CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY GIFT OF w. H. French MUSIC Cornell University Library ML 935.F55 The storv of the flute, 3 1924 022 386 407 1 ^'. jpji H p 1 1 M 1 ■ ^^■1 ^^1 ^H ^^^K ' '^'ir^^iPNi^^H ^^HEB ^^^^H F « 0ilBl H| ih ^B '/'^nl^ ^H| hB [:■ ■ 7^ S^>^ ft '' ^^flflflj^S^K ''^H B 1 HP /^ ^■S 1 1 P^ / / ^^ iPI THE FLUTE PLAYER. I Me i 3 s oriier ) The original of tliis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924022386407 The Music Story Series Edited by FREDERICK J. CROWEST The Story of the Flute tibc ^usic Stors Sei'ies. Already published in this Scries. THE STORY OF ORATORIO. By Annie Pattekson, E.A., Mus. Doc. With Illustrations. THE STORY OF NOTATION. By C. F. Abdy Williams, M.A., Miis. Eac. With Illustrations. THE STORY OF THE ORGAN. By C. F. Abdy Williams, M.A., Mus. Bac. With Illustrations. THE STORY OF CHAMBER MUSIC. By N. Kilburn, Mus. Bac. With Illustrations. THE STORY OF THE VIOLIN. By Paul Stoeving. With Illustrations. THE STORY OF THE HARP. By W. H. Grattan Flood, Mus. Doc. With Illustrations. THE STORY OF ORGAN MUSIC. By C. F. Abdy Williams, M.A., Mus. Bac. With Illustrations. THE STORY OF ENGLISH MUSIC (1604-1904)- MUSICIANS' COMPANY LECTURES. THE STORY OF MINSTRELSY. By Edmondstoune Duncan. With Illustrations. THE STORY OF MUSICAL FORM. By Clarence Lucas. With Illustrations. THE STORY OF OPERA. By E. Markham Lee, M.A., Mus. Doc. With Illustrations. THE STORY OF THE CAROL. By Edmondstoune Duncan. With Illustrations. THE STORY OF THE BAGPIPE. liy W. H. Gbattan Flood, Mus. Doc. With Illustrations. This Series, in superior leather bindings, viay be had on application to the Publishers. [all rights RESERVEr.] Story of the Flute H. MaCAULAY FiTZGlBBON, M.A., SEN. MOD. (T.C.D.), AUTHOR OF "the early ENGLISH AN'D SCOTTISH POETS AND THEIR WORKS." London ^^ The Walter Scott Publishing Co., Ltd. p^| New York: Charles Scribner's. Sons Preface. This volume is the result of nearly forty years' loving study of the Flute and everything connected with it. In addition to the knov^ledge acquired by many years of orchestral and chamber music play- ing, hundreds of volumes have been consulted in the Biblioth^que Nationale of Paris, the British Museum, the Bodleian, Dublin University, and other Public Libraries. Whilst availing myself freely of the labours of my predecessors in the same field, I have verified their statements as far as possible. I desire to thank the various flautists, European and American, who have supplied me with much valuable information. In conclusion, I pray my readers to excuse any slips I may have inadvertently made; wishing them (in the words of old Quarles) " as much pleasure in the reading as I had in the writing." H. MACAULAY FITZGIBBON. Greystones, November, igij- Contents. Explanation of Signs used xii Addenda and Corrigenda - xii List of Illustrations - xiii List of Musical Examples xv CHAPTER L FLUTES OF THE ANCIENTS. Antiquity of the flute— Classic legends— Egyptian origin— The Arab "Nay" — Development — The Fipple — Fingerholes — Double flutes — Popularity amongst the ancients — Ancient players of note — Their position and costume - i CHAPTER IL FLUTE-A-BEC AND RECORDER. Beaked flutes — Recorders — Double and triple recorders — Popu- larity — Gradual decline — Flageolet and other early pipes l6 CHAPTER HL TRANSVERSE FLUTE. Section I. — Was it known to the Greeks and liomans ? — The Chinese — India — Early representations and references — The Schweitzerpfeiff — Virdung — Agricola — Preetorius — Mer- senne's description — In England - - 23 Section II. — Flutes with keys — The DB key — Hotteterre — The conical bore — Structure of early flutes — Tuning slides— Quantz's inventions — The low C keys — Further keys added — Tromlitz's inventions — Open keys — The eight-keyed flute — Capeller and Nolan's keys ... -34 Contents PAGE CHAPTER IV. BOHM AND GORDON. Biographical — Revolution in the flute — Gordon — His flutes — Bohm — His flutes of 1831, 183Z, and 1847 — His publica- tions — As a player — His compositions — Bohm's centenary — The controversy — Priority of inventions — Coche's attack — Clinton's views — Revival of the controversy — Rockstro's attack — Summary ... ... 47 CHAPTER V. FLUTE AFTER BOHM. Various patentees— Coche and Buffet — Ward — The Dorus key — Siccama — Briccialdi's lever — Carte's flutes — Clinton — Pratten — Rockstro — Radcliff — Other minor " improvers " . 65 CHAPTER VI. MILITARY FIFE. Early history, examples, and references — Arbeau's description — Introduced into the French army — Into the English army — Duties of military fifers — Their position — Temporary disuse— Re-instatement — The true fife — In opera - - 73 CHAPTER VII. PICCOLO: F FLUTE. Piccolo — Orchestral use — Characteristics — Berlioz on its abuse — Its various registers— As used by great composers — Two piccolos — Wkh cymbals, bells, etc. — As a solo instrument- Military varieties — The F flute - - - go Contents PAGE CHAPTER VIII. ALTO AND BASS FLUTES. The true bass flute — Early examples — Alto flutes — Modern ex- amples — The Flute d'Amour — Recent revival - 87 CHAPTER IX. CHARACTERISTICS OF THE FLUTE. Popularity of the flute — Its tone — Various registers — Its agility — Harmonics — Double-tongueing — The glide — Vibrato eSect — Shakes and turns — Tremolo — Best keys — Hygienic aspect • 92 CHAPTER X. MUSIC FOR THE FLUTE. Early composers — Loeillet — Mercy — Blavet — Quantz — Classical composers — Flautist composers — Kuhlau — His successors — Good flute music — Taste ot the public — Airs with variations — Doppler — Terschak — Modern school of flute composers — Flute and harp or guitar — Flute and voice - 100 CHAPTER XI. FLUTE IN THE ORCHESTRA. Introduction of the flute into the orchestra— The flute and piccolo as used by the great composers — Bach — His obligatos — Handel — His flauto-piccolo — Flute and organ — Gluck — Haydn — The Creation — Symphonies — Mozart — Disliked the flute — Symphonies — Serenades — Operas — Concertos — Beet- hoven — His famous flute passages — Weber — Meyerbeer — Piccolo passages — Italian operatic composers — William Tell overture — Mendelssohn — Midsummer Night's Dream — Symphonies — Oratorios — Schubert — Schumann — Use by modern composers — Berlioz— Flute and harp— Brahms — Dvoicak — The Sfectre's £n«&— Cadenzas — Grieg — Bizet's Contents PAGE Carmen — Sullivan — The Golden Legend — Coleridge-Taylor — Wagner — Tschaikowsky — R. Strauss — Passages of extreme difficulty - - IIS CHAPTER XII. FLUTE IN CHAMBER MUSIC. "The neglected wind" — Chamber pieces by great composers — Spohr's Nonett — Pieces for wind and pianoforte — For wind and strings — For wind alone — Larger combinations — For flutes alone - - iSo CHAPTER XIII. FAMOUS FLAUTISTS. Section I. — Foreign players — Quanlz— Frederick the Great — Royal flautists — Early French players — Hugot — Berbiguier — Tulou — Drouet — Furstenau — Doppler — Dorus — Demers- seman — Ciardi — Briccialdi — Ribas — Terschak — Altes — Taffanel - - 186 Section II. — British players — Early performers — Ashe^Charles Nicholson — Richardson — Clinton — Pratten — B. Wells — Henry Nicholson — Svendsen — Principal living flautists 206 CHAPTER XIV. BRITISH AND FOREIGN STYLES COMPARED. Statistics — Style of performance — English, French, Italian, Ger- man — Bohm's opinion — Foreign playeis of note - 216 CHAPTER XV. WOMAN AND THE FLUTE. Suitability — Female players in classic times — More recent flautistes — English flautistes of to-day — American flautistes — Female composers for the flute 220 Contents CHAPTER XVI. FLUTE IN AMERICA AND AUSTRALIA. Early notiees and players — Later players of foreign origin — Ernst — Introduction of the Bohm flute — Native American players — Kyle — Lemmone - 225 CHAPTER XVH. FLUTE IN ENGLISH LITERATURE — POET FLAUTISTS. Early English references — Chaucer — Flute and fife in Shake- speare — In the early dramatists — In the poets — References to the qualities of the flute — Epithets applied to it — Cowper — Longfellow — Other poets — Prose references — In modern novelists — Dickens — A weird flute story — Flute in American authors — Sidney Lanier — Other literary flautists — Legends 230 CHAPTER XVHI. CURIOSITIES OF THE FLUTE. Flutes of curious materials — Walking-stick flutes — Ornamented flutes— Bohm's crutch — Ward's terminator— Various other inventions — The Giorgi flute — Automaton players— Dulon, the blind flautist — Rebsomen, the one-armed flautist — Hallet, the youthful prodigy — How to silence a flautist 252 CHAPTER XIX. FLUTES OF ORIENTAL AND SAVAGE NATIONS. Oriental flutes— Chinese— Japanese— Effect of the flute on animals — Indian flutas— Nose-flutes — South American flutes — The love fluts— Ancient prejudices— The Fathers and the Puritans 262 Appendix I. — Early Instruction Books for Transverse Flute 275 ^^ II.— Wooden and Metal Flutes - 27S „ IIL— Bibliography of the Flute 281 Index - -^5 EXPLANATION OF SIGNS USED. O = an open hole ; -#• = a dosed hole. The notes of the various octaves are expressed in the text thus: those of the first octave from the C below the treble stave to the B on the third line, inclusive, have one stroke thus — C; those of the second octave have two strokes — e.g., C"; and those of the third octave have three strokes — e.g.y C". ADDENDA AND CORRIGENDA. Page 2. — It has been suggested that the verb fluter or flauter preceded the noun, and that it represents a Low Latin flautlare = to sound the notes fa, ut, la; of this there is no evidence. (See Studies, September, 1913, p. 229.) Page 34. — The passage cited from Bacon's Sylva Sylvarum is from c. ii., s. 116. Page 66.— For " Ribcock " read " Ribock." Page 78.— For "James I." read "James II." Page 103, line 9. — Strike out the reference to Mozart's Concerto. List of Illustrations. " The Flute Player " (Meissonier) Egyptian Oblique Flute-player .... TheV-notch ... ... Double Flute-player Double Flute (from Boissard's Roman Antiquities) Double Flutes, with several bulbs ... Auletes (from the Freize of the Parthenon) . Plagiaulos, or ringed flute with projecting mouthpiece Capistrum and Bulbed Double Flute ... Fistula Tristoma and Scale (from Kircher's Mttsurgia Universalis) Fistula Hexastoma and Scale ,, „ „ Enclosed Key on Recorders Portrait of German Flute-player (from The Music Master) Early Keyless Flutes : — Virdung's Zwerchpfeiff Agricola's Schweitzerpfeiff . Praetorius' Bass Querflote Mersenne's Fistula Germanica Early Flutes with Keys : — Hotteterre's Flute Quantz's Flute . Tromlitz's Five-keyed Flute The Eight-keyed Flute xiii PAGE Frontispiece 4 9 9 II 13 14 17 17 i8 22 3° 3° 30 30 31 31 31 31 List of Illustrations Portrait of Hottoterre .... . . 36 Nolan's Ring-key . . . • 45 Gordon's Flutes • 51 Bohm's Flutes of 1829, 183 1, and 1832 • SI Siccama's Flute . 68 Bohm's Flute of 1847 . 68 Carte and Bohm, 1867 Patent Flute . 68 Briccialdi's Bl» Lever . . 69 Portrait of J. Mathews and his Flute . • 72 Bass Flutes :— Macgregor's Bass Flute • 89 Diderot's Bass Flute . . . 89 Modern Bass Flute ... . . 89 Picture of a Flute Quartett Party (from Punch) . . 181 Portraits of Famous Flautists of the Past . ■ 194. 19s Portraits of Famous Flautists .... . 204 Portraits of Famous Flautists of To-day . 214 Bohm's Crutch • 255 Ward's Terminator and Indicator • 25s Signer Giorgi and his Flute . . 256 Heckel'sCap . . 257 MoUenhauer's Mouthpiece • 257 Portrait of Count Rebsomen .... . 260 Chinese Dragon Flute . 263 Chinese Tsche, with central mouth-hole . 263 List of Musical Examples. "Air de Cour," from Mersenne's Harmonie Unvverselle Flute solo, with bass, by Hotteterre Fife music from Arbeau's Orchtsographie . Bizet, Carmen, march for two piccolos Berlioz, Faust, " Evocation" for three piccolos Beethoven, canon on the name Kuhlau Peri, Eurydice, air for three flutes LuUi, Proserpine, air for three flutes . Bach, suite in B minor. Polonaise and Badinerie Handel, Acis and Galatea, " Oh, ruddier than the cherry " Handel, Acis and Galatea, " Hush, ye pretty warbling choir ' Handel, Rinaldo, cadenza for piccolo Gluck, Orpheo Gluck, Armide Hadyn, Creation, " On mighty pens" Haydn, Creation, Part HI., opening Haydn, Military Symphony Haydn, Twelfth Symphony Mozart, Magic Flute overture Beethoven, Fifth Symphony Beethoven, Pastorale Symphony Beethoven, overture to Egmont Beethoven, overture to Leonora, No. 3 Weber, Der Freischutz XV 144, I4S> • 33 ■ 37 ■ 75 • 83 • 84 . 106 . 116 • 117 121, 122 . 124 ■ I2S , 126 . 130 ■ 131 • 133 • 133 • 134 • 134 • 137 • 139 140, 141 . 