The Travels of an Ivory Renaissance Flute

Author(s): David Freeman

Source: The Galpin Society Journal, Vol. 60 (Apr., 2007), pp. 233-236, 109
Published by: Galpin Society
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25163909
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 Notes & Queries 233

A Previously Unrecorded Crumhorn in Belgium

Then felt I like some watcher of the skies
when a new planet swims into his ken. (Milton)

I always scrutinise any painting or musical Belgium. It appears to be an alto; it is keyless,

instrument that may be new to me, just in case with a characteristic ridge decorating the upper
it might reveal something of organological surface of the bell extremity, and the maker's mark
interest (I once recognized a sordun being played of a single T stamped at both upper and lower
in a painting in Budapest, which supplied hitherto end. The windcap is missing, and the ferrule is
unknown informaion as to how the instrument damaged above the characteristic 'cotton reel'. In
was actually played, given that the sole survivors descending order it has six fingerholes, a doubled
are incomplete). On 31 August 2006 I discovered a seventh hole, plus first and second vent holes.
previously unrecorded crumhorn which is dateable There are considerable signs of wear around the
to the mid-sixteenth century and attributable to fingerholes, and the patina of the wood seemed
Joerg Wier of Memmingen. The remains of an old authentic. I am communicating this information
label pasted on to its base showed its provenance to those parties I feel ought to know of it, so this
to have been the collection of C?sar Snoeck instrument was published and illustrated in the
(1834-98). Since World War 2 it has been lurking Galpin Society Newsletter 16, October 2006.
in the local museum of his birthplace - Ronse, WILLIAM WATERHOUSE

The Travels of an Ivory Renaissance Flute

At a conference in Michaelstein (Germany) in Overall length 67 cm.
2005, my wife mentioned that the ivory flute Top to mouth hole 8.3
on display in the Czech Music Museum, a Mouth hole to ist finger hole 20
department of the National Museum, Prague, seemed ist finger hole to 2nd finger hole 3.6
to have been shortened since it was examined in 1967. 2nd ,, ? to 3rd ? ? 34
3rd to 4th ? 5.9
It was described as 'turned from a single piece of to 5 th ?
4th 3-9
ivory and now slightly warped' in Jeremy Montagu's 5th to 6th 3-2
report of 'The Society's First Foreign Tour' {Galpin 6th to bottom 10
Society Journal XXI, 1968, 4-23 at 19-20). According Bore diameter I.7
to the Galpin article, this was the only known ivory Mouth hole diameter .6
renaissance flute (see Figure 1). Finger hole diameter -5
Since coming to live in the Czech Republic in 1988,
* All measurements are taken centre to centre,
I have always been denied access to this instrument.
the holes all being circular.
In December 2004, the newly opened Czech Music
Museum in Prague finally put it on display (see Figure 1. Table adapted from GSJ XXI, p. 19.
Although the overall length is given as 67cm, the
Figure 2 in the colour section) but it differs from the
total of these measurements is 64.3cm (see below).
Galpin description. I was not allowed to examine
it closely until 11 July 2006, when I was invited by museum gives it as 64.8cm, so we had assumed that
Thijs van Baarsel to join him at the Museum, where it had been cut in two and shortened when we saw it
he had permission to measure the flute. While Thijs on display in 2004. However, the two parts could not
was measuring the flute it became apparent that it be made from the same piece of ivory, as the veins
did not fit the Galpin article description; it was notare totally different either side of the join (it is also
warped (or curved) and it was not a single piece. possible that a short section is missing or that it is
The Galpin article gave its length as 67cm, while the made up from two flutes).

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234 The Galpin Society Journal

Figure 3a. The Prague flute, (below) The complete instrument.

Figures 3 b (above left), 3c, (above right top), 3d (above right bottom). Three views of the joint.

Boaz Berney's recent article ('The Renaissance flute Originally there was a photograph of the flute but,
in mixed ensembles: surviving instruments, pitches to all our surprise, this had been torn out. We later
and performing practice', Early Music XXXIV/2 May heard that a German maker who had asked to see
2006), which lists existing flutes, gives the following the renaissance flute in the early 1990s had been
information about two ivory flutes, one in Prague told it was nineteenth century and in two pieces.
and one in Berlin: I wondered whether this maker thought the same
maker sounding bore pitch location comment as occurred to me - that the flute could have been
length (mm)
removed in the 1980s, copied, and replaced by the
Anon 578? 170 403? Cz-Prague Narodni shortened
Anon 566.0 17.2 410 D-Berlin: 5422 two-piece flute now on display, and the original sold
to Berlin? Thijs warned me, wisely, against jumping
The Prague museum curator mentioned that the to conclusions and making facts fit a theory, but I
flute had been 'missing' during the 1980s. He already had good reason to think this scenario was
showed us a catalogue from the 1950s, where there likely. My wife (who had been the musical instrument
is a short description of the flute as a gift from the curator at the Museum between 1979 and 1981, had
most important nineteenth-century Bohemian brass told me that some items were stolen from the then
instrument maker Vaclav Frantisek Cerveny in 1867. Czechoslovakia and sold to 'the West' in the 1980s.

