Here’s my latest antique Boehm Flute, it is an Eb made of Ebonite and also has the open G# key.
The flute is stamped Besson and Co., Makers, 198 Euston Road, London with the name PELORA and numbered 819. It is from the period 1869—1919, probably made very early in the beginning of the 20th. century.
Here is a picture with the Pedler on the left and Besson on the right:
Today the name Besson is a trademark of Boosey and Hawkes and used mainly for brass band instruments. Back in the late 1800’s, Besson was an independent company, originating in France 1837 and then establishing itself in London in 1850. I’ve read the original Pratten’s Perfected 8-key flute was made by Besson.
Picture of the different Bb-thumbkeys (again Pedler left & Besson right):
Between these two Bb thumbkey arrangements I prefer the Pedler’s which defaults to Bnat (the Besson’s defaults to Bb).
I am enjoying the bright vibrant tone of the Besson flute very much. Plus I am playing the Besson several times a day, due to the fact that I can leave the flute out assembled and ready to play (thanks to the Ebonite construction).
What a funny thing to say. The Besson does not default the Bb. The ‘natural’ position for the thumb is on the B key, not on the Bb key. Any Boehm player can tell you that a Bb played with the thumb is an alternative for the normal fingering, which is B + right index finger. At least, that’s how I learned it.
Mmm. Some interesting statements here altogether! I agree that neither thumb-key arrangement “defaults” to anything. You just get the note the mechanism in question gives according to where you chose to put your thumb! Both positions are equally accessible. On either design, when playing notes from B down-scale you rest your thumb on the B key and rock it over to or place it on the Bb key as needed. One would quickly become familiar with either arrangement shifting from the other.
The Pedler (unusual!) has the more logical arrangement which I’m sure Bohm himself would have preferred to the normal Briccialdi arrangement on the Besson, although it wasn’t his own preferred design. It certainly makes more sense for the B fingering to be the up-tube one and the Bb the down-tube one (Briccialdi’s is the opposite, yet has become the standard modern mechanism). It has always puzzled me why the mechanically perfectly simple and satisfactory arrangement on the Pedler didn’t achieve preference over the Briccialdi. That said, Carte’s arrangement as seen on his 1851 and 1867 systems plus on the Radcliff is even better!
As for this “the normal (Bb) fingering, which is B + right index finger” - I never had any advanced level Bohm training, but I know for sure that beginners in GB pretty universally learn the thumb-key fingering as primary with the forked fingering using B + R1 taught as an alternative for contexts where using the thumb key is awkward. This can be seen in most Bohm flute primers. This would be rather odd if there was an expectation of un-learning/swapping this prioritisation at a more advanced level.
OK, I didn’t give the full fingering (i.e. didn’t mention the L1 and R4), but you wouldn’t have the thumb on Bb as well as the R1 on! You use the R1 for Bb with the thumb on Bnat! Like I said, I don’t know what current orthodoxy on Bb fingering usage is among top pros in Britain or Europe.
This is interesting - I’ve just been doing some checking. I have two primers here - one by Arthur Hart which gives the L1, T on B, R1, Eb, first but gives the L1, T on Bb, Eb, a page and a half later with the comment that you can usually keep the thumb on Bb in flat key signatures and need only use the R1 forked fingering when A#/Bb and B nat occur close together. Herfurth’s Tune a Day gives the forked fingering first and makes little mention of the thumb Bb save as an alternative - in line with what you’re all saying. Alright, it was a loooong time ago and my teacher was a student himself and used the Hart book (didn’t like Herfurth!), but I’m pretty sure we went straight to thumb Bb as primary, though there are pencil notes in Hart saying “practice both fingerings”!
I’ve also looked at Langey, whose charts for standard Bohm system (with Briccialdi thumb mechanism) don’t even give the forked Bb, just the thumb key - and his was a very influential book until well into the 1970s!
