Flutes 'r' Us. (Who knew?)

I knew that, with Zildjians being made here, Greater Boston is the hub of the U.S. cymbal industry. Kind of like what Pittsburgh once was to steel. Just lower scale in terms of the economic value it yields. But until I saw a recent article in the Boston Globe, I had no idea whatsoever that Boston isn't just the hub of the universe, the hub of cymbals. It's also the hub of the flute industry.

I do associate Boston with music - BSO, the Pops, Berklee - just not necessarily with flutes. Other than the fifes played by ye olde colonial reenactors. What's flutes got to do with us, do with us?

Plenty, it seems. 

The US auto industry isn’t what it used to be, but if it were, Greater Boston would be the Detroit of flute making — home to a host of world-class manufacturers. And unlike Detroit, the Boston area has retained its crown, as artisans trained at well-established companies have continually launched new firms of their own.

William S. Haynes of Acton begat Powell Flutes of Maynard, where Abigana, an award-winning flutist, works as sales manager. But the region is also home to Brannen Brothers Flutemakers of Woburn, Nagahara Flutes of Chelmsford, Levit Flute in Natick, Di Zhao Flutes of Westford, Burkart Flutes and Piccolos in Shirley, and Emanuel Flutes of North Andover. (Source: Boston Globe)

I began racking my brain trying to come up with the names of any famous flautists, and came up with three: James Galway, Lizzo, and Jethro Tull. (Or course, Jethro Tull isn't the name of the flute player; it's the name of the group. I was never a particular fan of this 60's-70's band. That would be my brother Tom. Given his incessant playing of the album, I was quite familiar with the innards of Aqualung. But I had to look up the name of the group's flute guy. Ian Anderson.)

My wandering took me to wondering whether James Galway, Lizzo, and Ian Anderson play Boston flutes.

Well, two out of three ain't bad.

Galway plays a Nagahara: Chelmsford, Mass. Anderson plays a Powell: Maynard, Mass. Lizzo mostly plays a Japanese-made flute, although she does have one from New Hampshire flute-maker John Lunn. Given NH's adjacency to Massachusetts, it's almost three out of three for the flute players I'm familiar with having local ties.

You might be thinking, just how much goes in to flute making. After all, isn't a flute a hollowed out metal rod (or wooden stick) with some holes in it? That and the thing you blow into (which is called a headjoint)?

The answer is, of course, of course there's a lot.

Local flutes, many custom-made, are available for a wide spectrum of prices, from a couple of thousand way up to the six figure range. And there's an awful lot of complex precision work that goes into the making of one. Plus technology.

There’s a lot of advanced technology in a modern flute. Powell Flutes invented a way of bonding sterling silver and gold to create a lighter, less-expensive flute that still conveys the warm, rich sound of a 14-carat instrument. Some companies use parts created at local machine shops. Here the parts are fabricated in computer-controlled milling machines to tolerances within a thousandth of an inch, much thinner than a human hair.

The technology angle is interesting, given that Maynard, Mass. (Powell) and Chelmsford, Mass. (Nagahara) were both tech hubs of yore. Maynard was the home of Digital Equipment, and Wang Labs was in Lowell, right on the Chelmsford border.

Anyway, there's a lot of detail in the Globe article on the history and the precise manufacturing process of local flutes, but one thing that struck my eye is that the making of a silver or gold flute produces a lot of dust.

Haynes recaptures gold and silver dust worth hundreds of thousands of dollars by sweeping the floors, benches, and chairs.

Thar's gold in them thar sweepings! 

“I’m surprised they let me wash my clothes at home,” [David Schipani, Haynes’s director of product design and development] said.

Well, I'm just a sucker for anything that's made in Massachusetts. 

Not that I know a damned thing about fluting, but YAY, MASSACHUSETTS FLUTES!

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Image Source: Emmanuel Flutes