142 • 143 146, 147 List of Musical Examples Weber, Preciosa Weber, Oberon .... Meyerbeer, Robert le Diable Meyerbeer, Les Huguenots Rossini, overture, Semiraniide . Rossini, overture, William Tell Mendelssohn, Midsummer Night's Dream Mendelssohn, St. Paul Mendelssohn, Hymn of Praise . Schumann, Symphony No. i, cadenza Brahms, Requiem .... Dvorak, The Spectre's Bride Grieg, Peer Gynt Bizet, Carmen . Sullivan, TAe Golden Legend Coleridge-Taylor, Hiawatha Wagner, Tristan and Isolde Wagner, Gotterdammerung Wagner, Siegfried . . . . . Wagner, Meistersinger . . . . Tschaikowsky, Fourth Symphony Tschaikowsky, Casse Noisette Stiite . Tschaikowsky, Fourth Symphony, scherzo R. Strauss, Til Eulenspiegel Quantz, Triplet passage . . . . 145; I'AGE 146, 148 146, 147 . 149 ■ 153 155. 156 • 157 158 159 . 163 . 164 . 165 166, 167 168, 169 . 169 . 171 • 171 .. 171 172, 173 ■ 175 • 17s . 176 • 177 192 The Story of the Flute. CHAPTER I. FLUTES OF THE ANCIENTS. ^ Antiquity of the flute— Classic legends — Egyptian origin — The Arab "Nay" — Development — The Fipple — Fingerholes— Double flutes — Popularity amongst the Ancients — Ancient players of note— , Their position and costume. It is often asserted that the flute is the oldest of all musical instruments: in one sense this is true; in another it is not accurate. It would seem that all the world over a pipe of some sort was the earliest form of musical instrument (the Antiqutty primitive drum can hardly be so termed), **_. * and preceded the invention of any kind of stringed instrument; but what we now call a flute — i.e., a tube held parallel to the lips and blown through a hole in the upper side — is in all probability of com- paratively modern origin. The term "flute" was ' Save where otherwise stated, the "flutes" referred to in Chaps. I. and II. were vertical pipes, and not transverse or side-blown flutes in the modern sense. I I Story of the Flute formerly applied to all instruments of the pipe or whistle class, either with or without reeds. According' to Hawkins and Grassineau, the name was derived from fluta, a lamprey or small Sicilian eel, which has seven breathing-holes on each side below the eyes, like the finger-holes on the primitive pipe or flute. Surely it is much more probable that the eel may have been called after the instrument ! Cotgrave, in his Dictionary (1632), says, "A lamprey is sometimes called a Fleute d'Aleman, by reason of the little holes which he hath on the upper part of his body." The true origin of the name is to be sought for in the Latin flatus, a blowing or breathing. The origin of the primitive pipe is lost in the mists of antiquity, and its early history is extremely difficult to „, trace. The legendary date of its invention Cla-ssic • . ■ . . , is given in the Parian Chronicle in the Arundelian Marbles (now in Oxford) as 1506 B.C. It was probably suggested by the whistling of the wind over the tops of the river reeds — " there's music in the sighing of a reed" (Byron). The classical legend relates how " fair trembling Syrinz fled, Arcadian Pan, with sucli a fearful dread"; and how her prayer that she should be changed by the Naiads into reeds by the river bank was granted — " Poor nymph — poor Pan — how he did weep to find Nought but a lovely sighing of the wind Along the reedy stream ! a half-heard strain, Full of sweet desolation — balmy pain." — Keats. 2 Classical Legends Thinking that they were concealing the nymph, Pan cut the reeds, and amorously sighing over them, they gave forth musical sounds, whereupon he fashioned them into pipes of various lengths and played upon them. Ovid assigns the invention of the flute to Minerva, who, finding herself laughed at by Juno and Venus whenever she played it, " Flung it aside, when she her face surveyed Distorted in a fountain as she played. Th' unlucky Marsyas found it and his fate Was one to make the bravest hesitate." — Longfellow. Alcibiades abandoned the flute for a like reason, saying that a man's most intimate friends would hardly recog- nise him when playing it. Hence Greek sculptors never represented a player actually blowing into the flute, and the ancient players often wore veils. To return to Pan and Marsyas. The former chal- lenged Apollo to a contest between flute and lyre (Apollo's special instrument). Midas, King of Phrygia, who acted as judge, decided in favour of Pan and his flute, and was decorated with asses' ears in conse- quence. Apollo then challenged Marsyas, a famous flute-player, whom he defeated, because Apollo accom- panied his lyre with his voice. Marsyas complained that tljis was unfair at a trial of instruments only, to which the god rejoined that Marsyas also used both his fingers and his mouth. This puzzled the judges, and E^nother trial was ordered, at which Marsyas was again 3 Story of the Flute defeated. Apollo, irritated at this presumption on the part of a mortal, with his own hand flayed poor Marsyas alive. This is said by Pausanias to have been a condition of the contest. Plato and other early authorities allege that Marsyas was a real perison, a native of Celsenae in Phrygpia, and son of King Hyagnis, to whom Apuleius attributes the invention of the double-flute. Several ancient writers attribute the origin of the instrument to Osiris, the Egyptian Water-god. There seems to be no doubt that Egypt, as Kircher ligyptian asserted, was the land of its birth. Primitive rigin o flytes have been found in Egyptian tombs dating centuries before the Christian era. Early Egyptian wall paintings depict the flute more frequently than any other instrument; a long, thin, straight pipe (called Saib, or Sebi) held obliquely and blown across the open end, which was held at an angle. (Fig. I.) In addition to the finger- holes (closed with the second joint of the fingers, as is still done in Japan and parts of Spain and Italy), the left hand was often used to vary the notes EGYPTIAN OBLIQUE by closiug Or partly closing the lower end 'of the tube — just as horn-players until quite recent times used to thrust the hand up the bell. In one of the tombs in the Gizeh Pyramid {c. 2000 b.c.) a band of seven players is depicted, performing on slanting flutes of various 4 Early Egyptian Flutes lengths, accompanying a soloist who is standing, the rest being either on their knees or sitting. He is apparently a noted performer, as he alone is fully clothed ; possibly he is a conductor. The other players all have their lower hand on the inner side of the pipe, but his is on the outer side. In these old designs it is always the hand away from the spectator that is stretched to the end of the flute ; but though the players are very frequently represented as being left-handed, we learn from Apuleius (Met. , lib. xi. 9) that the custom was (as now) to hold the tube to the right side : " Obliquis calamus ad aurem porrectum dextram." In the reproduction of this highly interesting picture given by Engel (Mus. Insts., 13) the flutes of the three players nearest to the soloist are not at their mouths, and he suggests that the division of the players into two groups may possibly represent firsts and seconds. The flutes are very long, the players' arms being extended to their full length in order to reach the furthest hole. Mr. Flinders Petrie discovered two ancient flutes of slender make in the tomb of the Lady Maket, dating about 1450 B.C. These probably had originally reed mouthpieces, now lost, or were blown across the open top. They were encased in larger reeds to preserve them. One has four oval holes and the other three, of unequal size, getting rather larger towards the bottom. They are both about 17!^ inches long, and are not absolutely cylindrical, tapering slightly towards the bottom end. These Maket pipes are very interesting as being "the oldest evidence of the world's earliest music " (Herman 5 Story of the Flute Smith). Juba, in his Theatrical History, describes an Eg-yptian oblique flute called Photinx, or the crooked flute, owing to its being in the shape of a bull's horn. Possibly it was originally nothing else, or perhaps a cow's horn may have been added to the straight pipe. M. Gevaert, however, thinks it was a side-blown flute like ours. It is mentioned by Apuleius as used m. the mysteries of Isis, and the players were consecrated to Serapis. The Nay played by the Arabs and other kindred nations to-day (readers will recollect the Arab Nay- player in Mr. Hitchen's Barbary Sheep, per- ji KT i> petually playing the same monotonous tune) greatly resembles these early Egyptian flutes ; similar primitive instruments have been found in China, North America, Mexico, Madagascar, and Africa. The Bulgarians still use an instrument of this type called the Kaval. A remarkable feature about these ancient flutes is their small diameter as compared with their length, which would tend to evidence a knowledge of harmonics. The words oxXo's, or tibia, are used very indefinitely by classical writers to signify various kinds of pipes. The original form of the instrument was rt^^ii"^™!^"*' ^ simple vertical pipe blown across the p, if t * ^^Pi which was open. The first step in advance was the cutting of a V-shaped notch in the edge of the open top of the pipe; this facilitated the production of sound. (Fig. 2.) The inventor of this device is unknown.. It is found 6 Development of the Fipple in very ancient Chinese flutes, and is still used by the natives in Bolivia, in Uganda and the Soudan, and elsewhere. I have in my possession a flute of this kind with a very small V-notch. It is comparatively modern, and has five finger- holes in front and a thumb-hole and a double- hole at the back for the little finger for either a left or right-handed player. , Next came the idea of partly filling up or pJugrgingr the open upper end of the tube and cutting an opening with a sharp edge a little lower down, as in the ordinary whistle. The breath is thus directed in a thin stream against this lower edge. The date of this innovation cannot be ascer- tained, but it is certainly of very early origin, and was known to the Greeks. It is also met with in ancient Hindu sculptures. Bruce mentions an Abyssinian flute, called " kwetz," with this fipple mouthpiece as being quite common in that country and much used in war: " Its tone is not loud, but is accompanied by a kind of jar, like a broken oboe, not owing to any accidental defect, but to construction and design, as it would not be esteemed without it." Certainly there is no account- ing for tastes ! The number of finger-holes was at first two, three, or four: they were afterwards increased to six and a thumb-hole at the back. Some specimens found at Pompeii, and now in the museum at Naples, have no less than fifteen holes. They are straight tubes of ivory, and were originally fitted with tight bands of 7 Story of the Flute metal (probably silver), one for each hole. These bands were each pierced with a hole to correspond with a hole in the tube, and they could be turned round so as to open or close the hole (and thus fix the mode), for which purpose they were sometimes fitted with a hook-like FIG. 3. — DOUBLE FLUTE-PLAVER. (FROM AN ETRUSCAN MURAL PAINTING.) projection. Flutes of this description were termed "bombux"; Pausanias attributes their invention to Pronomus. The double flute was largely used by the ancient Assyrians, Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans, and it is more frequently depicted in their works of art than the single pipe. (Fig. 3.) An Egyptian mural painting (of which a copy exists in the British Museum), dating from before 1300 B.C., represents a woman playing a double flute 8 Double Flutes Double and Bulbed Flutes at a festival in honour of the god Ptah. Double flutes are still used in Greece and by the boatmen on the Nile, who call them " Archool," or " Zimmerah." Mr. Herman Smith thinks that the double pipe, with three or four holes on each pipe, preceded the six- holed single pipe. By the Greeks it was termed SiavXos, and by the Romans Tibia Pares, or Gemini, when of equal length, and Impares when- unequal. It consisted of two distinct pipes, sometimes united in one common mouthpiece. (Fig. 4.) As a rule the two pipes were not in unison ; the longer and deeper pipe, called the Male (as represent- ing a man's voice), was generally on the right, and it (according to the taste of the age) played the melody. The shorter or Female pipe played the accompaniment, which was pitched higher than the melody. One pipe