Culture - Music - Fife and Flute

Fife and Flute

Ulster has a fine flute tradition which is due to the great number of flute bands that been formed in small towns and villages over the generations. The world’s finest flute player, James Galway, owes his breath-taking career in part to the humble beginnings of playing in a local flute band in his native Belfast.

Alvin Mullan explains about the history of the fife and how it eventually flutes were introduced into bands.

From Fife to Flute, by W. Alvin Mullan
When President Bill Clinton visited Ireland several years back he rightly called it the ‘Land of the Fife and Drum.’
Flute bands have been a part of life in Northern Ireland for many years. At one time almost every town and village had its flute band, sometimes more than one because of the religious and political divide.

One of the oldest of our bands is the Churchill Flute Band, Londonderry, formed in 1835. Others have also a history stretching back over one hundred years: Hamilton 1851, Johnston Star 1858, Ballygowan 1876, Corcrain 1879, Hunter Moore 1884, Killymoon 1887 and Cahard 1892. In those early days some of these bands played on keyless Bb or C fifes, while others used the simple system one-keyed flute. In Co. Fermanagh keyless fifes were played by Tullychurry, Weealt and Garrison bands until the 1950s while the Letter Fife and Drum Band in Co Fermanagh played on keyless fifes until 1995.

The use of fifes gave raise to the title ‘Fife and Drum Band’, a title which is still retained by some of our bands today. One-keyed Bb flutes are still played to great effect by many of our melody and ‘blood and thunder’ bands and Fife and Drum bands are still very common in America.

As the fife was a very primitive instrument, it therefore had its limitations and difficulties. One of the main difficulties associated with the fife was tonal accuracy, which made it difficult to play the notes in a scale properly.

The early 1900’s saw many of our flute bands turning from melody to part music. To begin with they played 1st, 2nd, 3rd and F flute parts. Some had also F and E piccolos. It was at this time that Hawkes & Sons, London introduced their famous Crown AZ model, which they advertised as being '‘imply the best ever made.'’ This model was made in the full range of F and Eb piccolo, Bb, F, Eb and Bb bass. In 1911 the Ulster Amateur Flute Band, Belfast, under guest conductor John Murdie, won the International Flute Band Contest at Belle Vue, Manchester, playing on a set of Hawkes & Sons’ Crown AZ flutes. Crown AZ Bb flutes are still very much sought after, even today, but are rather difficult to find.

The first flute band in Ulster to play on Boehm system flutes was the famous Argyle Temperance Flute Band, Belfast. These flutes were made by Rudall Carte & Co., London and purchased in 1911. A year later the Ulster Amateur Flute Band purchased a set from Hawkes & Sons, London. Other bands then followed: Ravenhill 1922, Comber Amateurs 1927 and Corcrain 1930. While these Boehm system flutes were a great improvement on the simple system flutes they had weaknesses. The Bb flute, on which the melody part was played presented tuning problems, especially in contest work. Murdie is said at one time to have advocated the replacement of the Bb flute with the F flute for the melody parts in order to compensate for these tuning difficulties.

One of the greatest problems in playing a flute in a band is turning. Playing a piece of music on a flute is relatively easy. When a number of bandsmen try and plan the same piece of music together, there are difficulties i.e. trying to get all the members of the band to sound the same when playing the same piece of music. The addition of a metal tuning slide added to the head joint of a flute has helped remedy this.

In 1962 William Blythe (junior) and Donald Sloan both of the Ulster Amateur Flute Band visited Rudall Carte & Co., London and requested them to make a new set of flutes either in the old instrumentation with the Bb flute as the melody or replacing the Bb with new treble F flute (advocated by William Blythe (sen)). Rudall Carte were reluctant to do this, as they had C piccolos, concert, alto and C bass flutes already available in their range of Boehm system flutes. They offered instead to make a new flute in G (the G treble flute) which would replace the old Bb flute and could be used with their existing range of flutes.

It is not, however, to any of the Ulster bands, but rather to a Scottish band, the Motherwell Old Comrades Flute Band, that the honour of purchasing the first set of new instruments must go. They managed to purchase their set just prior to the Ulster Amateurs band.