On 23-Apr-06, at 10:49 AM, Adam Schabtach wrote:
> He also had literally a pile of flutes/recorders, probably 10
> or 12 of them. In fact, some of them looked suspiciously like
> PVC pipe with finger holes drilled and with the type of
> flexible rubber/plastic/vinyl end caps you sometimes see on
> large tubes that hold architectural drawings. I'm not saying
> 100% that that's what they were, but some of them sure looked
> like it. Not that that's bad or anything, I just thought it
> interesting, and would like either confirmation from someone,
> or to have someone tell me I'm nuts and they were exotic
> flutes from Thailand that date back to some dynasty or other
> from 800 years ago and are worth millions. Doesn't matter to
> me which way it is, but now I'm a bit curious. In some ways I
> kind of like the idea of home-made PVC recorders and flutes.
> I can imagine him experimenting with all sorts of diameters,
> lengths, thicknesses and hole positions, making flutes that
> perfectly match any given song's tuning and intonation. Or I
> could simply be making the whole thing up.
Your suspicions are confirmed. He makes his own flutes from PVC and other
materials, mostly because he uses non-equal-tempered tunings (just
intonation, usually). He uses a lot of them partly because he needs one for
each key. It's also possible he uses different diameters and lengths of
tubing for making flutes that play in the same key but different registers
(i.e. bass, treble, etc.). Last time I talked to him (which was a month or
so before the tour started, I think) he mentioned that he had made new
flutes to compensate for the loss of dexterity he suffered in his right hand
after his injury, so this may also contribute to the need for a large number
of flutes.
--Adam
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