Obituary

Abstract

Whether he was making instruments or producing recordings, Andreas Glatt (10 November 1945–4 May 2013) brought to his work the perspective of a musician of rare sensibilities and discernment. He grew up in Bremerhaven, the son of an architect, and in nearby Bremen he studied recorder with Martin Skowroneck, who was also an instrument-maker of distinction. At the Schola Cantorum in Basel he studied flute and recorder with Hans-Martin Linde, but Skowroneck remained the greater influence and Andreas’s overriding passion became antique instruments, which he realized were quite different from—and far superior to—the instruments then available. In the early 1970s, after settling in Belgium, he embarked on a career making flutes and recorders with a strong personal conviction: they would diverge as little as possible from the originals, even if that meant each model would be pitched differently. It was only then, he believed, that they had a chance of attaining the sonorities of the masters. While many of his colleagues strove for consistency, Andreas aimed higher, imbuing each instrument with a personality of its own; like the antiques that inspired them, they demanded sympathy and sensitivity from their players. That earned him devoted partisans amongst serious musicians, but his instruments were not for everyone and he was not about to make them so. Instrument-making was for him the art through which he sought a living gateway to the musical past, without regard to common denominators or commercial necessities. Justified though they were, his principles occasionally led to conflicts with musicians who cared more about convenience than about sound.