Les Ateliers de la Flûte Dore

new walking stick recorder

This year I worked on two new models. This one is a very handy instrument for walking in the mountains or parading through the streets of Paris for that matter. Is it a recorder ? Is it a walking stick ?  In fact it is both. The top section is a grenadilla descant, modelled after a well-known recorder by Richard Haka, a Dutch maker of the 17th century. The walking stick section is made from grenadilla, with a plum top, a palo rosa handle, and a beech center to make in lighter in weight and to give it strength and flexiblilty.  It is ornamented with two silver plated brass rings. Walking stick flutes and recorders were made by some of history's great makers, and became very fashionable in the late 18th, and first half of the 19th century. Many popular opera's themes were arranged for two or more walking stick instruments, e.g. by Klingenbrunner (Mozart's Magic Flute) published in 1807. Many instruments were built into these walking sticks such as a flute, recorder or an oboe, and sometimes with other gadgets like daggers, whisky flasks with glasses, compasses etc.

This one is a true concert quality a 415 Hertz descant  in c, made in Le Pregnoux, in the Auvergne  mountains, where a walking stick also comes in very handy, and was built for the walking and musical pleasure of Marieke Rigterink of Bracieux, Loir-et-Cher, France.