Here’s an odd Embouchure on an Ebay flute:
The item is here.
Anybody seen anything like this? Any quess as to its purpose.
Byron
Nothing really odd about it. It’s a German-style flute (note the angle of the G# key) with a high-wave lip plate (probably ebonite on a nickle headjoint). I’ve got a nice 5-key in blackwood with a similar headjoint that sounds similar to my Hammy, although less loud (smaller holes). The lip plate helps to focus the airstream. I suppose the ring system for the RH1 & RH2 holes are to aid in venting.
Kevin Krell
The keywork is the old German “reform system” (I say old but it’s post-Boehm, Germans played flutes like this in orchestras until well into the middlle of the 20th century) and it looks to be in decent shape.
If I had the money free, I’d be tempted, though not so much for Irish music as for classical.
These flutes were made to the German ideal that the flute should blend into the other woodwinds and add to to totality of their sound rather than “cutting through” or “riding above” the other woodwinds. An interesting historical note is that Wagner didn’t like the Boehm flute, calling it a “sound cannon.”
–James
Here’s a link on the subject thanks to Glauber:
http://www.oldflutes.com/articles/schwedler.htm
Scroll down to “(3) Embouchure”
It was the “cusps” that made me look twice.
Thanks for the info an the links.
Byron