Anyone know anything about the flute maker Proust? I heard one last night at a session, it had an Olwell hj on it and sounded absolutely beautiful.
Arbo
Are you sure it was “Proust” (as in “The Remembrance of Things Past” and pronounced “proost”) and not “Prowse” as in Thomas or Keith? Thomas Prowse made flutes for Nicholson. I don’t know if Keith Prowse was related in any way, but the flute I just did up for iain beag is one of his. It is a stonking player, though some of the workmanship was a bit lax, as shown in my Facebook photo album of the repair job.
I asked the player and she showed my where it was stamped (though it was fairly dark). I had the same reaction as you. Go figure.
Arbo
Fair enough! I was kinda presuming on an American mis-pronunciation!
I guess you’ll have to wait until one of our Langwill holding folks hits on this, then.
Olwell head jointsfit lots of flutes and typically sound very good.
Having one around is a good idea.
A review of Christel Rice’s album “Tunnel Vision,” http://www.rambles.net/rice_tunnel03.html , says, “These days Christel and her family call Brooklyn home, and she plays a Proust wooden flute that was crafted in 1820.” You can hear a sample of her playing at her web site:
Whoa! She’s the mystery player at my session. Very cool. And yes, the flute is awesome. I actually got to give it a toot!
Arbo
Cor blimey, Jem, caught you with your breeks down! It’s “Keith-Prowse;” no such person as Keith Prowse. The Prowse part is William Prowse, apparently the maker of the flutes in question, who formed a partnership with Robert William Keith. There’s still a ticket agent, I believe, bearing the Keith-Prowse name. I also have a couple of music books labelled K-P. Cheers,
Rob
Hi Rob - well, the state of my breeks is frequently a mystery to me… 
Now, where did I leave them??? 
I bow to your better knowledge on this point - I don’t have access to the relevant reference sources and haven’t met enough flutes yet to have acquired that info as a first-hand deduction. I was just going on the stamps of the flute I have just done up for iain beag (pics in my Facebook album) which have no hyphen or other punctuation between the “Keith” and the “Prowse”, making it look like a simple fore-name/surname combo. Caught out by making simplistic assumptions in the absence of sufficient specialist knowledge, of course… Thanks for the info. Do you by any chance know when the partnership began/combined name came into use? (Would give a TPQ for iain beag’s flute.)
Have a look at the pics on the link in my previous post - there are some nice clear ones of the stamps.
I think the partnership was formed in 1830, if memory serves. They made, or at least put their name on, concertinas and other free reed instruments as well, so who knows how flute-o-centric the business actually was. The only Keith-Prowse flute I’m acquainted with in any detail has truly superlative silver-work, and a noted expert on such matters was fairly certain that the keywork was from the stables of Rudall and Rose. Darned old incestuous woodwind weirdos!
Rob
Ol’ Marcel was a flooter too? Cool.