Archive for April, 2008
April 30, 2008 at 2:34 pm
· Filed under Flute Making, Martin Doyle, Martin Doyle Flutes, Timber ·Tagged Flute, Irish, Kanuka, Martin Doyle, New Zealand, Shardul, Timber, wood
By Shardul.
Here I am in County Clare, Ireland, and staying with Martin Doyle for a few days. I brought Martin three sticks of Kanuka wood that were kindly given to me by Paul Whinray – a renowned New Zealand recorder maker who lives in west Auckland. The Kanuka wood was cut, bored and turned into round sticks in the late 80s and well cured.
Martin set me to work on preparing the sticks and with the kind guidance of his son Ógi, and Martin doing all the critical work, we produced a wonderful flute. It has a lovely tone (a little milder than the hardwoods like African Blackwood and Cocus) that I am sure will develop nicely with playing. The end cap of the flute is made of Cocus wood. Here’s a look at it:
Kanuka Flute – click on the image to see a larger version on Flickr
Return to the Top
Permalink
April 30, 2008 at 12:15 am
· Filed under Concert Flutes, Flute Making, Martin Doyle Flutes, Wooden Head Joints ·Tagged African Blackwood, Boxwood, Cocus, Flickr album, hand-crafted, Martin Doyle, Wooden Head Joints
30/04/2008: A new page has been added to Martin Doyle Flutes which offers information and prices on the thin-wall wooden head joints hand-crafted by Martin Doyle for concert flutes.
View: Wooden Head Joints.
The Site Map has also been updated.
A Martin Doyle wooden (cocus) head joint on a Muramatsu concert flute.
More images can be found on Martin Doyle’s Flickr album:
Wooden Head Joints for Concert Flutes
Return to the Top
Permalink
April 27, 2008 at 10:54 pm
· Filed under Flute Making, Martin Doyle, Radio Feature ·Tagged BBC Radio 4, Falling Tree Productions, Feature, Interview, Martin Doyle, Nina Perry, Sounding Post
Martin Doyle is one of several instrument makers interviewed in a feature radio programme called Sounding Post.
Produced by Nina Perry – an independent radio producer, composer and sound designer from London who produces features with Falling Tree Productions for BBC Radio 4 – Sounding Post will be airing on May the 9th at 11 am (GMT), and looks at the use of timber in instrument making around the world.
Nina Perry’s ‘composed feature’ Sounding Post traces a musical journey from the instrument-makers’ workshops and music studios of Europe and America, via the woods of southern England across to the mpingo – or African blackwood – conservation project of Tanzania. The relationship that each individual in the process – forester, craftsman, musician and environmentalist – has with the wood reveals insights into our feeling for nature, the materials we derive from our surroundings and the irresistible impulse to express ourselves musically.
From an Irish flute maker, Martin Doyle, an English Luthier, Martin Bowers, Luthier supplier David Dyke and a Los Angeles based guitarist, Laurence Juber, to the English forester Martin Charlton and members of the Mpingo Conservation Project in Southeastern Tanzania and Scott Paul of Greenpeace’s Music Wood Campaign, we hear about the sonorous qualities of different species, the increasing issue of maintaining sustainable supplies and the people who connect the music to the tree.
Sounding Post also features some great acoustic music which includes Martin Doyle playing wooden flute…
Return to the Top
Permalink
April 27, 2008 at 9:26 am
· Filed under Environment, Flute Making, Martin Doyle, Martin Doyle Flutes ·Tagged Airtricity, Doyle, flutes, From, martin, power, wind, wooden
Given today’s environmental issues that are increasingly being highlighted by global warming, Martin Doyle has always tried to be conscious of the use of power and timber in his work. As an instrument maker who uses timbers such as African Blackwood and Cocus for the flutes he makes, Martin has long supported The Mpingo Conservation Project – an NGO that aims to conserve endangered forests by promoting sustainable and socially equitable harvesting of African Blackwood (mpingo) and other valuable timber stocks.
To power his house and workshop, Martin has opted to use environmentally friendly electricity supplied by Airtricity – a fully integrated renewable electricity utility specialising in the development and long term ownership of onshore and offshore wind farms. The Group currently has almost 400MW of generating capacity in operation across Ireland and Scotland, with a further 400MW in construction and to be operational this year.
Wind power is the conversion of wind energy into useful form, such as electricity, using wind turbines. In windmills, wind energy is directly used to crush grain or to pump water. At the end of 2007, worldwide capacity of wind-powered generators was 94.1 gigawatts. Although wind currently produces just over 1% of world-wide electricity use, it accounts for approximately 19% of electricity production in Denmark, 9% in Spain and Portugal, and 6% in Germany and the Republic of Ireland (2007 data). Globally, wind power generation increased more than fivefold between 2000 and 2007. Read more…
Martin Doyle is proud to be making woodwind instruments using wind power.
Return to the Top
Permalink
