The other night I was chatting with Desi Seery and the question came up, 'who was the first of the contempary flute maker in Ireland? (or beyond)'.
Up until the fifties and into the sixties most timber flutes being played were old ones, mainly English, German or French.
Nowadays most flutes being played are made by any number of great craftsmen, pretty well all over the world.
So, who is credited with being the first (in recent times) maker of the concert flute, with or without keys?
Nobody I have asked seems to have a clue about this one.
Well, the pretty much never stopped making concert flutes. It has been an ongoing process for years and years. You can find flutes from the 20's,30's, or really anytime. As for the modernization of the simple system flute: I have no idea.
Yeah, if you scroll down to about 2/3rds the way down on that article he says this:
"I think...although its difficult to be exact....that I was the first maker to try and make a flute with Irish traditional music in mind. In the initial years I was alone as a maker who specialised in flutes of this type. Other makers were essentially pipemakers or made other types of wooden transverse flutes. "
I thought of Brendan, a great man, but who did he learn his craft from?
And I know what you're saying Johnny, its been an ongoing thing, certainly from established manufacturers, but I'm talking about individual craftsmen.
You could be right Danny, but at the time Hammy was starting, were there others he did not know about who were already experimenting or producing what we know as the modern (440 htz) D concert flute? ( Albeit copying bore, holes, keys etc from classic instruments)
I'm no expert by any means, bb, but the question intrigued me enough to check it out on the web. So if there were others doing as you say, so be it. It's kind of like an old fashioned pub question....for trad players.....
Tom White, from Newbawn Co. Wexford was turning out decent flutes in early 60's also a man called Tom Ganley somewhere up around Leitrim or that direction.Also Bruce du Ve.
Why doesn't Banjoburger have a go himself ,after all he turned out some great banjos and has a great flair for the wood.Nice to have met you down in Clare recently for a tune.
I don't know of Tom White, and I think Tom Ganley was somewhat later. Ganley apparently did some carpentry work around the house for London classical flute maker Robert Bigio, and got the idea there. Bruce was definitely after me, as he visited me in Canberra to see what I was doing before he headed to Ireland. Wasn't I surprised to hear that he ended up marrying my former whistle teacher, Mary Bergin and set up in the west making pipes and flutes!
I had spent seven months in England, Ireland and Scotland in 1974, hanging out with flute players, teachers and dealers, going to Fleadhs and schools, and visiting organisations like CCE, EFDSS, School of Scottish Studies, etc. In all of that I heard nothing of new making, so if it was happening, it must have been on a very small scale. I was gathering information on that trip and started making in the following year. I've asked around a lot since to see if we can work out who else was making back then; Eugene Lambe might be the best possibility, but I don't know any details.
It has to be said there wasn't so much incentive for new makers in Ireland or England - old flutes were still plentiful, and readily available through dealer/players like Paul Davis. But in Australia, things were very different. Old flutes came up occasionally, but certainly not on demand. So I had plenty of incentive, and some responsibility, as I was teaching whistle and some of the whistle students wanted to go on to flute.
One minor problem was that I was pretty flat broke after spending 7 months overseas. I wrote an article for our local paper on how I wanted to make flutes but needed a lathe. Next day the phone rang, and an old chap donated me his old lathe and some fine old turning tools, some of which I still use. It always pays to ask .....
My first flutes were stripped down to the absolute fundamentals for Irish music. No cap, the stopper was a cork, no tuning slide - just pull the head out like a recorder to tune, no keys and an integral RH and Short D foot. Mostly Australian timbers, and flush brass rings. Essentially the tin-whistle version of a flute, and it was all people were looking for. How times change!
Who was the first?
Who was the first?
The other night I was chatting with Desi Seery and the question came up, 'who was the first of the contempary flute maker in Ireland? (or beyond)'.
Up until the fifties and into the sixties most timber flutes being played were old ones, mainly English, German or French.
Nowadays most flutes being played are made by any number of great craftsmen, pretty well all over the world.
So, who is credited with being the first (in recent times) maker of the concert flute, with or without keys?
Nobody I have asked seems to have a clue about this one.
# Posted on April 9th 2010 by banjoburger
Re: Who was the first?
