The Babel Flute

by Ludwig Böhm

• On the Trail of my Great-great-grandfather Theobald Böhm, Flautist, Composer, Flute Maker, 1794–1881
• History of Theobald Böhm and correct spelling
• Theobald Böhm as a flutist
• Theobald Böhm as a composer
• Theobald Böhm’s comment on the open G sharp key
• The Inventor of the Bb thumb lever on the Böhm flute: Theobald Böhm or Giulio Briccialdi?

The 5th International Theobald Böhm Competition for Flute and Alto Flute was, according to the number of participants, the most successful up to now. About 100 students wrote me because of the competition. It was indeed international.

Participants

There were 81 registrations from 21 countries: Germany (3); France (1), Italy (10), Croatia (2), Austria (7), Portugal (2), Romania (1), Russia (2), Slovakia (1), Slovenia (3), Spain (5), Czech Republic (2), Turkey (2), Ukraine (4), Hungaria (3); China (11), Japan (5), Colombia(1), New Zealand (1), South Korea (8) and Taiwan (7). Ten cancelled and 71 took part.

Prizes

The first prize in all former competitions went to male participants, this time the first, second and third prize went to female participants. Astonishing for me was also that three of four finalists were younger than 20 years of age.

The 1st prize went to Metka Crnugelj, Slovenia (5000 EUR, foundation Otto Eckart), the 2nd prize went to Jeongyeon Lee, South Korea (3000 EUR, Ludwig Böhm), the 3rd prize went to Eva Faganelj, Slovenia (2000 EUR, foundation Dr. Castringius). The special prize for alto flute received Tommaso Binini, Italy (flute headjoint by Miyazawa, donated by Ludwig Böhm), the special prize for the best participant under 20 years received Jeongyeon Lee, South Korea (piccolo headjoint by Tobias Mancke).

Challenges

In no other competition were there so many difficulties to overcome beforehand as in this one. At the beginning, it was questionable, whether the competition can take place because of corona. Then came the terrible war in the Ukraine. One juror from St. Petersburg and another one from Kiev had to be replaced in a short time, another juror became sick. The company Yamaha, who had always donated the 2nd prize of 3000 EUR, told me that they can’t pay anything this time because of a worse balance because of corona and I had to pay the amount out of my own pocket. The American flutemaker Sandy Drelinger, who had promised a flute headjoint, unfortunately died last year because of corona and I bought a headjoint at the value of 1800 EUR.

Networking

After the competition, it is time for a short balance and I want to make some personal remarks. Before the last competition three years ago, for many hours, I searched for the e-mail addresses of about 1000 secretariats of music conservatories world-wide and I sent them the competition poster with the request to forward it to the flute professors. The whole work was more or less in vain, because there were only very few replies. In fact, we had at the last competition the disappointing number of only 14 participants. This was certainly also due to the fact that there were six other flute competitions at the same time in Europe. Of course there were voices after the last competition, who held the opinion that something should be changed and that there are too many works of Theobald Böhm in the programme.

This time I did it better. In as many hours as last time, I searched in the internet for the names and e-mail addresses of about 700 flute professors in Europe and I asked all of them in a personal e-mail to inform their students about the competition. In fact, I got about 270 answers from flute teachers. For the international correspondence, my studies of English and Romanic philology (English, French and Spanish) were very helpful.

Conclusions

I feel strengthened by the great success of the competition of this year that the program must not be changed in the future competitions. First round: one study of Theobald Böhm, one arrangement for flute in C or alto flute in G and one work from the 18th century; 2nd round: one work of Theobald Böhm with piano, one modern work with and another modern work without piano; 3rd round: one slow and one fast work of Theobald Böhm. The most important change should be that the first round takes three days instead of two days, if again there are so many participants. This time the first two days were very long and strenuous, but one more day would not have been possible, because some jurors had to leave on Thursday evening. Besides there will be in the future a 2nd round for alto flute in G.

Thanks

Finally, I would like to thank those people, who contributed to the success of the competition. Prof. Bernd Redmann, the president of the Musikhochschule, offered the rooms without cost. The jury made the decisions, which were certainly not easy, in a very friendly and pleasant atmosphere: The president Martin Belič, Stefan Albers, who joined shortly before, the great-great-great-granddaughter Katharina Böhm, who plays the original Böhm system with open G sharp key, Dejan Gavric, who also joined shortly before, Sarah Louvion, Grigory Mordashov, who also joined shortly before and Yumiko Yamamoto. The two pianists Linlin Fan und Nino Gurevic certainly didn’t have an easy task with the many participants and they were generally praised. Birgit Chlupacek fulfilled all organizational tasks with bravery and she essentially contributed to the smooth course of the competition. Angelika Schindel had very successfully taken over the public relations.

Photos Festival Concert and Competition 2022

1. Dejan Gavric, Nino Gurevich, Sarah Louvion, Stefan Albers, Martin Belič, Grigory Mordashov, Katharina Böhm

2 Stefan Albers, Katharina Böhm, Linlin Fan, Sarah Louvion, Ludwig Böhm, Dejan Gavric, Nino Gurevich, Grigory Mordashov, Martin Belič

3. Wuhao Yu, China (4th place), Jeongyeon Lee, Eva Faganelj, Metka Crnugelj, Tommaso Binini, Grigory Mordashov, Sarah Louvion, Dejan Gavric, Katharina Böhm, Yumiko Yamamoto, Stefan Albers, Nino Gurevic, Linlin Fan, Ludwig Böhm, Martin Beliič, Birgit Chlupacek

4 Wuhao Yu, Tommaso Binini, Jeongyeon Lee, Eva Faganelj, Ludwig Böhm, Metka Crnugelj

Ludwig Böhm

ludwig.boehm@t-online.de | www.theobald-boehm-archiv-und-wettbewerb.de | www.theobald-boehm-shop.de

Address: Asamstrasse 6, 82166 Gräfelfing, Germany, tel. 0049-89-875367

Ludwig Böhm was born in Munich, where he studied English, French and Spanish at the University and was a teacher from 1981 to 1983. Inspired by a great exhibition in the Munich Municipal Museum in 1981 on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the death of his great-great-grandfather Theobald Böhm (flautist, composer, flute-maker, inventor of the Böhm flute, Munich 1794–1881), he dedicated his life from that time on to keeping the memory of Theobald alive. As a result of more than 30 years of research, he published in 2012 all 88 compositions and arrangements of Theobald together with Dr. Raymond Meylan and in 2013 20 books and 4 translations from and about him. He travelled to flute festivals in Japan, Australia, USA, Netherlands, Spain, Germany, Italy, Croatia, Luxembourg, Slovenia, China, Great Britain, Iceland, Thailand, Portugal, Chile, Poland and Armenia and presented a slide lecture about Theobald. He is the President of the Theobald Böhm Archive, founded in 1980, of the Theobald Böhm Society, founded in 1990 and of the Theobald Böhm Foundation, founded in 2014. In 2006, 2011 and 2016, he organized in Munich the 1st, 2nd and 3rd International Theobald Böhm Competition for Flute and Alto Flute.

List of professional open G# players

Current list of 480 professional open G sharp players can be seen in the homepage www.theobald-boehm-archiv-und-wettbewerb.de under “Open G sharp Key”. If you are a professional open G sharp player, who have not yet contacted Ludwig Böhm, please do so at ludwig.boehm@t-online.de to be added to the list.