Here are the notes made by my jury in my Third Year Recital for Performance Flute at the University of Western Ontario! These notes will go along with the third year pieces here. Be sure to have a listen. I thought this could be very interesting for studying flutists. The two jurors thoughts are listed below. Enjoy :D
Relax! (yes, this is the first thing the juror wrote down! It’s very good advice.)
Telemann:
Vocalise:
Divertimento:
Burton:
Mendelssohn:
Overall:
Numerical Grade: 78 Letter Grade: B+
This is a beautiful piece sometimes used for the wedding processional. Here I am playing it with orchestra accompaniment but naturally I can play it flute alone if you prefer!
Moving from playing a student model flute to an intermediate makes a huge difference in your sound and ability to play. You get to put a lot more air into these flutes too!
Some features with intermediate flutes include:
French Style / Open Holed
Intermediate flutes are usually open-holed or ‘French style’. Until you are used to playing open holed you can have little corks or plastic plugs put in the holes and then remove them one at a time as you get used to the placement of your fingers. You will love feeling the air go through the flute! French style flutes typically offer either a silver or silver-plated head joint and/or body.
Silver Head Joint
To make your investment in an intermediate flute worthwhile you should go for the solid silver head joint. You can use more air with a silver head joint and get quality sound at faster speeds. Overall the tone is much richer. A silver plated body is fine with a solid silver head joint. Of course solid silver is more expensive but with that also comes more refined mechanism function and with more silver always a better sound.
When you buy a silver headjoint or silver plated body NEVER polish it with silvo. Your flute sure will look nice but silvo will wear down your flute affecting the sound. Instead use a white polishing cloth with the gray cover cloth, cloths with microbeads/silica work well. Rubbing a bit of alcohol over the flute will clean well too but not wear down your flute.
B Foot vs C Foot
B Foot allows you better tuning in the top register and also allows you to play higher notes. It also gives good sound to the lowest register. And of course you get to play low B. ;)
Off Set G or In line G
This makes no difference to the sound but for some reason professional players usually opt for the in line G. It takes a bit of getting used to but I do not believe it makes a difference in the sound – you should ask though while you’re testing them out.
Extras
Explaining Model Numbers
All those model numbers that you see with flutes are just different levels of features or what they are made of so you can tell them apart. My intermediate flute was a Yamaha 385H: silver head joint, open hole, inline G, silver plated body, B foot. It is a really good flute and I really enjoyed playing it! I used it for university year 1 and 2 and grade 13 (grade 13?! yes back in the day there was grade 13 better known as OAC around here) when I was taking private lessons preparing for university auditions. Until that point I had been using a student model Yamaha.
On Yamaha
Yamaha flutes are great instruments – very good sound, mechanics, and overall quality. I have not ever tried to play another make before but with my scheduled flute check up coming up I might get to try something different as a loaner! So I’m looking forward to hearing and feeling the difference of another make. Other flutes like Pearls and Jupiters offer the same features as Yamaha and are cheaper, but these flutes don’t have the quality of Yamahas. Still, they are viable possibilities, and some people really love them so don’t count them out and do play them and decide for yourself!
Whatever intermediate flute you get, there these are the features I recommend:
- silver headjoint
- open holes
- B foot
- silver plated body or solid silver if you are in the market
Try all kinds of makes and intermediate models when you are out shopping around — you will be the wiser for it.
Whichever intermediate flute you get enjoy it! It’s a big investment; you will be able to put more demands on your flute and you will hear your flute respond. You get to use more air, more open form, fast technique with greater response, play with more colours, use more shading and have more dynamic abilities and all the while your sound will be clearer, richer, and warmer. You’ll love it!
Here are the Recital Pieces all in order of my 3rd and 4th year programs. Unfortunately year 4 is full of distortions because the tape was only made to last 5 years as it was a really high quality DAT and it’s already been 10 years since.
Year 3:
Thursday, March 4, 1999 : Kimberly Neudorf, flute : Clifford Azavedo, piano
Sonata f minor – Georg Philipp Telemann
Vocalise Opus 34, No 14 – Serge Rachmaninoff
Divertimento for Flute Solo Opus 9 – Oistein Sommerfeldt
Sonatina – Eldin Burton
Rondo Capriccioso Opus 14 – Felix Mendelssohn
Year 4:
Tuesday, February 8, 2000 : Kimberly Neudorf, flute : Kumi Miyagawa, piano
again, sorry about the damaged quality of the recording. I’ll just have to do it even better sometime! :)
Poem – Charles T. Griffes
Variationen uber “Trockne Blumen” – Franz Schubert
Sonata – Sergei Prokofieff
Fantaisie Melancolique – M.A. Reichert
Dancing in the Kitchen to “In the Morning When I Rise” with Carlton Pearson. It’s a lot of fun dancing in the kitchen! It makes the porridge taste better too :D Recipe: 1.5 cups of oatmeal, 3 cups of water, handful of raisins, couple shakes of celtic sea salt, cinnamon to your taste: boil in the pot, put on your plate with yogurt and maple syrup, and you’re good to go.
There are so many kinds of flutes. Just a visit to fluteworld.com alone may cause you to be lost for hours! Trying to decide on a flute is a really personal choice. Your flute is an extension of yourself, so get out and play as many flutes as you can to discover how they work with you, how they move, how much air they handle, their sound, their response, how they feel … and how much they cost! :) When you do settle on a brand, model and what you can afford, do try several of the same flutes because even they can vary. Bring an experienced flutist or an extra pair of good ears with you if need be.
My experience with flute shopping was great. I went with the advice of my teacher whom I really respected and went with a Yamaha. My first flute was a Yamaha 385H and back then — around 1995 — I got it for around $950 CAN. At the very least I needed a silver headjoint and Yamaha is a very good brand of flute. It responded well, felt of good quality and my teacher was introducing me into the big world of flutes — which I knew nothing about. I went to our local music store and tried 3 or 4 flutes of that kind and we picked the best one of the lot.
Another way to explore the big world of flutes is to find out what other flutists play. Getting out and talking or writing to flutists is really a great way to discover flutes.
I owned my first flute for 2-3 years and then upgraded to a Yamaha 881H. Wow! I really enjoy it. Even more so because I bought it from my university flute professor! It was exciting to see and hear that I had maxed out on my current flute and now really had the ability to do more with a higher end flute. My teacher was also upgrading too at the time and was getting a gold headjoint for one of her flutes. I remember at the time how exciting it was to upgrade my flute and especially to play hers! Her flute (my flute now!) felt so light and refined and could handle a lot of air — which opened up a lot of musical possibilities for sound, and which meant I had even more work to do since practicing was now more intense as I discovered the capabilities of my flute. I also remember how she described the difference of a gold flute and a silver flute. A gold flute is like a luxury car and a silver flute is much like a sports car. She was getting a gold headjoint for her silver flute to combine the best of both worlds and to make her own flute sound.
