The Alex Murray Flute

Author(s): Philip Bate

Reviewed work(s):
Source: The Galpin Society Journal, Vol. 26 (May, 1973), pp. 47-54
Published by: Galpin Society
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/841112 .
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PHILIPBATE

The

Alex

Murray

Flute

N 1967,whilstcollatingmaterialfor a generalbook on the transverse

flute,I was fortunatein havingmy attention drawnto experiments
which had been carriedout duringsome nine or ten yearsby Alex D.
Murrayof the MichiganStateUniversity,andwhichI wasbold enough
to suggestmightpointto theultimateformof thecylinderfluteoriginated
by TheobaldBoehm.At thattimean outlineof Murray'sworkwas due
for publicationin an Americanjournal,but with the permissionof the
Authorandthe Editor,I was privilegedto writea shortadvancenotice.
Work, however,did not cease,andat the presentday the Murrayflute
hasreachedits 'Mark8' andis indeeda remarkable
instrument.The data
and descriptions
in the latterpartof this note are basedon an account
kindlyfurnishedby Murrayhimself.
THE BACKGROUND
The flutein most generaluse todayis commonlytermed'the Boehm,'
andis basicallythatdevelopedby TheobaldBoehmin theyears1846-47,
with cylindricalbore and a head taperingin a gentle curveratherinaccuratelydescribedas 'parabolic'.Boehm's work in designingan
almostcompletely'open system'flute, and in devisingmechanismto
controlthe twelvelargeholesandone smallone thathe foundnecessary,
is discussedin his pamphletAn Essayon theConstruction
of Flutes(1847)
andhisbook TheFluteandFlutePlaying(1871),andto understand
properly whatMurrayhasnow achievedit may be well to look for a moment
at thesetwo publications.'Fig. I reproducesBoehn'sown drawingof
this mechanismin its finalform.

, 0as
C~(O
~g~' DI;
(~a
FIG.

Ix~a

() (

I. Boehm'sdrawingof hisflute.

It seems clear that while Boehm found an elegant solution to the

problem he had set himself and created an instrument that meets the
47

needs of a majority of playerseven today, he may not himself have been

entirely satisfied.Certainlyhe had doubtsasto the rationaleof the inverted
cone bore of the traditionalflute, though he adopted a modified form of
it for his first 'open system' design of 1832; and the closed Dg key for
the right little finger he seems to have regardedas unavoidablethough it
remained a glaring inconsistency in the 'open hole' concept.2 We
disregardhere the closed D and D# trill keys which constitute a special
case, but must note that Boehm found himself obliged for good reasons
to reduce and displacethe top Cg hole.3
The need to keep the right hand Dg key open a large part of the time
for venting purposesis to many playersa nuisance.To many also Boehm's
open Gg key (left little finger) is objectionable,and severalarrangements
of the Gg and a mechanismhave been elaborated,notably that of Dorus
(c.1838), one of the lightest in action but not always quite reliable. On
the majority of Boehm flutes today the Gg touch opens a hole for that
note alone, while a duplicate hole is covered by a cup rigidly attached
to the open-standingA cup so that when the latteris releasedthere is no
closed hole immediately below it. Boehm is saidto have refusedto make
fluteswith a closed Gg, but it is known that he did constructat least one
such instrument to accommodate a favoured customer.4To do so he
divided the touch lever into two and provided a second fulcrum using
only the normal hole. Fig. 2 shows how this was done, but even so this
involved a slight re-positioning of the a hole to preserveintonation.

GO

:D

FIG.2. Boehm's
closedGgaction.

AftermuchexperimentwithauthenticBoehmandotherwell-designed
flutesthe lateDaytonC. Millerconcludedthatthe open Ggis no more
difficultto masterthanthe closedversion,andthatit hascertainminor
in somepartsof the scale.This,we shallsee later,is alsothe
advantages
now
reachedby Alex Murray.
opinion
While consideringBoehm'sbasicwork we must also look at the B
andBb arrangements
for the left thumb.On the originalmodelof the
flute
of
Boehm
1847
cylinder
providedno Bb thumblever.About1849,
48

