I have this neat flute and I am trying to find out what the heck it’s worth, and perhaps if anyone else has one. I am curious as to how rare these are, I have yet to see another one in person.
Interesting. it looks to be end blown.
What an intersting flute! It does look endblown - can you get more pictures of the mouthpiece area? Is there another hole on the very end or do you actually blow across the one hole we can see in the pictures?
Eric
Although I saw these pictures before I didn’t see them this clearly. I’d say it’s an oboe or instrument in the oboe family, rather than a flute.
You sure, Brad? It really does look like some sort of end blown embouchure hole and plate design. I have never seen anything like this. You might have a honest to goodness rarity here!
Zac
Actually you’re right, my mistake! A Google search for “Georgi Flute” turned up this page:
This is an end blow flute, as I said, it’s a patent flute by C.T. Giorgi, and back in the day his flutes were apparently quite popular, just very few in existance it seems. The ebouchure on the flute is made so it play vertical, making it more of an end blown flute. Because of this there is less strain on the shoulder’s and back.
I still wonder what this one is worth. The only one I know of aside from mine is in the Dayton C. Miller collection.
I’d love to study the headjoint a bit, very interesting.
I can almost see an end to my tendonitis…
Anyway, how does it play and sound?
Asside from the unusual fingering, the flute actually sounds really nice, and the octave is very easy to control. It’s a D flute, and I would have to say it takes about the same amount of air as your average Irish flute, once you get used to it. Tonally I thinks its a bit more lively, more responsive…not as closed as one might think.
In a way, this makes sense, as the air column isn’t interrupted along it’s vibrational path by the embouchure hole (and subsequent blowing) the way a transverse flute is.
There are, of course the modern, and now discontinued I believe, vertical headjoints for boehm flutes, but I’ve not run across a flute like yours. Very cool.
Loren
In the link Brad provided it says these were often made of ebonite. This one above doesn’t have that greenish brown, ebonite color (or at least it doesn’t appear so in the photo). Is it wood? Is ebonite still manufactured?
Yes, ebonite is still made, mostly for electrical insulators. Rmember the cat’s fur and ebonite rod experiment at school?
I’ve done one head in it (to match an old flute). It’s pretty disgusting to work. All the inconvenience of delrin (long streamers wrapping themselves around the spinning flute), plus quite abrasive (so your tools blunt very quickly) and it makes the workshop smell like a car-tyre factory. Also hard to sand and polish, but it will take a good polish eventually.
Ebonite turns greeny brown, but possibly only in the presence of light. So ones hanging in museums go off, but ones kept in their box possibly don’t.
There’s one at the Bate collection in Oxford too.
I’ve put the patent up at:
http://www.mcgee-flutes.com/Giorgi-flute-patent.htm
You’ll see a useful cutaway drawing of the head.
Terry
Regarding your question about the flute’s value, I recall seeing a similar Wallis-made Giorgi flute on ebay a few years ago sell in the $500. range. They’re interesting flutes from a novelty standpoint, but there are some significant adjustments in technique for the simple-system flute player (two thumb holes to manage, etc) so there aren’t many out there who are interesting in trying to play them. I’ve heard Rick Wilson (author of the oldflutes.com website) play his Giorgi (which is also an ebonite Wallis) quite successfully. Rick’s got amazing facility on a myriad of different flute systems. He’s also an advanced math professor, which must help!
I’ve heard and played some ebonite flutes. They seem
to sound very good, better than I expected.
As to this vertical flute, I find that my finger position is
better on a transverse flute than on a low D whistle.
So one wonders whether this beastie can be fingered
without piper’s grip on the rt hand.
If it can, I wonder if something can be made like this
with standard simple system fingering?
Because, if the answers are Yes to both, perhaps this
sort of thing would find a market–no need to make
it of ebonite, of course.