1.15 105
One thing you get from the large area is a louder flute. You also tend to require more air than a smaller area embouchure of the same shape, but I think the large round embouchures also encourage a playing style in which the lower lip covers part of the opening. I think the longer short axis actually gives more scope for adjusting the amount of lower lip overlap, and this seems to give a fairly wide range of control over intonation, tone, and breath requirements. I have been wondering whether part of the influence behind this design was to try to coax a wider range of pitch standards from a single flute, in the sense that by uncovering an embouchure like this you can significantly sharpen the pitch, especially for the notes vented higher up the bore. Conversely, the pitch can be pulled down by covering more, without choking off the volume. When used in conjunction with a tuning slide that is adjusted over a wide range, perhaps this is how the flute was made to work across several pitch standards.
I also feel that an embouchure with a shorter long axis, and hence tighter curve radius on the splitting side, probably gives the player a little more scope for nuance and expressiveness, but at the expense of being less forgiving due to a relatively smaller target area, especially compared to modern, elongated embouchures with a wide target area. But these are just impressions I have. I haven't got all of the above flutes restored to the same playing standards, so it is difficult to do a fair comparison. I am thinking of making a few new heads to use with them though, and that might allow some more direct comparisons. But I'd really like to hear from those of you that have experience playing flutes with these rounder embouchures.
Thanks for the feedback!
