So…
what would you call a regular simple system wooden flute, with a metal head? (other than ‘stuipid’!!)
Given that most R+R / Pratten type flutes have a silver or metal tubing inside the headjoint, we call these wooden flutes because of their wooden exterior to the head, and of course the rest of the body. But what about a wooden flute with a metal head (which in my mind is like a stripped down ‘normal’ head)? I’ve sometimes dabbled with metal heads on my wooden flutes, and I’ve always hesitated to say that it’s a ‘wooden flute’ when asked. Interesting to know your thoughts!!
Can’t find many pictures to explain - but imagine the flute in link below, but with simple system (minus typewriter keys!)
Well, these flutes are actually build.
Ireland based flutemaker Eugene Lambe makes flutes with metal heads.
He even seems to refuse sending flutes with a wooden head to the US, for fear of cracking in this different climate.
What I’ve heard and read, his flutes are much appreciated by several players.
I have a flute by Eugene myself, but it has a ‘normal’ wooden head with metal lining.
It’s a lovely flute.
The edge you blow against on a metal headjoint is… metal. Not so on a wooden headjoint.
A stripped down normal head would look like this (from Terry McGee’s website):
Drifting off topic somewhat…
Does the material used in the splitting edge matter as to tone, volume or otherwise? I’ve seen some photos of flutes with ivory or amber inserts on the edge; do these change the tone or are they just more durable than wood? I was under the impression, perhaps false, the the material in the head chamber or bore of the flute was what gave it its primary characteristics (other than the player, of course).
It certainly does, but so do a host of other small variables in the headjoint. I have a mother-of-pearl edge insert on my flute (very groovy), but I still play a wooden flute…
The edge material actually doesn’t make a difference. Its more the ideal sharpness of that edge, which can vary depending upon the other acoustical parameters of the flute. Lining that edge with something such as amber, etc. simply allows for an edge that is perhaps less vulnerable to damage than a simple wood edge. The material itself has little to do with the tone.
It is the most responsive embouchre I have played. I assume it it due to the sharpness of the edge.
I would like to try the same style cut only all boxwood and see if I could tell the difference.
I imagine its the ability to make the edge sharper than one could with wood that makes the difference.
I would like to think it has a very positive effect as I have this feature but like all things wooden flute its not very clear to me.
I suspect dimensions are more critical than material.
One flute I have has a rather crude small embouchre with little undercutting and is made of paduok which is relatively pourous wood but yet it is very bright and responsive despite going against the grain of what I think makes a responsive flute?
Could wood hold the same quality of sharpness?
I had not too long ago an ebonite flute with a cylindrical bore but simple system fingering like Calums flute though
covered fingering.
It was nice and had a sharp embouchre as well however the bore offered less resistance and felt very different.
Hard to put into words but the registration between octaves was different as well.
Edit: posted the same time as Casey but more or less the same idea.
which I have to say, is quite a groovy head to play - albeit very different from more ‘traditional’ heads.
It’s probably very subjective: I personally find that this does make a difference. However, it could be the simple fact that perhaps a silver or platinum blowing edge, is perhaps easier to be made very sharp and certainly will remain that way. Although it could be possible to make a wood blowing edge as sharp, it may round off over the years. I find a silver or platinum blowing edge, gives a bit more attack and zing - however it could be simply that all the heads I’ve tried like that had a sharper blowing edges than the wood ones.
Makes sense that the edge material doesn’t create a certain sound in and of itself, but how the material takes (and sustains) an edge must affect how the flute plays, which ultimately affects how it sounds. But that’s probably splitting hairs (or airstreams?).
There are a few makers edge offering inserts: Bigio offers gold and silver inserts on his wooden headjoints, Drelinger offers gold and platinum inserts on metal heads (he offers the rationale here: http://www.drelinger.com/product2.htm#goldairreed), and Noy offers horn, amber, and mother of pearl.
My Copley with mother-of-pearl insert is also wonderfully responsive; articulation is quicker than the wood embouchure was. With the new edge, there’s more “attack and zing,” to borrow Calum’s words.
