Hello,
I want to learn the peice “Chopin Nocturne opus 9 no2” on my 8 key flute in D. The piece is written in the key of Eb. Is it worth my while to play in this key or is it more wise to transpose to a more agreeable key, like D? Would musician of the period have flutes in different keys or were they expected to play anything on one flute? The Boehm system flute is not difficult to play in keys other than D, but I find it much more challenging with a simple system flute.
Thanks for any input.
I don’t know the piece but I believe before Bohem the simple system flutes had an assortment of different bodies that they could swap depending on the key. Not sure how accurate these would have been. Personally If I can’t play it in D or G on my keyless D, I don’t play it. I’m sure the more classical fluter’s will be able to give you better advice .
The “old days” guys could play everything on those old simple-system flutes. One of my friends, Wendell Dobbs, is quite good at playing everything on a simple-system flute.
Check this out.
He has a lot more “out there”…
Pat
Think you’re thinking of corps de rechange (for adjusting to different pitches, rather than key, on baroque flutes). But, yes, they created new problems in solving others. And baroque, classical and romantic flautists were still basically expected to cope with any key on the standard flutes of the day. Not that Chopin’s going to mind if the OP prefers to transpose while transcribing for flute!
I attended to a workshop with Niall Keegan once.
He told us that we should to play in any key using a 8 keyed flute in D, including tunes in Eb. One of the exercises he use to suggest is to play a reel in D and then try to play it in all the keys (Eb, E, G, A, etc) as the best way to learn the keys in a keyed instruments. He did it with the famous reel “The Green Mountain”. Of course it´s a tricky exercise considering how difficult is to play ornaments if you are playing in a key different that the modes of the D scale, but it is possible. In classical music you don´t have to play rols so may be playing the Chopin piece in Eb could be a bit easier than some reels! 
Niall told us a very funny sentence about all this matter: “The Eb flute is the dark side, use the keyed D flute to play in Eb”
I remember too that Kevin Crawford use to play D reels in the key of A to work out tha G# key, as a training.
Regards,
S.
I’ve read (perhaps on http://www.oldflutes.com ?) that Eb was a preferred key for players of English simple system flutes back in the day. Give it a go!
I was afraid this is what I was going to hear. I am going to suck it up and try to play it in Eb. Im sure it will be very beneficial to use the keys more.
Thank you all for the suggestions!
I play things in Eflat or Aflat on the one-key flute. Think of it as a fun challenge or learning a new skill. It really is fun once you’ve got the hang of it. Take it a little bit at a time and you’ll be rewarded.
This piece? (cf the IMSLP page for Chopin’s Op.9)
I just sort-of read through it on my R&R. No major difficulties. Just minor ones like reading unfamiliar things like double flats and remembering to play Abs! It actually seems to fall under the fingers pretty comfortably - no real fingering nasties. There is one low Cb (=low Bnat) near the end (6th bar on p5) which you can’t play unless you have a B foot (take that whole little phrase up an 8ve, I’d suggest).
Good exercise, and played well could sound rather lovely on flute. Probably worth finding and playing along to a good piano performance to get good phrasing and dynamics.
Like chas says, take it slow. There are a number of approaches to gaining fluency with the keys (see http://mcgee-flutes.com/Learning-the-keys.htm).
Playing a fluent chromatic scale is a good starting point. And spending a bit of time on scales in various keys (Eb would merit particular attention in your case) will help get the key(s) under your fingers. If you want to get more formal, quite a few of the 19th century etude studies were originally written with the simple system flute in mind and have since been appropriated for the use/torture of classical Boehm flute players.
I did the whole formal study of all 12 keys back in my Boehm flute days and have not felt inclined to repeat it on the wooden flute (since that’s part of what the wooden flute/Irish music allowed me to get away from), but the informal approach of playing music in various keys has allowed me to develop reasonable fluency in keys with up to three or four sharps or flats, depending on the complexity of the piece. (I don’t play classical music any more, by the way.)
Strange coincidence.
I have been listening to a box/dobro duet of this piece from Frankie Lane 's Dobro.
I was thinking it would be nice on flute.
All great advise, thanks.
Part of my problem is that I cant read music. I can pick up a reel or jig pretty fast, but classic stuff is a bit more complex.
Its funny, I learned all the scales forward and back on the Boehm but never bothered with it on my simple system.
This piece sounds really good on flute. I also heard it on guitar and it was very nice.