What is an Irish Flute (2) - Irish Flute vs Boehm Flute - Performance

[RPereira]

(in the questions that follow, I am referring to fully chromatic flutes)

1. What are the limitations of the Irish flute when compared to the Boehm flute?

2. What type or style of music an Irish flute is not capable of playing when compared to the Boehm flute?

3. Is the Irish flute keywork operation similar to the Boehm?
In other words, if I learn to play the Irish flute, will it be applicable to play the Boehm keywork?
And does it work the other way around: can a Boehm flute player easily hold and operate the keywork of an Irish flute?

4. How easy is to play traditional/folk music (like Irish) in the Boehm flute instead of the Irish flute?
In other words, why we do not see more and more people using the Boehm flute to play traditional/folk music instead of the Irish flute?

5. Why flutes after the Boehm flutes became the standard for traditional/folk music?

[PB+J]

(in the questions that follow, I am referring to fully chromatic flutes)

1. What are the limitations of the Irish flute when compared to the Boehm flute?

2. What type or style of music an Irish flute is not capable of playing when compared to the Boehm flute?

3. Is the Irish flute keywork operation similar to the Boehm?
In other words, if I learn to play the Irish flute, will it be applicable to play the Boehm keywork?
And does it work the other way around: can a Boehm flute player easily hold and operate the keywork of an Irish flute?

4. How easy is to play traditional/folk music (like Irish) in the Boehm flute instead of the Irish flute?
In other words, why we do not see more and more people using the Boehm flute to play traditional/folk music instead of the Irish flute?

5. Why flutes after the Boehm flutes became the standard for traditional/folk music?

Here again no expert player but I'll take a few cuts

1. less consistent volume and timbre because of varied hole size, less third octave range, harder to play fully chromatically?
2. none, really
3. I don't find them similar
4. People do it well: i don't like trying to play Irish music on the Boehm flute. It doesn't feel right
5. I don't understand the question

[Jayhawk]

Regarding #5, the most frequently cited theory is that when Boehm flutes came out a lot of musicians wanted them for band/orchestral purposes because they were more in tune and louder, so professional/classical musicians saw them as an upgrade although lots of non-Boehm flutes continued to be produced and some musicians still preferred them.

With the influx of Boehm flutes, the older style flutes often found their way into secondhand shops. Simultaneously, Sears, Roebuck & Co. flooded the US marked with cheap German simple system flutes. The Irish, and Irish immigrants in the US, suddenly could afford flutes, which previously were rather pricey and more of a gentleman's instrument. The flute, being similar in fingering to the pipes and of course tin whistle fit in perfectly for Irish music. Simple system flutes are also used in music in other cultures/countries...Cuba for example.

Hopefully that helps.

Eric

[jim stone]

The Boehm silver flute tends to be louder and to soar above the ensemble, which is part of the reason they were finally preferred in larger orchestras. The conical wooden flute, while it can be loud, is less loud, has a woodier sound and so tends to blend in--which makes it well suited to folk ensembles. Not that the silver flute can't do it if played well in that way, but it comes more naturally to wooden flutes. A lot of this is a matter of degree. The Boehm keywork probably makes the Boehm flute more agile, but the simple system keyed flute is still quite agile.

[tstermitz]

These are good questions.

1. The Boehm flute was invented to provide louder volume with more consistent tonal qualities between the notes. Boehm keys might provide some fingering benefits, that show up in complex, orchestral pieces. Other than that, it just depends what you train on. There are some good articles on how Boehm came to design his key-work if you google that.

2. A keyed Irish flute can be used to play any style of music... but the orchestra director will look at you funny if you show up with an Irish flute!

3. No, the keyword is different; also the fingering. You would need to relearn your fingerings. And, Boehm was not the only one making improvements, see Siccama, 1832 system, 1951 system, etc.

4. You can play folk or ITM music with a Boehm flute.

5. Choice of which flute for folk music is probably due to custom or availability, as some have suggested. However, in ITM there is definitely a preference to a dark and reedy tone quality with Irish flutes, and that quality has a long tradition (up through the 1930s, maybe?) for English flute players with wooden flutes. I won't say that you can't get it with a Boehm flute, but Boehm training and tradition pursues clear pure tones rather than dark & reedy.

I occasionally meet people from the audience at a session who played Boehm flutes growing up, and they always remark on the deep, dark tone of my playing.

[tin tin]

Ardal Powell’s The Flute does an excellent job tracing the instrument’s evolution (specifically addressing question 5): http://www.flutehistory.com/TheBook/index.php3

[RPereira]

Once again, many thanks for the feedback and knowledge sharing regarding my questions!