may have been sometimes used as a drone. When both were played together it was termed yaixrjXiov avX.7]fJ.a = married piping. Sometimes the instrument was played with re- versed hands, the right hand play- ing the left pipe and vice-versa. In Egypt the double flute would appear to have been played by women only. On Etruscan vases, dating about 400 B.C., we find double flutes depicted with one or more bulbs at each of the mouth-ends (which 9 FIG. 4. FIG. S. fig. -4. — double fi-ute. (from boissard's "roman antiquities.") fig. s- — double flutes, with several bulbs. Story of the Flute were not connected). (Figs. 5 and 8.) This is called the S_ubulo, or Greco-Etruscan flute, and no specimen is extant. The bulbs may have been merely for orna- ment, but Herman Smith suggests that they were detachable pieces, which could be arranged by the player, and that they contained a concealed reed, which could be transferred from one bulb to another in order to alter the pitch. The Hebrews also had a double flute, the " Mashrokitha," and we find double flutes depicted on Indian monuments, such as the Sanchi Tope Gate, c. 100 a.d. The flute was employed by the ancient Greeks and Romans in almost every scene of life, public or private ; above all at the festivals of Artemis and Popularity Dionysius. The sacrificial auletes at Athens ° * played a solemn air on the flute close to the ear of the priest during: the sacrifice, in amongst , , _ . . J. order to keep off mattention or distraction. Ancients {^^K- 6.) Flutes accompanied the chariot race in the Olympic games ; the Etrurians boxed to the sound of flutes ; Roman orators were wont to station flute-players behind them, so that when they raised their voices to too high a pitch the flute might sound a lower note (Caius Gracchus employed a slave named Liscinius for this purpose). They were played at death-beds (a custom found also among the Jews), hence the saying Jam licet ad tibicenes mittas: "Now you may send for the flute-players," when one was about to die. Tibi- cenes were also employed on vessels to cheer the 10 Ancient Flutes rowers and to mark the time. Special names were given to each variety of flute-players and their instru- ments — Fetis mentions thirty-seven — according to their special employment. Thus players at funerals were called "Tumbauloi," "Paratretes," or "Siticenes," and in order to check extravagance it was found necessary £&L^. \a:.viA FIG. 6.— AULETES. (FROM THE FRIEZE OF THE PARTHENON.) to limit their number to ten. Those employed at weddings were termed " Hymeneemes "; the' horse- keeper's laurel flute was called " Hippophoiboi " ; the sailor's flute was "Trierikos." Others again were named after the country whence they originated — the Lybian flute, the Berecythian or Phrygian flute, etc. Story of the Flute Although unfortunately none of the music played on these ancient flutes has survived, the names of many celebrated players have been preserved by Ancient classical authors. The Thebans were es- ayers teemed the srreatest performers, and when of Note , . . , , , • , . r their city was destroyed their chief anxiety was to recover from the ruins a statue of Mercury with this inscription: " Greece has declared that Thebes wins the prize upon the flute." Olympus, a Phrygian poet and composer about the year 630 B.C., has been credited, by Plato, Aristotle, and Plutarch, with the introduction of the instrument into Greece from Asia. He is referred to in The Knights of Aristophanes, " Let us weep and wail like two flutes breathing some air of Olympus." Pronomus, of Thebes (c. 440 B.C.), who taught Alcibiades, could play in three modes on his flute. Terpander (c. 680 B.C.) is said to have once quelled a tumult by his flute, and also to have invented notation. The flute of Telaphanes of Samos is said to have had equal power over man and brute. Philoxenes, another famous player, was a notorious glutton, and wished that he were all neck, so that he could enjoy his food more ! Pindar — himself a flute- player — has written an ode (the twelfth) in praise of Midas "the Glorious," a Sicilian, twice winner of the prize for flute-playing at the Phrygian games. Pliny says that Midas was the inventor of a flute called TrAa-yiavAos, or tihia obliqua or vasca, which had a small tube, almost at right angles to the main pipe, contain- ing a reed, through which the player blew, holding the Ancient Players instrument sideways. {Fig. 7.) Servius considers that this was the instrument mentioned by Virgil in the line " Aut, ubi curva choros indixit tibia " (^n. xi. 737), but more probably the Phrygian horn-flute was intended. Antigenidas, who increased the number of holes, so transported Alexander the Great by his playing of a martial air at a banquet that the monarch seized his weapons and almost attacked his guests. Epaminondas, the Theban general, when informed that the Athenians had sent troops into the Peloponnesus equipped with new arms, asked "whether Antigenidas was disturbed when he saw new flutes in the hands of Tellis" (a bad FIG. 7,— PLAGIAULOS, OR KINGED FLUTE, WITH PROJECTING MOUTHPIECE. performer). Plutarch speaks of a flute-player named Dorion and mentions one Theodorus as a celebrated flute-maker. Aristotle says that at first the flute was considered an ignoble instrument, only suitable for mean people, and not for freemen, but that after the defeat of the Persians it was much valued, and it Position became a disgrace to a gentleman not to be Costume able to play it. The Tibicenes or professional ^^ piayers flute-players were latterly highly honoured in Greece, statues were raised to them, they were paid very large sums, and were generally very well to do. Xenophon says that if a bad player on the flute wished 13 Story of the Flute to appear to be a good player, he must imitate their example and expend large sums on rich furniture and keep many servants. In fact, the expression "to live the life of a flute-player" became proverbial as typifying luxury. Good players were paid as much as ;^20o for a concert. In the year 309 B.C. the Roman flute-players who performed at the sacrifices were de- prived of the privilege of eating in the Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus. They accordingly struck and retired to Tivoli. They were beguiled back by a stratagem : having been all made drunk at a feast (but this is denied by some as impossible!), they were carried in waggons back to Rome and given three days' holiday in each year, and the right to eat in the Temple was restored to them. Profes- sional flute-players wore a dress peculiar to them- selves, generally of yellow FIG. 8.^cAP.sT^ AND BULBED Or saflfron, wlth green or blue DOUBLE FLUTE. sHppers emfaroldercd with silver, and had a bandage of leathern thongs, called (fioplieia irepuj-TOfiiov, or Capistrum, across the mouth, with a small hole for the breath to pass through. (Fig. 8.) Its object was to keep the lips and cheeks firm and pre- vent undue distension, and also perhaps to hold up the instrument so as to leave the hands free to turn the rings on the flute. Competitions in flute-playing were frequent among the Greeks, and their endeavour wa-s to produce the highest and loudest notes. Heliodprus 14 Capi strum — Ismenias {jEthop. ii.) describes a flute-player with eyes inflamed and starting out of their sockets, and Lucian tells how one Harmonides killed himself by his eff'orts. The instru- ments themselves fetched very high prices, often ^^apo or ;£^Soo, and Lucian says that Ismenias of Thebes gave over _;^iooo of our money for a flute at Corinth. He, however, was considered rather extravagant. Atheas, King of the Scythians, said he preferred the flute-playing of Ismenias to the braying of an ass — a doubtful form of compliment, possibly an allusion to the story of Midas. Plutarch relates how on one occasion this per- former was engaged to play at a sacrifice. As no good omen appeared, the employer snatched the flute from Ismenias and began to play on it himself, whereupon a good omen at once appeared. " There," said he, "to play acceptably to the gods is their own gift," where- upon the witty Ismenias replied that the gods were so delighted with his playing they deferred the omen, so that they might hear him longer, "but were glad to get rid of your noise at any price." 15 CHAPTER II. FLUTE-A-BEC AND RECORDER. Beaked Flutes — Recorders— Double and Triple Recorders— Popularity — Gradual decline — Flageolet and other early pipes. With the extinction of the ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans there comes a gap in the history of the „ , flute. We hear nothing- of it for several Beaked . . . pj centuries, till it appears in the form of the flute-douce, or flute-i-bec, so called from the resemblance of the mouth-piece to the beak of a bird — the direct descendant of the ancient whistle-flute. The number of finger-holes varied from three upwards. (See Figs. 9 and 10.) There were many varieties of this instrument, the English one being called Recorder. This name, rendered familiar by the famous passage in Hamlet (iii. 2) — which, by the way, one learned com- mentator explains as referring to "the legal official of a city" (!), who in thieves' slang is known as "The Flute " — is derived from an obsolete use of the verb "to record" as applied to the singing of birds: "The nightingale records again What thou dost primely sing " (Browne's Shepherd's Pipe, ii. 75). Early writers have spoken of it as "the English flute" (a term still 16 Beaked Flutes fe m ■ V ■ - — i 1. 2. 5. 4. 5. 6. 7 8. 1. • • • • • • • 2. • • O • • 3. o o o • • «t. re. mi. fa. tit i-e. tni. fa Efe: ^^=:^ Z^ '.Z^Ji ■^- -g— /n 2 3 FIG. g. — FISTULA TRISTOMA AND PART OF SCALE OF FOURTEEN NOTES. (from KIRCHER's "mUSURGIA UNIVERSALIS." 1650, LIB. VI., P. 498^. M 1. !.-♦- 5.-9- C.-O- -O- 3, -«- -©- 5. -o- -e- -e — •- 7. •- FIG- 10. — FISTULA HEXASTOMA AND PART OF SCALE OF FIFTEEN NOTES. (from KIRCHER'S " MUSURGIA UNIVERSALIS.") 17 2 Story of the Flute applied to the tin whistle in France) in contradistinction to "the Helvetian [i.e., transverse] flute," but it cer- tainly was not an Engflish invention, though it is depicted in a Psalter of the twelfth century preserved in the Library of Glasgow University. A Cornish miracle-play of the fourteenth century includes ' ' re- cordys " among the instruments played by King David's minstrels. The Recorder was an open pipe fitted with a fipple- head and mouthpiece like a whistle, having seven finger- holes, with a thumb-hole at the back.^ The lowest hole was sometimes in duplicate for the use of left-handed P players (hence the French called it "Flute k neuf trous ") ; the hole not required was stopped with wax. Later examples have an open key over this lowest hole, enclosed in a perforated wooden case and fitted with double " cusps " or "touches." (See Fig. ii.) There were regular sets of recorders (called "chests," because they were all kept in one box) of different pitches and varying dimensions, y™. ranging from sopranino to double bass, ||l which last was over eight feet long, and m^ j was blown through a bent crook, somewhat like a bassoon, but coming out of the top. It sometimes had two pedal keys played by the feet of the performer, between which the end rested on the ground, the sound escaping through ' For pictures of Recorders see English Music, pp. 132, 136, 138, and 485. 