Marsh Fritillaries and a little bit about Monzani...

Well, I did say at the outset that I would post occasionally about some of my other interests, which all basically fall under the umbrella of natural history ( well, most of them, anyway) so here goes.

I do some volunteer work for the Irish National Biodiversity Data Centre, which basically involves monitoring the numbers of butterflies in my area.
The idea is that volunteers all over the country count the numbers of butterflies which they observe on a predetermined walk, or transect, which ideally is done once a week from the beginning of April to the end of September. Data is sent to the INBDC and it allows scientists there to get some idea of which species are thriving, dying out and arriving (we have several new species in the last few years, most probably due to global warming)
Mostly it's a lonely pursuit, but occasionally we get together for outings, and a few Saturdays ago a group visited Barley Cove to observe the colony of Marsh Fritillaries there. This is one of Ireland's rarer butterflies, and the only one protected by law.
Here's a couple of pics that I took on the day, which happened to be in the middle of one the best spells of weather we've had in several years.

This is a female, which is larger and more brightly coloured than the male.

I liked this shot, the way the light is coming through the wings.

As you can see the camera is up and working again. The problem, if it should ever happen to any of my readers, was an inappropriate focus selection, which was preventing the automatic focus and hence the shutter wouldn't work.

Now that I seem to have that sorted, for indoor close up work as well ( see the flute pics on the last post) I'll hopefully get around to posting about the Monzani flutes that I promised so long ago.

The restoration of the second one, which was delayed for so long by the lack of suitable axle pins, I have almost ready. The pins, which were typical of the period, have heads like sewing pins on them, rather than the wire simply being turned back on itself to form a head as was standard throughout most of the 19thc. The originals appear to have had the little domed head made separately and attached in some way, but I've been working on a method of making the head integral with the shaft. 

All will be revealed.

BTW find out more about Irish biodiversity here, and see more about the particular scheme that I volunteer for on their facebook page.

The Heaviest Flute Ever Made?

Thought I'd post about this very unusual flute that Mark Redmond very kindly lent me. We tend to think of the flute as being a northern European instrument, with all the major makers being English, or if not that French or German. There is a particular school of flute making though, in southern Europe, which I believe originiated in Vienna, but the Italian instruments that I've seen are of this type only more so!
It's by E. Forni of Milan, and according to Langwill:

Forni WWI fl Quarna second quarter 19c-third quarter 19c.
Workshop established by Giacinto ( b 1790; d 1873) and his two sons Primo Egidio ( b 1812; d 1866) and Secondo Egidio (b1815); the first WI makers in this locality; they were later taken over by RAMPONE

The names of the sons makes you think, there was a certain lack of imagination there, but it certainly doesn't come across in the flute. Rampone, btw, is by far the commonest Italian maker that one comes across.

Although still basically a simple system flute it's taken almost to the extreme in terms of add-ons. There are 14 keys, and the foot goes down to A. There are double touches for Bb and Eb, and two keys for G#. The flute is blackwood and the keys silver, but unusually the block liners are nickel silver, which accounts for the verdigris that you see in the pics.
The device on the head, is a tuning slide adjuster, which may, or may not be a later addition:-

As is usual with this type of the flute, the lower body and foot are combined, but with the foot descending to A this makes for massive piece of wood and silver.
Playing the low A requires the little finger of the right hand to close three keys, and that of the left two.

Some of the double touches are unusual. The one for the Bb is very standard, but why go to such bother to do this one for the Eb

It's operated by the left thumb, by the way.

Finally, there are several unusual aspects to the case. 

The "frame" is apparently a music stand of sorts, which must attach to the case. When folded away, it fits into the slot at the lower right of the case where it can be seen in the first photo.

The silver tube, I have to say, remains a mystery, despite running it past several top experts in this area. As it came to me, it was empty, with one end missing. (you can see it in the top compartment in the photo above. It was designed to pull apart at the join, but this is also currently jammed.

The only suggestion which makes any sense is that it was to hold rolled up music manuscript, or paper of some sort....or as has just occurred to me, an oily brush for the bore? The little brushes and bobbin are bone and pig bristle.

As for the spring type mechanism on the right hand edge of the case, your guess is as good as mine.

Finally the whole thing weighs in at a huge 1664 gms, or for any Americans out there 3lbs 11 oz!

New Keys

So finally, camera sorted out and photos of the new keys that I promised such a long time ago (February last year ) In some ways they're still a work in progress, but in general I'm happy with the overall appearance and performance. Here's the long C and Bb.



























and a closer look at the same...

and the long F and G#

It's amazing how the camera shows up all the little details that one doesn't particularly want to be seen, such as the micro scratches on the silver, the little flakes of shellac on the key cups and the polish mark around the R1 finger hole, because I was playing the flute with polishy fingers in the workshop.

For those who might be interested the technical details, photos taken with a Nikon 5000D at 1/1.6 sec, F16, ISO 100, 5000 K white balance...and a little bit of very basic tweaking in iPhoto ( it really is very basic)

What's going on here.