however, Briccialdi,a distinguishedItalianflautistthen living in London,

invented a thumb mechanism which is almost universal today, and in
that year he had it constructedfor him by Rudall and Rose. Soon after
Briccialdi'sinvention Boehm himself designed a B? thumb lever on a
somewhat different principle, and employing, as he claimed, a more
rationalmovement of the digit in that in passingfrom B to BI the thumb
moved downthe instrumentnot up as with the Briccialdi.Both arrangements included a B-C trill lever for the right forefinger,though Boehm
seems to have regardedthis as an accessoryratherthan as a regularpart
of his system.
Lastly we must observe that in the original fingering the F# produced
by lowering the third (or sometimes the second) finger of the right hand
is on many instrumentsslightly flattenedor muffled by the unavoidable
closing of the E hole below. Boehm compensatedfor this by placing the
F# hole a shadeabove his calculatedposition, but this has still not satisfied
some more critical players and hence such arrangementsas the Brossa
and Rockstro keys which allow the E hole to remain open for F#.
Rockstro, in fact, with his well-known prejudice against all things
'Boehm', more or less completely revisedthe cylinderinstrumentin I858
on the basis of a different set of calculations from the original, and,
incorporatingseveral other ideas of his own, produced a flute that has
become the preferenceof a number of distinguishedplayers.
THE MURRAY FLUTE
The preceding is, I believe, a fair summary of the more important
modifications that have been applied to the basic Boehm flute from its
advent to the middle of the presentcentury, and it forms the background
to the recent labours of Alex Murray and his mathematiciancolleague
Elmer Cole. How he first came to embark on them is, I think, best told
in his own words:'Until 1945 when I joined the Royal Air Force Band, I played on
what is the commonest form of the Boehm flute, the closed G# instrument. At that time I read Boehm's account of his instrument with
Dayton Miller'scommentary and decided that the open G# was a more
rationalsystem for at least three reasons.
i) The duplicateG# hole was unnceesary.
ii) The springof an open key is lighter than one requiredto hold the key
closed.
iii) Top E is greatly improved when correctly vented with the A hole
alone, and not the A and G# holes together as on the closed G#
arrangement.
I consequently asked a flute repairerto alter my instrumentto the open
49

Gg and after a few weeks practice I found the readjustmentamply

rewarded'.
The flute to which this first modificationwas made was in fact a good
example of the standardAmerican style closed Gg instrument made by
W. S. Haynes, and we may suppose that it was originally built with the
A hole in the compensatingposition, though Murray does not mention
this point in his notes. Anyhow, here we have a case of a busy professional
who found it worth while to make the first change in his accustomed
fingering.
The next point to which Murray directed his attention was the
anomaly of the closed Dg key which Boehm took over from the conventional flute of his time-apparently without demur.4To quote again
from Murray'snotes:'The asymetricaluse of the little fingers, in particularthe necessityfor
maintaining the right little finger down much of the time struck me as
undesirableand I experimented with an open Dg by turning the footjoint until the D9 hole was within reach of my little finger. I unhooked
the spring and maintainedthe key open with an elastic band. The flute
became a little unstableto balancebut I solved this by sticking a wedge
of cork on the body above the right thumb (I no longer require this,
having learnt to balancethe instrumentwithout it). I felt that the action
of the key was an improvement on the closed Dg.
'At that time (1958) I was fortunate in meeting Albert Cooper, an
artist-flute-maker,formerly with Rudall Carte and who had left to
begin making flutes on his own. He agreed to construct a new foot
joint which would convert my flute to open Dg. The Cg, D, and Dg
keys were placed in line from an axle on the near-sideof the flute; the
Dg key was closed by both the other keys. The problem remained,how
to trill C-D or C#-D. When the little finger was removed from C or
Cg, Dg was the note sounded. In order to circumvent this a crescentshapedkey was built from the D key around the front of the ring-finger
key. This finger could then close both keys simultaneouslywhen required,
giving D?. Laterit was found better to have two parallelrollers so that
the ring finger could move easily from D to Dg in the same way that the
little finger moves from C to Cg on a flute with two rollers on the foot
joint.'
Fig. 3 is a sketch of the little finger arrangementsat the first stage of
development. A proposthe above-mentioned extension of the D key, we
may observe that while there are a number of referencesin the older
flute literature to crescentic touch-pieces associated with finger-holes,
and, though the cases may not be quite identical,it is interestingto note
50

seemsneverto havebeenwholly satisfactory.

thatthe arrangement
The
notableexampleis, of course,that of Gordon'sflutes,contrastedwith
Boehm's1832modelin whichcompleteringswereemployedfor similar
purposes.In his descriptionof his cone-boreflute of 1852 Rockstro
claimsto haveoriginated'thenow commoncrescentic
shapeof thetouch
of the D# key' partiallyembracingthe endsof the C and C# touches.
Its objectivewas to easethe slurringof C# andD#, but in this he was
forestalledby CorneliusWardsometen yearsearlier.

FIG. 3.

Murray's
openD key,firstarrangement.

Turningbackto the Murraymodel,it is evidentthat once we have

passedD? the rightlittlefingeris not requiredagaintill we come to the
samenoteanoctavehigher,andit maythereforebe givenotheremployment in the interval.Murraythoughtof the defectiveF# mentioned
earlierand, with anotherlittle fingertouchand linkageto close the G
cup, arrangedthatthe F# couldbe soundedfrom its own hole with all
below open. A good trill for E-F# is thus securedwith no change
of fingeringfor the latternote. Further,by splittingthe A key so that
the B hole can remainopenwhile the Bb is closed,and by linkingthe
lowerof theseto thenew F# touch,a correctventingfor top F# becomes
possible.This is comparablewith ventingthe top E with the open G#
key (Fig.4).
The thirdpartof Murray'swork has been concernedwith the small
top C# hole, which, on accountof its multiplefunctions,Boehm was
constrainedto makesmalland placein a compromiseposition.It'suses

are:-

i) As a note-holefor c#",c/"' andc1""

ii) As a vent-holefor d",d"',andd"",d1"',g1"', a"',andb?'".
Murraypointsout alsothaton manyflutesthe intervalc#"-d#"requires
muchcarein blowingif it is to soundan acceptable
whole tone,andthat
both noteshaveto be 'humoured',one in one directionand one in the
51

