Aysha is my amazing baroque flute teacher!!! I laughed so much during this video as I heard her tell Sarah everything she’s been telling me for the past year haha
I am one of the few people who learnt a simple medieval, transverse, keyless flute before learning modern flute. My local primary school in Sydney, Australia ran after school "extracurricular" classes. One was run by an enthusiastic local amateur musician who loved and collected medieval instruments. I loved music and already was learning piano, loved Bach and had learnt a little recorder so I signed up. I loved the flute right from the start, but we also played psalteries, harp, 3 holed flute, shawm, medieval flageolet and other instruments. At first, I played flute mirror image from copying my teacher. She corrected me and said, if I wanted to play modern flute one day - I would need to swap sides! I thought it was perfectly normal to learn flute this way until I met other flutists in high school. 😄
That is so cool, thanks for sharing! I think playing a keyless flute isn't such a bad idea, to be honest - I did the Suzuki method and was given a little stick with painted on holes just to learn the position before I was entrusted with a (curved headjoint) modern flute! Amazing that you were able to play and try out so many instruments. That must have been a great and enriching experience! Thanks for sharing your story. How great that that was available in Sydney - I already found it to be a wonderful city to visit!
@tennissir1986 I don't know what country you are from, but please don't forget that English speakers come from many different parts of the world. A quick Google of "learnt vs learned" will reveal that "learnt" is common usage in the UK (as it is in Australia where I am from), whereas "learned" is common in the US and presumably other countries as well. Languages are fascinating and complex things.
Many thanks to Aysha for taking part in this video! I'm impressed by how well the traverso blends with the recorder. They are distinctly different but, at the same time, they sound absolutely spectacular together.
Excellent! Played a Boehm flute for many years and took up traverso back in the early 80's after hearing Musica Antiqua Koeln perform "A Musical Offering" using traverso and period strings. A surge in period music playing was taking place back then, though there was next to no pedagogical / method material available then for traverso. My main source of information was in reading Quantz carefully (there was no internet) and in correspondence with other flute players interested in the one-keyed flute. I gave up flute entirely in the early 90's, as my computer career demanded most of my time (tech boom). Now retired, I wanted to play flute again, and after not playing for so long (30 years) decided to take up traverso rather than modern fllute. The instruments are now much more widely available than back in the 80s, and the instructional material and information available via the internet have helped in accelerating progress. Much enjoyed this video!
As a traverso player, this is a fantastic video that goes into lots of detail and interesting info that you do not see elsewhere. Brilliant intro to the instrument. And ending with the best work for recorder and flute. :)
Ooooooh, as a recorder AND traverso-player I enjoyed this video sooooo much! Big thank you to you both, you were great! Dear Aysha, I think you are a great teacher, so PLEASE start a youtube channel: It is time for TEAM TRAVERSO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That's so kind of you! I'd love to do something like that and spread the word about historical flutes... Maybe something for in the future! I'd have to get a bit of gear and tech know-how before taking on a challenge like that!!
Small correction on the 'Eigentopf': The Bach contempory maker is called Johann Heinrich Eichentopf, the modern maker Aurin calls his flute 'Eigentopf' to resemble both the modern approach to create a playable flute and the original ivory flute located in Berlin. The german 'eigen' means something like 'my (own)' or even 'peculiar'.
I've noticed how much distinct sounds the "open" and "forked" notes of the Baroque flute - That's fascinating, and shows you why during the 18th Century often tonalities were considered so much different in sound than they do today: nowadays' instruments are more uniform throughout their range, but they thus have lost some different "flavours" their earlier counterparts had. I also started on the flute, but never have been able to master the embochoure. I've found that of brass instruments (i.e.: the dreaded cornett, which actually I find not that terrible) to be easier 😀😀. Maybe, it also changes from person to person.
Yes, in my humble opinion the modern flute is the pinnacle of progress in some ways, and in other ways the opposite. In our hunger for "easy" fingerings and the ability to play effortlessly in every key, we also lost the beautiful and unique colours that every key intrinsically had. This also means that the composer's use of key signature started to have less meaning once the flute was fully chromatic. I understand that it was necessary due to the larger halls and harder repertoire, but I'm so happy that nowadays I can play any flute I like from renaissance to Boehm! The things that people find to be a handicap are actually what makes the instrument beautiful and unique, once you get to grips with it!
No thumb hole kind of blows my mind. This Baroque flute is lovely and definitely beyond my meagre flute skills. Thanks for bringing some of Team Recorder's spotlight onto this rare instrument.
Changing octaves purely on embouchure is a flutist trick that messes with recorder players' minds. (and wait till the first time you try an ocarina. No upper register).
@@marshallee They are chromatic, but you can't overblow. With a tin whistle, recorder or flute, changing breath pressure or embouchure can make the notes jump an octave (or another distance) up. This can't happen on an ocarina.
Thank you both for a great video. The look on Sarah's face when she tries F to F sharp is priceless. Reminds me when I started with traverso 35 years ago (plastic Aulos AF1 - still my travel flute): a recorder playing friend of mine tried traverso as well at the time but stopped because he felt it was too much like juggling!
Great video. Especially informative towards the end when Aysha was explaining the differences between the 3 flutes … love it “an excuse to have more flutes” ….
Our beloved resin recorder maker „Aulos“ also has got two traverse flute models, one in 415Hz after Stanesby Jr. and the other in 440Hz after Grenser. 😉🤩
I truly love historical flutes -- especially the 8-key ones, but the traverso is another one I adore. However, I find wind instruments to be so brutally difficult that my concentration is entirely taken up with playing, and I have none left over for intonation! When I was messing around on viola, my intonation locked in about a month because that's all it took for me to play and have enough brain left over to hear minor differences. On flute ... it never locked in, and on historical flutes, it has to. I cannot overstate the respect I have for historical wind players.
