Description
The Cavalier – 1600s Model fife
After some research and discussion with several interested in this model, but lacking access to any known surviving example fife for the English Civil War period, I made an educated guess based upon surviving documentation, paintings and etchings from the period, and a few fifes known to be from the 18th century in England and an alleged 16th century fife in Switzerland as well as one I handled in England. What I came up with is not a reproduction of an original but a good interpretation of a fife likely to have been used in the 17th century in the British Isles for you English Civil War buffs. I named it the Cavalier Model; it is nominally in A (a half-step below the traditional Bb fife commonly used today) which could be regarded as Bb in “Baroque pitch”. The design is faithful to instruments of the time such as small tone holes and embouchure, cylindrical bore, thick walled as English fifes from the following century all seem to have been…
The pieces I currently have are in Bolivian Rosewood (dark) or one in Black Walnut, but will make another to order should a different wood be desired.
