Keyed fife = Oxymoron?

fyffer · Post by **fyffer** » Mon Nov 14, 2005 2:16 pm

Please don't let this become another "what is a fife/ what is a piccolo" debate. Been there done that.

That said, there is an item on eBay which I'm toying with the idea of bidding on, which is claimed to be a Cloos A-flat piccolo.

The length is reported at 16 1/4 inchesl

Now, that sounds like a Bb fife length to me.
So, the question is this:

Since the instrument is stamped "Ab" (A flat), which we know is the "transposing key" for a Bb fife (e.g. a C on a Bb fife sounds like a "concert pitch" A-flat), could that perhaps be what is indicated by the Ab mark?
Can someone convince me that the lowest note on this instrument could possibly be an A-flat at that length?

By my calculations, a vibrating column of air of length 16.25 inches, ends up correspoding to a frequency of 415, which is indeed A-flat, but I imagine that measurement is not the inner length, i.e. the stopper to the bell, but the full, ferrule-end to ferrule-end length.

Any insight from the collective experience of C&F?

Thanks,
Chris

Unseen122 · Post by **Unseen122** » Mon Nov 14, 2005 3:56 pm

Well noticing that it was part of the USMC the fact it says Ab is probably because it was meant to play with brass instruments so to avoid confusion the transposing key was stamped on. That is a theory I could be wrong.

I.D.10-t · Post by **I.D.10-t** » Mon Nov 14, 2005 10:03 pm

Unseen122 seems insightful. For a military band you may have to agree with some standards.

The thing is that fife and drum was popular after the Civil War era. I wouldn’t doubt that the military generals wanted the music and that the fifes were not made to produce a concert set of music. I do wonder about the lack of a tuning body. Because of that does not seem like the fife was meant to be played with other players. I was worried about the USMC mark because it was a relatively new branch, but 1775 seems to be when they started.

It looked like post mount to me so it may be a retro fit (but who would do such a thing to a cheap instrument?*)

If you are interested, I suggest that you ask the guy to stick a dowel down the end and find the bore length and estimate the bore width.

Do you not have enough fifes?

*PS cheap was not an insult, it was what could be afforded for the task at hand, but fifes were generally cheap.

fyffer · Post by **fyffer** » Mon Nov 14, 2005 10:27 pm

I.D.10-t wrote: Do you not have enough fifes?

What??? What is "enough fifes"? Does not compute ...

Denny · Post by **Denny** » Mon Nov 14, 2005 11:21 pm

fyffer wrote:
I.D.10-t wrote: Do you not have enough fifes?
What??? What is "enough fifes"? Does not compute ...

Oxymoron...

I.D.10-t · Post by **I.D.10-t** » Tue Nov 15, 2005 7:25 am

I.D.10-t wrote:I do wonder about the lack of a tuning body. Because of that does not seem like the fife was meant to be played with other players.

Looked at the photo again and realized that it did not have an embouchure visible. Which means (I hope) that it is two piece and does have a way of tuning.