I’ve been playing the whistle for a couple of years and have just taken the plunge into flutes. I have just bought the flute shown in the picture at this site. What can you tell me about it? Does it play well? Is it suitable for a newbie?
Frank
http://didymus.envy.nu/index.html
[ This Message was edited by: didymus on 2003-02-08 01:09 ]
I can’t tell you anything about this particular rennaisance flute, but I can tell you some things about ren flutes in general…
If you want to play pre-baroque music they are a reasonable choice, but they are not the easiest flutes to play. The embouchure hole tends to be very small, requiring a well-focused airstream, which is not always the easiest thing for a beginner to do. The ren flutes are cyllindrical, making them considerably more difficult to play in tune than either a modern flute, or a conical baroque, or conical Irish flute. It can be done, but requires skills that are not the first thing a beginner learns.
It really depends on what style of music you want to play, but there are easier flutes to start on as a beginner.
Moeck is a qood quality recorder maker, to this flute is probably good quality also.
I agree; Ren flutes are a wholly different animal than what is most often discussed here. The embouchure is, as said above, more difficult, and the fingerings are different as well. Intonation and evenness of tone volumes are varied, which an accomplished Ren-flute player will overcome to a great degree, but they are willingly subjecting themselves to an early flute for specific music written for this flute. Music written any later – into the 17th century – is often too evolved for it already and simply becomes harder and harder to accomplish well.
Hmmm,
Sounds like this may not be the best flute to cut my baby teeth on. Oh well, I’ll give it a try (not expecting too much, so I won’t be dissapointed) and if I can’t get much out of it I can always resell it. Thanks all.
Frank