A reconstruction of Siccama's 1-key flute

Irish Flute
1

We know Siccama as the chap who invented, patented and marketed this flute:

But he actually patented 3 other designs, all of them derided by Rockstro as “absolutely worthless”. One was for a fully chromatic flute with only 1 key. There is no evidence that these were ever manufactured, so to test Rockstro’s opinion, we had to make one:

The whole story starts at:

http://www.mcgee-flutes.com/Siccama’s-1-key-Flute-Reconstruction.htm

You can even hear how the flute sounds to make up your own mind.

Terry

2

That’s fascinating. It seems to me that if three of Siccama’s designs were never built, how could Rockstro have known if they were useful, or not?

I hope, Terry, that your repro is well and indellibly marked with enough info to identify what it is and why - I can foresee the flute community of the 22nd century being utterly mystified, otherwise.

3

I think having the name Siccama on it was probably enough evidence for Rockstro. He seemed irrationally allergic to Siccama, Clinton and Boehm. And he couldn’t even bring himself to mention Radcliff!

I hope, Terry, that your repro is well and indellibly marked with enough info to identify what it is and why - I can foresee the flute community of the 22nd century being utterly mystified, otherwise.

Well it has my name shamelessly emblazoned on the barrel, so that should be a good clue as to where to look. And my website is preserved for eternity (at least) by the National Library of Australia’s Pandora project, so that article should go whirling through space and time long after my sad demise. It’s a sobering thought, isn’t it!

I was thinking that before I slip away into la-la land, I should probably put a list of my flutes, their models and fine details such as embouchure types on the web. Other makers should do something similar (I imagine there are other projects like Pandora that could give long-term access to such data). It will ensure that future generations accord this generation the pity that we probably deserve!

Terry

4

Healy makes a chromatic 10 hole. I wonder how that compares.

Marking the barrel? That is the first thing to go missing!

5

Kudos Terry! :party:

Lovely even tone! Of course Andra Bohnet is quite the virtuoso.

I look at the design and wonder if the C-key is to be actuated by the metacarpophalangeal joint. This wouldn’t require any alteration of the RH position and would explain the longer length of the touch.

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR SHARING THIS WITH US!

I enjoyed it immensely! :slight_smile:

6

You’ll see I mention Skip’s flute in the list of attempts to make keyless or few-key chromatics. I haven’t tried Skip’s, but I imagine that, like the Siccama, it presents some challenges in terms of covering the holes reliably and comfortably. I’d expect Skip’s to win on volume of the loudest notes, but the Siccama to have the better uniformity of note volume and quality. I’d also expect the Siccama to have better intonation. Skip’s would be ahead on familiarity for Irish flute players.

Given time, we do hope to do some comparisons between the Siccama 1-key and other designs listed - Adrian has for instance been able to acquire a Giorgi in as-new condition. Andra already has one of Skip’s 10 hole flutes but in F. She expresses doubts about being able to handle the D version, due to limited stretch.

Marking the barrel? That is the first thing to go missing!

I wonder if there is evidence that any part of a flute is more likely to dissappear than the others? I’ve certainly seen 19th century flutes where the barrel timber has cracked completely away and has been lost, leaving just the slide, still attached to the head slide. That shouldn’t happen here, as I’ve used my New Improved Tuning Slide approach. I’ve seen flutes with neither head nor barrel - perhaps the lot discarded due to horrendous cracking? And I have a Clinton 8-key flute here with no foot. I’m not sure there’s much you can draw from that!

Terry

7

Yes, thanks. Fascinating

8

Many of Skip’s ideas stem, in part, from our use of the chromatic 10-hole (and 11-hole) fife designed by John McDonagh and manufactured (and presumably refined in design) by Roy Seaman of piccolo-making fame.

They’d been around since the 1960s, Bb fifes.

My hands are too small to comfortably handle Skip’s multi-hole flute in F (that RH thumb position!)

9

Thanks for that reminder, David. I should include the 10 hole fife in my list of attempts to produce chromatic flutes with zero or few keys. Is there an example illustrated somewhere I can look at? Should I call it McDonagh or Seaman or both?