18 FIG. It. ENCLOSED KEY ON RECORDERS. Recorder a side hole. Praetorius (1620) says that a complete set consisted of eight instruments and that a full flute band numbered twenty-one players, and Burney (1773) mentions one of from thirty to forty. Two "chests" still exist — the Nuremburg set of eight, dating from the sixteenth century, and the Chester set of four — discant, alto, tenor and bass — dating two centuries later. There were also double and triple recorders. The double recorder consisted of two pipes, generally of unequal length and pitch, running into a common head- joint. The melody was played on one pipe, whilst the other furnished an accompaniment. The triple recorder had the third pipe standing out quite separately, but running into the side of the head-joint near the mouth- piece. The recorder's tone was very soft and pleasing, but it was practically impossible to increase its volume or vary its quality. Little variety of expression was pos- sible, and the second octave was difficult to produce; moreover, it was defective in tune. Mersenne mentions the curious detail that some players could hum the bass to an air while they played it ! These instruments long enjoyed great popularity all over Europe. The English excelled as performers, as Giovanni B. Doni tells us in his De PrcBstantia Its Musicce Veieris, 1647 ; it is frequently men- p - . tioned in our early literature, and numerous tutors and much music was published for it. King Henry VIII. played it daily. Recorder-players were 19 Story of the Flute included in the royal band from the reign of Henry VII. down to that of Charles II. One, named Nicholas Staggins, of bibulous tendencies — in 1695 he owed ;£i2o for beer — accompanied King William to Holland. John Banister, leader of the Drury Lane band till 1720, was a famous performer. In 1695 the Royal Academy in Charles Street, Covent Garden, advertised in The Athenian Gazette that they gave lessons on the recorder. A typical fop of the period is depicted in a full-trimmed blue suit, with scarlet stockings rolled above his knees, a large white peruke, and playing on a recorder nearly an ell long. The instrument was frequently included in the scores of Handel and Bach, the last great composers to use it. It began to die out in France about 1750, but was played at a concert so late as iSoo.^ In the end it was ousted by the new transverse or " German " flute (the recorder being then known as the "common" flute). It is now replaced by the more perfect clarinet, which also i,j dealt a death-blow to the flageolet, a . - whistle-pipe with a receptacle for holding early Pipes ^ sponge, introduced by Sieur Juvigny in 1581. John Hudgebut, in the preface to his Vade-mecum for the lovers of Mustek (1679), contrasts the two instruments thus: — "Though the Flagilet like Esau hath got the start, as being of a more Antient standing. The Rechorder like Jacob hath got the Birth- right, being much more in Esteem and Veneration with 1 " Le Repos "in Berlioz's L'enfance du Christ was originally scored for flutes-douces. 20 Flageolet and other Pipes the Nobility and Gentry, whilst the Flagilet sinks down a servant to the Pages and Footmen." Other primitive forms of pipe, such as the Syrinz or Pan-pipes (still used as an orchestral instrument in Roumania, but with us relegated to the Punch and Judy man), the straw flute, the Eunuch flute, and the Tabor and Pipe — a long whistle pipe with two, holes in front and one behind — are outside the scope of the present work. 21 Cr !!'I'HE GERMAN FLUTE-PLAYER. ("tHE MODERN MUSIC MASTER," 1731). 22 CHAPTER III. THE TRANSVERSE FLUTE. Sec. I. — Was it known to the Greeks and Romans? — The Chinese — India — Early representations and references — The Schweitzerpfeiff — Virdung — Agricola — Prostorius — Mersenne's description'— In England. Sec. II. — Flutes with keys— The D| key— Hotteterre — The conical bore — Structure of early flutes— Tuning slides — Quantz's inven- tions — The low C keys — Further keys added — Tromlitz's inven- tions — Open keys — The eight-keyed flute — Capeller and Nolan's keys. SECTION I. — KEYLESS FLUTES. The origin of the transverse or side-blown flute is involved in much obscurity. It was formerly thought to be comparatively modern, and Germany, Switzerland, and England have each been "** '* termed its birthplace. But more recent dis- . navrato tliG vxfccks coveries tend to prove that the transverse . flute — though not so usual as the vertical Romans? flute — was probably known in Europe early in the Christian era. Possibly it was known to the ancient Greeks and Romans; but if so, it is very re- markable that no clear allusion to it can be found in any of the writings of either nation. Care must be taken not to confuse it with the plagiaulos (see p. 13, an^e) or with ancient pipes blown across the open 23 Story of the Flute upper end and held sideways, which are never de- picted with a lateral mouth-hole, and never have the end of the tube protruding beyond the mouth of the player. Ward, in his Word on the Flute, citingf Hawkins, men- tions an engraving of a tesselated pavement in a temple of Fortuna Virilis at Rome, built by Sylla (c. 78 b,c.), in which he says there is a representation of a player with a transverse pipe " exactly corresponding with the German flute " ; and Montfaucon, in his L'Antiqmtd Expliquee, gives two copies of bas-reliefs of a similar kind. Kircher (1650) also represents transverse flutes as known to the Egyptians many centuries before Christ. But the correctness of these statements and the accuracy of the copyist are extremely doubtful. In the case of ancient statues (such as The Piping Faun) the flute with a lateral mouth-hole is ptobably invariably a modern restoration. There is, however, in the British Museum a fragmentary flute found by Sir Charles Newton in a tomb at Halicarnassus, and one of the fragments has what certainly appears to be a side-blown mouth- hole cut in a wedge-like excrescence, beyond which the tube (of ivory) projects. But no undoubted and com- plete specimen of a real transverse side-blown flute, or absolutely authentic contemporary representation ot such an instrument, has ever been found among the numerous relics of the ancient Greeks, Romans, or Egyptians. If the transverse flute was known in pre- Christian Europe, it certainly disappeared completely for many centuries. 24 Chinese Flutes Transverse flutes were known to the Chinese and to the Japanese from time immemorial, and Dr. Lea Southgate considers that probably the European transverse flute is derived from "°7" *° the Chinese Tsche, but he gives no evi- *^ Chinese, etc dence in support of this startling- theory. In India also the instrument was certainly known at a very early period. Some carvings of the god Krishna (to whom the natives attribute the invention of the flute) on the eastern gateway of Sanchi Tope in Madras, and various ancient monuments in Buddist Temples in Central India, dating about 50 B.C., contain repre- sentations of transverse flutes. It is depicted on the Tope of Amaravati (now in the British Museum), which dates from the first century. I can find no substantial evidence of the existence of transverse flutes in Europe till the tenth and eleventh centuries. Such instruments are portrayed on some ivory caskets of the tentw- century Early in the National Museum at Florence, also in Etrropean some Greek MSS. of the same date in the ^ epre- _., ,. , -^T • 1 ■ T-. • , ■ sentations Bibliotheque National in Fans, and m an < illuminated Byzantime MS. of the eleventh References century in the British Museum. There is in the oldest portion of the Cathedral of Kieflf, in Russia, a picture stated to have been painted early in the eleventh century, which includes a transverse flute. We find pictures of transverse flutes in Hortus Delict- arum., written in the twelfth century by Herrade de Landsberg, Abbess of Hohenbourg, and in the Codex 25 Story of the Flute to the Cantigas de Santa Maria, an illustrated Spanish MS. of the thirteenth century, written by King Don Alonzo of Sabio and preserved in the Escurial at Madrid. This last-mentioned picture has been repro- duced in Don F. Aznar's hidumentaria Espanola, 1880, in Don Juan Riano's Notes on Early Spanish Music (App. Figf, 8, p. 118), London, 1887, and also in English Music, p. 139. It is to be noticed that the player is left-handed. Another early picture of a transverse flute occurs in The Romance of Alexander, by Jehan de Guise, dated 1344, now in the Bodleian Library. There is in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford a china basin from Urbino, dating about 1600, depicting a feast, which portrays a long transverse flute, and beside the player lies a case for the instrument. A Proven9al poet, musician, and composer, named Guillaume de Machault, born c. 1300 (whose works were discovered in 1747), in his La Prise d' Alexandria, includes " flaustes traverseinnes " in a long list of the instruments of his day. This would appear to be the earliest known mention of the transverse flute in litera- ture. It is also mentioned by Eustache Deschamps, another French poet of the fourteenth century. It certainly was well known in the time of Gallileo ; and Rabelais, writing about 1533, describes Gargantua as playing on the Allman \i.e., German] flute with nine holes (Bk. I., ch. 23). Though the earliest form of the transverse flute in mediaeval Europe is generally said to be of Swiss origin, and was called Schweitzerpfeifi^, the Germans 26 Vircjung — Luscinius — Agricola appear to have developed it more than any other nation (though the French were the first to produce great players), and our earliest information re- specting- it is to be found chiefly in German References treatises. We find an engraving of the '" Early instrument (there called Zwerchpfeiff) in ^'^^*'?" the Musica Getutscht ttnd Auszgezogen of v (worked by the first finger of the right hand), altered the position of the G| hole and key, and made several other changes which may be disregarded as they were not permanently retained. Tromlitz published three important works on the flute in 1786, 1791, and 1800 respectively; in those of 179 1 and 1800 he seems rather to disapprove of keys (save in the hands of skilled players), of the tuning slide, and the low CH and C| keys. In the book of 1800 he advocates a flute with only a D| key, but with holes for the thumbs (F|, Bh), and for the little finger of the left hand (G#). This is interesting as being the earliest attempt to produce a chromatic flute with open holes; but his system left many " veiled " notes ; still it was a step in the right direction. This idea of constructing a chromatic flute with all ^ the holes open and in their true positions was carried still further by Dr. H. W. Pottgiesser between 1803-24. According to Ward, his was "the first truly scientific remodelling of the flute." Pott- giesser's first flute, in two pieces only and with only one key, was wider in bore and shorter than other flutes. In his second flute (with keys) he equalized the size of the finger-holes, suggested rollers for the "touches" of the thumb-keys, and introduced a per- forated key for the C hole. The object of this "ring 44 Ring-keys — Nolan and crescent " key was to alter the size ot the C"| hole, in order to render it better in tune when the Bt] is closed.' I have now traced the history of the development of the old-fashioned eight-keyed flute of our fathers and grandfathers (Page 31, Fig. 4), of which the earliest English description is to be found in Wragg's Flute Preceptor (1806). Various additional keys andj levers were added from time to time, none of which came into any general or permanent use. Numerous experiments have been tried in respect to the size of the bore (it has ""^ ^ ^^ ""^^^^ FIG. 12. — NOLANS RING-KEY. varied very little from the time of Mersenne) and of the holes, which need not be detailed here. Two inven- tions, however, deserve notice. J. N. Capeller (pos- sibly assisted by Bohm) in 181 1 devised a D"ll! hole and key worked by the first finger of the right hand. This gave the shake from C# to Dtl, hitherto practically impossible, and is a most useful j isr j > key, now found on all good flutes. More jj. important still, the Rev. Frederick Nolan, of Stratford, in Essex, an amateur flautist, in 1808 1 For diagrams of Pottgeisser's first flute and his ring-and-crescent key, and also for portrait of Tromlitz, see English Music, pp. 147-8. 45 Story of the Flute invented or adopted a new kind of open key — more especially for the G| — worked by a lever which ended in a ring placed over the hole of the note below. (Fig. 12.) This was the earliest contrivance by means of which an uncovered hole and an open key over another hole could be closed by one finger, which is a leading feature of the modern open-keyed system, and has been very largely adopted on all Bohm flutes. The history and details of Bohm's flute, however, deserve a separate chapter. 