The 8 key is a particular favourite of mine as well, not my "home" instrument, but I'm currently spending most of my time practising that one! Funny you mention viola - I dabbled as a youngster and I love it very much, but I had more of a knack for winds than strings it seems. Once I saw double stops, I had to tap out! We fluties can handle one note at a time, I'm afraid...
@@ayshawills I remember an old comic about 8-key flutes that's in the Dayton Miller collection: "Breathes there a man with a soul so low who in preference to a Boehm a Meyer would blow?"
The modern flute typically has 16-18 keys if you're counting the holes with padded keys that close over them. If you're counting places on the mechanism that you press to close or open a key, it's 15-17. (The variance depends on which kind of foot joint your flute has, and whether or not your flute has a C# trill key)
Not a player: I found this wonderfully informative and also delightful. Packed with stuff, easy to take in. Also: at the beginning: "The first thing is how to hold the traverso." Half way through: "Oh, I've got it upside down." Sometimes it's the little things.
Since switching from flute to recorder and getting immersed in early music I’ve admired traversos from afar. I learned so much about them from this video. I wondered if the fingerings were anything like the recorder (not really), and I had no idea there’s no thumb hole! The sound is so lovely.
Yay! Hello to any traverso players. So fun to see you meet one. I love the two distinct timbres of the instruments but how they fit each other perfectly. And thanks to Aysha for partcipating - I listened to her album and her playing is absolutely brilliant. Does anyone know what the name of the last duet they played was? I might have a shot at it, really pretty.
Hello! Thanks for watching and listening :-) so happy to hear you enjoyed my album! Are you asking about the last duet we played on two traversi, or the one for flute and recorder?
Amazing video!! It was really interesting to hear that your native language may affect the articulation. (I used be a linguistics student and phonology was my all-time-favorite. Yes, Japanese D as inだ/da is less plosive compared to English D, which makes sense that it’ll make softer sound.) The only problem of your video is that it makes me want to try a new instrument, and now it’s a traverso!!😂 Probably I should get one of those plastic traverso made by Aulos. The recorder and traverso duo at the end was heavenly. Thank you Sarah and Aysha! Love from Japan🇯🇵
Ohh, that’s so interesting to hear about the articulation/language topic from a linguistics point of view! less plosive would indeed give a different articulation. Thanks for your input!
I would love to learn more about linguistics and articulation! Indeed, I found it fascinating also because I love language and linguistics in general and I noticed quite a lot of variety amongst my peers from different countries. Maybe one day I can stop observing passively and perhaps do some real research! Love back, thank you for watching!
I already see the Traverso in between all the recorders of your collection… Beautiful instrument and the fact that you played with little effort stunned me right away!
Great video, thanks for taking the time to make it. It's interesting to get your perspective of the traverso but also nice to get a free lesson from an experienced teacher which are impossible to find.
Starting to watch, curious if it's practically the same as the Irish flute - since I understand it to basically just be the simpler predecessor of the modern concert flute. EDIT: Feels confirmed by the 2 minute mark, haha. 01:45
Welcome to the dark side - we have glorious instruments and sounds! I started 4 decades ago with a tenor bamboo flute that I bought in Guildford... and then I had to go further. Nowdays I love my Hall crystal flutes - and I have a nice, old unkeyed Pratten-style rosewood flute; that's the one I'll be taking to Valhalla!
Sounds like you have quite the collection! I very much enjoyed visiting and speaking with Robert Bigio in London in February - his collection humbles me. I am a huge lover of English flutes. Pratten flutes are gorgeous and rosewood is a very underused material for Traversi these days!
@@ayshawillsmy pratten-style flute isn't a Traversi - although it could possibly be converted, if I was feeling crazy enough. Given that I've just gone down the rabbit-hole with an Akai EWI5000... I'll leave it as it is and keep it as my 'go-to' instrument for working out melodies for my pop/folk/blues and jazz.... Maybe one day I'll buy an Aulos Traversi - for the sake of completeness...?
@@rebeccaabraham8652 yes, I think I know what style of Pratten you're speaking of! I love the EWI. I tried it out and I'm pretty terrible at it, but wow what a thing!
Hello Sarah, I just want to say that I am so impressed with the way you jump into different situations with such confidence and openness to learn. Your videos are inspiring and I always learn from them.
The tricky part is learning to play left hand. But a pair of Baroque flute players, side by side, one left hand and one right hand is gorgeous. That weird 2-key foot on Aysha's flute may be a bit difficult to play left hand.
Looks good, doesn't it- something like the brothers Doppler who famously performed shoulder to shoulder, one leftie and one rightie. Maybe that's the next step!
Depends if you're left handed or right handed I should think. There are two keys because Quanz wanted one for the sharps and one for the flats, for playing unequal temperaments.
What are the odds?! I was just practicing Telemann's 8th fantasia on my Aulos AF1 plastic baroque flute. I've been eye'ing a Grenadilla Palanca flute for years, those to me make the best baroque sound. Anyway, for all recorder players out there, flutes are your horizontal brothers. Telemann's Concerto in E minor for recorder and flute looks like such a joy to play: ruclips.net/video/vODV7JePMds/видео.html
Thanks for having me! Really enjoyed even though I was nervous at the start.... Caught a brain fart moment: for all the (transverse) flute nerds, I apologise... The first iteration of the Boehm flute was from 1832, not 1831.... Though I guess it depends on what calendar you deign to use!
