Journal

I’ve received the kindest message that some people are still watching this space. So I thought I had to respond in style.

There are a zillion ideas flowing in my mind about what to do with this website, but the problem is that there are two sources of activities that consume most of my time.

The first one is work. Let’s focus on the positive aspects of it: I’ve learned so much and done so many new things the last 16 months, that I really don’t know where to start writing it all down. I’m going to work with another company to make a presentation of it all, so that will be a start. Again, time is the problem, work consumes me so it is hard to get the needed distance to structure everything in a logical order and write it down. It is very much needed, and probably something I really will have to do.

If I look at the world, I have to say that I’m not very optimistic. So many politicians, directors of large companies, economists tell us over and over again that the worst recession ever is going on at the moment and that no one will escape. As such, it has become a self-fulfilling prophecy and recession will happen now.

If I look around me at the people I meet every day, no one is pessimistic about the future, everyone is doing better than ever, but companies are stopping projects or decide to postpone starting new ones. They are sitting it out, even if there is no direct financial reason to do so. Managers read the same papers and watch the same news shows and thus the recession is triggered.

As a small company, we can only survive if we’re in a specialist niche and I think we are. We just need to tell the world and to do so, I need to sit down with a few colleagues and write down the message and think of ways to spread the word. It’s a vicious trap we are all aware of, but not easy to avoid falling in.

The second source of activities is music. Ever since I bought a new flute, I have been playing more and more. I have been working real hard to change my techniques and it is starting to pay off. As far as I can tell, I have played better than ever, I just need to get my skill in interpretation back to where it was once.

The strange thing is that at 37 I expected to be unable to change much or gain new insight into what I am doing. The older you get, the less flexible your brain and body gets. But I hear new things, things in music and sounds that I have never heard before and that push my playing to a whole new level.

Next week, I am going back to the shop where I bought the instrument, because there is a flute festival. The builders of my instrument and head joint are present as well and I want to try out other silver head joints. Also I am very curious as to what I would make of the instrument that I did not choose if I play it now, having acquired the skills I did not have at the moment of choosing.

There is no doubt that I did not choose the right instrument, I’m rock solid in my feeling that this is exactly the kind of instrument I needed, it fits my personality somehow and it still is a challenge to control. I’m just wondering what I sound like when I play another instrument again and compare that to 6 months ago. I’m looking forward to next weekend.

As most people would have noticed – assuming there are people visiting – I have pretty much stopped to write.

There is a simple explanation: I do not have the time and I am bored with the blog format.

If anything, I feel a need to write more professionally, concerning my working expertise in datawarehousing and business intelligence. It is my New Year resolution for 2008.

I think I’m going to rework this website to accommodate this and I will archive all that I have produced on this space so far.

Thank you for visiting and listening over the past 10 years.

— Martijn

No entries for this month.

Here she is: my new flute. I’ve playing it for the past two weeks and I’m falling more and more in love with the sound.

The last three years I have been actively and passively thinking about a new instrument. The limitations of my old instrument frustrated me and a year ago, I’ve embarked on a process of learning new flute techniques by switching to a new teacher. He basically suggested I really should look out for a new instrument and thus my search began.

It was a long search. I started out by sampling a wide area of flutes, trying to find what would appeal to me in a new instrument. Soon, I found out that I was attracted most by flutes being made in America. Having played a Japanese flute for 18 years I rather felt that a change in the approach of the sound a flute should make was needed for me.
This does not mean that Japanese flute makers do no make great instruments, on the contrary. I was just looking for “something new”.

Slowly, I eliminated flutes from the list of prospects. I stumbled upon one flute in the early stages of my search that was beautiful, but before I could make up my mind it was sold. The differences between the individual flutes of the same model are very noticeable and while searching, those differences are exaggerated by comparison. You cannot order a flute from a catalogue; it is essential to try before you buy.

Earlier on, I tried a Brannen-Cooper Millennium model and found it very hard to play. I did try a Powell Aurumite model for a week though, but had some reservations about it and returned it to the store.

Having played other instruments, I went back to give the Powell a second try. Before I could blink an eye, 5 different models were layed out for me again. After a while I tried a different, and much more expensive, Aurumite model and was blown away by the smoothness, the warmth and the openness of its sound. I thought I discovered my flute. But then I tried another Brannen-Cooper Millennium flute and was intrigued by its clear, complex sound. The Brannen flute was much harder to play, had a more focused and less rounded sound than the far more expensive Powell, but somewhere in the sound there was a hint of versatility that I had never heard before in a flute.

So, there I was, holding a full-bodied rounded sounding flute in one hand, and a very clear, focused and layered sounding flute in the other.

But I was only halfway on my mission: on a previous try I did play using a wooden headjoint for a few minutes, after a long sessions of playing, and I was completely taken with the sound. All that time, I never had forgotten about it and I wanted to try any new flute with a wooden headjoint. Not all flutes are compatible with wood, but I really had a wish for being able to buy a wooden headjoint later in time.

I asked to try a wooden headjoint on both flutes and was given the same Mancke headjoint I had played before; it fitted on the Brannen flute. I had to try another on the Powell and so I could compare. After playing two notes on the Brannen I could not believe what my ears where telling me. The wooden headjoint brought out the complexity of the Brannen sound while retaining the clarity and the Powell did lose a lot of its powerhouse appeal with wood.

I could not make a choice. I wanted to try one of the flutes at home for a week, trying to find out if it would fit me, but I could not decide which one. It is impossible to try out a wooden headjoint, because it has to be prepared slowly by playing on it for an increasing amount of time over weeks. Wood is sensitive to humidity and temperature difference, and more humid and warm than human breath is hard to find. So I would have to have audition the flute on its metal headjoint.

I took the flutes to a large room, so I could get more information out of the echo of a larger space. The Powell was magnificent. I have never before played an instrument that could fill such a large space with sound. Then I tried the Brannen with its own silver headjoint and it confirmed what I heard before; a much more smaller, but focused sound with a lot of clarity and some complexity in it. I switched to the wooden headjoint, played a phrase and was stunned by the effect of it. Suddenly I had this big, warm, complex layered sound coming back to me, a lot smaller than what the Powell produced, but with much more flexibility and dynamic range.

I went back down and bought the instrument on the spot. The wooden headjoint had to be made fitting for the flute, so I had to wait while the workshop was busy on it. Suddenly I heard a fantastic flute sound coming from one corner of the store and within seconds after it stopped, the workshop man appeared with a silver flute and a wooden headjoint. That was my flute!

I am in the middle of the slow process of training the wooden headjoint. It is becoming louder and darker every day. The volume of sound it is producing is staggering from time to time, while at the same time the complexity and clarity are growing. It is hard to convey in words what it does to me, but I haven’t played this often for a long, long time and getting completely lost into sound. I definitely made the right choice.

No entries for this month.