Hi, I was wondering where can I read more about the flute models which today’s flutes for playing Irish music are based upon? I know that Terry McGee has a lot of information on his website. Does anyone know of any other resources?
Most Irish flute makers base their flutes on Rudalls, Pratten-endorsed Boosey, Prowse, other London makers and occasionally Firth etc. (made in America) flutes from the mid 19th century. A few like myself, Skip Healy and others use these as a starting point and iteratively have developed our own acoustical designs. Baroque flute makers tend to have a wider selection of historical types to draw from.
Hammy Hamilton’s book has a lot of great insight into not only the history of the flutes most commonly used as models for modern flute-making, but also how today’s flutes are actually made. Plus, some really gorgeous pictures of various historical flutes.
http://www.hamiltonflutes.com/The_Irish_Flute_Players_Handbook.html
Terry McGee’s site (here) is a great source for almost all things “flutey”, too!
Pat
Welcome to Chiff and Fipple, xsdi. [Edit: Oh, I noticed you joined C&F a while ago, but this is your first post. Well, welcome out from the shadows.]
Robert Bigio has published a book on the Rudall, Rose and Carte Co.. I haven’t read it myself, but a description of it on Robert Bigio’s webpage can be found at the following link: http://www.bigio.com/rudallrosecarte.htm
Other than that, like Casey said, a lot of flute makers have also been innovators. I would recommend reading the interviews at http://www.irishfluteguide.info; there are a few interviews of flute-makers as well as flute-players. You will note that they are a little dated, but they are good reading.
Here are direct links to the interviews with flute-makers:
Patrick Olwell: http://www.irishfluteguide.info/patrick-olwell-interview/
Tom Aebi: http://www.irishfluteguide.info/interview-with-tom-aebi/
Hammy Hamilton: http://www.irishfluteguide.info/hammy-hamilton-interview/