Amazing video and really eye opening for us recorder players. Thank you so much for introducing us to the truly lovely Traverso. You tone is gorgeous and I'm looking forward to hearing your album!
So well done in every aspect! I myself play recorders and traverso as well, though my heart (and my embrochure LOL) is with the recorder :) Thank you Sarah and Aysha!
Fantastic conversation - and I'm not even a recorder or transverse flute player; but any wind person can learn something. Except bone players, of course.
2:40 Barthold Kuijken, Stephen Preston, Wilbert Hazelzet, Felipe Egaña (my Chilean friend), Rachel Brown, Kate Clark, Amanda Markwick, Mara Winter, Johanna Bartz, Marco Brolli.
Felipe is a dear colleague! So many players I admire who I didn't name in the video - enough to fill their own video! I was biking home after filming thinking to myself about all of the people I didn't name... 😅
Thank you for sharing! I should have mentioned Jed Wentz of course, who was my masters thesis supervisor! (he was really excellent at that too - I remember him gently bollocking me for using the word 'thusly' too much)
@@Team_Recorder I vowed not to listen to Bach sonatas before making my recording, but I did secretly listen to a track or two of Jed's recordings.... And I felt massively inferior! A great musician and a great person!
Obvious to me how immediately proficient you are Sarah! Would have been interesting to have Aysha try the recorder. In any case, lots of similarities between the 2. As someone who has "different" and older flutes this was an interesting discussion and session. Thank you both!!
24:55 - Imagine having two makers in the same place at the same time called Eigentopf and Eichentopf - that must've caused some confusion if you misheard the name! Then again more recently, there were different Mollenhauers, Uebels, Wurlitzers, Keilwerths and others in Germany all producing woodwinds. Also Selmer, Selmer, Selmer and Selmer - Paris, USA, London and Dusseldorf.
I absolutely love the baroque flute. I have several in my collection none of which I can play, but it’s fun collecting baroque flutes. My Quantz is by far my favorite. This was a wonderful surprise to see you on RUclips today. Please what is the Method book you played from? I have Method for the one keyed flute. ❤❤❤❤
Wow Sarah! That was great! What a model student! You should go for it! I have a question for Aysha, though I don’t know if she’ll read the comments. I’ve had a couple traverso students, and I’ve surprisingly found that modern flute players struggle more with getting the rudiments of the traverso than recorder players. Moderns flute players seem to get frustrated with the transition to tone holes from keys, and with the comparatively tiny embouchure. Aysha, have you found this to be true? Or is this just unique to my particular experience with the few students I’ve had. I’m less experience teacher, so if you read this comment, I would like you insights.
I have definitely found this to be true, depending on the level of the modern flutist though. If it's a professional or semi professional, they often take it in their stride. However, amateurs tend to struggle more - the majority of my amateur Traverso students have either come from recorder or voice, or are just starting fresh with Traverso! I have noticed that modern players tend to favour the Palanca, with it's larger embouchure and more hefty weight....
@@ayshawills Thank you! That makes sense. I myself had a background in recorder and voice, so that tracks. Though I had stopped playing and singing many years before, I picked up the traverso as its own world, rather than as a transition from one instrument to another. To be fair, and did dabble in some tradition flutes, like the lupaca flute, the quena, and even the bansuri flute, a little, so approaching the traverso didn’t seem quite foreign to me. Yes, they do like their Palancas, and it seems everyone and their relatives has a Palanca by Martin Wenner nowadays. Frankly, I’m not a fan the Palanca (I do have a Wenner flute, not a Palanca of course, so nothing against the Wenner workshop).
@@rrssna I feel the same way about the Palanca - I understand the appeal, but it's just not for me. I like a slightly more mild and nuanced sound, and like you say it is absolutely nothing to do with the build of the instrument, it's just personal preference! I just received a recorder and a Ney flute for my birthday, so I guess those will be my next projects!!
@@ayshawills Oh, I'm curious about the recorder, but I'm even more curious about the Ney flute. I find the Ney flute to be,... and I don't know how not to sound lascivious... very sensual (consider the 4th or 5th entries of the dictionary entries). Let me know how your Ney flute project goes.
I'd be interested to hear if Aysha has any suggestions for a traverso for someone interested in exploring the instrument. What's a good entry level instrument?
What a brilliant video. It's probably too late to get an answer, but I'd love to know more about unequal temperaments on historical flutes. When did they stop playing sharps differently from flats? Was it when Bohm flutes appeared, or earlier or later? (Keyboard organologists don't agree eg what kind of temperament JS Bach used on his harpsichords and clavichords: some say it was ET, others that it was some kind of "Well" temperament. - not ET but not too far from it either. But if Bach's flute music is unequal temperament, doesn°t it make it more likely that his keyboards were too?)
I'm by no means an expert on temperament, but I know that there are many modern flute players who still intonate sharps lower than flats - and we regularly talk about low thirds and high fifths in modern ensembles, for example! From the introduction of keys, notes started to share fingerings. For example, the horrible g sharp cross fingering became a simple g plus pinky key, so why have to play and learn two cross fingerings rather than just one simple keyed fingering? At that moment players would have had to use their ears and minds to intonate that single fingering as two notes, rather than have two distinct fingerings which kind of do the work for you. There are several works for keyboard and otherwise which encompass all keys, many predating the WTC. This includes a work by Schickhardt which includes flute (or violin) sonatas in all keys, certainly predating our ability to be easily in tune with all of them! Composers were certainly exploring the limitations of the instruments and paving the way for future developments. I know too little about keyboard history to say, but I think the general consensus is that Bach tried many temperaments during his lifetime, as any curious mind would, and that the WTC is written for a keyboard in a kind of... Unequal well temperament, if that makes sense! That is how I experience the flute sonatas as well. Each key is certainly distinct and each tonality has its own personality, sound and challenges. It is hard to recreate on a Boehm flute, for sure, since historical instruments do part of the work for you!
