Why One Key?

The Chiff & Fipple Irish Flute on-line community. Sideblown for your protection.
User avatar
pancelticpiper
Posts: 5298
Joined: Mon Jul 10, 2006 7:25 am
antispam: No
Please enter the next number in sequence: 8
Tell us something.: Playing Scottish and Irish music in California for 45 years.
These days many discussions are migrating to Facebook but I prefer the online chat forum format.
Location: WV to the OC

Re: Why One Key?

Post by pancelticpiper »

paddler wrote: Sat Mar 18, 2023 12:16 pm My understanding is that Renaissance flutes had a narrow cylindrical bore and small finger holes. The narrow bore and small finger holes being a critical design choice that enabled notes in the upper part of the second octave, and those in the third octave, to be played in tune, through the use of forked fingerings. The move to a conical bore in Baroque flutes allowed those upper second octave notes to be played with the same fingerings as in the lower octave.
Thanks for the information!

I didn't know about the small holes and forked fingerings in the 2nd octave, very interesting.
Richard Cook
c1980 Quinn uilleann pipes
1945 Starck Highland pipes
Goldie Low D whistle
User avatar
tin tin
Posts: 1314
Joined: Tue Jun 25, 2002 6:00 pm
antispam: No
Please enter the next number in sequence: 8
Tell us something.: To paraphrase Mark Twain, a gentleman is someone who knows how to play the spoons and doesn't. I'm doing my best to be a gentleman.

Re: Why One Key?

Post by tin tin »

Great thread. Ardal Powell’s excellent The Flute puts each of the types of flute being discussed here in its historical context and is well worth a read. http://www.flutehistory.com/TheBook/index.php3
A key (no pun intended) takeaway from the book is that no design is inherently superior to any other—each type of flute was optimized for its social and musical context and merits being understood in that particular context. (Too often, the flute’s evolution is cast as developing from the primitivism of the Renaissance or Baroque flute to the technical perfection of the Boehm system, which is hooey, bunkum, and plain wrong! I recommend not reading Nancy Toff’s The Flute Book for this reason.) Seen in their historical contexts, all sorts of flutes have a musical offering to make and offer various benefits or drawbacks depending on the intended musical use.
Post Reply