I’ve had some realizations. I’ve been playing a baroque flute for awhile. David Levine recently sent me a swell Irish flute made by Bill McNaughton, with a robust sound, very good for Irish music. It is keyless except for an E flat key. I realized that I could treat it as a baroque flute.
Baroque music sounds grand on the orchestral flutes on which we play Irish music. Also it is learnable pretty readily by following videos on YouTube. One doesn’t have to read music to play Baroque music beautifully. The skills we already have transfer pretty directly. I’m learning a good deal of Bach. The e-flat key is essential, though, as it is used repeatedly in many baroque tunes.
The second realization is that on a one key flute like mine, using the cross fingering used on Baroque flutes, one has access to every note one has on a 6-keyed flute. The Cross fingered notes sometimes sound veiled, but there is a beauty in that and, in any case, they are good enough for any music, e.g. celtic, baroque, classical, blues, pop, middle eastern, Indian… They are mastered with no more practice than it takes to master the keys.
I think we sometimes underestimate the agility of the old orchestral flutes we play. People were playing Mozart on flutes like ours. And the original Baroque flutes, using cross fingers, were extraordinarily agile. They lacked power. This suggests that a one keyed Irish flute may give us virtually everything we’re after and at a much lower price.
You won’t get a very good F nat on most Irish style flutes because the hole and bore size are so much larger than a baroque instrument. Most of the other cross fingerings work.
I play Early American Music a great deal, or really play out of 18th century Publications from England and Scotland. I play this music on Irish Flutes when at Home. When doing Colonial reenactments I use period Flutes. That said once I had played Irish Flutes with their robust sound, it became hard, at least for me to go back to playing the Traverso or Baroque Flutes.
Keep in mind what I’m playing are 18th century Popular Jigs, and Reels in D and G, so no need for Cross fingering.
As an aside if you are playing Irish Music, you will be right at home playing the 18 Century stuff
I am intrigued by the Flute David Levine sent you and I’ll look the Maker up.
BTW learning this music by Ear is a nice option, keep in mind though there was a lot published 18th century Music both popular and Classical which tells us much of the Music was learned in that fashion. But learning any Music Aurally is a very nice skill to have.
‘You won’t get a very good F nat on most Irish style flutes because the hole and bore size are so much larger than a baroque instrument. Most of the other cross fingerings work.’ For me this is the most difficult note on my flute. The main problem for me is the cross fingered note is sharp. Two remedies. First, half-hole the note. This is pretty easily done, I find, and works with the practice it would take to master a key. Second, play the cross-fingered note and flatten it by rolling the flute in. This takes some practice too, but, you know, we have a fair amount of control over sharp and flat notes this way.