@@ayshawills Thank you very much for your answer. I find the whole subject a little mind-blowing - it's a bit like the differences in sounds between different languages. My first instruments were recorders with "low" pure thirds, and a lifetime later I still remember how disconcerted I was by my first guitar with its "high" equal temperament thirds. Western classical music largely ignores these shadings of pitch - it seems a bit like a secret sauce only known to string players and wind players - while other musical traditions, like Indian ragas, build endlessly complex structures out of them.
Yes, this is a copy of Eichentopf, but since my Traverso builder (Fridtjof Aurin) had to make some adjustments to the instrument in order to make it function, he called it his "eigentopf" ("eigen" is the German word for "my own")- so it's just a German language pun... Same maker, indeed!
I'm just curious, I know some woodwind teachers start students out on the recorder before they move the students to the other woodwinds family. What is your opinion about that approach to woodwind instruction? Also, do you play the baroque clarinet?
Nowadays, yes- but in the past, each note had an ever so slightly different pitch which corresponded with harmonic function. D sharp slightly lower than e flat, as it often functions as a third, meaning it should be intimated slightly lower than if it were a tonic or fifth. Hope that's useful!
@@ayshawills Thank you for the reply. Yes, it was helpful. Under standing tuning, where A4 is 440 Hz, Eb4/D4 is 311.13 Hz. Now I am wondering what frequency is Eb4 and D#4 in the past.
It's very likely! I've been here for a total of 14 years this year and I've just turned 30, so I would presume that time and immersion have taken their toll! I'd say I speak Dutch about 25% of the time in my home life and 90% of the time in my work life!
In French, une flute traversière usually means a modern concert flute. (It reminds me of the difference between piano, pianoforte and fortepiano, which doesn't work the same way in English as in German.)
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Aysha is my amazing baroque flute teacher!!! I laughed so much during this video as I heard her tell Sarah everything she’s been telling me for the past year haha
❤️❤️
Ahhhh nice!
I am one of the few people who learnt a simple medieval, transverse, keyless flute before learning modern flute. My local primary school in Sydney, Australia ran after school "extracurricular" classes. One was run by an enthusiastic local amateur musician who loved and collected medieval instruments. I loved music and already was learning piano, loved Bach and had learnt a little recorder so I signed up. I loved the flute right from the start, but we also played psalteries, harp, 3 holed flute, shawm, medieval flageolet and other instruments. At first, I played flute mirror image from copying my teacher. She corrected me and said, if I wanted to play modern flute one day - I would need to swap sides! I thought it was perfectly normal to learn flute this way until I met other flutists in high school. 😄
That is so cool, thanks for sharing! I think playing a keyless flute isn't such a bad idea, to be honest - I did the Suzuki method and was given a little stick with painted on holes just to learn the position before I was entrusted with a (curved headjoint) modern flute! Amazing that you were able to play and try out so many instruments. That must have been a great and enriching experience! Thanks for sharing your story. How great that that was available in Sydney - I already found it to be a wonderful city to visit!
It’s learned not learnt.
@tennissir1986 I don't know what country you are from, but please don't forget that English speakers come from many different parts of the world. A quick Google of "learnt vs learned" will reveal that "learnt" is common usage in the UK (as it is in Australia where I am from), whereas "learned" is common in the US and presumably other countries as well. Languages are fascinating and complex things.
Many thanks to Aysha for taking part in this video!
I'm impressed by how well the traverso blends with the recorder.
They are distinctly different but, at the same time, they sound absolutely spectacular together.
The recorder and the traverso together are heavenly!
Excellent! Played a Boehm flute for many years and took up traverso back in the early 80's after hearing Musica Antiqua Koeln perform "A Musical Offering" using traverso and period strings. A surge in period music playing was taking place back then, though there was next to no pedagogical / method material available then for traverso. My main source of information was in reading Quantz carefully (there was no internet) and in correspondence with other flute players interested in the one-keyed flute. I gave up flute entirely in the early 90's, as my computer career demanded most of my time (tech boom). Now retired, I wanted to play flute again, and after not playing for so long (30 years) decided to take up traverso rather than modern fllute. The instruments are now much more widely available than back in the 80s, and the instructional material and information available via the internet have helped in accelerating progress. Much enjoyed this video!
As a traverso player, this is a fantastic video that goes into lots of detail and interesting info that you do not see elsewhere. Brilliant intro to the instrument. And ending with the best work for recorder and flute. :)
So happy that so many traverso players are flocking here 🥲
Ooooooh, as a recorder AND traverso-player I enjoyed this video sooooo much! Big thank you to you both, you were great!
Dear Aysha, I think you are a great teacher, so PLEASE start a youtube channel: It is time for TEAM TRAVERSO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Aysha is SUCH a good teacher! Team Traverso for the win!
That's so kind of you! I'd love to do something like that and spread the word about historical flutes... Maybe something for in the future! I'd have to get a bit of gear and tech know-how before taking on a challenge like that!!
Small correction on the 'Eigentopf': The Bach contempory maker is called Johann Heinrich Eichentopf, the modern maker Aurin calls his flute 'Eigentopf' to resemble both the modern approach to create a playable flute and the original ivory flute located in Berlin. The german 'eigen' means something like 'my (own)' or even 'peculiar'.
