If I recall correctly, those flutes were a mix of fully keyed and baroque flutes. They were designed to play in all keys. It should be a real blast, the poor man’s flute of the day they relied on skill not clockwork.
D# I use in the Moreen (the Ministerial Boy) I play it on the some of the Ds. But I do not play that tune on a flute, but a fife.
I must add, half holing is something those fipple flute people on the other forum seem to do well, but cross fingering can be useful as well.
Hi - First post; sorry to ressurect an old thread but probably appropriate because I have an identical flute.
This one came to us thru the husband of my father-in-law’s aunt, along with the story that it was used in “Civil War maneuvers” by the husbands grandfather when he was 15. All involved long deceased, this has been packed away and just came to light.
I’ve been doing the genealogy and the ages don’t quite add up, plus I know this is hardly a typical Civil War instrument. Haven’t found records of the grandfather yet but surprisingly, there IS a Civil War soldier with this surname, and he was a musician in the infantry of the state these people were from. So my spider sense is tingling… there’s a story here.
The 1850 call makes this at least possible. While I would assume the usual CW musician would be playing a one-piece fife, were flutes like this in use in military bands, etc? Any comments on this story welcome.
MNMiker
Confirmation - I’ve now found records showing his grandfather is the same guy as the musician in the Wisconsin Infantry.
So the question becomes, did he use this flute in the Civil War itself, or perhaps own it later on?
MNMiker
Here’s a southern stringband Civil War photo with what looks like a one keyed flute:
https://plus.google.com/100854682319124089714/posts/RiUwohbakTr
The flute that began this thread almost certainly is a late model one-key instrument. It presumably cross-fingers reasonably well, because there would be little point fitting an E-flat key if you can’t get a decent F, B-flat and A-flat. That is certainly the case with a 19th-century one-keyer that I have.
But there is a remote possibility that the flute was an early attempt at a baroque flute reproduction, for use in performances of Bach etc. The first people to produce “replicas” of old instruments were often more concerned with the visuals than subtleties of construction. My first “renaissance flute”, purchased new in 1985, was a Moeck instrument that could have seen service as a baseball bat. Only later did Moeck, following the example of specialist makers who had properly measured the surviving specimens, start to emulate the light and elegant originals, with their deceptively complex bore profiles. I imagine that the same was the case with early “baroque” repros.
I’m leaning toward the idea that this flute belonged to our Civil War musician, but was owned by him later in life; i.e. it’s unlikely he actually used it during the war. He was assigned to a specific company and AFAIK not part of a military band, so most likely he was a fifer.