I’ve been
quietly making piccolo headjoints for just over twenty years and I’ve
been very pleased to have heard them in a number of major orchestras. Requests
for my headjoints have, in the past, usually been a result of word of
mouth, but now, in this “high tech” age of computers and websites, I have
a more efficient manner in which to make myself available. Over
the years, I have been the subject of some interesting rumors: You
have to beg for an Eldred Spell headjoint, or He
doesn’t make them anymore, etc. The
web offers a chance to communicate a bit about what I do. I
hope you’ll find the following information interesting.
Who is this guy?
Well, first
of all, I’m not a full-time flutemaker. Most
of the time, I’m a college professor. Here’s
the generic biography:
Eldred
Spell is Professor of Flute at Western Carolina
University. Center. A popular recitalist
and clinician, he has appeared throughout the United States, Canada, and
England.
For many years he served as principal flute of the Sewanee Summer Music
Center. Dr. Spell has recorded for the CRS, Early Light, and Sonus record
labels and many editions of his music are available through ALRY Publications. Spell
has been a member of the Board of Directors of the National Flute Association,
the Performance Health Care Committee, and an editorial adviser for the
Flutist's
Quarterly. He maintains a substantial collection of historic flutes
and performs primarily on a nineteenth-century instrument by famed French
maker Louis Lot. Spell holds
a Ph.D. from Michigan State University. His teachers include Clement Barone,
William Bennett, Israel Borouchoff, Geoffrey Gilbert, and Stephen Preston.
Also trained as a flutemaker, Spell has done considerable research into
the practical acoustics and tuning of the flute and has been a consultant
to numerous flute companies. As
a teacher, Eldred Spell offers a unique blend of personal warmth and musical
expression, combined with a thorough knowledge of historical styles and
the practical mechanics of flute playing.
So what’s with the piccolo heads?
I
made my first piccolo head in 1968 — I was in the ninth grade. I
literally bored out a tent peg in my father’s shop and used a rifle cartridge
to make the tenon. Amazingly,
it played — though not particularly well. It
wasn’t until the late 70’s that I began to get serious about it. By
then I had trained as a flutemaker and was back in school working on my
PhD (in flute, of course!). I
was also studying piccolo with Clem Barone and had been working on intonation
of flute scales with William Bennett (WIBB). One
thing I learned from WIBB is that the size of a flute embouchure hole actually
alters the tuning of the harmonics. One
swipe of a scraper can make a huge difference in tuning and response. It
began to bother me that, compared to a flute, most piccolo embouchure holes
were proportionally huge. If
you made a flute that way it couldn’t possibly play in tune. So,
I made several experimental heads. I
found that a tiny hole does give good intonation, but it’s impossibly difficult
to play. Guided by Clem Barone,
I worked out some compromises with under and overcutting to make a head
that felt larger than it actually was. I
made one for Clem and to my surprise, he’s still playing it! What
a stroke of beginners luck. He
showed it to few friends – Ethan Stang (Pittsburg Symphony) bought the second one and I suddenly found myself in the piccolo headjoint
business.
For
the next fifteen years I averaged a two-year wait for delivery. This
was due partly to a lack of time (I was in graduate school and later teaching
full time), but also to my peculiar method of working. I
found very quickly that no two piccolos (piccoli?) are remotely alike. This
meant that I had to approach each one as a new project, with subtle differences
in the bore, tubing and socket; (What an annoyance!) and, I have not yet
found a way to streamline the process. I
still start with an individual instrument and draw tubing, make rings,
and drill the wood to suit. Even
the headcrowns are individual. My
headjoints are not interchangeable, even among the same maker’s piccolos. I
have bought some additional equipment in the last few years and improved
my tooling. I can now usually
deliver a headjoint within a month.
And what’s really so different about them?
There
are so many wonderful instrument makers in the world today, that one really
needs a niche to justify their existence. My
particular specialty is making, what many piccolo players believe to be,
the best sounding and playing piccolo headjoint available; custom
made for a particular instrument to bring out the very best aspects of
that instrument. I have reason to
believe that my heads play well, and I can say that quite a few knowledgeable
folks seem to like them. Here’s
what I see as the major distinctions:
-
They
are truly hand made. Because
every little part is made just so, I
can get an optimum result. Also,
because I spend a considerable amount of time on each one, I have a personal
investment. I only make
one at a time, so it gets my full attention.
-
The embouchure cut. I
don’t offer cut A, B, or C. After
all these years I have a pretty good idea of what works best. I
start with the same basic cut, then play the piccolo and scrape away until
I’m happy with the way it plays. If
I don’t like it, it never
leaves the shop.
-
The wood. One
of my favorite rumors is that I use rosewood. What
I actually use is “mountain mahogany.” It
looks a bit like rosewood, but grows in North America. There
are none of the environmental or allergy concerns that arise with tropical
hardwoods. The sound
is less bright, and seems to blend better in the orchestra.
-
The secret process. Um,
er, well, . . . I actually
do treat the wood. Untreated
mountain mahogany absorbs water and doesn’t sound all that great.
And
here's one for an Opperman piccolo.
Since they are all made
"one off," unusual sockets are no problem.
Can you send a few heads for me to try?