Indeed, thanks for the clarification in a main comment! I posted this in a reply somewhere, but it will be buried of course.
Ah thanks, that was my misunderstanding! Of course in Dutch ‘Eigentopf’ and ‘Eichentopf’ are pronounced the same 😅
@@Team_Recorder omg I hadn't even thought of that!!!
I would watch you two play together for HOURS, that was such a joy!
OMFG I LOVE AYSHA!!!!! Her playing is just heavenly!!!!
Thank you so much, that means a lot to me to read!! 🙏🏻
I've noticed how much distinct sounds the "open" and "forked" notes of the Baroque flute - That's fascinating, and shows you why during the 18th Century often tonalities were considered so much different in sound than they do today: nowadays' instruments are more uniform throughout their range, but they thus have lost some different "flavours" their earlier counterparts had.
I also started on the flute, but never have been able to master the embochoure. I've found that of brass instruments (i.e.: the dreaded cornett, which actually I find not that terrible) to be easier 😀😀. Maybe, it also changes from person to person.
Yes, that’s why I love the recorder too!
Yes, in my humble opinion the modern flute is the pinnacle of progress in some ways, and in other ways the opposite. In our hunger for "easy" fingerings and the ability to play effortlessly in every key, we also lost the beautiful and unique colours that every key intrinsically had. This also means that the composer's use of key signature started to have less meaning once the flute was fully chromatic. I understand that it was necessary due to the larger halls and harder repertoire, but I'm so happy that nowadays I can play any flute I like from renaissance to Boehm! The things that people find to be a handicap are actually what makes the instrument beautiful and unique, once you get to grips with it!
No thumb hole kind of blows my mind. This Baroque flute is lovely and definitely beyond my meagre flute skills. Thanks for bringing some of Team Recorder's spotlight onto this rare instrument.
Changing octaves purely on embouchure is a flutist trick that messes with recorder players' minds. (and wait till the first time you try an ocarina. No upper register).
@@josephwisniewski3673 I thought ocarinas were chromatic instruments. Or it is because I'm new to music and don't understand this?
@@marshallee They are chromatic, but you can't overblow. With a tin whistle, recorder or flute, changing breath pressure or embouchure can make the notes jump an octave (or another distance) up. This can't happen on an ocarina.
The recorder and the traverso together sounds really nice
Thank you both for a great video. The look on Sarah's face when she tries F to F sharp is priceless. Reminds me when I started with traverso 35 years ago (plastic Aulos AF1 - still my travel flute): a recorder playing friend of mine tried traverso as well at the time but stopped because he felt it was too much like juggling!
Great video. Especially informative towards the end when Aysha was explaining the differences between the 3 flutes … love it “an excuse to have more flutes” ….
There are worse vices to have, I suppose!
At last count I have 107.
Our beloved resin recorder maker „Aulos“ also has got two traverse flute models, one in 415Hz after Stanesby Jr. and the other in 440Hz after Grenser. 😉🤩
i admire Root so much!!! i listen to a lot of his recordings with the netherlands bach society and he was my introduction to the traverso! love it
Just bought a bamboo traverso flute from a well know luthier in my country. Thank you for your videos Sarah, your energy and enthusiasm is contagious!
I truly love historical flutes -- especially the 8-key ones, but the traverso is another one I adore. However, I find wind instruments to be so brutally difficult that my concentration is entirely taken up with playing, and I have none left over for intonation! When I was messing around on viola, my intonation locked in about a month because that's all it took for me to play and have enough brain left over to hear minor differences. On flute ... it never locked in, and on historical flutes, it has to. I cannot overstate the respect I have for historical wind players.
The 8 key is a particular favourite of mine as well, not my "home" instrument, but I'm currently spending most of my time practising that one!
Funny you mention viola - I dabbled as a youngster and I love it very much, but I had more of a knack for winds than strings it seems. Once I saw double stops, I had to tap out! We fluties can handle one note at a time, I'm afraid...
@@ayshawills I remember an old comic about 8-key flutes that's in the Dayton Miller collection: "Breathes there a man with a soul so low who in preference to a Boehm a Meyer would blow?"
The modern flute typically has 16-18 keys if you're counting the holes with padded keys that close over them. If you're counting places on the mechanism that you press to close or open a key, it's 15-17. (The variance depends on which kind of foot joint your flute has, and whether or not your flute has a C# trill key)
Shopping for a resin/plastic traverso! This was fantastic. That last piece was so fun. Sarah reading music like the rest of us read words on a page.
Not a player: I found this wonderfully informative and also delightful. Packed with stuff, easy to take in.
Also: at the beginning: "The first thing is how to hold the traverso." Half way through: "Oh, I've got it upside down." Sometimes it's the little things.
Since switching from flute to recorder and getting immersed in early music I’ve admired traversos from afar. I learned so much about them from this video. I wondered if the fingerings were anything like the recorder (not really), and I had no idea there’s no thumb hole! The sound is so lovely.
Traverso and recorder sound very beautiful together!
Yay! Hello to any traverso players. So fun to see you meet one. I love the two distinct timbres of the instruments but how they fit each other perfectly. And thanks to Aysha for partcipating - I listened to her album and her playing is absolutely brilliant. Does anyone know what the name of the last duet they played was? I might have a shot at it, really pretty.
Hello! Thanks for watching and listening :-) so happy to hear you enjoyed my album!
Are you asking about the last duet we played on two traversi, or the one for flute and recorder?
