i’m considering a new purchase of a Hernon flute, there is one currently up for sale on chiff, and possibly dating from 2004/5 the seller has been very helpful with a description on its tone, I have listened to Marcus play one of his flutes, there is a video of him playing in his kitchen on his website, my question is to anyone that plays a Hernon or has played a Hernon Rudall, the sound produced by Marcus is quite jaw dropping, the reedyness of the notes and the bottom D are great, I suppose a bit similar to a Murray rudall, so anyone who can shed some info on these flutes drop me a line or PM me .
Hmmm… Well, Marcus is quite a player. He plays very hard and very focused. I found him to be soft-spoken, sincere, and very honest with his opinions, all of which qualities I respect. He also makes a very nice flute, and if I wasn’t currently awaiting delivery of a flute from another maker, I’d buy the one that’s listed right now.
One thing that I’ve learned, and it seems to bear up pretty well regardless of the player or instrument, is that any given player (assuming that he’s good enough to be consistent) is going to sound pretty much like himself regardless of the flute that he plays. With that in mind, I had an opportunity to spend some time with Marcus in 2008 at the Augusta Irish week, and he let me play his flute. He makes a fine flute. Very straight-forward. Please remember, though, that you’re going to sound like you whether you play one of his flutes or a McGee or a Burns or whoever, at least you will once the “new” wears off of the experience. Sure there will be color differences depending on hole size, embouchure cut, bore taper, etc., but once you get tuned in on a flute, all that stuff seems to fade into the background. At least it does for me.
Sorry if this isn’t helping much, but I have to call them like I see them. Marcus makes a fine flute. If that’s what you want, and if you stick with that flute and really get to know it, then it will do wonderful things for you.
thankyou for the response, I understand that you will sound like you on what ever flute you play, if your playing style is consistent, my reason for asking was that some flutes are more capable of the tone that Marcus produces, I would say that some flutes cannot create a raspy/reedy sound, or they can but not in the same league as the Hernon, I suppose you get what you pay for,
Marcus looks to have a very focused embouchure when he plays, and I am in no doubt he sound amazing on anything he plays, but as you said the variation in tone probably won’t be apparent to the listener, unless he played different flutes back to back as a comparison.
One thing Marcus did say was that he used to play a Hamilton 6 key, but so many people told him that he wasn’t being the best advertisement for his own flutes that he now plays his own flutes exclusively. I take this to mean that he got the sound he wanted out of a Hamilton or his own flute. Thus I tend to agree with Dow, that Marcus would sound like himself on any flute.
And sure enough, he definitely uses a “tight” embouchure, with the corners pulled back, firm lips, and likes the feeling of high resistance. What’s eye-opening to me is to see that he can keep it up for 4 hours at a session.