Irish Style Wood Headjoints for Boehm Flute

[ErikT]

That's the way my Ormiston looks, though, I don't know that he makes brass rings - seems to me he uses silver (but I'm not 100%).

Erik

[SuiZen]

My understanding, through experience and reading, is that the headjoint is responsible for most of a flutes timbre, and the conical bore corrects for some of the upper octave tuning problems associated with a cylindrical bore. The Boehm design makes it more chromatic than the simple system flute, and its venting corrects for some of the tuning problems associated with cylindrical bores.

Slightly of the topic, and FWIW, I have found noticable tone and response differences in the same make/model professional (e.g., Brannen, Powell, Haynes, & Landell) Boehm silver flute maker headjoints. Even the ones made by the same skilled headjoint craftsperson are different. I'm not implying that some are bad, only that there are differences. This is why they allow them to be exchanged. I went through many, before I got the current one's that I am very pleased with. On the other hand, I was immediately satisfied with the headjoints that came with my Patrick Olwell Pratten style blackwood, Hammy Hamilton, and Terry McGee flutes. My fist simple flute from Lark in the Morning was totally unplayable. My early M&E polymer was decent, but a little weak. You would think that it would be easier to duplicate the embouchure of a handmade Boehm silver headjoint, than a wooden Irish style headjoint.

Also, a player hears a timbre different from what the audience hears. I have evaluated same make/model heads, noticing differences in timbre while playing. Then, I record my playing, on a good quality recorder, and the headjoints are more alike in timbre. However, headjoints made by different makers or different model sound somewhat different when played back from a recording.

Anyway, you have given me lots more to think about.

A thread about Boehm flutes was just started on the wooden flute list. An amateur simple system wooden flute player asked about doubling on a Boehm flute to accompany his wife's singing in different keys.

_________________
Bill_D


<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: SuiZen on 2003-01-13 07:53 ]</font>

[Loren]

Yes Gordon, I agree that Boehm flutes sound different from Conical bore flutes, but my point was that you won't be able to tell them apart blindfolded in a session, if the player is good and using an apropriate wooden headjoint. Sure, alone in a room these flutes - no problem telling them apart, but not at a session. Hell, you can hardly even hear the flutes at the sessions I've been to, but then they've always been far outnumbered where I've been. Case in point, last night's session had: 1 UP/Fiddle player, 1 (very good and not too loud) Bodhran player, 2 flute players, 1 guy swapping between the (Orimiston?) flute, guitar, and Banjo, 1 concertina player (cool!), 1 whistle/fiddle player from Ireland who had the good sense to only play whistle because.....there were already 5-6 other people playing fiddle on virtually every tune!

Yeah, it's much better to have too many fiddle players than say pipers, drummers, whistlers, guitar or banjo players, but sheesh, from 6 feet away I could only hear the whistle player's nickel Copeland when he was in the second octave, and one of the flute players, a woman who appeared to be playing a fruitwood Ralph Sweet flute, couldn't be heard at all.

On 2003-01-12 21:49, JessieK wrote:
Loren, that's very cool that you went to a session where Chris Abell probably was.

The flute you mentioned...perhaps an Ormiston?

Yeah, I figured "Okay, a guy with an Abell flute wanders into the weekly session in Asheville, what are the chances it's NOT Chris Abell?" Unfortunately I had to leave before the session was over, and there wasn't a break where I could get through the crowded pub and across jammed session seating arrangement to talk to him. I'll be back next week though. Is Chris about my height, similar build, maybe late 30's to mid 40's with a moustache and beard....going a bit grey? This fellow seemed to have some kids with him too, rambunctious and cute, under 10 I'd guess.

Loren

[SuiZen]

Loren,

There's a photo of Chris on the following web page.

http://www.chiffandfipple.com/chrisabell.html

[Loren]

Thanks Bill, I'd forgotten about that!

Yup, it was Chris alright, and the cute boy running around with the long tail (hair) and flashing lights on his hiking boots must have been his son Galen Very cool, I'll look forward to meeting Chris at one of the future sessions!

Loren