@@ayshawills You're really welcome! I was wondering about the flute and recorder, since I'm a recorder player :) Thank you for responding.
@@InkByt3 That duet is the final movement of the Quantz trio sonata in C major. It's great music! I love the first movement a lot as well :)
@@ayshawills Thank you! Sorry to bother you again, but what was the second last duet that you played on recorder and traverso?
Amazing video!! It was really interesting to hear that your native language may affect the articulation. (I used be a linguistics student and phonology was my all-time-favorite. Yes, Japanese D as inだ/da is less plosive compared to English D, which makes sense that it’ll make softer sound.) The only problem of your video is that it makes me want to try a new instrument, and now it’s a traverso!!😂 Probably I should get one of those plastic traverso made by Aulos. The recorder and traverso duo at the end was heavenly. Thank you Sarah and Aysha! Love from Japan🇯🇵
Ohh, that’s so interesting to hear about the articulation/language topic from a linguistics point of view! less plosive would indeed give a different articulation. Thanks for your input!
I would love to learn more about linguistics and articulation! Indeed, I found it fascinating also because I love language and linguistics in general and I noticed quite a lot of variety amongst my peers from different countries. Maybe one day I can stop observing passively and perhaps do some real research!
Love back, thank you for watching!
I already see the Traverso in between all the recorders of your collection… Beautiful instrument and the fact that you played with little effort stunned me right away!
Thank you! I think I edited out all the effort.. 😂
@@Team_Recorder 😂 Well i must say you did a good job! 😉 Still hope you stay with the recorder gang though… 🎶
Lovely music from two lovely ladies. 😊
That was a wonderful show. Both teachers were excellent!! Aysha was a fantastic find. Thanks!
Great video, thanks for taking the time to make it. It's interesting to get your perspective of the traverso but also nice to get a free lesson from an experienced teacher which are impossible to find.
Starting to watch, curious if it's practically the same as the Irish flute - since I understand it to basically just be the simpler predecessor of the modern concert flute.
EDIT: Feels confirmed by the 2 minute mark, haha. 01:45
Haha I love this
Beautiful beautiful beautiful! The two instruments go so great together! I am so happy to see more and more content on baroque instruments!
Wow this video has perfect timing! I am a recorder player and just purchased a second hand french traverso! Your tips will be helpful
Welcome to the dark side - we have glorious instruments and sounds! I started 4 decades ago with a tenor bamboo flute that I bought in Guildford... and then I had to go further. Nowdays I love my Hall crystal flutes - and I have a nice, old unkeyed Pratten-style rosewood flute; that's the one I'll be taking to Valhalla!
Sounds like you have quite the collection! I very much enjoyed visiting and speaking with Robert Bigio in London in February - his collection humbles me. I am a huge lover of English flutes. Pratten flutes are gorgeous and rosewood is a very underused material for Traversi these days!
@@ayshawillsmy pratten-style flute isn't a Traversi - although it could possibly be converted, if I was feeling crazy enough. Given that I've just gone down the rabbit-hole with an Akai EWI5000... I'll leave it as it is and keep it as my 'go-to' instrument for working out melodies for my pop/folk/blues and jazz.... Maybe one day I'll buy an Aulos Traversi - for the sake of completeness...?
@@rebeccaabraham8652 yes, I think I know what style of Pratten you're speaking of! I love the EWI. I tried it out and I'm pretty terrible at it, but wow what a thing!
Hello Sarah, I just want to say that I am so impressed with the way you jump into different situations with such confidence and openness to learn. Your videos are inspiring and I always learn from them.
Thank you 🥹
The tricky part is learning to play left hand. But a pair of Baroque flute players, side by side, one left hand and one right hand is gorgeous.
That weird 2-key foot on Aysha's flute may be a bit difficult to play left hand.
Looks good, doesn't it- something like the brothers Doppler who famously performed shoulder to shoulder, one leftie and one rightie. Maybe that's the next step!
Depends if you're left handed or right handed I should think. There are two keys because Quanz wanted one for the sharps and one for the flats, for playing unequal temperaments.
Sarah, your videos are always so well made and interesting. I’ve learned a lot from watching you present all sorts of musical things, so many thanks
What are the odds?! I was just practicing Telemann's 8th fantasia on my Aulos AF1 plastic baroque flute. I've been eye'ing a Grenadilla Palanca flute for years, those to me make the best baroque sound. Anyway, for all recorder players out there, flutes are your horizontal brothers. Telemann's Concerto in E minor for recorder and flute looks like such a joy to play: ruclips.net/video/vODV7JePMds/видео.html
Oh the Telemann double concerto is the best!!
A beautiful instrument! Well done! Thanks! 😎
Thanks for having me! Really enjoyed even though I was nervous at the start....
Caught a brain fart moment: for all the (transverse) flute nerds, I apologise... The first iteration of the Boehm flute was from 1832, not 1831.... Though I guess it depends on what calendar you deign to use!
Amazing video and really eye opening for us recorder players. Thank you so much for introducing us to the truly lovely Traverso. You tone is gorgeous and I'm looking forward to hearing your album!
@@7ennifer the pleasure was all mine! I'm glad you enjoyed the video, I hope you enjoy listening to the album as well!
So well done in every aspect! I myself play recorders and traverso as well, though my heart (and my embrochure LOL) is with the recorder :) Thank you Sarah and Aysha!
That was so interesting and fun to see/hear! I would love to hear you play more traverso/recorder duets. That was so beautiful!
Fantastic conversation - and I'm not even a recorder or transverse flute player; but any wind person can learn something.