46 CHAPTER IV. BOHM AND GORDON. Biographical— Revolution in the flute— Gordon— His flutes— Bohm— His flutes of 1831, 1832, and 1847— His publications— As a player — His compositions — Bohm's centenary — The controversy — Priority of inventions — Coche's attack — Clinton's views — Re- vival of the controversy — Rockstro's attack — Summary. We now have reached the most momentous stage in the history of the modern flute — the period when the instrument underwent practically a complete revolution, which changed it from being Revolution very imperfect and unsatisfactory into the „, most perfect of all wind instruments. The question of the origin of the Bohm system, that "most happy of all the more modern improvements made in orchestral instruments," has given rise to one of the bitterest and most prolonged controversies that has ever disturbed the harmony of the musical world. To this day flute-players are divided as to the rival claims of Bohm and Gordon, and it is not likely that the questions raised will ever be quite fully and satis- factorily answered. But the majority of flautists are now agreed that the Bohm flute is rightly so named. I shall endeavour to give a concise and impartial state- 47 Story of the Flute ment of the main facts without entering into minute technical details, referringf those of my readers who desire further information to Mr. Charles Welch's ex- haustive treatise on the subject. Nothing- is known of Gordon's early life. It is not even certain whether his Christian name, whatever it was, began with a W (probably William) or a J. He was a Swiss by birth, though his surname points to an English or Scottish origin, and held a commission as captain in the Swiss Guards of Charles X. He was passionately fond of music, to which he devoted all his spare time; and as his regiment was quartered in Paris, he took lessons from Drouet and also from Tulou (the latter, by the way, does not seem to have attached any importance to Gordon's inventions, and describes the tone of his flute as " thin "). He would appear to have been a very good amateur flautist, and a modest, kind- hearted, and ingenious gentleman, possessed of little or no mechanical skill or training, and having no special knowledge of acoustics. In 1826 Gordon tried to improve the flute by develop- ing the open-keyed system, and he had several flutes made under his direction by French work- men and by a Swiss watchmaker. What the changes he introduced were is not now known pre- cisely, but his widow stated in 1838 that he aimed at perfect accuracy of intonation, combined with easier exe- cution and a more extended compass. Charles X. lost his throne by the Revolution of 1830, and on July 29th Gordon's regiment, which was guarding the Louvre, 48 Gordon was seized with a panic ; some escaped through a doof into the Place du Carrousel; those who remained were cut to pieces by the mob, who stripped the bodies naked and adorned themselves with fragments of the uniforms and helmets torn from the dead soldiers. This dreadful scene, combined with the subsequent loss of his fortune and position, affected Gordon's mind, and he seems never to have recovered from its effects. In his distress he "conceived the idea of turning this new flute to account in order to re-establish himself by performing on it in the principal towns of Europe; then he intended to patent his invention, and to establish manufactories and introduce this beautiful instrument to the musical world." Accordingly in 1831 he visited London, where flutes were made for him by Rudall & Rose, and also by Cornelius Ward. The latter, though a partisan of Gordon's claims, says that he " was considered to be of unsound mind. . . . He was generally treated with consideration on that account, but very little attention was paid to his flute-mania, such being the light in which his views respecting the flute were regarded." Bohm happened to be in London at the same time, also at work on improving the flute; Gordon made his acquaintance, and they showed each other their re- spective attempts. Bohm tells us that he considered Gordon's flute very different in its construction from other flutes, that it had a ring and crescent key, and that the keys and levers were ingeniously conceived, but too complicated ever to be of much advantage; moreover, it was made in defiance of the principles 49 4 Story of the Flute of acoustics, and was out of tune.^ Bohm's new flute appeared in 1832. Early in 1833 Gordon went to Munich specially to obtain the assistance of Gordon s ^^^ ^^ Bohm's most skilful workmen, whose services, as well as a private workshop, were generously placed at his disposal by Bohm, who himself was in London at the time. In July 1833 Gordon wrote to Mercier in Paris, sending him copies of a prospectus of a new flute which he had made in Munich, after destroying several previous attempts by continual alterations (Page 51, Figs, i and 2). This prospectus was also circulated in Germany and in London. Gordon in his scale for this flute, published in 1834, himself states that it contained two of Bohm's keys (F| and D shake) by Bohm's express permission. Gordon again visited London, but his new flute failed to attract public attention; and, as his widow says, being very shy, without introduc- tions or knowledge of the world, his pecuniary resources were exhausted, and he returned ill and disheartened to ' Unfortunately no drawing exists of any flute made by Gordon ie/ore his meeting with Bohm. Coche's picture (Page 51, Fig. i) is said by him to be a copy of a drawing in Gordon's early prospectus, and Ward says it closely resembles a flute he made for Gordon about 1831. It is entirely open-keyed. Clinton's picture (Page 51, Fig. 2) is probably a model of later date (? 1833), and Bohm, who also repro- duces it in his pamphlet of 1847, says Gordon made it at Munich. Some of its keys were worked by means of cranks and wires (a device afterwards used on Ward's flutes). Notice the peculiar low C keys. Bohm's 1831 model (Page 51, Fig. 4) was almost certainly made before he had seen Gordon's flute. It greatly resembles the eight-keyed flute. 50 Flutes of Gordon and Bohm S X ■■o m a z o a u o O .^i Story of the Flute his family at Lausanne, probably at the end of 1835. He there continued his endeavours to improve his flute. In the course of one of these attempts the tube over which he had spent so many hours cracked, and in a fit of despair he threw it into the Lake of Geneva. Though much cast down, he set to work on another, but before it was finished he had to abandon it, owing- to his intellect giving way. In 1836 he became absolutely insane, and had to be put into an asylum, where (with the exception of a brief interval in 1839) he remained till his death, the exact date of which is unknown. He is said by some authorities to have committed suicide, but of this there is no authentic evidence. Truly a sad end to an honourable man and an enthusiastic musician ! Let us now glance rapidly at the career of his rival. Theobald Bohm . was born at Munich on April 9th, „.. 1794) the son of a working jeweller and goldsmith. From an early age he displayed a penchant for the flute, and in 1810 he made himself a four-keyed flute. As he was originally intended to follow his father's occupation, he had already acquired considerable mechanical skill, which he subsequently largely developed. He took lessons on the flute from Johann Nepomuk Capeller, who was first flute in the King of Bavaria's Court orchestra and who had made some improvements on the flute. Bohm appears to have made rapid progress in the world ; he soon became second flute in the Court orchestra, and was first flute in the Isargate Theatre in Munich from 1812-17; acting 52 Bohm's Flute of 1 83 i ^t the same time as an inspector of mines. Continuing his experiments on the flute, he in 1812 applied to it a new kind of spring for the keys, linings to the sockets, cork coverings to the joints, a moveable embouchure of gold, and other things; most, if not all, of which had been used before his time. In 1818 he was appointed to the King's Chapel band, and henceforth devoted himself entirely to music, studying under Joseph Graz. Having toured through Europe as a flautist along with Molique for several years, Bohm in October 1828 set up a flute factory in Munich, where he manufactured eight-keyed flutes with pillars to sup- port the keys — a contrivance already used in France before 1756 (Page 51, Fig. 3). In 1831 he visited Paris and London, performing on one of these flutes, of which only a drawing now exists. He played his own Grand Polonaise in D (op. 16) at the London Philhar- monic concert of May 9th, 1831, and performed solos at Moscheles' concert there in the same month, and at Hummel's concert in June. In London he had a flute made for him, with several new features, by Gerock & Wolf, of 79 Cornhill (Page 51, Fig. 4). It was during this visit that he made Gordon's acquaintance. Whilst there he heard the famous Charles Nicholson, and was greatly struck by his powerful tone, which Bohm attributed to the large size of the holes on Nicholson's flute. In one of his letters Bohm says that but for Nicholson he would never have attempted any radical change of system: he despaired of rivalling him ex- cept by means of an improved instrument. In order 53 Story of the Flute to accomplish this he determined to construct a totally new flute, "which should combine accuracy of intonation with power and equality of tone, and on which all music written within its compass could be executed by a new kind of key-mechanism." He decided to abandon the old fingering and to adopt a system of ring-keys, by means of which two or more notes could be closed by one movement of a single finger. That Bohm's views underwent a considerable change after he had seen Gordon's flute, and that this was also one of his reasons for abandoning attempts with the old fingering, is undeniable ; but to what extent he was influenced by Gordon's rather clumsy efforts it is impossible to say with any precision. Bohm returned from London to Munich some time in 1831, and set to work, choosing ("je me fixai au ") the system of ring-keys^a system which he says he had already thought of. It is to be observed that ring-keys of a primitive kind were used in the earlier flutes of both Gordon and Bohm, and were certainly known, though little used, before either adopted them. Nolan used a ring-key in 1808 (as we have seen; p. 45, ante), and Lefevre, of Paris, used one on clarinets before 1826. Neither Gordon nor Bohm ever claimed to have invented the ring-keys. But Bohm developed them, ° "* ^ and thus rendered the production of an J, entirely open-keyed flute possible. About the middle of 1832 he produced his new model (Page 51, Fig. 5), selected from three with diff'erent fingerings. He performed on it at a concert in Munich 54 Bohm's Flute of 1832 on November ist, 1832, and again on April 25th, 1833. The instrument was described in an article in Der Bazar of the last-named date, which was reprinted in The Harmonicon of August 1833. In May 1833 Bohm visited Paris and London, and again came to London in July 1834, where he remained for nearly a year, and appeared in public on several occasions, playing "on his newly-constructed flute." At first it does not appear to have been largely taken up in England (chiefly, no doubt, owing to the disinclination of established players to learn the new fingering), but in 1839 Ward began to manufacture it, and Carte — who claimed to have been the first prominent English professor to play it in public — Card, Signor Folz, and Clinton adopted it. It was noticed in the Leipsic Gazette Mtisicale in 1834, and was taken up by several German and French players of note. In 1838 the French Academy of Fine Arts in- vestigated its merits (as improved by Coche and Buffet), and it was introduced into the Paris Conservatoire. After 1832 Bohm, who himself says he never placed a high value on his inventions, for a time abandoned his efforts to improve the flute, and turned his attention to other subjects. He evidently possessed an inventive genius, and amongst other things he invented the over- stringing of pianofortes, an improved method of smelt- ing iron, and also of communicating rotary motion. Having studied acoustics under Schafhautl, Professor of Mathematics in the Bavarian University, he in 1847 set to work to improve the bore of the flute, and after three hundred experiments (chiefly with metal tubes) 55 Story of the Flute on the proper positions of the holes, their size, the shape and position of the mouth-hole, the material of the instrument, etc., he produced his cylinder Bohm's jj^^g ^jj.jj parabolic head-joint. He thus restored the old cylinder bore for the body of the instrument, but fitted it with a head- joint, the inside of which curved slightly at the closed end — a plan which he had already tried unsuccessfully thirty years before. To enter into the details of this very decided improvement