Flute in b!

[Flake Brown]

Hi folks. Ive just purchased a wooden flute on ebay and it arrived this morning. Im pretty happy with the quality, but it is pitched in b rather than d! Has anyone else come across such a flute, and do they know of a b flute being used in the irish tradition?

[paddler]

Matt Molloy used a B flute to great effect on several tracks of his Heathery Breeze CD, if you want something to play along with, take a listen to Drowsy Maggie, Out on the Ocean, Ship in Full Sail, etc.
I like the sound a lot and have been thinking of making myself a B flute. I currently make a low Bb flute and I think I can make use of the same reamers for a low B, but I have yet to make the first prototype.

https://www.irishtune.info/album/MM+2/

It is an unusual key, but not unheard of. There are quite a few Uillean pipers playing flat sets in B. Ronan Browne is one who springs to mind.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QskJoxYApo

I've wondered why we don't see more low B flutes, given how many flutes in other keys are commonly produced (G, F, Eb, D, C, Bb ... etc).

[Steve Bliven]

Is the OP asking about a high B (maybe band flute) or a low B?

Best wishes.

Steve

[Conical bore]

I've wondered why we don't see more low B flutes, given how many flutes in other keys are commonly produced (G, F, Eb, D, C, Bb ... etc).

I believe most of the examples of famous artists using a low flute are using a Bb, and there is a tendency to emulate our flute heroes. So that might be one reason. I have albums by Matt Molloy, Kevin Crawford, and Sylvain Barou all using a low Bb flute for contrast with the other tunes on the album played on a D flute.

The choice of a low Bb by these artists might be because that's about the lowest you can go on a simple system flute without making the finger stretch too difficult. Lower pitch flutes for most of us would require Boehm-type keywork and possibly a U-shaped recurve headjoint to keep it from being too unwieldy. So Bb is kind of the "floor" for staying within the simple system/conical bore flute world.

The other reason for a low Bb is that it provides easy access to tunes in G dorian without needing keys, and there are several of those tunes in the ITM repertoire (composed or arranged by those pesky fiddlers of course, but it's a neat mode). It's one of the main things I use my six-key Lehart low Bb flute for. I wouldn't find a B flute as useful, although it could still be used as a nice change of pitch and tone for solo playing.

[Flake Brown]

Thanks for the informative replies so far! I should have made it clear thlugh that i meant a high b!

[paddler]

Thanks for the informative replies so far! I should have made it clear thlugh that i meant a high b!

In that case, I suspect what you have is a Bb band flute that was produced to a tuning standard (such as British High Pitch) that was almost a semi tone higher than the present standard.

I've wondered why we don't see more low B flutes, given how many flutes in other keys are commonly produced (G, F, Eb, D, C, Bb ... etc).

I believe most of the examples of famous artists using a low flute are using a Bb, and there is a tendency to emulate our flute heroes. So that might be one reason. I have albums by Matt Molloy, Kevin Crawford, and Sylvain Barou all using a low Bb flute for contrast with the other tunes on the album played on a D flute.

I agree that there are many examples of people using low Bb flutes (and high Bb, for that matter), but the tunes I linked for Matt Molloy are in fact listed as being played on a B flute, not a Bb flute. Other tunes on the same CD are listed as being played on a Bb flute.
I don't know the specifics of the flute used for Molloy's tunes in B, but maybe it too was an antique produced when the pitch standard was substantially higher than A=440, and hence was nominally a Bb flute. The same "nominal tuning vs actual tuning" argument may also hold for flat sets of uilleann pipes.