The daily herald. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1886-1887, 1886-11-02
THE MUSIC OF THE FLUTE.
why 1t Is SO Little Heard In the Land
Plea for the Instrument.


A Plea for the Instrument.
"There is no doubt about It" said Will
lam Ronnberg, the venerable John street
flute maker, shaking his white head
mournfully, "hute playing among anna
tours has gone out of style. Worse than
that, it has become an object of ridicule
The man who plays the flute for amuse-
ment is laughed at; he is regarded as
sort of Miss Nancy, and his friends
make sly remarks about his lowering
rents in his neighborhood. The verse
makers write what they think are funny
rhymes about the toot of the flute, and
so, taking all things into consideration,
the boy or young man with taste for
music and desire to learn some musical
instrument is actually laughed out of be
ginning to play one of the best parlor in
struments that is made.
"But what does he learn instead, In nine
cases out of tenn" continued the old gen.
tleman. "Why, either the ear-splitting
cornet or the musicless banjo. Think OF
thatl Instead Of an instrument like the
flute, with its soft, sweet musical tones,
he takes brass nuisance and blows his
lungs out trying to get music out of it.
Lowering rents, indeedl Well, don't
want to be neighbor to the young man
who is playing the cornet The banjo
isn't quite as bad, but what music there
is in its philosophical, punk-a-punk, ]
don't know
Mr.. Ronnberg spoke with the warmth
Of partisan. He pretends to be nothing
else. He has been making flutes more
years than most men live, and looks back
with regret TO the days of "a, when he
employed a shopful of men, and turned
out flutes by the score. Those were the
days when 1t was the thing for young men
to play the German flute, as the four. six,
and eight keyed flutes were called. Those
were the days when professional flute
players were abundant and excellent. The
old man no longer makes German flutes,
but in his little shop he still makes
Boehm flutes, apparently quite as skill
fully as he ever did
at is just possible" he continued, "that
the Boehm flute has something to do with
the decrease in the popularity of the flute,
although 1t Is almost treason to say so.
The Boehm is a perfect instrument, i'm
measurable superior to the old flute. 1t
Is very much more expensive costing all
the way from $50 upward 1t is also
more complicated in its mechanism, al
though much easier to play, and there
fore more liable to get out of order. And
here comes the point l want to make. An
amateur buys Boehm flute, and enjoys
1t. About the time he has it well in hand
1t gets out of order A mere trihe per
haps. The maker could fix it in minute.
But the owner thinkers with 1t, gets it
worse, takes it to the first music store he
sees; they tell him they'll have it fixed;
they send it to some flute tinker, and the
result is, too often, the flute is spoiled.
Now, had the owner sent it at once to the
maker, even from distance, his flute
would have come back better than ever.
And so 1t comes about that you will find,
in not few homes, Boehm flutes that
cost good sum lying dried up and use
less, all for want of little care
1t is now the fashion to revive old
styles Why doesn't some one revive
flute playing9 There is no instrument
more perfectly fitted for the parlor. Ac-
companied by the piano, or the harp, or
guitar, or even the banjo it is very pleas
ing. There is much excellent music ar
ranged for the flute and piano. and when
you take two flutes and piano, each well
played, then you have music indeed