would be out of place; suffice it to say that it greatly improved the tone and carrying power of the flute (especially of the lower notes), whilst making it easier to sound, and render- ing the high notes better in tune. In this flute Bohm adopted certain improvements in the mechanism which had been already used by Coche ; and as the holes were too large for the fingers to cover them, he fitted them all with keys. Bohm's newest system was at first violently opposed by Clinton (who went so far as to say that if the cylinder be right. Nature herself must be wrong) and others, but it is now, with certain modifications, universally adopted for all good modern flutes. The new flutes were at first made of metal, but in 1848 MM. Godfroy and Lot, of Paris, began to manu- facture them of cocoa wood at the suggestion of Dorus. Godfroy subsequently re-introduced keys perforated in the centre, such as Nolan and Pottgiesser had employed, by which some allege that the delicacy of intonation is increased. Messrs. Rudall & Rose obtained the patent 56 Bohm's Flute of 1847 for England in 1847. Bohm published an extremely technical geometrical schema, or diagram, "with ex- planation, by which makers of tubular instruments can with the greatest accuracy construct their instruments according to any of the recognised pitches," which so puzzled the musical jury at the Paris Exhibition of 1867 that they refused to decide on its merits. Bohm's system is also applicable to oboes, clarinets, and bassoons, and it has to a certain extent been adopted by certain makers of the two first-named instruments, more especially for French military clarinets, but not nearly to the same extent as on the flute. The model of 1847 (Page 68, Fig. 2) was awarded the gold medal at the London Exhibition of 1851, the report of Sir Henry Bishop stating that " M. Bohm has acquired not only a perfection in tone and tuning never before attained, but also a facility in playing in those keys which were hitherto difficult and defective in sonorous- ness or intonation"; and another juror remarks, " One person brings forward a flute with a fine note E, another with some other fine note, but what we want is a flute with all the notes equally fine, and this we find only in the flutes on Bohm's principles." It also gained the gold medal at the Paris Exhibition of 1855. Though largely taken up in most European countries and in America, Germany, strange to relate, was one of the last countries to adopt it. In 1866 they still played the old eight-keyed flute in Berlin and Vienna. In fact, even to-day some German conductors object to a Bohm flute in their orchestras. 57 Story of the Flute This was practically Bohm's last experiment in con- nection with the instrument, but he continued to manu- facture flutes alongf with Mendler. Bohm Bohm s published several pamphlets on the instru- u ica- ment. One, entitled Ueber den Flotenbau, appeared in 1847; an abbreviated edition in English was published in 1882 under the title "An Essay on the Construction of Flutes." Another, on Die Flote und das Flotenspiel, written in 1868, has recently been translated and published in English. These works show how deeply he had studied the scientific as well as the mechanical side of the subject. As a player Bohm attained great celebrity in Germany, where he was considered the best flautist of his time, and Fetis speaks of his brilliant execution p of difficult passages and of his fine perform- ance of slow movements. The London press spoke highly of his tone and style: "he strives to touch the heart rather than to astonish," said The Harmonicon. His compositions (the first, a concerto, dates from 1822) consist chiefly of airs varices; those on The Swiss Boy (op. 20) and DuJ Du! liegst mir am Herzen (op. 22) are still occasionally heard at concerts. The latter piece is said to have been composed by. Bohm as an answer to critics, who asserted that his flute could only play in the key of C. Several were written specially to exhibit the merits of his improved system, and are well- nigh impossible on the old eight- keyed flute. He also wrote some original pieces of merit — such as his Andante in B major (op. 33) and Caprices (op. 26) — ■ 58 Flute Controversy and some fine Studies. Bohm continued to play after he was seventy-eight years of age and had a set of false teeth ; and though his sight was bad, he was erect in figure, and walked with a firm step up to the very end of his long and extremely temperate life (November 25th, 1881). He was a fine billiard and chess-player, even when he could hardly see the balls or the men. On April 9th, 1894, all the members of the family then living near Munich assembled in the house in which Bohm was born, in order to celebrate the centenary of his birth, and countless Bohm's letters and telegrams were sent from all ^° en^'Y over the world — a fitting tribute to an inventive genius of no mean order. BOHM-GORDON CONTROVERSY. During their mutual acquaintance no controversy ever arose between Bohm and Gordon as to the priority of their inventions; they were always on friendly terms, and Bohm always spoke and ^ "°" 7 ° wrote of his rival in words of praise, as " a gentleman in every respect." He appears to have tried to assist Gordon's efforts in every way. After all, there was not very much originality or invention in the key- mechanism of either of their flutes; both freely adopted the somewhat crude ideas and devices of previous workers in the same field, but it was Bohm who ren- dered them of practical value. The controversy was concerned chiefly with the keys, and was entirely con- fined to Bohm's model of 1832: it had nothing to do 59 Story of the Flute with the cylinder bore and parabolic head-joint. Now, it is not on his key-mechanism that Bohm's fame chiefly rests: "It is much easier" (as he himself says) "to construct keys than to improve notes." His real claim to the g-ratitude of all flute-players consists, as Mr. Broadwood remarks, "in his successful substitution of acoustic theory for mere empirical experiment " and in his ascertainment, by careful scientific investigation, of the correct position of the holes on the flute. Gordon no doubt also attempted this : but owingf to his lack of acquaintance with acoustics, he failed; whilst Bohm, with his scientific and mechanical knowledge, succeeded. No question was raised till 1838, when Gordon had already been for some time in a lunatic asylum. On May 25th Coche, then Coadjutor-Professor A '^ fc^ of the Flute at the Paris Conservatoire, wrote thus to Bohm: — "It is said in pro- fessional society that the flute that bears your name was discovered and invented, with all its present im- provements, by a person of the name ot Gordon; that this Gordon, after devoting several years to experiments and labours, has given up, on account of illness, occupying himself with his flute; and that your dis- covery, in a word, is no other than his." Hinc illce lacrymce! Coche supported this very definite and malicious statement by a letter from Gordon's wife, who naturally espoused the claim made on behalt of her unfortunate husband. It is to be noted that Coche's rival, Camus, was a friend of Bohm and had acted as his agent in Paris^ playing and teaching the Bohm flute. 60 Coche's Attack on Bohm Bohm at once repudiated the charge. Notwithstanding this, Coche issued an Examen Critique de la flute ordinaire comfaree a la flute de Bohm (originally written for the judges at the French Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Music Section, and dedicated to the members of the institution), in which he claimed the priority of invention for Gordon, In the following year Coche published his Mdthode pour servir a V enseignement de la Nouvelle Flute, inventde par Gordon, modifide par Bohm et perfectionde par V. Coche et Buffet, jeune, dedicated to Cherubini, then Director of the Paris Conservatoire. We shall see in the next chapter what these " perfectings " of M. Coche were ; meanwhile it will be noticed that he treats Bohm as a mere modifier of Gordon's inventions. Coche's claim on behalf of Gordon was espoused in England in a pamphlet called The Flute Explained, by Ward (1844), who had made flutes for Gordon when in London, and also by Prowse, a London flute-maker, and the controversy was revived in The Mtisical World of 1843.1 • ^ That this was not quite appreciated by the non-flute-playing sub- scribers to that journal is clear from the following amusing letter to the Editor :— THE BOHM FLUTE. " I pray you, sir, to put a mute On all this noise 'bout Bohm's flute ; Your powers arouse To muffle Prowse, Nor let old Card Contend with Ward, But quash at once the dull dispute." —Embouchure. 61 Story of the Flute On the other hand, Clinton, a leading English flautist and Professor at the Royal Academy of Music, in the first English book of instructions for the Bohm flute — namely, A Tfieoretical and Practical Essay on the Bohm Flute, as manufactured by Messrs. Rudall & Hose — evidently considered Bohm entitled to the credit of the invention. In his enthusiastic dedication of this work to Bohm, Clinton says: — " When in after ages the future historian of the Flute, in tracing its progress from infancy to maturity, shall enumerate those whose talents and exertions have successfully contributed to its perfect development, your name will stand conspicuously prominent in the list. He will point, with peculiar satisfaction, to your achievements, and this our day will be characterised by him as the commencement of a new era in the history of the instrument. And when he shall contrast the capa- bilities of the Flute, in his time, with the recorded imperfections of that of former generations, the name of Bohm will be transmitted in grate- ful remembrance to posterity, as the originator of the wondrous and triumphant change. To whom, then, can I, with equal propriety, dedicate a work, the object of which is, to introduce to English Flute- players, this monument of your genius, already so fully appreciated by the great body of Continental Professors and amateurs ? — Wishing you many years of health and happiness, in the enjoyment of that fame which is so justly your due, I have the honour to" subscribe myself, your very obedient and faithful servant, J. Clinton. London, May, 1843." He throughout speaks of Bohm as the inventor. His later School for the Bohm Flute (1846) was also dedi- cated to Bohm. After such decided expressions on the subject, it is somewhat startling to find Clinton, in his Practical Hints to Flute-players upon the subject of Modern Flutes (1855) — a work describing his own 62 Controversy after Bohm's Death new "Equisonant" flute — attributing the invention to Gordon. A much stronger, though less oratorical, supporter of Bohm's claims, Mr. Richard Carte (1845), pointed out that Gordon would hardly have remained on such friendly terms with Bohm if the latter had robbed him of his invention in 1832. Fetis, the French musical historian {c. 1865), rather favoured Gordon. Nothing further was heard about the matter till after Bohm's death. In several of the foreign obituary notices Gordon was again put forward as entitled to the credit of the invention, and in Contro- the London Figaro of December 28th, 1881, versy Gordon's madness was said to be due to tj-. , ,, . , , ^ , . , .on Bohm's "seemgthe results of his own talent attri- Death buted to Bohm." To this article Mr. Walter Stewart Broadwood, an enthusiastic flautist and a personal friend of Bohm, replied in the same paper and also in the Musical World of January ist, 1882; and Schafhautl wrote a paper — a translation of which appeared in t\\e. Musical World oi February i8th, 1882 — strongly advocating Bohm's claims. The controversy slept once more till 1890, when Mr. R. S. Rockstro, in his elaborate treatise The Flute, took up the cudgels for Gordon, and treated Bohm ^ as more or less an impostor. An able and . , conclusive reply to Rockstro was furnished by Mr. C. Welch in his History of the Bohm Flute, 3rd ed. , 1896. Bohm's latest champion is Mr. H. Clay Wysham, an enthusiastic American flautist, in his little work The Evolution of the Bohm Flute. 