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 Notes & Queries

-*H<
c
<?> ?X*??>
/
Galpin 83 260 36 34 59 39 32 100
Prague 84 260.7 37.7 34.8 58.8 39 32.3 100.2
Berlin 78 263 36 34 59 39 32

Total Sounding Embouchure Finger hole diameters 1 to 6 Bore

length length hole diameter (from head to foot)
Galpin 643 560 17
Prague 647.5 563.5 8.0x8.5 Approx. 5.5, 5.5, 5.5, 5.5, 5.5, 5.1 16.6
Berlin 650 566 7.8x7.6 Approx. 6.3,6.3,6.1,6.1,6.1, 6.1 17.7

Figure 4. Flute measurements (mm).

I contacted the people I knew who had been on the hole at the back of the head in the same position, the
1967 Galpin Society trip, or who had made a copy fact that while one flute disappeared, another flute
of this flute, or who might have seen it on visits to (that was until then, totally unheard of, and not very
the Prague museum. Jeremy Montagu was sure original-looking) appeared a few years later in the
that what he had written in 1968 was correct, and Prague collection, finally convinced me that the flute
confirmed that the trip had not included Berlin. described in Galpin 1968 was the same flute that is
The Berlin Museum later confirmed that they only now in Berlin.
acquired the flute in 1986. They also confirmed that So far the Berlin Museum has not been persuaded
the flute was curved, and that it had a small hole near to give me any good quality photos, and I still need to
the head. I obtained a picture of the Berlin flute fromphotograph more of the older documents involved.
a friend, and sent it together with one of the present Furthermore, the Prague/Berlin flute still needs to
Prague flute to Jeremy Montagu. To him, the Berlin be confirmed as a renaissance flute, and not just a
flute looked more like what he remembered, and the '19th century item of interest', as stated by the 1970s
Prague flute looked so straight that he would not Prague collection curator Jindfich Keller in his
have called it warped or curved. He also confirmed typewritten catalogue. The 1968 Galpin article only
that the instrument they had seen in 1968 really was suggests that the Prague instrument is a renaissance
made from a single piece of ivory. flute. Apparently, the dealer who was responsible for
I now had a description of a flute from 1968, a the Berlin Museum acquiring their flute stated that
picture of the flute acquired in 1986 by the Berlin it was a renaissance instrument.
museum, and pictures of the existing Prague two The provenance of the original Prague flute may be
piece flute. I was more and more convinced that found in Vaclav Frantisek Cerveny's family papers,
Berlin was now in possession of the original flute so we are trying to locate relevant documents. The
from Prague, and that the two-piece flute now on Prague flute is so similar to the Berlin one that I am
display in Prague was a copy made to disguise the convinced that the present Prague flute was made up
removal of the original. I saw it was necessary to to disguise the removal of the original. It does not
compare measurements from Galpin 1968 with play in tune; it is possible that the finger holes were
those that Thijs had made of the Prague flute and made in the same places as the original, but the maker
measurements of the Berlin flute. did not attempt to tune it (although there is a small
Figure 4 shows that they are really quite close, and amount of undercutting). Or, might it be made up
I noticed that while Galpin 1968 gives the length as from two original flutes, adjusted to match the length
67cm, adding the separate measurements together of the original, but this seems unlikely as it would
gives a total of 64.3cm. This is significant because it require one or two more ivory flutes. Furthermore,
is so much closer to the Berlin measurement - only the unworn and unbroken nature of the join is hardly
7mm shorter instead of 27mm. This, together with credible for a 400 year old instrument - the existing
the similarity of the finger hole positions, the fact joint is too thin for normal use and supports the idea
that both the Prague and Berlin flutes have the small that this is not a genuine instrument.

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 236 The Galpin Society Journal

Figure 5. Comparison of the flutes now in Berlin (above) and Prague (below).

This will all remain guesswork until we know come to the same conclusion some years ago after
more about the material of the two-piece Prague seeing the measurements of the Berlin flute and
flute. I have heard that the first examination by comparing them with the GSJ article; however he
ivory experts suggested it is from the seventeenth to had been unable to see the flute in Prague.
eighteenth century and a recent opinion is that the I am very grateful to all those who helped me with
ivory is more probably eighteenth-century. information, measurements and pictures, especially
While reading a paper about this flute at a flute Thijs van Baarsel, Boaz Berney and Jeremy Montagu,
conference in Michaelstein last autumn, I was but would stress that the conclusions are my own.
delighted to find that Phillipe Allain-Dupr? had DAVID FREEMAN

A Newly-Discovered Harpsichord Inscription

Figure 1. The back of the upper belly rail with the label. In the background is the interior surface of the cheekpiece; in
the upper left is the underside of the soundboard, with the curved four-foot hitch-pin rail. (Photograph; the author)

Several years ago, in GS/LV (2002, pp. 43-49), to be unsigned, and the authors, observing
Rafael Mariju?n and Beryl Kenyon de Pascual its resemblance to several other instruments,
described an exceptionally rare instrument including one made by Andr?s Fern?ndez Santos
in their article 'A Newly-Discovered Harpsichord in Valladolid, 1728 (in the collection of Fernanda
from a Spanish Convent.' Unfortunately, it seemed Giulini, Briosco, Italy), could only assign its

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 Colour Section 109

ARLE LOMMEL AND BAL?ZS NAGY

The Form, History, and Classification of the Teker?lant (Hungarian Hurdy-Gurdy).

Figures 11 and 12. The teker? in use. (photo of player Melissa Kacalanos: Michael Dabin).

DAVID FREEMAN
The Travels of an Ivory Renaissance Flute.

Figure 2. The ivory flute currently on display in Prague.

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