Wooden Flutes, Timber Flutes, they’re all great flutes
The Timber Flute Festival in Elkins was a huge success this year. Where else can you network and play with musicians and enthusiasts from across the country for an entire week while learning about Eighteenth century flutes, Nineteenth century flutes, Fifes, Irish Flute and of course Native American Flute. Students came from Oklahoma, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, Mississippi, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, Illinois, and Washington, DC. The shared learning, camaraderie and creativity among this group was special and as a student this year I was able to see different styles and different instruments influence one another. I felt that Irish Flutes and NAF really bonded well together! Fingers in contact with the holes and finger techniques which are transposable gave us a lot to talk about. Playing together in ensemble was just incredible. Small group sessions and time together in classes allowed lots of time to get to know one another and talk about flutes.
(Photo [LtoR] Eddie Thomas, Kelly McCauley, Ron Warren, Carl Bolyard, Jay Luter, Maria Oria)
Ron Warren was our NAF faculty member and taught between six and ten students every day. Folks were able to emphasize a tradition for the week and yet would often sit in on a new tradition a day or two as well. Irish, Baroque and Fife players all learned to play or learned new techniques with NAF during the week. Our ongoing project was to arrange three flute groups for the student concert on Friday and each day’s lesson was an opportunity to add new tricks and techniques to our repertoire for Friday.
Each morning a faculty member would have an entire morning to teach about one of the five wooden flutes. On Wednesday morning Ron Warren and Janice Torres had the session time to perform, teach and orient people to the NAF in history, technique and song. Ron Warren is uniquely qualified to do this and in addition to showing the progression of the modern instrument he talked about the new things NAF can do and the lack of limitations it has. Ron played Anasazi flute as well as a wide variety of his personal flutes and taught about the aural traditions, singing as a part of the growth of the instrument and some of the instruments origins. At lunch we were able to add to the lesson time and view the Songkeepers DVD.
Ron taught some basic techniques and embellishments during the session as well and this year Paul and I made twenty four flutes in Gm from schedule 40 PVC. The formula for these flutes was designed by Bob Willasch of the Maryland Flute Circle. Paul and I again set up several jigs for consistency and cranked out flutes for several afternoons. This years class worth of flutes does not sound quite as great as the Am flutes we made last year however with few exceptions I found that when all blown together they were in tune. Almost as pleasing as 13 folks learning together can sound for the first time… Thanks Bob for a great Gm flute plan.
Thursday’s concert featured Ron Warren and members of his band, Janice Torres and Lenny Stevens for the first set. They were in great form and played pieces from all three of Ron Warren’s albums with a freshness that brought down the house. Ron and Janice improvised together with vocals and Anasazi flute and this was a great piece as well. Their final song was played with Grey Larsen and Cindy Kallet and combined the Irish and Native American Styles in a way that pays tribute to the blending of these two cultures in early America. Amazing Grace was just that and then some in a way that you’ve always wanted to hear it with really cool synergy between all of the musicians and the feeling that was palpable. Grey Larsen and Cindy Kallet had the second set performance and blended flute, fiddle, concertina, and vocal harmonies into a great hour of Irish and folk music. They performed one of Cindy Kallet’s great songs, Cross the Water with Ron Warren and Janice Torres sitting in and improvising new textures into the tune and this too was a great crowd pleaser in the way that the styles really suit each other and were performed with great sensitivity.
We had two dances during the week (Monday and Wednesday) two great concerts (Tuesday and Thursday) and that final student’s performance on Friday. Native American Flute was featured in three groups of “planned improv.” and sounded great in the gallery/performance space at RCCAC. We also coordinated an intro and accompaniment to some of the Irish Flute pieces performed and this is a new thing for me that I think works really well. I saw a lot of smiling and nodding in the room and we’ll have to find a way to do this again sometime soon – a great sound.
John Gallagher is a renown flutemaker for Irish, Eighteenth century flutes, and Nineteenth century flutes who lives right in Elkins. Mr. Gallagher hosted a number of tours of his workshop during the week and allowed folks to learn as he measured and prepared to reproduce a 17th century Potter flute from the original. An hour with John is an education or the start of one anyway, and it was great fun to see how it comes together in his workshop. So many fun elements to the week came together to make it very unique experience.
Overall feedback for the week was great and I think we’ll be seeing many NAF folks returning next year. Thanks to our new friends in the Chicago-land area, the friends at Neuse River Flute Circle, the Okalahoma and Mississippi flute friends and all of the new fife players at Marshall who are taking up another instrument! All of the faculty should be commended for the amount of time they spent with students and their openness to new ideas and sharing traditions. The cadre of instructors really cemented the groups experience and made new things happen for people musically. That magic is not underestimated here and I am excited to report that all of these faculty members will return for the 2009 Timber Flute Festival. And that date is already set for June 21-26, 2009 so mark your calendars now for the week where all wooden flutes are great flutes.
Labels: anasazi flute, Bob Willasch, flute making, NAF, RCCAC, Ron Warren, timber flute festival