Amazing how time passes! It's now almost six weeks since the Cruinniú...
The Cork Fleadh Cheoil was held here in the village last weekend, so I went along to some of the flute competitions, since a good few of the competitors were playing my instruments, to see how they'd get on.
I must admit to having reservations about the whole competition thing, since for me at any rate music is not about competition. On the other hand, for lots of kids that are learning traditional music, these competitions are the only outlet they have for performance, so I suppose they have a role in that sense.
Fleadhanna Cheoil have changed quite a lot over the years. When I was young  a county Fleadh was a great opportunity to meet and play with all the major musicians from that county and even province, and the major events for most people were the sessions that happened on the sidelines. In recent years, the number of sessions happening at county and regional Fleadhanna has really decreased, as has the presence of adult musicians, not just in the sessions but also in the competitions. Thirty years ago, the senior ( over 18 ) competitons would attract many of the accomplished adult musicians in an area, but for a long time now the vast majority of the competitors are just 18, or less than 20 at any rate.
This Cork Fleadh was no exception to the above, but there were some very good players in the 15-18 age group and the over 18.
It's customary for the adjudicators in competitions to comment on the overall standard of playing, and other aspects of the music other than simply who won, and I have to say that the comments that I heard were excellent in the sense that they encouraged the kids to think about how they interpreted the tunes, and the versions of them that they played, and were also encouraging to all the competitors, not just the winners, and those recommended to go forward to the Munster Fleadh.
Disappointingly, there were few sessions, as I had suspected would be the case.
One other point that came up, in talking to some of the parents, was the difference between playing and performance. There are many musicians who are good players but poor performers, and I suppose that having to sit down and play your set of tunes in front of a formal adjudicating panel is a good way to develop your performing skills...something that sessions (or at least the majority of them) often fail to do. Food for thought....

Read the Blurb!!

Just about to into Cruinniú mode here, so this will be the last post until at least next week.
Just noticed a thread on Chiff and Fipple, about which type of "Pratten" flute someone should choose.
Several listers commented on which was the most Prattenish flute, and decided that mine definitely was.
I leave you with this from the home page of my website...

The terminology of the 19th century flute, in the sense of the association between certain makers and their designs, and the perceived results of those designs for the player, remain with us today in the insistence that players have of designating almost all new flutes as either being of the Rudall & Rose or Pratten’s Perfected type. Although this is useful to some degree in helping people understand what to expect from different flutes, in terms of my own instruments, it is not so relevant. 

Although, like all other modern makers I began by copying old flutes, at this stage I feel that the flutes that I now make, and have made since about 1990, are as different from 19th century designs as they are like them. All the basic design elements such as bore, embouchure cut, and tone hole size and spacing, are based on my own observations and experience of over thirty years deeply immersed in traditional flute playing.

I think at this stage I don’t need to reference 19th century makers when talking about my own flutes.

Builders In!

Sincere apologies for not posting for so long. I can sum up the reason in two words...Builders In
So to keep you amused, and to settle the fact that I did indeed once have hair here's a link to two YouTube clips that prove beyond all reasonable doubt that I did have some at least.
The first one is from the intro of a  "Come West Along the Road" programme, and about 25 secs in you'll see myself and Seamus Creagh playing.
I only found the second one by accident, and I'm delighted to have come across it, as it illustrates the folly of playing certain tunes with a combination of flutes and box. The first tune has a very prominent C#, beginning in the first bar, and as you can hear this clashes badly with the C# of the box.
This issue concerning the C and C# on the simple system cone bore flute has bugged makers and players for hundreds of years.
Basically what is going on is the the top hole on the flute, that closest to the embouchure, is the one that controls the pitch of the C#, the note achieved by opening all the holes. On a keyless flute or on any flute made before the introduction of the long C key at the end of the 18th C, the C is played as a cross fingered note normally by leaving the top hole open and closing the second and third. The problem is that this is a compromise. The C# is too flat, and the C is too sharp when played with this fingering, an unfortunate consequence which means that correcting one makes the other worse.
The introduction of the long C key ( see Bate for a good account of this) meant that the C note at least had its own hole, but for traditional Irish players, trying to use it in fast paced dance music can be next to impossible, and I'd think the majority of players still use the old cross fingering.
It should also be noted that, and as Michael Caine would say, not many people know this, that the long C when opened also corrects the flat C#.
Looking hard at the video, I can't make out what flute I was playing. I remember that we were playing in Eb, and from the look of it, it looks like a patched together job for the occasion....note large lumps of plasticene replacing some missing keys. The last tunes aren't bad though...
That was all a very long time ago. Vince is still playing amazing fiddle in his own inimitable way.
Eibhlín died two years ago. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam

Something for the weekend...

So...camera is back, and so hopefully I'll be able to start posting some photos re classic old makers. I'm restoring a wonderful flute by Monzani which I'm going to use as the first example.
But for the moment, until I get my self organised, here's link to a YouTube video which Conor Byrne sent me a few weeks ago. He's playing an eight keyed mopane flute that I made for him a couple of years ago.