But to try to bring this around to Calum’s original question, I certainly don’t determine what to call my flute by the material of the blow edge. A silver flute with a wooden head is usually described as such; perhaps the inverse works, too–wooden flute with silver/metal head.
Not sure that “bugs in my flutes” would be all that great a selling point but, to each his own.
Couldn’t find an image of an amber insert but here’s a view of one of Noy’s endcaps with amber…
I call it just an “old wooden flute with metal head”. To most people here the term “wooden flute” says nothing as they are used to see modern Boehm flutes (if they see any). Wooden flute for them is either a bamboo one or a whistle-like fipple flute. People don’t have an idea about what kind of flutes existed before standard metal Boehm flute appeared. Every time i have to explain that what I have is “an old pre-Boehm blackwood German flute with a metal head and it is not usual as the most of them had wooden heads” and so on. Some think it is a clarinet or was made from it.
Suppose we strip off the wood of your standard silver lined wooden headjoint, leaving only a wooden ‘lip-plate.’
Would this sound the same as the original wooden headjoint?
That is, does the wood surrounding the whole of a standard silver-lined wooden headjoint make a difference
to the sound? If so, so. If not, why are we bothering with wooden headjoints, which are more expensive
in the first place and also susceptible to cracking?
Anyhow does the wood of your standard fully-lined headjoint affect the sound?
Indeed, can we even call a fully lined headjoint a wooden headjoint?!
There are so many combinations, and everything is “okay”, every version of an idea on how to build a flute will create its own interesting sound… and we just choose what we want for ourselves. Am I off on a relativist tangent again?
I recently bought a Reform-ish Monnig flute from the early 20th century – conical simple system with many extra trill keys, and only a plated metal headjoint with a modern style lip plate. Great sounding flute! I also play on a 19th century french boehm-system metal flute by Rive that has a much smaller and more interesting sound than the modern versions, and it’s wonderful for traditional music. It can really sound like a conical wooden flute if you play it with that in mind.
Another interesting little-seen variant is the early Rudall Rose and Carte silver flute, circa 1860s, a cylinder flute with a barrel embouchure, that has wood filled in between the layers of silver, so the actual wall you’re blowing against is cocus or something. I guess you’d say that the edge is silver but the wall is wood. These headjoints have basically the same oval embouchure cut as their conical wooden flutes, and they have an enchanting sweet wooden sound that’s really unique in the world of silver flutes.
I think there are still tremendous possibilities left to be explored with combinations of new materials.
That’s an interesting notion. I assume that the density of the wood outside the tube has a big effect. See, for instance, Robert Bigio’s special crown/stopper mechanisms for Boehm flutes, which supposedly do make a difference. But how would you fashion such a lip plate? In the form of a wooden barrel embouchure? I will be showing off an interesting flute soon that has just that.
In addition to the Mancke metal headjoints with wooden lipplates, David Chu has made several like this, and they are really interesting. I know this sounds redundant, but more and more I just feel that everything is exactly what it is. A silver headjoint is not a wooden headjoint, but it offers some unique qualities, and doesn’t offer some other ones. We shouldn’t forget that all this is about making music, not about conforming to somebody else’s convention.
And to continue my ranting (with a smile) – People seem to have this notion that you can build an identical thing out of two different materials and then compare the two finished products to tell what difference it makes. I suspect that any particular change you make also changes some of the rules involved for building, and there is no such thing as a true comparison. But all of those people who loudly declare that material makes no difference in the sound of a flute can’t hear beyond the sound of their own voices. Sure it makes a difference, just not the difference you’re looking to disprove!
Jim, do you mean like the picture Lorenzo has shown?
Maybe ask Terry I’m sure he has played his different head joints back to back?
It begs the question of why after lining the tube was invented do we not see this type of headjoint until
the reform type flutes come around. Unless it was tried by English 8 key makers. I havent seen one though.
I have seen barrell headjoints on types of wood, ebonite, and ivory on boehm and boehm bore flutes though.
Not sure what the carved thinned head on my Noy accomplishes but it sure works.