63 Story of the Flute Bohm nowhere states definitely that he obtained no hints from Gordon's flute, but in a letter of May 20th, 1878, he does say, "I never had used any- Conclusion thing of M. Gordon, but he had to thank me °^hY ^°^ ""^^^ ^ "^^^^ ^°"® ^'"' '^''"■" °" ^^^ .. other hand, Gordon himself never even matter hinted that Bohm had copied his flute in any respect; on the contrary he definitely states that he (Gordon) had adopted certain devices of Bohm's flute with Bohm's permission. The truth would appear to be that the same main ideas occurred to both men simultaneously, and that Bohm carried them out successfully, whilst Gordon failed to do so. Bohm's flute was practical and workable; Gordon's was un- practical and much too complicated to be workable. When it is recollected that to Bohm alone are due the ascertainment of the correct acoustical positions for the holes and of the best bore for the tube ; that with these — the vital part of the improvement — Gordon had nothing whatever to do, as he was either in a mad- house or more probably dead when they were ascer- tained; that, moreover, the mechanical key-action, to which alone the controversy relates, had all been fore- shadowed by previous inventors — when these facts are borne in mind, the entire dispute fades into insigni- ficance and becomes "a storm in a teacup." It is to be noticed that Gordon's partisans — Coche, Clinton, Ward, Rockstro — all produced rival flutes in Bohm's lifetime. Was it jealousy that caused their opposition to his claims ? 64 CHAPTER V. THE FLUTE AFTER BOHM. Various Patentees — Coche and Buffet — Ward — The Dorus Key — Siccama — Briccialdi's Lever— Carte's Flutes — Clinton — Pratten — Rockstro — RadcUff— Other Minor " Improvers." The Bohm is the groundwork of all modern flutes. Since the inventor's day it has undergone many changes and experiments, but, with very few exceptions, these have not made any substantial improvement. . Bohm himself wrote in 1878, "Alterations p ^ ^ can be made ad infinitum, but nothing has as yet been better than my system, which will very likely remain the best. I never dispute with others about their improvements." Between 1848-g Messrs. Rudall and Rose alone made ten different attempts at "improvement" (all subsequently discarded) for various would-be inventors. Most of these attempts were based on no sound theory, others were merely new applications of old contrivances. If they remedied some old defects, they substituted other new ones. As Skeffington says, "Flute-players were divided, and flute-makers were worked up to a great pitch of rivalry and contention. Systems of mechanism were advocated 65 S Story of the Flute which had really nothing at all of system in them ; and theories were hastily laid down which were untenable on the commonest principles of science. . . . We have seen flutes sent forth with flaming titles and explanations based on acoustical theories and all sorts of scientific nostrums which were to astonish the orchestras of Europe, and we look round now in vain to see a single trace of their existence. . . . Any experimentalist, should he invent or alter but a single key, calls such invention a theory or system, and he attempts to show that the acoustical properties of the flute demand this key or this alteration." The first of this "noble army of patentees" was Coche, who made one really valuable addition — namely, the hole and key for the C'ft D"| shake — which is now put on all good flutes. Most of his modifications are of J "" practical value and have never become R ff X general. He adopted an excavation in the head-joint where it rests against the lower lip of the player, a device already suggested by Ribcock (p. 1782) and used by both Bohm and Gordon. It is still occasionally met with. Buff^et fitted the keys with needle springs of steel wire [c. 1837), possibly at Coche's suggestion. These have since been universally em- ployed on Bohm flutes. Strange to say, Bohm at first objected to them and would not use' them, preferring the old flat brass springs. The needle springs were first used in England by Cornelius Ward in 1842. Ward was not satisfied with Bohm's flute. Accord- ingly in substitution for this "bungling compromise 66 Various Patentees between tone, tune, and the ordinary dimensions of the .human hand," Cornelius brought out a flute of his own, which was intended to remedy all Bohm's defects. Most of Ward's changes were adapted from earlier flutes ; they are of an extremely minute and technical nature, aiming at an open-keyed system, and though they attracted a good deal of attention at the time, effected no real permanent improvement. One peculiarity of Ward's flute was that the two low C keys were closed by the left hand thumb by means of long traction levers ; this poor thumb had to work no less than five keys. Dorus in 1838 invented a new closed key for Gf, to render the fingering of the Bohm more like that of the old eight-keyed flute. It was adopted by several leading French players, and is still ^^ sometimes used, although better forms of closed Gtt keys have since been devised. Many unsuccessful attempts were made by William Card and others to adapt the old, or so-called natural, fingering to the new system. The most notable of these dabblers was Abel Siccama, a very moderate amateur flautist, who patented quite a variety of flutes : the first in 1842. One had but a single key (Ctl), and had an open hole for the G for the right hand thumb. Another, called The Diatonic Flute (it was really enharmonic), patented in 1847, though of no real value, was adopted by Richardson, and also by Pratten for a time. Siccama claimed that this instrument equalled the violin in correctness of tune, and that 67 Story of the Flute certain difficult keys were rendered easier; also that it facilitated the playing- of efaords and arpeggios with neatness. But by his changes Siccama spoiled the third octave, and his flutes — though still to be met with Carte's Flutes occasionally — obtained no permanent hold ( Page 68, Fig. i). Briccialdi also tried to adapt the old fingering to the new flute. He is credited sometimes with having invented a system of closing the F^ hole by two rings or keys for the Ft] and Et] holes, which has been largely adopted, but it is more probable that it was invented by Carte or Forde. Hovsrever, Briccialdi undoubtedly did invent the Bi> lever now used on Bohm flutes (Fig- 13)- This contrivance ^.c. .j.-briccialdi's b^ levek.^ dates from 1849, and is a de- cided improvement. It was first made, under Bric- cialdi's direction, by Rudall & Rose (now Rudall, Carte, & Co.), whose flutes rapidly attained a great reputation. Mr. Richard Carte, who joined the firm in 1850, was for many years " * ' well known as a flautist, possessing great o. /- ' facility of execution. In early life he was a personal friend of Spohr, and in 1842 was a member of Julliens' band. The improvements in the flute made from time to time by this firm are both numerous and important. In 1843 they took up Bohm's model of 1832, and brought over Grev^, one of Bohm's best workmen, to instruct their staff. When Bohrm's model of 1847 appeared they at once adopted it (Page 68, Fig. 2). In 1851 Carte brought out a new patent flute, in which the open keys and equidistant holes of Bohm were retained, combined with as much as possible of the old eight-keyed fingering, but a greater 69 Story of the Flute facility of rapid execution was obtained, chiefly by means of an open D hole for the second and third octaves, and less work thrown upon the thumb and little finger of the left hand, which are always weak. In 1867 Carte brought out another flute known as "The 1867 Patent Carte and Bohm Combined Flute" (Page 68, Fig. 3), which unites the advantages of the original Bohm with those of Carte's 1851 flute. The principal changes are in the key mechanism of the Ft] F| and Btj B|,. It also affords a great variety of fingerings for each note. Clinton in 1848 patented some quite useless modifica- tions, reverting more or less to the old system of closed keys, and contradicting much of what he had said two years previously. In 1855 he published a pamphlet about a new flute which he termed "The Equisonant Flute," retaining much of the old system of fingering, and having different diameters of the bore for the different notes to imitate the human larynx, a curious and valueless notion. A partisan of the Bohm thereupon asked if " equisonant " meant "equally bad all over," on which Mr. Rockstro remarks that un- fortunately it was unequally bad! He next (1S62) brought out a flute with cylinder body and equally graduated holes, getting smaller as they approached the mouth-hole. This flute, which gained a gold medal in the exhibition of 1862, was strongly advocated by SkeflSngton. It had not, however, even the merit of originality, as Bohm had tried graduating the holes before 1851, but had abandoned the idea. In 1863 70 Modern Improvers Clinton patented yet another flute, to a great extent retaining the old fingering and closed holes. Pratten tried various experiments, and about the year 1856 brought out his " Perfected- Flute." He objected to take up the Bohm, and endeavoured to adapt the old fingering to the cylinder flute "^"en with large holes, with the result that his flute had in the end seventeen keys in place of the original eight ! It need hardly be added that this instrument did not justify its name, and is now completely relegated to oblivion. Two other modifications of the Bohm which are still largely used deserve notice. R. S. Rockstro, after many attempts, in 1864 produced the model known by his name. The principal features are the full adoption of the open-keyed system, the uniform diameter of the finger-holes, their increased size, and an extra F| key. Many of the keys are perforated. He subsequently placed a tiny tube at right angles at the C"| hole to improve the tone. Mr. J. Radcliff also devised a new model — the nearest approach to the old eight-keyed fingering. Its principal features are that it has not the open D, and that it has a closed G#; also the B\) key is closed by the first finger of the right hand by a separate lever. Radcliff' advocates a mouth-hole which is almost square, such as Drouet used. Mr. W. L. Barrett, Mr. Collard, Mr. Colonieu, and others have all brought out flutes with minute changes of fingering, etc. All these are very unimportant, 71 Story of the Flute and have not been generally adopted. The climax of- tinkering was reached by Mr. James Mathews, a Birmingham amateur, whose flute had no „- „ less than twenty-eight keys ! The tube was of gold, the keys of silver, and the head-joint of ivory, with a perfectly square mouth- hole. In fact, the whole instrument was " be-divelled," to use the expression of one who saw it. Mr. Mathews was a very fine player and an enthusiast. He founded the Birmingham Flue Trio and Quartett Society in 1856, of which Joseph Richardson was president till his death in 1862. The society possesses a magnificent library of flute music, including a Quartett specially written for it by Antonio Minasi. After all, with the possible exception of Mr. Carte's 1867 Patent Flute, Bohm's own model is still the best: " E'en ApoUonius might commend this flute, The music, winding through the stops, upsprings To make the player very rich." — Mrs. Browning, Casa Guidi Windows. 