In7
K

___
MURRAY

Note-Holes
C

G
G

E
D
c

FIG. 4.

o
0o

0
o

0 0
0

o 0
o

0o

*S
0
0

0
00
o

0o
0o

00
o

0
0

0*

* 0

0
0

o 0
0oo
o0

D
C
D

*
*

0o

0 6

0o

? * *

BOEHM

0
0

0
0

0
0

&
00o0

0
0

*0
*
0
0
0

0
0

G#)compared.
ofthe3rdoctave:MurrayandBoehm(closed
Venting

other.A numberof experimentsled to a divisionof functionbetweena

well-placedfull-sizeupperC# hole anda smalld"vent.The only change
of fingeringinvolvedwas a reversalof the Briccialdiarrangement
and
a returnto Boehm'smorelogicalone, i.e. B? aboveB,.
Finally,the closedD trillkey, which, togetherwith the D# trill,has
remainedvirtuallyunalteredsince Boehm inheritedit from Capeller,
has been slightlymodified.By linkingit to the right handD key the
closedfor the normalfingeringof top B, thus
D# hole is automatically
again leaving the right little finger free. P1. IV shows the general
appearanceof the Murrayflute in its latestform,and P1.IIIdetailsof
the rightlittle fingerkeys on a largerscale.It will be noticedthat this
exampleis built down to low B as is now almostuniversalin America
andincreasingly
popularin England.
To summarise,
we may saythatalthoughthe Murrayflutemay seem
it
is
in fact both logical and mechanicallysound. The
complicated
of
multiplicity touchpiecesat the lower end owe theirexistanceto the
very fact that the rightlittle fingerhas been releasedfrom its bondage
andsetfreeto makeuseof them.At the costof veryslightchangesfrom
thestandard
fingeringin one or two places(Fig.5) it hasbecomepossible
to makea flutewith hole dimensionsandplacingexactlyaccordingto
Boehm'sideal'Schema'5
andwithoutthe needfor compensatory
adjustmentsto humour'bad'notes. Possiblysuchan instrumentmay prove
52

S
* 0
* **

0_

*
*

*
*

*
*

*e

0*

0 0 0 0

0 0

0 0

S
*

00

0o

o"
0o0101oo
o

o 0

hilL

00

0F1
: c
I 1 I/
?/

iC
c
o o01(1)l
o io

FIG. 5.

* O*0

_oooo

*
*

c
/K
IF'

o
0

0o

Fingeringchartfor theMurrayflute.

more expensive than the average high quality standardBoehm-indeed

as long as the model is being produced 'one off' to specialorder it must
be so-but the researchand experiment has been done, and as more
flautistsbegin to appreciatethe facilities it offers, the writer, for one,
will not be surprisedto see it take its place in the cataloguesof the best
makers,and at a reasonableprice.
Let Murray himself have the last word: 'Without the skill, patience,
and insight of Albert Cooper, this flute would not be in existance.
Inevitablyhe has been inundatedwith work and has a seven-yearwaiting
list for his instruments. I have been most fortunate in meeting those
responsible for manufacturing Armstrong flutes. The foreman, Jack
Moore of the Heritage division, accepted the challenge of making a
similar flute with certain slight mechanical improvements over my
presentone (my eighth) which I hope will embody the final form of the
Murray flute'.
53

NOTES
und
den
die
neuesten
Ueber
desselben,
Mainz,1847.
I
Flditenbau
Verbesserung
An Essayon theConstruction
editedwith the additionof corresof Flutes-,
pondenceand other documentsby W. S. Broadwood,London, Rudall,
Carteand Co., 1882.This is Boehm'sown Englishversionof the preceding.
- , Munich,1871. TheFluteandFlutePlaying
Die Flite unddasFlktenspiel
SecondEnglishedn, revisedand enlarged,translated
and annotatedby
-,
DaytonC. Miller,London,Rudall,CarteandCo., 1922.Miller'scommentary
andAppendicesareof the utmostimportance.
2 TheFluteandFlutePlaying,p. 6o.
3 Op. cit.,pp. 29, 30 and 37.
4 Op.cit.,p. 68. InvariousCollectionsthereareexamplesof authenticBoehin
fluteswhichshow differentvariations(possiblyexperimental)
fromhisnormal
model.
5 Op.cit.,pp. 36, 38 et seq.

54

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Flute16o byA. K. Cooper,London,builtto thespecification

ofA. D. Murray
('Mark8')