John Lunn Flutes: Vanguard Page

JOHN LUNN FLUTES
The Art Nouveau Flute

Where we've been so far... a brief biography of John Lunn

Picture tour of how the art nouveau keys are made.

A pictoral history from design concept right through to the latest versions.

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Why I make the Art Nouveau flute Although handmade flutes in this country have enjoyed a renaissance in the past 25 years, more and more machine and production techniques have replaced the individual attention of the craftsman. Musical instrument making has become a machining and high tech tooling trade. All the necessary handwork is done in a uniform, premolded fashion to speed production, resulting in each makers flutes looking almost identical to the others.

For a flute to be a true 'work of art' each one had to stand independently as a separate sculpture as well as a fine musical instrument. Each part must be shaped and fit to what works for that particular flute and for that particular flutist. To do this, I departed from the modern "machinist mindset" and started working with traditional techniques and tools such as hammer & stakes, forming plyers, chasing tools and handfitting methods.

Seeing the flute as an artform has been a dream of mine since I began making flutes. I chose a leaf pattern "art nouveau" design as my template because I have always envisioned the flute body as a cherry tree with branches and vines for key arms that ‘grow' around the instrument, leaves as lever touches and cherries for the pad cups. This organic motif gives motion to the flute as a sculpture and brings it to life. That is the vision that I have been developing and every flute I make is a step towards that end.

The rest of this section illustrates and demostrates this dream come to life. For a more detailed essay, read the article Flutemaking as an Artform. ~

Apprenticing in 1977

Where we've been so far...
I grew up in Ontario, Canada. My father was a journalism professor and my mother is a children's book author. (You can see her books at the Janet Lunn website) I am the youngest of their 5 kids. Musically, I started my education at age 7 with piano lessons and singing in a boys choir. After turning 10 we moved from Toronto to a very rural part of Ontario. Traveling to a new piano teacher was difficult in our tiny town so I played the recorder, guitar, and clarinet for a couple of years before I discovered the flute.

The day after graduating from high school I moved back to Toronto and spent a summer as a street musician (my first professional flute gig). Six months later, just after I turned 18, I began a 3 year apprenticeship with Jack Goosman Flutes to help pay for college tuition. My intention at the time was to major in flute performance and composition. While learning the flutemaking trade, I found that I really loved working with my hands and particularly with the silver. I also enjoyed hearing the flutes I helped make performed in concert by their new owners. I continued to study part time but my commitment to performance took a back seat as my interest in flutemaking grew.

In 1979, I left Canada and headed for Boston to start a job with the Powell Flute Company. During the 10 years I worked there as a 'stringer'(making flute mechanisms) and developing the skills of the silversmith and flutemaker, I got married and began raising a family, worked on my flute playing, got my pilot's license, attempted skydiving & hang gliding, studied writing and literature at various colleges, and wrote 2 novels (I haven't worked hard on marketting them- so they languish in a box). In '86, my wife, Meredith, took a job at Powell in the padding department while I strung flutes for them from a shop in our home.

John & grandson
Brandon in 2000

In 1988 we moved our family to Toronto and I started developing the Lunn flute. I redesigned several aspects of the mechanism both aesthetically and for easier reach & comfort. Ever since my first year of flutemaking I had my own ideas about flute designs. I envisioned the flute as an art form and sculpture rather than just a machine or tool for making music. I had made drawings and designs of the flute as a tree with leaves and branches and fruit instead of straight arms, levers and cups. I wanted each flute I made to be a unique sculpture of its own and each one handfit to the flutist who owns it. (Rather than go into detail here, you can read about my flutes and the art nouveau designs on my webpage listed below). The Art Nouveau ("Vanguard") Lunn flute premiered in 1989 at the National Flute Association (NFA) convention in New Orleans.

By designing the mechanism for comfort and improved reach, I began meeting flutists who had problems with their hands. Many asked if I could design special keys to relieve their problems on their own flutes. Before long, I started hearing from flutists all over the world hoping that I might be able to help them recover from an injury or reach problem. I discovered that by learning about the underlying physical causes of each flutists' problem I could better design the flute mechanism to suit their needs. At the same time, for many, all they needed was help finding information or referrals. So, in 1993, we started the flutist's health care newsletter HANDS ON! to help flutists find information about, and solutions to, performance injuries. It is available free online.

We returned to New England in 1991 and settled in Newport, New Hampshire. Meredith and I work together in our shop to produce a few flutes each year, offer repair services, and some modifications for hand problems. I do the metalwork and Meredith does the padding and finishing. In '93, I had the pleasure of working with Albert Cooper to build four all 14K gold flutes with him. This was a wonderful opportunity for me as I have always admired Mr. Cooper's abilities and contributions to flutemaking and he had retired from making new flutes many years earlier and has not made any since.

Meredith Lunn

As the Vanguard flute has evolved with each successive instrument, their sculptural design has gained recognition in the fine art community. The flutes have been exhibited at various galleries in New England as works of art. Last year, a Lunn flute won the best in show award in an art exhibit called "The Creative Hand II" sponsored by the League of New Hampshire Craftsmen and the New Hampshire Art Association. In June '99, a Lunn flute was on exhibit at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington, D.C. representing a harmony of art and machining.

Outside of flutes, in what may loosely be termed "spare time" I got involved in local politics and was elected for several years to our town council until I retired in '98 but I still stay active in town affairs. Meredith raised Australian Shepherds and has become a canine training instructor, teaching dog owners how to handle and train their dogs, and is the canine behavior editor of a national dog magazine. You can see her work at her website: Tricorn Acres Our 2 kids have grown up and moved out to start families of their own. We have two grandsons, Brandon (age 5) and Alex (age 2).

My writing career has taken off as well in the last two years and my first novel, THE MARINER'S CURSE, will be coming out on February 17, 2004. It is a high seas adventure ghost story for middle readers (ages 9-13). You can read about it and order copy on my writing webpage. ~

The next page of this tour will demonstrate the process in making an art nouveau key.

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