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My Flutes

 

Beukers.

Original Willem Beukers flute

and a copy

I think that Willem Beukers made this flute around 1730. It has three left hand pieces. One of those plays at 415 Hz. This flute is in boxwood with Ivory rings. Locatelli owned a Beukers flute with ten (!)  parts and two "aanvoegstukjes" (I do not have a clue what they were, feet?, feet extensions?) as can be seen in the account of his estate when he died.  To describe the playing qualities of the Beukers copy in words of course is difficult because different players will experience the flute differently. There are three characteristics.

     -it plays so easily 
     -it is very well tuned
     -it carries so well in churches and concert halls.

It also has a great dynamic flexibility! An example of the excellent tuning is the fact that f and f# in the second octave give exactly pure thirds on d, without compensation. Also the flat keys are excellent. At the page 'reactions of players' many testimonials for these qualities can be found. The Beukers (my copy)is also a favorite of Masahiro Arita, the famous Japanese musician.  Many other well known musicians use it as there primary instrument. Practically every baroque flute player likes the Beukers!

 

Tassi.

There now is a 415 Tassi that, apart from being easy and flexible in the third octave as the original at 400 also has excellent intonation in the third octave. It has this remarkable f3 and a3 that both can be played without any effort at all. It also has a very resonant low end, d1, e1 and (!) f1. But this is clearly a flute for second half eighteenth century music.

original Tassi

♫1,♫2 Blavet: Jed+Marion, 2* Tassi 400!!

From the cd:

 The Tassi is a Jed Wentz favorite. The original is 400 Hz for Jed . I have made a copy for him. The original is in the Utrecht collection as well. I had skipped it, although I know the collection well, because it is 400 Hz and needs to be played a while before it really goes. Then Jed played it for me. He was right. This is a very special instrument. This flute is easy from the d1 (also f3) to the a3 (which can be blown with a whisper!!!).  I have developed a 392 version by recalculating the whole instrument. I think that that is better than to try to change the pitch by recalculating only a middle piece. The 392 flute plays as well as the 400. Also for this flute please have a look at the players testimonials!



Nowhere the flute maker Mr. Tassi can be found. There are four marks on the flute, not as legible as one would wish. I have my fantasy on Mr. Tassi.

Wijne.

There are some six originals of flutes of Robbert Wijne in Holland. Three of those I have measured. I am making a copy of the Utrecht instrument.  This is a later flute, maybe 1755. It is an instrument with a very singing quality.

Copy left and original right.

Personally I am very fond of this flute.The flute has a bit more reedy character than the Beukers without being pinched in any way. It has a very small mouth hole and carries extremely well. It even has a really big sound when played well. The last but importantremark I would like to make on the Wijne is the following. Practically everybody likes the Beukers and the Tassi, however the Wijne gets two distinct reactions some players simply do not like it, others immediately and also after owning it a long time are in love with this flute and usually say 'I play almost everything on it'. Again, please look at the players testimonials!

Kirst 440/430

This is a powerful, very open and dynamically flexible instrument. The original also has 440 and 430 joints. It is a classical flute, probably around 1780. It is very flexible dynamically and has a great third octave. Playing Mozart on it immediately shows where it belongs.

I have worked on the intonation because these Kirst flutes though beautiful in many ways are not optimal with respect to intonation. The intonation of my copies is quite good.



Original Kirst

Meticulous Haka copy.

The Haka is one of the only two extant second half seventeenth century traverso flutes. It is slightly connical, from 19.1 to 16.5 mm. It has a very small key. It is played mostly wit renaissance fingering. In d it is about 372 Hz for me!!! This is one whole step below 417.5 which makes it a flute in c. In b it would be slightly above 440 for me. So transposing it is usable as well. The e-flat1 (as a d flute) still is useless, but the e-flat 2 is very good. The flute is in the same Utrecht collection where also the other flutes I am copying are found. This is a flute for specialists of course.

I have made a prototype Haka copy and Kate Clark compared it to the original for me. Her verdict was that it is very very close to the original. I have made my first real one now and it is nicer then the prototype. In this case I will only copy it very precisely and not change intonation or anything else as I normally do.

Acknowledgements.

I am very grateful for Frederique Chauvet's help in developing my different models, and specially the Beukers. Without her absolutely encouraging criticism it may all have been different.

Further I am grateful for the comments every now and then made by Jed Wentz, Marion Moonen, and Kate Clark.

I am also very pleased that Suzanne Wendler is checking most of my flutes as what I often call 'quality control'.