The next information is taken from the Ph.D thesis of Dr. Bouterse [1].
Robbert Wijne was born 30 October 1698 in
Nijmegen.
He was the eldest son from the marriage of Hendrik Wijne and Aaltje
Temmen. His father probably was a locksmith. Robbert married 9 April 1724. He
fathered eight children. Several were in turn involved in professions related to
music. There are quite a number of instruments or parts of instruments left in
Musea and private collections, mainly in the Netherlands.
Robbert Wijne died 30
July 1774 in Nijmegen. It seems that the family was rather well of as they owned
at least two houses.
It should be noted that there was at least
one other flute maker in the family , Willem Wijne. Also from Willem Wijne there
still exists one flute.
The flute shown here is from a private
collection in Utrecht. as can be seen the top tenon needs a cardboard ring to
make the instrument give any sound at all. But then! This is an instrument that
sings when played by any good player.
The instrument probably is in fruit wood, but
I would guess from the weight that it was heavily
impregnated with linseed oil. It is strange that this simple instrument has a
nicely ornamented key.
There are some six originals of flutes of Robbert Wijne in Holland. Three of those I have measured. I am making a copy of the Utrecht
instrument. This is a later flute, maybe 1755. It is an instrument with a
very singing quality.
Personally I am very fond of this flute.The flute has a bit more reedy character than the Beukers without being pinched
in any way. It has a very small mouth hole and carries extremely well.
It even has a really big sound when played well.
The last but important remark I
would like to make on the Wijne is the following. Practically everybody likes
the Beukers and the Tassi, however the Wijne gets two distinct reactions
some players simply do not like it, others immediately and also after owning it
a long time are in love with this flute and usually say 'I play almost
everything on it'. Again, please look at the players testimonials and Jed!
In my opinion the Wijne plays really well if the mouth hole is completely open. One has to experiment with this to find the exact spot where the Wijne is really powerful!!
Maybe I should ad to this that it seems that the Wijne is the new fashion, I dont understand many things and this is one of them.
The instrument below is from another private
collection in the Netherlands. It has amongst others 408 and 415 middle pieces
playing very well.
[1]Dutch woodwind instruments and their
makers, 1660-1760, Ph. D. Thesis of M. C. J. Bouterse, available on CDROM
from the author or from the Dutch "vereniging voor huismuziek" huismuziek@bigfoot.com