Against his schema of the flute Rockstro comments thus on the Bb lever: " the Briccialdi Bb lever… as a rule this lever is used constantly instead of the lever marked 3 (the B key) in keys with Bb." However, in his actual fingering chart he gives the forked fingering as I and the thumb-key as II, with this comment on I: “The original fingering (i.e. on Bohm’s system without the Briccialdi levers). It is seldom used, excepting when next to b’ or f’‘’'#.” He then goes on to say that the Bb thumb lever should not be used for those same notes.
Looks like it’s a fashion thing! Certainly it would seem to me at best obtuse to insist on using the forked fingering and eschewing the thumb fingering when very frequently the thumb key gives greater facility - but of course one would expect a thorough, high level student to work at both equally and to be able to interchange at will.
Nice ebonite flute Sillydill. I gather Boosey & Hawkes also had a large tone hole ebonite flute design later than yours - maybe around the Rockstro era? They aren’t as common, but they are well respected flutes with a great reedy low tone.
Is there a geographical or specific flute maker variation for the B/Bb venting? I wonder why the Rudall Carte arrangement is better; for example - the 1867 B/Bb venting system is achieved by keeping a finger in the middle of the two thumb keys - not any easier to trill between B & Bb compared to the traditional Boehm placement. Plus the Rudall Carte 1867 has a different fingering for Cnatural and the Csharp across the octaves. Is this related to the B/Bb venting? I don’t know. Maybe the combination of ‘reversed’ Bb/B keys (another Boehm I use has this ‘reversal’; an open Gsharp and the different fingerings for Cnatural/sharp - these idiosyncrasies within the Boehm design make it far more intuitive to switch over to the simple system flute
As for this “the normal (Bb) fingering, which is B + right index finger” - I never had any advanced level Bohm training, but I know for sure that beginners in GB pretty universally learn the thumb-key fingering as primary with the forked fingering using B + R1 taught as an alternative for contexts where using the thumb key is awkward.
That’s right in mainstream ABRSM. Trill keys and Bb lever (even split E mechanism) tend to be left later, and for specific phrases in pieces. For example - Bb to F sharp trills. It is very difficult to do with the beginner’s fingering of B+R1 without accidentally sounding the note G in between the Bb-G-Fsharp trill.
Maybe the forked fingering is more intuitive for those coming from recorders and learning flutes? In any case, learning how to use all the fingered toneholes, before the levers is standard practice these days. My last flute tutor didn’t know how to use the gizmo key because it wasn’t invented lol. He thought I made it up the term.
I think that the T Bb is just insurance. And the ones that say leave it are correct fingering fanatics.
Personally. I never use L1 and F# is OOO OXO. I started on tenor and had been at it for a decade when I got the 1st flute. I was havin’ enough fun tryin’ ta get flute like sounds, all notes had issues…meh It was far enough down queue that it fell off before we’s got to it.
??? But you have to put L1 down for C nat and everything below!!!
Bohm fingering
C nat = x_oo ooo,
B = xToo ooo, (T = Bnat thumb-lever)
Bb = xTboo ooo, OR xToo xoo, (Tb = Bb thumb-lever)
etc.
Yeah, that xxx oxo F# is very tempting - and necessary for some ornaments and fast passing-notes with Es, but it is noticeably weaker and flatter when directly compared to the “correct” Bohm F# fingered xxx oox,. I believe the venting on a sax is different/better for the R2 F#.
According to the “Altès, célèbre méthode complète de flûte” and to “Taffanel & Gaubert, méthode complète de flûte”, the main fingering (the first to be taught) for Bb is L1 T R1 R4, with T meaning that the thumb is only on the Bnat thumb key. That’s what I was taught by different (classical) teachers. The fingering to go from B to Bb, or Bb to B, is thus more precise, and easier, when actioning the L1 finger key than sliding the thumb from B to Bb key and vice versa. But you can do that at your own risks ! I see another disadvantage to keeping the thumb by default on the Bb thumb key in the impossibility to produce a correct F# on the third octave, except if you don’t forget to release the Bb thumb key. I think the Bb thumb lever has to be used only when necessary that is when there are long passages with all B’s flat in the music, or “traits de virtuosité” (sorry, don’t know how to say that in english).
Didier
