Definition of "band flutes"?

[keithsandra]

The web references from MTGuru, JEM The Flute and Denny in particular are a cornucopia of flute goodies - the ones I can understand that is. JEM, your RIGHTS OF MAN is superb. Love it. But before I finish reading all the sites provided, can I put my question another way: How can you tell a flute is a "band flute"? (DO they look shorter than usual flutes, but for some reason aren't piccolos or fifes, though fifes and piccolos CAN be "band flutes" ??? is that it?). I shall now go and have a slug of Powers whiskey and lie down ...

(But I'll email you, JEM, on whether an F "band flute" like the old, reconditioned one you're playing on that video is the ultimate, "expressively sweet" flute I'm looking for)?

Thanks again everyone.

K.

[Nanohedron]

...but as an act of resistance against that other weird and utterly inexplicable, chokingly objectionable Merkin tendency, to pronounce it "Bame". Urk! But that's another old hobby horse and recurring topic.

Just to point out that in the US the family name Boehm is definitely commonly pronounced "Bame" even with nary a fluteplayer in the lot. But, whatever. And then there are those among us - fluteplayers, mind you! - who say "Bome", if your vista of our execrable sins weren't encompassing enough.

I'll sometimes make a point of correctly (if over-)pronouncing it "Buhwhm" just because I like seeing the look in everyone's eyes as their arteries clog.

[Denny]

Ah, yes, in Merkin there is a tendency to describe what in English we would call "an orchestral flute" (meaning a modern Bohm flute, most often metal, though can be wood) as a "band flute", isn't there?

Don't know if this is true of all in the US. From my limited experiences out east schools tend to have a primary school emphasis on orchestra while the Midwest tends to be more of a "band" orientated environment. Either way it's the same shiny flute.

football belt, innit

[jemtheflute]

football belt, innit

Is that a piece of kit, maybe a bit like a truss? Or a jock strap? Or one of those cute little napkin-thingies quarter-backs affect that look like an improbably fitted loin-cloth - askew and half undone?

[Nanohedron]

Maybe this blingtastic buckle?

[Kirk B]

Booma-floota!

[jemtheflute]

Rhinestone ball-boy?

[Nanohedron]

Bawbag, anyhoo.

[jemtheflute]

Touch-down! You caught the pass, Nano!

As for umlautery, cf this old thread from this post on, including link to Sonja's linguaphone demo.

Back on-topic, Keith, if (when you've had time to) you read some of that stuff linked above your last Q will be answered - save us re-explaining at length here (please! ). Very briefly, band flutes are not necessarily smaller than concert flutes as they came in larger sizes, chiefly Bb below the concert flute and even the Eb below that - but they're comparatively rare and the majority are smaller, the Bb and F between concert D flute and piccolo being the commonest by far, most especially the Bb.

[mutepointe]

Ah, yes, in Merkin there is a tendency to describe what in English we would call "an orchestral flute" (meaning a modern Bohm flute, most often metal, though can be wood) as a "band flute", isn't there?

Don't know if this is true of all in the US. From my limited experiences out east schools tend to have a primary school emphasis on orchestra while the Midwest tends to be more of a "band" orientated environment. Either way it's the same shiny flute.

football belt, innit

Based on nothing but my own opinion, I don't think this is an East Coast/Midwest thing but maybe more of wealth thing. More well-to-do areas can support an orchestra and have the personnel to teach budding orchestra musicians. The closest the poorer areas can get to this is band class in public school. My family couldn't afford either.

If we're discussing how to pronounce Boehm, I wish you folks could hear how I pronounced embouchure since I had only read the word. The first time I heard the owner of the music store pronounce the word, I made him say it a couple of time so that I could repeat it. He did ask how I pronounced the word and he was polite but his belly shook.

[Doug_Tipple]

My dad graduated from high school in the Great Depression, so as a sharecropper's son he had little opportunity to attend college. He ended up working as an auto mechanic in a small town in Indiana. My dad liked to read, so he had words in his vocabulary that he had learned from his reading, but he never heard anyone use some of the words except himself. Unfortunately, he had three sons who did have the opportunity to attend college and who corrected his pronunciation of these words whenever they got the chance. It just wasn't right, I say.

[I.D.10-t]

I have had many a word that I didn't know how to pronounce and a few that I knew how to say but didn't recognize in print. Infrared still looks odd to me.

~~~~~~~~~
So Millyard-Molem Make a range of Band flutes in Eb, Bb, and F. but does anyone still make old style bass Bb flutes?

[MTGuru]

Ah, yes, in Merkin there is a tendency to describe what in English we would call "an orchestral flute" (meaning a modern Bohm flute, most often metal, though can be wood) as a "band flute", isn't there?

Don't know if this is true of all in the US. From my limited experiences out east schools tend to have a primary school emphasis on orchestra while the Midwest tends to be more of a "band" orientated environment.

No, that's not necessarily the case, at least from my experience growing up in New York public school and the whole school competition scene. Even where there was a school orchestra (as at my school) or regional youth orchestra, the strings program tended to be somewhat separate. And the main emphasis for wind players was on marching band or concert wind ensemble. Schools without orchestras usually had a band program. Hence the default association of wind (and percussion) instruments as band instruments.

[MTGuru]

Or if you were cool you were in the Stage Band and played Sammy Nestico arrangements.

Boy, there's a name I haven't heard for ages. And Neil Hefti.

[MTGuru]

...but as an act of resistance against that other weird and utterly inexplicable, chokingly objectionable Merkin tendency, to pronounce it "Bame". Urk! But that's another old hobby horse and recurring topic.

Just to point out that in the US the family name Boehm is definitely commonly pronounced "Bame" even with nary a fluteplayer in the lot. But, whatever. And then there are those among us - fluteplayers, mind you! - who say "Bome"

IIRC, my German teachers tended to recommend "ur" (stressed schwa + r) or "rr" (vocalic r) as a practical substitute for ö/oe. So Boehm = Burm/Brrm, Goethe = Gurtuh/Grrtuh, Gödel = Gurdle/Grrdle, etc. The "ur" works better with non-rhotic British pronunciations.

Otherwise, I usually hear the long "o" - Bome. Honestly, I think the first time I heard the long "a" variant was in connection with our senator Boehner, who for some reason seems to dislike being referred to as "Boner"*.

*(Or, I suppose if you strictly follow the Germanic sound shifts, "Beaner".)