Angels Who Play With Wings

Dear Friends,

I have been watching this post for some time now and feel obliged to comment.

I have several Lafin head joints and play them all from time to time. My favorite is an 18k with a platinum riser which I use on my platinum flute which is my favorite flute of all my collection.

Let me clarify the term Adler. It was a name given to the little wings on the headjoint manufactured by Rainer Lafin. What better inspiration then the wings of an eagle. They are not there to help people get the “right “place for their lips. Rainer started to put them there because of the experiments carried out by some flute playing scientists who discovered that if you have the riser built too high it apparently gives better low notes bit is no good for the high register. Therefore they kept the riser the regular height and added the “wings” so that it would help the headjoint to play evenly over all the registers.

I personally think it is a great idea. I do have a Muramatsu headjoint 18k with wings and it goes very well indeed.

Penny claims that this is just a sales gimmick used to sell a headjoint. May I humbly ask her how many she has tried in order to write with such authority? ? In my case I tried them long ago but out of loyalty to my friends at the Muramatsu company, I stuck to their heads. About a year ago Rainer came over to see me. He lives about an hour and a half drive away from me. During this visit he showed me a head he had made and I thought it was really a big improvement on what I was using. He then gave me another crown and this also made a huge difference. I had thought the “crown” business was a lot of nonsense till I tried this one. Believe me it makes a difference and so do the wings.

Mark Richter in his note to both my list and the flute list said that the stopper on his Lafin was perfectly machined and I can well believe this. This is just typical of Rainer’s dedication to getting it right. I liked you article Mark and will have all my stoppers checked.

Well from all the people listed below I know that all of them had a choice and they all, like me, choose the “Adler” model. There are some very distinguished people in this list and I don’t think for a moment any of them bought a Lafin Headjoint as a crutch. They bought them because the tone is more even all over the flute, there are more colors, a better attack all over the flute and the intonation is also better.

Rainer is a very dedicated person when it comes to doing anything. He played with me in Berlin from time to time in the Philharmonic when I was there, 1969/75. He was the piccolo player in the Deutsche Opera orchestra when, it was conducted by Lorin Maazel, and when Maestro Maazel went to head the in RIAS Berlin he took Rainer with him.

When Rainer began to make headjoints he did so with the same dedication and research that he applied to playing the flute. At one point in Berlin there were several flute players who made flutes. I have two flutes made by Fenwick Smith who at the time studied with me and played all over town in various orchestras and ensembles. He now plays in the Boston Symphony. I still have these two fine Powell flutes.

All these people were influenced by the Cooper flutes I played when I was solo flute in the Berlin Phil. I had my flutes specially made at a=445. This is the pitch the orchestra plays at, or did when I was in it. They had never heard intonation like this on the flute before. Von Karajan took me aside one day and asked me what the secret was! You can imagine how frustrated he was with sharp high notes on the flute.

Now as to people not giving in to a good thing when they see it is normal. I took my flute to Hammig and asked him to copy it and he refused saying that his were better. Well they were certainly sharper especially in the high register. Here was a great flutemaker with a state of the art flute in his hands and he refused to copy it, even with Albert Cooper’s permission.

I believe that the Haynes company were the last to change their scale where as Brannen did it right away and many others followed.

I cannot say this is a gimmick for selling headjoints but will say that when the rest of the flute making companies wake up to a good idea we will all be better off just as we are better of with the influence of Mr. Cooper with his scale.

In summing up I would say this is not a sales gimmick but an advancement in the art of making headjoints and I am very proud to know Rainer as a friend and to play on his headjoint.

Following are a list of all the angels with wings.

Best regards,
Sir James Galway