How Flutes Are Made

Pronomos Flute (aka Complex Flute) - quartertones and all

Ok, I know I have an interest in flutes, but this one takes the cake.

I subscribe to a flutemakers Yahoo group and often get updates from people who make simple flutes (6-hole flutes, usually Irish flutes). Here is one of the more recent posts:

The newest addition to the Boehm flute world is the Complex Flute designed by Istvan Matuz, improved by Julian Elvira, and built by the British flutemaker, Stephen Wessel. It can be played as a regular Boehm flute, but it also enables quarter-tones, multiphonics, and sound vocabularly of many types of non-western flutes and flute-like instruments. Elvira refers to it as "an advanced instrument, taking the Boehm instrument to its limits." It is now known as the Pronomos flute. For more information about the flute see:

http://www.wessel-flutes.co.uk/complex_flute/a_brief_history/

-  Susan Maclagan, "A Dictionary for the Modern Flutist," Scarecrow Press, April 2009.

 As if mastering semitones on a Boehm flute isn't hard enough, here's one that offers you quartertones!  I'd sure like to see James Galway play this thing. Lol!

Handmade Bamboo Flutes