Well, the pretty much never stopped making concert flutes. It has been an ongoing process for years and years. You can find flutes from the 20's,30's, or really anytime. As for the modernization of the simple system flute: I have no idea.
# Posted on April 9th 2010 by pipersgrip
Re: Who was the first?
Hammy? Eugene Lambe? Brendan McMahon? Sam Murray?
# Posted on April 9th 2010 by David Levine
Re: Who was the first?
Good question - I suspect it was Hammy Hamilton... he was certainly one of the first of the new generation of makers.
http://www.firescribble.net/flute/hamilton.html
# Posted on April 9th 2010 by Rudall the time
Re: Who was the first?
Yeah, if you scroll down to about 2/3rds the way down on that article he says this:
"I think...although its difficult to be exact....that I was the first maker to try and make a flute with Irish traditional music in mind. In the initial years I was alone as a maker who specialised in flutes of this type. Other makers were essentially pipemakers or made other types of wooden transverse flutes. "
# Posted on April 9th 2010 by Rudall the time
Re: Who was the first?
I thought of Brendan, a great man, but who did he learn his craft from?
And I know what you're saying Johnny, its been an ongoing thing, certainly from established manufacturers, but I'm talking about individual craftsmen.
# Posted on April 9th 2010 by banjoburger
Re: Who was the first?
You could be right Danny, but at the time Hammy was starting, were there others he did not know about who were already experimenting or producing what we know as the modern (440 htz) D concert flute? ( Albeit copying bore, holes, keys etc from classic instruments)
# Posted on April 9th 2010 by banjoburger
Re: Who was the first?
I'm no expert by any means, bb, but the question intrigued me enough to check it out on the web. So if there were others doing as you say, so be it. It's kind of like an old fashioned pub question....for trad players.....
# Posted on April 9th 2010 by Rudall the time
Re: Who was the first?
Me
# Posted on April 9th 2010 by I ♥ Dow
Re: Who was the first?
Hmmm.... no-one seems to know.
If the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.
Matthew 15:14
# Posted on April 10th 2010 by Rudall the time
Re: Who was the first?
Tom White, from Newbawn Co. Wexford was turning out decent flutes in early 60's also a man called Tom Ganley somewhere up around Leitrim or that direction.Also Bruce du Ve.
Why doesn't Banjoburger have a go himself ,after all he turned out some great banjos and has a great flair for the wood.Nice to have met you down in Clare recently for a tune.
# Posted on April 10th 2010 by joyce1
Re: Who was the first?
I don't know of Tom White, and I think Tom Ganley was somewhat later. Ganley apparently did some carpentry work around the house for London classical flute maker Robert Bigio, and got the idea there. Bruce was definitely after me, as he visited me in Canberra to see what I was doing before he headed to Ireland. Wasn't I surprised to hear that he ended up marrying my former whistle teacher, Mary Bergin and set up in the west making pipes and flutes!
I had spent seven months in England, Ireland and Scotland in 1974, hanging out with flute players, teachers and dealers, going to Fleadhs and schools, and visiting organisations like CCE, EFDSS, School of Scottish Studies, etc. In all of that I heard nothing of new making, so if it was happening, it must have been on a very small scale. I was gathering information on that trip and started making in the following year. I've asked around a lot since to see if we can work out who else was making back then; Eugene Lambe might be the best possibility, but I don't know any details.
It has to be said there wasn't so much incentive for new makers in Ireland or England - old flutes were still plentiful, and readily available through dealer/players like Paul Davis. But in Australia, things were very different. Old flutes came up occasionally, but certainly not on demand. So I had plenty of incentive, and some responsibility, as I was teaching whistle and some of the whistle students wanted to go on to flute.
One minor problem was that I was pretty flat broke after spending 7 months overseas. I wrote an article for our local paper on how I wanted to make flutes but needed a lathe. Next day the phone rang, and an old chap donated me his old lathe and some fine old turning tools, some of which I still use. It always pays to ask .....
My first flutes were stripped down to the absolute fundamentals for Irish music. No cap, the stopper was a cork, no tuning slide - just pull the head out like a recorder to tune, no keys and an integral RH and Short D foot. Mostly Australian timbers, and flush brass rings. Essentially the tin-whistle version of a flute, and it was all people were looking for. How times change!
Terry
# Posted on April 10th 2010 by Terry McGee