Except bone players, of course.
Love the collaboration. Great video!
Best regards from Argentina!
Do baroque oboe next!!! I'm really curious at how a recorder player approaches the instrument.
This video is awesome, the duet is perfect!
Lovely, this. Cheers, thanks for the video!
There is a wonderful double concerto by Telemann for traverso and recorder, look it up if you like the sound of those two together !
I'm always so happy when a new video is released! This might be one of my favourites! 😍❤
Fantastic video!
❤ Baroque is the best of the best (at least that's what my dear teacher told me 30 years ago ❤ never forget you, Frau Schmelzer)
Thank you. Inspired to get my lockdown Traverso out again. I feel it really helps me to play the metal flute in a better and more rekaxed way.
2:40 Barthold Kuijken, Stephen Preston, Wilbert Hazelzet, Felipe Egaña (my Chilean friend), Rachel Brown, Kate Clark, Amanda Markwick, Mara Winter, Johanna Bartz, Marco Brolli.
Felipe is a dear colleague! So many players I admire who I didn't name in the video - enough to fill their own video! I was biking home after filming thinking to myself about all of the people I didn't name... 😅
Thank you for sharing! I should have mentioned Jed Wentz of course, who was my masters thesis supervisor! (he was really excellent at that too - I remember him gently bollocking me for using the word 'thusly' too much)
@@Team_Recorder I vowed not to listen to Bach sonatas before making my recording, but I did secretly listen to a track or two of Jed's recordings.... And I felt massively inferior! A great musician and a great person!
I love the way you sound together ❤️ 🎶
Obvious to me how immediately proficient you are Sarah! Would have been interesting to have Aysha try the recorder. In any case, lots of similarities between the 2. As someone who has "different" and older flutes this was an interesting discussion and session. Thank you both!!
Excellent musicians thanks for sharing!!
I enjoyed all your playingy bits :)
Omg, I was expecting this video so much, I really enjoyed it.
Thank you to all my followers who kept asking for a traverso video 😄
24:55 - Imagine having two makers in the same place at the same time called Eigentopf and Eichentopf - that must've caused some confusion if you misheard the name! Then again more recently, there were different Mollenhauers, Uebels, Wurlitzers, Keilwerths and others in Germany all producing woodwinds.
Also Selmer, Selmer, Selmer and Selmer - Paris, USA, London and Dusseldorf.
this is awesome
Love traverso
I love a bit of Boismortier.
Please let me know the duets you guys played!
A very delightful and interesting video!
So nice video!! thank Sarah...
I’m the first comment, yaaaay! Do you recommend the Mollenhaurer Dream Alto Recorder? I’m looking for an alto with really big low notes.
Yes I love those!
Sarah, you are inspired!
Ah I play flute. The right hand little finger on my flute has three keys, but they do vary according to how low the instrument goes. Mine goes to a C.
To do:
Practice more traverso.
Listen to more Aysha.
Wait for Aysha and Sarah to do the Telemann double concerto 😏
That would be a dream!!! I LOOOOVE that piece 🤭
@@ayshawills Don't we all. And the combined sound of the two of you is definitely dream material 😊🩷🎶🪈
I absolutely love the baroque flute. I have several in my collection none of which I can play, but it’s fun collecting baroque flutes. My Quantz is by far my favorite. This was a wonderful surprise to see you on RUclips today. Please what is the Method book you played from? I have Method for the one keyed flute. ❤❤❤❤
It’s the New Method for Traverso by Doretthe Janssens- info and link is in the video description!
Amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You've "turned me onto" recorders. I need to get one!
Yessss do it!
A "beginners" guide to available transverso flute instruments would be delightful....👍 Wood and plastic/resin.
15-18 keys on a flute depending on the instrument (probably inacurate just mental)
Wow Sarah! That was great! What a model student! You should go for it! I have a question for Aysha, though I don’t know if she’ll read the comments. I’ve had a couple traverso students, and I’ve surprisingly found that modern flute players struggle more with getting the rudiments of the traverso than recorder players. Moderns flute players seem to get frustrated with the transition to tone holes from keys, and with the comparatively tiny embouchure. Aysha, have you found this to be true? Or is this just unique to my particular experience with the few students I’ve had. I’m less experience teacher, so if you read this comment, I would like you insights.
I have definitely found this to be true, depending on the level of the modern flutist though. If it's a professional or semi professional, they often take it in their stride. However, amateurs tend to struggle more - the majority of my amateur Traverso students have either come from recorder or voice, or are just starting fresh with Traverso!
I have noticed that modern players tend to favour the Palanca, with it's larger embouchure and more hefty weight....
@@ayshawills Thank you! That makes sense. I myself had a background in recorder and voice, so that tracks. Though I had stopped playing and singing many years before, I picked up the traverso as its own world, rather than as a transition from one instrument to another. To be fair, and did dabble in some tradition flutes, like the lupaca flute, the quena, and even the bansuri flute, a little, so approaching the traverso didn’t seem quite foreign to me.
Yes, they do like their Palancas, and it seems everyone and their relatives has a Palanca by Martin Wenner nowadays. Frankly, I’m not a fan the Palanca (I do have a Wenner flute, not a Palanca of course, so nothing against the Wenner workshop).
@@rrssna I feel the same way about the Palanca - I understand the appeal, but it's just not for me. I like a slightly more mild and nuanced sound, and like you say it is absolutely nothing to do with the build of the instrument, it's just personal preference!
I just received a recorder and a Ney flute for my birthday, so I guess those will be my next projects!!
