Renaissance consort.
This has been a fantastic project, but alas I do not make them any more. There are a number of reasons. Players want one and only one renaissance flute that does it all. So making consorts only was not practical. And I have so much work making baroque flutes that I simply have to choose what to make. And third the way I was maing those renaissance flutes it took me much time because I had to make all those chambers in the bore!
Marcello Gatti chose his renaissance consort with the originals next to it. At a certain point he said Simon, maybe you could change this a little bit still. But then he picked up the original and immediately said no, no, the original has it too. So I succeeded in being close to the originals, I think, which was my only goal in this project.
During the second half of 2017 and the first half of 2018 I spent my evenings on a hobby. Trying to make a renaissance consort. However, as said, with as sole aim to make one as close as possible to a certain original consort. I found that with the help of Marcello Gatti I could have, of course within the strict rules necessary, a reasonable possibility to understand the Rauch von Schrattenbach consort in Verona in the Accademia filarmonica. I did not do all kinds of comparisons or evaluations to decide if this would be a good choice but Marcello assured me that it plays really well. I am not really a renaissance flute player and Marcello of course is a superb player. So this was a good choice.
The pitch is about 408Hz, this makes the bass particularly difficult for less then Marcello’s quality bass players.
I also will not do a follow up by making a popular version for instance at 440Hz or so. So the only thing I can deliver is this consort. There are two reasons for that. I simply like it very much as is and I am sure that for instance changing the pitch would make the consort less good. A third reason is that I have so much work with my baroque flutes that I simply do not have time.
However, as is, the three tenors are very different. Furthermore as mentioned, the bass is very difficult to play because the finger hole distances are very large and one has to sort of use no breath pressure at all.
The three tenors have long identifying numbers given by the filarmonia that differ only in one digit. The differences are a 2, a 4 and a 6. I will therefore indicate them as the 2, the 4 and the 6.
When measuring the bores and studying the mouth holes I found very interesting information.
The bore of the 6 is practically round, the bore of the 4 is quite oval. So at first sight they seem very different. However, taking the averages of the two measured cross sections and putting them in one graph they are amazingly equal. Basically, .1mm equal in many places. So the variations in the bore are not accidental but made on purpose is my conclusion. I still do not completely understand them but faithfully copy them. The bore therefore is not straight as is often presumed. It takes me quite a while to get a good bore this way. The 2 has a narrower bore that is different from the 4/6 bore.
But (!!!!) now we come to the mouth holes. The 6 has a mouth hole that has been sort of hollowed inside the bore. So the depth of the mouth hole is much less then the wall thickness opposite the mouth hole. But the 4 has a normal mouth hole using the whole wall thickness. So 4 and 6, same bore, completely different mouth holes. Then the 2 has a narrower bore but the mouth hole is similar to the 4.
As a demonstration of what I mean by "same bore" here the differences of the bores of the 4 and the 6 as measured by me. The bores vary between 17.8 and 17.4. The layman might easily decide that this is negligible, accidental and coming from roughly making the flute. Now, if we did not see the equality between the 4 and the 6 shown below, we might indeed easily come to this conclusion. However, the fact that those bores are so almost equal convinces me completely that these variations in the bore are essential and made on purpose.
| -0,02 |
| 0,05 |
| 0,10 |
| 0,00 |
| -0,05 |
| -0,07 |
| -0,03 |
| -0,09 |
| -0,09 |
| -0,03 |
| -0,03 |
| 0,01 |
| 0,09 |
| 0,18 |
| 0,08 |
| 0,07 |
| -0,02 |
| -0,01 |
| -0,04 |
| -0,05 |
| -0,08 |
| -0,04 |
| 0,02 |
| 0,04 |
| 0,07 |
| -0,02 |
| -0,04 |
| -0,05 |
| 0,02 |
| -0,01 |
| 0,10 |
| 0,11 |
| 0,09 |
| 0,06 |
| 0,11 |
| 0,05 |
| -0,09 |
| -0,04 |
| -0,07 |
| -0,04 |
| 0,04 |
| 0,09 |
| 0,09 |
| 0,00 |
| 0,01 |
| 0,08 |
| 0,14 |
| 0,09 |
| 0,12 |
| -0,02 |
| -0,03 |
| -0,14 |
| -0,13 |
| -0,12 |
| 0,01 |
| -0,06 |
| -0,10 |
| -0,10 |
| -0,03 |
| -0,06 |
| 0,06 |
| -0,05 |
| -0,06 |
| 0,00 |
| 0,00 |
| 0,02 |
| -0,02 |
| -0,17 |
| -0,77 |
So the difference is hardly ever more than .1mm! Those bores are far from straight.
Let me make a remark on bore measurements here. Often either of two measurement technicques is used: small sticks inserted in a hole at the end of a long stick or a long thin feeler activating electronics.
The problem with the first is that it skips chambres. The problem with the second when used for renaissance flutes might be that the thin feeler is easily bending a bit and so giving a systematic error.
Here a picture of my set up for measuring bores. I think that it speaks for itself. Mitutoyo gives a foot switch with the electronic clock and a direct connection to Excell making it extra easy.
So conclusion is that the bores are essentially not straight and the three tenors are so different that they should be considered in the consort. For me the 4 is the most general one but professionals trying them had different choices.
The bass bore similar to the tenor bores has a profile that I believe should be copied as exactly as possible.
For acquiring I now have the following system
If somebody likes one of the tenors or the bass and would like to acquire it it can simply be taken away at an exhibition or at my home. Ordering is difficul because the three tenors are different so if somebody orders "a tenor" which one should I send. The only possibility there would be somebody has already chosen at an exhibition which.
Prices the are the following:
boxwood tenor:1000€
maple tenor:800€
boxwood bass1800€
maple bass:1500€
However, I would like to sell them as a consort and not just one flute. But a consort has to be ordered and can not be simply taken away.
An American maple consort can be ordered at the price of 3300€.
A boxwood consort at the price 4000.
Let me stress again that the only pitch is 408Hz.
Now, 27/6/2021 also 415.
I can never guarantee that a boxwood consort it will stay straight. However, the originals are boxwood and reasonably straight.
