Description
Ralph had ventured into replicating the flute in D of the Baroque era from some originals that he had measured. At some point, he had decided that these were weak in tone and needed more of that iconic “Irish sound”, and so enlarged the embouchure. This gave Ralph’s Baroque flutes a poor reputation among purists, and after some time, Ralph borrowed some original, historic flutes to adjust his own to. The end result was that his earliest and his last batch were essentially the same, while the middle years were not his best examples. Still, there are some performers who like the flutes from the earliest years and of the last set. The Baroque flute maker’s world has proven to be somewhat “cut-throat” and only someone devoted to this design can make it beyond selling but a few.
Here is a flute from one of Ralph’s earlier sets, before the “Irish adjustment” period. It was in Ralph’s collection and the A=440 section was unfinished. I have completed it, cleaned up the pieces from knocking about in one of Ralph’s bench drawers, and I offer it here. It has BOTH upper-middle sections for “modern pitch” (A=440) and for “Baroque pitch” (A-415). Maple wood, single silver key.
