New Nose Flutes by Martina Sommer

I recently received two Nasenflöten by Martina Sommer, and it is the right opportunity to make an update. Indeed, we have already made a review of Martina Sommer's nose flutes (check this 2011 post please), but her instruments have a bit elvolved and the the way to get them has changed: no more at sommer-musik.de, which page is dedicated to Martin Sommer's music, but on de.dawanda.com or by direct contact ( musik-zeit[at]gmx[dot]de ).

In fact, few things have changed: Martina's nose flutes are hand made with nice woods, and each instrument is unique in its shape and wood combinations. But it seems that Mrs Sommer experiments with more complex shapes, including asymmetrical ones.



I got two nose flutes of rather elaborate shapes, one symmetric using curves, and one asymmetric only made of angles. They were provided with an user manual, a cardboard box and equipped with a leather neck cord.

The first one is made of hornbeam and robinia, and shows lateral edges taht have been filed into a watermelon slice shape. On the airway cover, a central depression has also been filed: those cuts are an help to grip the nose flute and press it under the nose, either with 2 fingers, or with adding one in the middle.

The second one (cherry + walnut wood)is even more interesting, with its asymmetrical shape. It definitively has a great look, very angular, like a stealth F117 airplane.

As expected with Martina Sommer's production, the craftsmanship is precise and neat. However, a soft sanding on the fipple would be nice for a perfect finish.



Unfortunately, the "technical parts" have stayed the same since our first review. The airway (which is not rectangular but rounded) is far too thick to provide a real "air blade": it measures up to 3 mm at the maximum of the rounded canal. Then, the mouth hole, which is a perfect circular hole, is also far too big in heigth (1 cm of diameter, while we know that .6 or .7 are the max: Heinrich Handler's Nasenflöten have a 3 mm high mouth hole and works like in paradise!).

So, all in all, a thick airway plus a too high mouth hole make the Sommer's nose flutes sound weak and windy. You have too blow strongly in them, and get a rather medium quality of sound. Schade, sehr schade. Yes, alas, because those nose flutes are beautiful and made with care, for a decent price (20€).