This page describes a specially commissioned
instrument we made in September/October 1999 to the
specifications of a customer with hand problems.
The task was to add keys to a standard
design so that the player, whose modern flute had also
been altered to fit her left hand, could reach the top
three toneholes without stretching the fingers. We decided
to leave all the toneholes in their original positions
and use open-standing keys to control them, locating
the touchpieces in the specified places.
To make room to mount the key nearest
the tenon-and-socket join in the middle of the flute,
it was necessary to take 10mm of the length of the heartpiece,
or lower middle joint, and add it to the bottom end
of the upper middle joint. There was plenty of room
to allow this modification, since the original design,
by G.A. Rottenburgh,
leaves enough space at the top of the heartpiece for
a G# key to be fitted. A short reamer on a long shank
allowed us to use the reamer that normally bores the
top of the heartpiece at the bottom of the middle joint
instead.
We found the keys had to clear the toneholes
by several millimeters so as not to muffle the tone
of notes they helped produce, such as G# and Bb,
as well as A and B. But though this high key-rise looked
awkward, it proved easy to manage in practice, even
in trills.
The open-standing keys, modeled on the
C' key in a design by J.G. Tromlitz,
were kept open by springs riveted to the touchpiece
between the tonehole and the axle. The flute was made
in grenadilla wood, with artificial ivory mounts, silver
keys, and hammered brass springs.