Anyone else aware of examples of keyless or mostly keyless chromatic flutes I haven’t considered, please speak up!

Terry

10

How do the various schemes for chromaticising a transverse flute compare with the hole arrangement of the recorder, the chromatic fipple flute?

11

Warning, thread resurrection!

Hi Terry, I was just wondering whether you have done any further work on this flute design or not? Does it still live in Vancouver? One wonders about how well it would work stretched to a C scale…

Regards,

Clinton

12

If anyone’s still interested :slight_smile:.
The recorder comes from a different fingering family (low C, thumbhole…). But that is not so important here.
It has small holes and uses forked fingerings, e.g. x xox xooo for Bb.
Baroque 1-key flutes used the same method, e.g. something like xox xoo for Bb. (The key is for Eb which, along with Db, the recorder half-holes in the low register)
Siccama’s 1-key, some fife designs and the chromatic sopilka of Soviet ‘academic folk music’ use a lot of holes so that the main fingering is more chromatic than diatonic. I think it’s cumbersome. E.g. http://www.vargan.ru/recorder/img_for_vse/applic/sopilka.txt
Then there are the usual keys, eg xxo ooo + use a free finger to touch a key to open the Bb hole for Bb.
Half-holing is of course a kind of last resort, though not a ‘chromaticizing method’ per se.

So verious instrument desings use combinations of these methods.

13

[ Thread revival. - Mod ]

I have been making keyless chromatic flutes for about 10 years now, using my own, patented design, and variations, and I have never seen anyone else making flutes using my approach, but this keyless flute by Siccama is the closest, inasmuch as he uses the fingers of the right hand including the thumb, in a natural, ergonomic order to cover the Eb through G holes in chromatic sequence, while also paying attention to the ergonomics of the left hand. Giorgi is also similar in the right hand, but his left hand is very challenging. Siccama’s right hand is ergonomic, but differs radically from convention. My original patent covers an 8 hole design, using cross fingerings for G#, Bb and C. This design, and the 9 hole variant with left thumb covering a C hole, are very easy to manage, and once you have gotten used to using your right thumb, the fingerings are quite similar to Boehm flute, or saxophone. I have built other flutes with 10 holes which offer better accidentals and better “venting” overall, but the difficulty does increase as far as facility of execution. My Patent is US7700863.

There are several issues with keyless flutes:

*Ideally there would be at least 11 holes so every note gets its own hole. Most of us only have 10 fingers.

*Ideally the holes should be “large” with respect to the bore diameter. Most of us have limitations in how large a hole we can reliably cover, especially with our smaller fingers.

*Finger stretch is an issue, though actually it is easier on my design than most 6 hole flutes because of the distribution of the holes.

*With keys you can ignore some of the holes when they are not in use; not so with keyless, you need to manage them all.

*When relying on crossfingerings, if you want them to be in tune and not horribly stuffy, you need to consider this in every other aspect of the design, especially bore size and hole size. You cannot just adapt a bore profile and hole layout that may work well for a 6 hole flute and expect it to give good accidentals, it almost certainly will not.

It seems that in the past, “close” must have been good enough, because traditionally dimensioned flutes often simply cannot play the forked fingerings in tune, even when the non-forked notes are compromised for the sake of it. This is not acceptable in my opinion. The notes need to be able to be played dead on, albeit with embouchure adjustments. Having, for example, a flat F# and sharp F natural might have been ok when playing in just intonation in the key of D (because 5/4 is 14 cents flat and 6/5 is 16 cents sharp with respect to equal temperamant), but if the instrument is truly to be called “chromatic” this is out of the question. E.g., a flat F# over any B chord, or a sharp E# over C#, C#7 or especially C#M7, would be a disaster.

A genuinely chromatic, fully keyless flute that plays in-tune and with good - or even acceptable- timbre across the scale, and can actually be managed at full tempo by normal human hands, truly is, as Mr. McGee has written, the “Philospher’s Stone of flutemaking.” I know the pursuit of it has given me many sleepless nights, and I’m sure it will continue to do so!

Jonathan Bear
Orlando, Florida, USA