The instrument we call the ‘Irish’ flute is in fact the classical flute played in England starting from the beginning of the 19th century and well into the second half of the century, when the modern Boehm flute gradually replaced it. At the end of the 18th, beginning of the 19th century the flute still very much resembled the baroque flute. Although some keys were added, the tone hole and embouchure were still very small compared to later designs, the bore was narrow and a lot of the instruments were still made in boxwood.
In the beginning of the 19th century, Charles Nicholson the younger became the flute champion in London. He developed a tone that was according to his desperate colleagues “not only clear, metallic and brilliant, but also possesses a volume that is almost incredible; and this, too, be it observed, in the very lowest notes of the instrument”. His flutes were made to his design and had a wider bore (about 19mm instead of 18mm), larger embouchure and much bigger finger holes than the previous flutes, or the contemporary flutes being played and made in France and the rest of the continent, were elegance and sweetness was judged more important than volume. Charles Nicholson’s success was such that his type of flute became soon the standard in England.
The most important flute maker of that time was certainly Rudall&Rose. Flutes by this firm are famous for their beautiful and versatile, yet powerful sound, with a very charming second octave. One can find Rudall&Rose flutes with relatively small finger holes, as well as with ‘Nicholson size’ finger holes. Other important flute makers of that period include Wylde, Fentum, Clementi, Astor and Potter to name just a few of them.
A visit of Theobald Boehm to London was at the origin of one of the most dramatic changes in woodwind design ever. At that time Theobald Boehm was first flautist at the Munich philharmonic orchestra, and went to listen to Nicholson. Boehm wrote in his diary “I could not match Nicholson in strength and power of tone”. This visit is believed to have inspired Boehm to completely redesign the simple system flute into the nowadays classical instrument, with a cylindrical body and a parabolic head joint, instead of the conical body and cylindrical head joint of the older flutes. The cylindrical 19 mm body, together with his previously developed key system, allowed Boehm to use finger holes up to 17 mm in diameter, whilst even on Nicholson flutes it is hard to go beyond 11mm, as the bore is hardly wider at that place. (One should bear in mind here that the acoustical effect of a larger diameter goes with the square of the diameter, making a 17 mm hole ‘the double’ of a 12 mm, or about twelve times a 5 mm ‘baroque’ hole).
However, the radical new concept of Boehm was not accepted overnight. Flute makers tried to design flutes that kept the old simple system fingering, but that were (almost) as powerful as the Boehm flutes. This again was done by making the finger holes even bigger than on Nicholson type flutes, and by making the bore less conical to allow for this. A well known inventor of that period is Abel Siccama, whose ‘Siccama patented’ flute had all these characteristics, and further used keys to allow him to make the A and E sounding holes much bigger (by doing so they come out of reach of the fingers, so he needed the key system). Some of these flutes have really beautiful, pin mounted keywork. The design of the Siccama flute, but without the A and E keys, was taken over by Pratten, who later had his ‘Pratten’s perfected’ flute made by Hudson and later Boosey and Hawkes. These flutes are very powerful, but have a somewhat less reedy, more open sound than f.i. a Rudall&Rose. A lot of contemporary makers of ‘Irish’ flutes base their design on Pratten or Siccama flutes, often using even bigger holes and embouchures, although the last years we have seen a return from pure power to more balanced designs. (If you want to know more about the history of the flute, several books are available. For traditional music players S.C. Hamilton’s “The Irish flute players handbook’ is probably first choice. A lot of information is also to be found in ‘The New Langwill Index’ and ‘The Flute’ by Ardell Powel).
Pros and cons of the different designs
I mainly make three types of D-flutes: a Rudall & Rose type, a Pratten type and my own Standard design lying somewhere in between the two previous types. The main advantage of a Pratten type flute is its power, if you love power, play unplugged with other (louder) instruments or intend to go and play mainly in sessions in noisy pubs, go for this type. However, this volume has to be paid for: you need more air and a good embouchure to ‘fill’ the instrument.
If on the other hand you don’t care so much about absolute power but you’re in for a very sweet tone and really beautiful second octave, go for the Rudall&Rose type or the Standard design. If you have small hands, it is generally better to choose a flute with relatively small finger holes, as they are easier to close. Here a Rudall&Rose with small finger holes would probably do best.
You still don’t know? I then recommend taking a Standard type flute. Within the first year, I allow customers to change within the first year their unkeyed instrument (in good condition) to one of the other types if they wish to do so. After one year of playing one should have an idea of his or her ideal of flute playing. The choice is not easy, I know quite some professionals playing two different types of flutes, as they judge they all have their advantages. And, after all, flute makers must live too...
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