Rick Wilson has made some facsimiles of 19C music available at:
http://www.oldflutes.com/facsimiles.
In particular, Number 1 of Nicholson’s Preceptive Lessons for the Flute (1821) may be downloaded as a PDF file. Nicholson was regarded as the finest player of the period. It was he who pioneered the large hole flutes most commonly sought after by Irish musicians these days.
Terry
Tery McGee said:
Nicholson was regarded as the finest player of the period. It was he who pioneered the large hole flutes most commonly sought after by Irish musicians these days.
I’ve heard this a few times but need to ask WHY is the large hole flute so sought after today? Is it the large sound? Carry? Low D? Terry or anyone else know why this is so?
BillG
I think this takes us back to the early days of the wooden flute revival. Certainly, back in the seventies when I was hanging out in London with the likes of dealer Paul Davis, we were aware of two kinds of flutes - large hole and small holed - by which we generally meant English and German. Probably because most of the flutes we saw were well worn and poorly maintained, it was easy to write off the smaller holed (mostly German) flutes as completely useless for Irish music, despite the clear fact that many of the old-time players were playing German flutes! Those that could afford better though were buying large-holed English flutes that Paul would acquire from the Rag’n’bone men coming into Portobello Rd, and do up. A Rudall Rose would set you back 100 pounds, a less illustrious brand would cost about 65 pound. Paul exercised some discretion over who would get a good Rudall; he was very down on people from the English upper classes, and American tourists, and would sell them poor flutes at inflated prices. On the positive side, he would reduce the cost of a good flute going to a poor Irish family.
Clearly I also have to admit to being affected by the presumption that large holes good, small holes bad, which you can detect in the introduction to my article on the collaboration with Grey Larsen.
http://www.mcgee-flutes.com/Grey.htm
I think had we seen more French and French-inspired flutes in good condition, we might have formed a broader view. I do remember being strongly of the view that a small holed flute was a better starting point for most players than a large holed flute, although this again has to be seen in the light of worn and poorly maintained instruments. Many of my modern customers have no trouble starting on a Prattens, where I struggled and gave up on my poor worn old Prattens original, returning to it only many years later.
I think these days, when new well-made flutes abound, we can turn our back on earlier simplistic views. Even hardened died-in-the-wool Pratten’s and large-holed Rudall players have expressed genuine surprise and pleasure about the playing characteristics of the Grey Larsen Preferred. And even I am impressed by an old German flute that I’ve just put a new head on for an English customer - it really sounds solid and sonorous.
If only flutes like these had been available when I started out!
Terry
Thanks Terry,
I downloaded the full Dressler pdf. I was interested to read the bottom of page 9 (of the pdf) or “Art 7” of the original document. This paragraph describes how to put the flute together with the embouchure hole rolled inwards as per a recent discussion on this forum.
I recently purchased a copy of the Caledonian Pocket Companion Vol. 1 (Books 1-6 – books 7-12 on their way!), and a few other interesting Oswald and 19th century collections on CD-ROM from ebay. The discs aren’t posted all the time, you just have to search. John Purser wrote in article in “Flute Focus” recently about this work, and I was surprised to find so many collections available. They’re scanning original copies and organising them on CD along with clean PDF scores of all the tunes and text. I haven’t had a chance to look at them a lot yet, but the CPC is definitely exciting music!
Are these CD-ROM collections expensive?
One can buy a photocopy of original printed edition from the Scottich Music Centre (link) for £38.60 (US$ 69.22).
They say books 7-12 of the Caledonian pocket Companion are still under copyright at the Wighton Collection in Dundee. Here is an index of all 12 books.
They also stock a photocopy of Daniel Dow, Collection of Ancient Scots Music for the (Violin), Harpsichord or German Flute, for £15.80 (US$ 28.33).
I hope to have an abc-collection of Oswald’s Collection of Curious Scots Tunes Volume 1 out very soon now. They overlap to a great extent with the Caledonian Pocket Companion, but have a smaller number of tunes.
~Hans
Not much actually. I think I got the CPC for 16 pounds sterling. I also got Vol 1 and 2 of Oswalds Curious tunes and “A Complete Tutor for the German Flute” from 1824 if I remember right, each for less than the CPC.
I saw that printed copy you mentioned online and the copyright on books 7-12. The last communication I had with the ebay seller was that he and John Purser had just (as in that day) received permission to scan books 7-12 and release an album similar to the copy of books 1-6. If so, it could be ready in a few months.
I’m all for releasing material in the public domain as well though! Good on ya for putting together an ABC release.
Hi,
I see there has been some mention of my CD ROMs. You may be interested to know that I currently have 6 of them listed on Ebay - follow this link:
http://search.ebay.co.uk/_W0QQfgtpZ1QQfrppZ25QQsassZnicktherecorder
The listings carry full details of the CD ROMs, which contain high resolution colour images of the original publications (a lot better than photocopies!). They are as cheap as I can possibly make them, considering the time taken to produce them.
The Caledonian Pocket Companion, vol 1 (Books 1-6) CD ROM was produced in conjunction with Dr John Purser and also contains modern computer set version, as well as images of the original books - you will not be disappointed! It can also be purchased on the “Scots Kist” website - see:
http://www.scotskist.com/CPC.htm
I can send sample pages by email, if required.
Best regards,
Nick.