@@ayshawills Oh, I'm curious about the recorder, but I'm even more curious about the Ney flute. I find the Ney flute to be,... and I don't know how not to sound lascivious... very sensual (consider the 4th or 5th entries of the dictionary entries). Let me know how your Ney flute project goes.
The traverso is beautiful! Though I don't think I need the temptation to buy yet another instrument! XD
How are you going to have time for traverso when you have Bassoon level 2 to pass? 🙂
I'd be interested to hear if Aysha has any suggestions for a traverso for someone interested in exploring the instrument. What's a good entry level instrument?
Do you have a preferred beginner book? I'm new to the recorder. I play the whistle but decided I love the sound of the Alto recorder
Who is launching the Team Traverso channel??
I have only one thing to say: I TOLD YOU SO!!!!
Same with singing. A high note is placed inaginalary low,
This must be the most tender and nonpompous instrument of all.
It is a beautiful flute, but it is so expensive in Brazil.
What a brilliant video.
It's probably too late to get an answer, but I'd love to know more about unequal temperaments on historical flutes. When did they stop playing sharps differently from flats? Was it when Bohm flutes appeared, or earlier or later?
(Keyboard organologists don't agree eg what kind of temperament JS Bach used on his harpsichords and clavichords: some say it was ET, others that it was some kind of "Well" temperament. - not ET but not too far from it either. But if Bach's flute music is unequal temperament, doesn°t it make it more likely that his keyboards were too?)
I'm by no means an expert on temperament, but I know that there are many modern flute players who still intonate sharps lower than flats - and we regularly talk about low thirds and high fifths in modern ensembles, for example! From the introduction of keys, notes started to share fingerings. For example, the horrible g sharp cross fingering became a simple g plus pinky key, so why have to play and learn two cross fingerings rather than just one simple keyed fingering? At that moment players would have had to use their ears and minds to intonate that single fingering as two notes, rather than have two distinct fingerings which kind of do the work for you.
There are several works for keyboard and otherwise which encompass all keys, many predating the WTC. This includes a work by Schickhardt which includes flute (or violin) sonatas in all keys, certainly predating our ability to be easily in tune with all of them! Composers were certainly exploring the limitations of the instruments and paving the way for future developments. I know too little about keyboard history to say, but I think the general consensus is that Bach tried many temperaments during his lifetime, as any curious mind would, and that the WTC is written for a keyboard in a kind of... Unequal well temperament, if that makes sense! That is how I experience the flute sonatas as well. Each key is certainly distinct and each tonality has its own personality, sound and challenges. It is hard to recreate on a Boehm flute, for sure, since historical instruments do part of the work for you!
@@ayshawills Thank you very much for your answer. I find the whole subject a little mind-blowing - it's a bit like the differences in sounds between different languages. My first instruments were recorders with "low" pure thirds, and a lifetime later I still remember how disconcerted I was by my first guitar with its "high" equal temperament thirds. Western classical music largely ignores these shadings of pitch - it seems a bit like a secret sauce only known to string players and wind players - while other musical traditions, like Indian ragas, build endlessly complex structures out of them.
Thanks for the new video. That stuff is cool of course but not accessible at all compared to the recorders. So recorders are still the best.
I bet there are some oriental modes that make good use of this F of yours! And, isn't the low D a bit low actually?
The lowest notes on any transverse flute definitely tend to be on the low side!
Is Eigentopf the same Eichentopf that made bassoons?
Yes, this is a copy of Eichentopf, but since my Traverso builder (Fridtjof Aurin) had to make some adjustments to the instrument in order to make it function, he called it his "eigentopf" ("eigen" is the German word for "my own")- so it's just a German language pun...
Same maker, indeed!
Oh that is so cool to know!
Do we have a new traverso player, Sarah? 😂
maaaaaybe 😅
This sounds as a yes to me. Sorry. Lol
I'm just curious, I know some woodwind teachers start students out on the recorder before they move the students to the other woodwinds family. What is your opinion about that approach to woodwind instruction? Also, do you play the baroque clarinet?
You can play in all 12 keys on the flute. I'll "settle" for a good abs alto or tenor recorder :) lol :D
My understanding is that Eb is the same as D#.
Nowadays, yes- but in the past, each note had an ever so slightly different pitch which corresponded with harmonic function. D sharp slightly lower than e flat, as it often functions as a third, meaning it should be intimated slightly lower than if it were a tonic or fifth. Hope that's useful!
@@ayshawills Thank you for the reply. Yes, it was helpful. Under standing tuning, where A4 is 440 Hz, Eb4/D4 is 311.13 Hz. Now I am wondering what frequency is Eb4 and D#4 in the past.
Sounds like a low whistle imo
Do I detect a slight hint of a Dutch accent with this Canadian lass?
It's very likely! I've been here for a total of 14 years this year and I've just turned 30, so I would presume that time and immersion have taken their toll! I'd say I speak Dutch about 25% of the time in my home life and 90% of the time in my work life!
Careful, Sarah! Stay true to the recorder! Baroque flute could be the gateway drug...
I already managed to resist the bassoon! 😄
Cool quantz flute
Thanks Dr Toboggan, big fan of your work!
@@ayshawillsthanks so much for the lesson! Sarah sounds good I hope she keeps playing.
rare to hear some vibrato on transverse baroque flute !
"Traversa" is for Renaissance and Medieval transverse flutes, "Traversiere" is for Baroque transverse flutes 😉
In French, une flute traversière usually means a modern concert flute. (It reminds me of the difference between piano, pianoforte and fortepiano, which doesn't work the same way in English as in German.)
Converted from...?
recorder!