I really don’t participate here much anymore, but I lurk occasionally. Recently there was a thread about F flutes and I almost jumped in to mention my Copley F flute, but I decided instead to devote a new thread to it, because it deserves it.
I bought this F flute from Dave early last Fall, while in Ohio for a show (selling jewelry). I went to Dave and Marlene’s house for dinner and, as always, had a seriously great evening. The food and conversation were delightful, and I even had a yarn-spinning lesson!
Of course there was flute time, during which Dave and I played flutes – some of them his personal flutes and some promised to others already. I think I caught Dave a bit off-guard when I asked, or, rather, begged, him to sell me his F flute. See, I hadn’t been buying flutes in the last few years, the flute bug all but completely replaced by the knitting bug (laugh all you want, I love my yarn), but this F flute really called to me.
The last year brought about many changes for my family. Dan, the kids and I are now comfortably settled in our new house in Woodstock. I came here to sell off most of my remaining instruments in order to raise money for the new house, but I didn’t even consider putting up the Copley F flute. I sold, with some trepidation, my Hammy F flute, which was also delightful, because I knew I still had this one.
I have written a lot of prose about a lot of instruments over the years. I have made a lot of proclamations. I am about to make another one.
It occurred to me today, while playing my Copley F flute in our new house with a high ceiling and pleasing acoustics, that this flute has become my favorite musical instrument. It’s not a matter of it being the new, shiny one, because I’ve had it almost a year. It’s become THE ONE, though, through time and playing. I have built a relationship with it that surpasses my relationships with other instruments. I will always love my (beloved) Abell d whistle, but I love this F flute, too, and it is the one that commands my attention and affection these days, the one I reach for when I want to play music.
I don’t have the time or energy right now to write about the flute’s acoustical properties; you can bet they are wonderful. I just want to share with you my love of it. I don’t know if Dave takes orders for these, but if he does, anyone who orders one is in for a real treat.
Yes, I know what you mean about finding “the instrument”. Mine happens to be a cheap ‘Supertone’ archtop guitar, made in one of the Chicago factories around 1935. It doesn’t get so much as a second glance from anyone else, but it’s magic to me. I continue to buy, sell and trade high-end instruments of all types — guitars, banjos, fiddles, mandolins, flutes — but this is the forever one.
! Sorry David, but hopefully soon. Things are looking a bit brighter on the economic front, thank heavens, but I still have some catching up to do before I can indulge in instruments again.