PRODUCTS
Historical Flute Models
Folkers & Powell make more than 25 different kinds of flute, each with its own special character. If you are not sure which of them might suit you best, read some advice on choosing a model.
Renaissance flutes
Our renaissance flutes are made in sets of tenor and bass when playing together as a whole consort.
We also offer tenor flutes for playing alone or in a mixed consort with other instruments such as cornetts, strings, keyboards, and lutes. This kind of tenor flute has a sound with a stronger fundamental component (as opposed to the consort tenors whose spectra contain more upper harmonics) and is more suited for playing in the lowest octave.
Tenor Flutes
Claude Rafi (Lyons, d.1553). Boxwood one-piece original in the Musical Instruments Museum, Brussels.
Consort Sets
Our other renaissance flute types are made in matched sets for playing together in consort music. Each set contains five flutes:
a bass (lowest note G),
four tenor/altos (lowest note D).
. . . in a fitted hard case with a nylon outer shell and various carrying straps.
A discant (lowest note G an octave above the bass) is also available.
We make these sets in three different styles, after originals by: members of the Bassano family (Venice and/or London, fl. c.1531-1658)
Claude Rafi (Lyons, d.1553), and members of the Rauch family of Schrattenbach, Bavaria (fl. mid-15th to mid-16th centuries).
In choosing between them, bear in mind that the Rafis are large, warm-toned, and balanced toward the low register, the Bassanos are smaller, easier in the high range, and easy to articulate, and the Schrattenbachs are good all-round instruments in between these extremes.
Early Baroque flutes
Flutes in three sections, with a (more or less) conical bore and one key, were in use from about 1685 to about 1720. We copy originals made in Amsterdam, London and Paris. Pitches range from a=392 to a=405.
PIERRE JAILLARD BRESSAN (London, 1663-1730) Ebony original in the Oldham collection, London, and another 3-joint Bressan, in the Miller Collection, Washington DC. a=405.
RICHARD HAKA (Amsterdam, before 1646-1705) Boxwood original in the Ehrenfeld collection, Utrecht. The lowest note of this flute is C rather than the usual D, at a pitch of a=410. $2700.
MARTIN OR JACQUES HOTTETERRE (Paris, c.1700) Our standard model is a copy of the ebony Graz original, the only genuine one, in ebony or boxwood (upper picture above). We can also make a reconstruction of the lost Berlin/St Petersburg original in boxwood (lower picture above: images are not to scale). a=392.
JEAN NICOLAS LECLERC (Paris, d. 1752) Ebony original in a private collection in Frankfurt, Germany. a=405.
PIERRE NAUST or his shop foreman ANTOINE DELERABLEE (Paris, fl. 1692-1734) Boxwood originals in Berlin and St Petersburg. a=405.
JEAN-JACQUES RIPPERT (Paris, fl. 1696-1716) Boxwood original in Glasgow. As the embouchure has been altered, we use information from other originals in St Moritz and Paris. a=405. $2200.
Baroque flutes
The earliest baroque flutes were made in three sections: this page lists four-joint baroque flutes made after about 1720. Some people call any one-keyed flute a baroque flute, but here we are using the term to mean instruments typical of this early eighteenth century period, as opposed to "rococo", and "classical" styles. The true baroque flute has a deeper tone and more serious character than the more brilliant, later styles. They are most at home at very low pitches, but some work well at the high chamber pitch of a=415.
JACOB DENNER (Nürnberg, 1681-1735) Boxwood original with 4 middle joints, including a long one to make a flûte d'amour. The other three are a=392, 410, 415.
JOHANN HEINRICH EICHENTOPF (Leipzig, 1678-1769) Only one original Eichentopf flute survives: an altered ivory instrument in Leipzig . Our reconstruction is made in artificial ivory, ebony or kingwood, and plays at a=390.
THOMAS LOT (Paris, 1708-1786) Boxwood, ebony, olivewood, tulipwood, lignum vitae, or artificial ivory flute after numerous examples from collections in Europe, America and Japan. a=392, 400, 410, 415.
JOHANN JOACHIM QUANTZ (Potsdam, 1697-1773) Ebony two-keyed flute of the type described in the Versuch (1752), now in the Miller Collection, Washington D.C. a=398. The two keys are for D# and Eb. With a tuning slide in the head-joint.
JOHANNES HYACINTHUS ROTTENBURGH (Brussels, 1672-1765) Ebony original in the Brussels Conservatory museum. a=396. We also offer a copy of a boxwood original in Pistoia. a=392, 415.
Rococo flutes
These models do not have the great tone of true "baroque" types, but they make up for it with the charming nature that many people think is typical of all one-keyed flutes. Some players feel the rococo type of flute has an easier high register than baroque instruments, and some say that it has a weaker low register. Neither of these criticisms really applies to good baroque or rococo instruments in general--perhaps poor modern copies are responsible for the misapprehension.
AUGUST GRENSER (Dresden, 1720-1807) Boxwood and ebonyoriginals in numerous collections. Also available with additional keys for Bb, G# and F. a=415, 420, 430, 440. With screw-cork.
GODFRIDUS ADRIANUS ROTTENBURGH (Brussels, 1703-1768) Boxwood original, c1770, in the Kuÿken collection, Belgium. a=415.
Classical flutes
One-keyed flutes at the end of the eighteenth century and the early nineteenth had a penetrating and even tone quality, generally similar to that of the keyed flutes that had started coming into use. The models on this page are more extrovert than baroque and rococo styles, though the Palanca has qualities not unlike earlier types.
BÜHNER & KELLER (Strasbourg, c1800) Boxwood original in the Miller Collection, Washington. Also available in ebony, following the one in the Metropolitan Museum, New York. a=420.
HEINRICH GRENSER (Dresden, 1764-1813) Ebony or boxwood flute, with and/or without additional keys, based on numerous originals made after c1798. a=430, 435, 440.
CARLO PALANCA (Torino, c1690-1783) Ebony originals in Stockholm and Frankfurt, and a boxwood original in Washington. a=415, 430, 440.
Keyed flutes
Keyed flutes, which began to appear in the middle of the 18th century, make possible a more robust and even tone in the low register, as well as in keys with many sharps and flats in their signatures. We recommend the Tromlitz flute the most highly: designed by an excellent flutists, it comes with two books of detailed instruction tailor-made for it.
FRIEDRICH BOIE (Göttingen, active c1809-?) Boxwood eight-keyed original with buffalo-horn rings and brass keywork, in the Shrine to Music Museum, Vermillion SD. With screw-cork. 430, 440. With B-foot, after original in Leipzig.
AUGUST GRENSER (Dresden, 1720-1807) Ebony original in the Miller collection, Washington. Keys are for Bb, G# and F. a=420, 430, 440.
HEINRICH GRENSER (Dresden, 1764-1813) Ebony or boxwood flute, after several originals with different key-configurations made between c1798 and c1806. a=430, 435, 440. C#-foot or C-foot.
JOHANN GEORGE TROMLITZ (Leipzig, 1725-1805) Ebony original in St Petersburg with keys for C (left thumb), Bb (left thumb), G#, long and short F, D# and Eb (1785 system). Add a second Bb key for the right index finger (1796 system) to get the instrument for which Tromlitz's 1800 tutor The Keyed Flute was written. a=430, 435, 440. C-foot (ebony original in a private collection in Germany).
Piccolo
ANONYMOUS (Dresden, c1798) Ebony original in the Miller Collection, Washington, also available in boxwood, following the one in the Gemeentemuseum, Den Haag. a=430, 415.