Norwegian Seaflute

[michael ward]

I have just taken delivery of a " Seaflute" (Sjofloyte) made by Bodil Diesen the Nowegian recorder maker. It is in pearwood and brass, key of A minor designed to play with Hardanger fiddles. I asked Bodil to make it me with the exterior appearance of a Ganassi Renaissance recorder which I think have a beautiful elegant design ( there is no fixed design for Seaflutes but some I've seen look too much like wooden school recorders).
It has a superb pure tone and the fingering is a cross between whistle and recorder . It plays over one and three quarter octaves. It makes a great addition to my other Scandinavian whistles.
Bodil was excellent to work with and the Seaflute came with a good case, a book of folk tunes and a CD.

[Richard]

Michael - Your seaflute really seems like a nice instrument. Could you post a photo?

Also, I'm curious about the fingering (recorder vs. whistle). Does it have a thumbhole? Is it chromatic or diatonic (key of Am suggests the latter)? Is A the "bell tone", making the instrument slightly shorter than an alto recorder?

[michael ward]

Hello sorry I haven't been here in a while. It is diatonic and seems to be a mixture of recorder and whistle fingering. A is the bell tone and there is a thumb hole. The scale is designed to play with the Hardanger fiddle so isn't a strict major or minor scale. I'll try to get a photo.
I took delivery of another Scandanavian whistle/ recorder this morning a Jotunfloyte. It's in C and made of Rowan with a Juniper block. I got it from Naturinstrumenter. It's a beautiful piece of work. cheers