Chiff and Fipple Forums

Well, I'm taking a tour down Memory Land. ...
I just bought a Sweetheart so called one key Irish Flute from Blayne at The Irish Flute Store
I used this model Flute when I first picked up the wooden Flute to play at Colonial Reenactments in the 90's,
I actually played Colonial Era Music way before I got in to ITM
My Friend who had been playing several years before me had one of these Flutes and suggested I buy one as well.
I did so and bought mine from the Kaiichek Workshop
I'm not sure when mine was made , presumable in the Mid 90's
The good thing about these Flutes , while not actually based on an 18th century Flute, they could pass for one at Events where everything needed to be period correct, clothes, Items and so forth.
Unlike a Baroque Flute which was actually played around this period, these Sweetheart Flutes had pretty good volume
This Flute model being called an Irish 1 key Flute was actually an anomaly as it really wasn't an Irish Flute or a Baroque 1 key Flute, but Ralph actually created a very nice Instrument that worked very well for me
Maybe if Jos or Walt read this Post they can tell us more about how this Model came about and who bought them and for what purpose
The Flute has fairly big Holes and very good Volume
The Flute is numbered 500 and according to Jos who has Ralph's Date book it was made in 1982
The quality of the Rosewood is quite nice, and the Ferrules have a very nice amber color
Ralph made several iterations, one in Maple, another in Walnut, these ones had just plain turned Ferrules.
I don't know that I'll play this Flute alot, but it will bring back a lot of Memories of when I played at Colonial Reenactments
Anyone else have one of these Instruments?

here is a link to the actual purchased Flute

https://www.irishflutestore.com/collect ... wood-1-key

BTW Here is a very early Sweetheart Flute...# 16 ..maybe from the Mid 70's ?

https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/ ... 1842047126

That is so cool! Do the baroque fingerings actually work on that one or would you have to half hole the other notes when playing chromatically?

I've had a couple of these over the years—one in maple that was so nice that John Skelton wanted to buy it from me, and one in rosewood that was much earlier and not quite as good sounding as the maple.

Ralph used to have a vendor's booth at the forerunner of the Pipers Gathering back in the late 1980s and carried these instruments. At the time, they were one of the very few options for a modestly priced wooden flute available in the US. Lots of folks in the eastern part of the country started (or ended) their flute careers with one of these.

I never had much success playing one chromatically (other than the otherwise elusive Eb/D# note) but perhaps those with greater skills than I possessed could do it. I was using the ones I had for Irish tunes and so didn't have a major need for chromatics anyway.

Ben— neat that you got the original flannel wrap. According to Ralph, his wife used to make and embroider each of those. Somewhere in the mid-90's the volume of sales (and perhaps other causes) precluded continuation of that and Ralph eventually found a commercially available case as an option.

My feeling is that the Sweetheart flutes made a major contribution to flute playing in this part of the world back in the day.

Best wishes.

Steve

I know for me when I first played Flute at Reenactments the Sweetheart Flutes were the only ones that I knew existed
I have a funny story from around that time at an Event
I was playing with a Fiddle Player as well as a Whistle Player.
Well we took a break and a Guy comes up to me with small Case, doesn't say Hello or anything and he opens up the Case and says" this is an Irish Flute"
And having never seen an Irish Flute, I say " A what ?" and he repeats that it was an Irish Flute, says nothing else, closes the case and walks away

Great story Ben!

I had a rosewood 4 key of Ralph's with silver rings that I ended up selling...and have regretted selling ever since. It was a wonderful player and fully chromatic thanks to the extra keys. Ralph was just a super guy...and Walt is, too.

Eric

Ben Shaffer wrote: ↑Fri Jul 16, 2021 9:34 am I have a funny story from around that time at an Event
I was playing with a Fiddle Player as well as a Whistle Player.
Well we took a break and a Guy comes up to me with small Case, doesn't say Hello or anything and he opens up the Case and says" this is an Irish Flute"
And having never seen an Irish Flute, I say " A what ?" and he repeats that it was an Irish Flute, says nothing else, closes the case and walks away

Just demonstrates how flute players are persons of few words—this forum notwithstanding....

Best wishes.

Steve

Jayhawk wrote: ↑Fri Jul 16, 2021 12:03 pm Great story Ben!

I had a rosewood 4 key of Ralph's with silver rings that I ended up selling...and have regretted selling ever since. It was a wonderful player and fully chromatic thanks to the extra keys. Ralph was just a super guy...and Walt is, too.

Eric

I had a 4 key Sweetheart as well and was one of the best Flutes Ive owned, and yes of course I sold it

i too had a rosewood 4 keys......loved it even though it was not my best player, there was something about that flute.......i'd buy it back without thinking twice if i saw it coming up for sale.......the friend that i bought it from feels the same.....

Sedi wrote: ↑Fri Jul 16, 2021 8:21 am That is so cool! Do the baroque fingerings actually work on that one or would you have to half hole the other notes when playing chromatically?

No, they don't play like baroque flutes at all. Ralph made so-called baroque flutes that were sort-of hybrids -- small holes, baroque fingerings, bigger bore and embouchure, so better volume.

That said, I found my Sweet one-key Irish flute just about fully chromatic. The holes are big enough that the Bflat and Fnat are really easy to half-hole; the Cnat cross-fingers. With a little practice the G# half-holes pretty well.

Dear Ben,
It's fair to say that his 1-key flute was an invention, with no pretense of asserting any historical precedent.
Some of the English band flutes (Bb fifes) had that single D# key. It greatly improves the pitch of E3 which is firmly in the midst of the playing range (for those instruments in that genre). Opening the key effectively shortens the sounding length and doubles the options for fingerings in the 3rd octave. Playing a good D# was never the goal for those fifes or Dad's flutes. Quantz' goal was a good D# and a good Eb, distinct notes in just diatonic scales. Opening that key can be used to make E1 and E2 clearer and stronger; in that case, hole #6 needs to be smaller in order to hold the pitch (but then the key must alawys be opened).
I'd say that making that D# key was a warmup of keymaking for the fully-keyed flutes (always a goal and struggle of his). His instruments show a long history of innovation, experiments and modeling of historical features.
That flute has characteristics aimed at ITM, not Baroque.