72 Ja;iies Maiukws anh 1115 Flu'ie, " Ciirysosiom." CHAPTER VI. THE MILITARY FIFE. Early history, examples, and references — Arbeau's description — Introduced into the French Army — Into the English Army — Duties of military fifers — Their position— Temporary disuse — Reinstatement — The true fife — In opera. The drum and fife was one of the earliest forms ot military music. Even amongst the ancient Greeks the vertical flute seems to have been used largely as a martial instrument, and the Lacedse- „, " ^ monians had a saying that " a good per- former on the flute would make a man brave every danger and face even iron itself." This martial character has survived to modern times. Strictly speaking, a fife is a small cylinder flute, generally unjointed, with six finger-holes and without any keys. It would appear to have been first introduced into military music early in the sixteenth century by the Swiss, who, as the principal mercenary soldiers of the Middle Ages, soon spread the instrument all over Europe. It was first known as the Zwerchpfeiff, Schweitzerpfeiff, or Swiss pipe (for pictures, see Chap. III., p. 30, ante], and is said to have been first used by the Swiss troops in the battle of Marignano (1515). It was also called 73 Story of the Flute the FeldpfeifF (of which there were two kinds). Later on it was termed the Almain whistle (Turner so names it in 1683), owing to its being much used by the German troops. A fife of this period, preserved in the Museum of the Brussels Conservatoire, is made of dark brown wood flattened on the upper side, on which the holes are placed. It measures 12.7 inches in length, and has a bore of .37 inch. Its pitch is in BH. Fifes and drums are depicted in an engraving by Albert Durer, repre- senting the triumph of Maximilian in 151 2, also in a picture of the siege of Pavia (now in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford), painted in 1525. A journal of the siege of Boulogne, 1544, printed in Rymer's Fcedera, mentions " drummes and viff'eurs " as marching at the head of the royal army. Waterman, in his Fardle Factons, 1555, says the Turks use "a dromme and a fiphe to assemble their bandes " (ii, xi. 248). Prsetorius and Mersenne both depict fife and drum on the same page. Thoinot Arbeau (whose real name was Jehan Taburet) in 1588 published at Langres a work entitled Orcheso- graphie, in the form of a dialogue between r eau s ^^^ Capriol and the author, in which he describes at some length these fifes used by the Swiss and Germans, and gives an illustration of a soldier playing one. He says: " D'aultant qu' elle est perc6e bien estroictement de la grosseur d'un boulet de pistolet, elle rend un son agu " (p. 17). He tells us that the player plays any music he likes, and amplifies it at will ; it is enough for him to keep time with the 74 Early Fife Music sound of the drum. He also gives instructions as to tongueing: " Il-y-a deux mani^res de flutter; I'une en tetant, I'aultre en rollant. Au premier la langue du joueur faict te, te, te ou iere, tere, tere, et au second jeu roll^, la langue, du joueur faict rele, rel6, rele." The former method is "plus aigre et rude," and therefore more suitable for war. This highly interesting and rare old book contains a " Tablature du fifre ou arigot {i.e. , flute 1) au troisiesme ton " from C Sol to Ela. This table ts stated to have been compiled by " Isaac Fife Music from Arbeaa's Orchesographie. ^ ^ ffrfr-irrrf^frnrrrrf^ b r rfiTrr ' ^' ' ' r rrr r*'**^ H^ jj^ Huguet, organiste." Some very early fife music will also be found in Mars his Triumph, by T. B. (1638), to accompany the manual and firing exercises. In 1530 Cardinal Wolsey entertained King Henry VIII. at Whitehall with a concert of drums and fifes, and they were used in Lord Mayors' shows in the sixteenth century. In 1671 Charles I. prohibited persons from playing them at fairs, etc., without a licence from the Royal Trumpeter. Rabelais in 1532 mentions fifes and tambours, and Du Bellay (Essai sur les ' Cotgrave's Dictionary (1632) defines f arigot as a name for flute or pipe, so called by clowns in some parts of France. 75 Introduced into the French and English Armies Story of the Flute Instruments, 1780) says that King Francis I. of France directed in 1534 that each band of one thousand men should have four drums and two fifes. Fifes were sub- sequently allotted to the Swiss companies only, and they disappeared from the French army altogether for some time, but were restored by Napoleon. They are no longer used by the French troops. It is to be noted that A. de Vigny omits "the ear-piercing fife" alto- gether in his translation of Othello. The instrument was first used in the English army in the reign of Henry VIII. who sent to Vienna for fifes. He had a fifer named Jacques, and another named Oliver, who performed at the King's funeral in 1547. The royal fifer and drummer were paid 45s. for their livery in 1532; in 1555 the King's fifers were Henry Ball and Thomas Curson. " FfyfFers " are included in the muster-roll of the London Train bands in 1539; and the Privy Council Acts, 1548, provide for four drums and two fifes, and one John Pretre is named as fifer. Fifes are often mentioned in Elizabethan literature (where they are sometimes called "Whiffles"), almost always in connection with drums, trumpets, and soldiers. In Barret's Theoricke and Practike of Modern Warres (1598) " drumes and phifes " are mentioned. Burton, in his Anatomy of Melancholy (1621), says "the trumpet, drum, and fife are soldiers' instruments." Francis Markham, in his Five Decades of Epistles of War {1622), says he knew no more sweet and solemn melody than that which drums and fifes afforded, but elsewhere he disapproves of the military use of the fife, 76 Military Fifes which he ignominiously terms "a whistle," and says that it is to the voice of the drum that the soldier should wholly attend. These early fifers would seem to have been often "but easy players and very drunkards." The band of the British Royal Artillery, when at St. Quentin in 1557, included a "drum and phife," and a document of the year 1621 mentions that the Eng-lish army had forty drummers and forty fifers. The following curious regulations were laid down at this period for army fifers: — " All capitaines must have drommes and ffifes, and men to use the same, who shall be faithfull, secrete, and ".!f^ ° f ui 4. \u • Military ingenious, or able personage to use their „.- instruments and office, of sundrie languages ; for oftentimes they bee sent to parley with their enemies, to sommon theire efforts and diverse other messages, which of necessitie requireth language. If such drommes and ffifes should fortune to fall into the hands of the enemies, noe guifte nor force should cause them to disclose any secrettes that they knowe. They must often practice theire instruments, teach the com- panye the soundes of the marche, allarum, approache, assaulte, battaile, retreate, skirmishe, or any other challenge that of necessitie should be knowen. They must be obediente to the commandemente of theire captaine and ensigne, when as they shall command them to comme, goe, or stande, or sound theire retreate or callinge." It would therefore appear that the fifers were ex- pected to act more or less as interpreters (doubtless 77 Story of the Flute many of them were foreigners), and also to a certain extent as drill instructors. Part of the duty of the Fife-Major in 1748 was to inflict corporal punishment, which was later relegated to the Drum-Major. Fifers were clearly of a higher rank than the ordinary soldiers, and were paid on a higher scale, receiving is. a day, whereas the private soldier only got 8d. They carried a case containing several fifes in different pitches at their side, as may be seen in many old pictures. Some- times a banner was attached to the fife, as shown in Sandford's picture of the coronation procession of James II. The Soldier's Accidence (1629) mentions that the eldest fife marched along with the eldest drum. The march usually played by the English fifes and drums at this period struck the French Marshal Biron as "slow, heavy, and sluggish." On his re- marking this to Sir Roger Williams, the latter replied, "That may be true, but still it has traversed your master's country from one end to the other." In the reign of Charles I. the fife disappeared for a while from the English army, its place being taken by the bagpipe or the hautboy. Four drums lemporary ^^^ ^ g£g^ however, were used at the funeral suse ^j- ^j^g Duchess of Saxony in 1666. It was instatement '"^'introduced into the British Guards when at Maestricht in 1747. The re-introduction is attributed to the Duke of Cumberland ; and at the termination of the war a Hanoverian named John Ulrich was brought over from Flanders specially to teach the fife to the Royal Artillery, and in June 1753 that corps 78 Fife in Opera had a Drum-Major, ten drummers, a Fife-Major, and five fifers. Hogarth's famous picture of the March of the Guards, painted in December 1750, includes a drummer and fifer. The old fife calls are still pre- served in the Guard regiments. In 1747 another Hanoverian was fife teacher in the first line regiment to adopt the fife — viz., the 19th Foot, popularly known as the Green Howards. Most of the drummers also played the fife. They were at first allowed only in the Grenadier company, and were paid by the officers. (Grose, Mil. Ant.) Fifers were also used in English cavalry regiments before the end of the eighteenth century. The true fife, which was generally set in Bb, F, or C, was faulty in intonatiofl; it disappeared about i860, and its place was taken by small flutes of conical bore and fitted with keys. Prowse made a fife with eleven holes and no keys so late as 1825; I do not quite see how this could be fingered. Handel, in his opera Almira (iii. 3), has a band of cymbals, drums, and fifes where Consalvo enters as Asia surrounded by lions. Meyerbeer, in addition to the usual orchestra, has intro- _ duced a fife and drum band, and also a brass band (both on the stage), in his EEtoile du Nord, all playing different tunes simultaneously: the effect is noisy but imposing. These are the only instances that I can recall of the introduction of the fife in orchestral or operatic music. ^ ^ The piccolo is used to imitate the fife in Macfarren's May Day. 79 CHAPTER VII. THE PICCOLO : THE F FLUTE. Piccolo — Orchestral use — Characteristics — Berlioz on its abuse — Its various registers — As used by great composers — Two piccolos — With cymbals, bells, etc. — As a solo instrument — Military varieties — The F flute. The Flauto Piccolo, the highest pitched instrument of the orchestra, is a development of the earlier conical SchweitzerpfeifF, and to this day the conical , bore is preferred to the cylinder bore, , '"° ° although some piccolos are made with the Q t t latter. The piccolo is in a sense a trans- posing instrument, as it sounds an octave above the written note. This is done in order to avoid numerous ledger lines. The compass of the instrument is said to extend to the C in altissimo, gvc but it is rarely used above the A (the top note of the pianoforte), though an occa- _n sional B may be met with in orchestral 3fe writings. I have never come across this t/ top C in any piccolo part. As the instrument does not possess a tail-joint like the flute, its lowest note is Yi\. 80 Piccolo in the Orchestra The piccolo seems to have first appeared in the orchestra about 1700. Destouches and Lalande in The Elements (c. 1721) have two little flutes. Rameau used one in his overture Acanthe "^^•^*f°- andCdphise (1751) and two in his Pigmalion (1748). Haydn uses it once {Spring), and Gluck intro- duces it in several of his operas. Beethoven was the first to introduce it into a symphony. In the orchestra the piccolo is as a rule played by the second flute-player, unless when played along with both flutes. A question has been raised as to whether piccolo playing is injurious to the tone of a flute-player, the embouchure being so different. Certainly the great piccolo-players, such as Frisch (c. 1840), Harrington Young, Le Thi^re, Roe, etc., did not shine very pre- eminently as flute-players. The French excel as piccoloists. The piccolo is the noisiest and least refined in tone of the whole orchestra, and is apt to give a tinge of vulgarity if injudiciously introduced — as it too often is. It is, in fact, in all respects t.nar- the most abused instrument: abused by _. ! Use, d-nd composers, players, and audiences alike. Abuse Berlioz says: "When I hear this instru- ment employed in doubling in triple octave the air of a baritone, or casting its squeaking voice into the midst of a religious harmony, or strengthening or sharpening (for the sake of noise only) the high part of an orchestra from beginning to end of an act of an opera, I cannot help feeling that this mode of instrumentation is one of Sx ■ 6 Story of the Flute platitudes and stupidity. The piccolo may, however, have a very happy effect in soft passages, and it is a mere prejudice to think that it should only be played loud." Examples of most effective use of the piccolo pianissimo will be found in Beethoven's Turkish March in the Ruins of Athens, and in Schumann's Faust (ii. 5), where it is so used on its highest register. It abso- lutely lacks the poetic sweetness of the flute. The lower notes are feeble, dull, and devoid of any particular character; the middle register is the best, whilst the upper notes are harsh and piercing, the very top ones being almost unbearably so. There is very little real musical tone to be got out of the instru- ment — it is, in fact, nothing but a glorified tin-whistle. Nevertheless, it has its uses: an occasional sudden flash on the piccolo is very thrilling, and it can create certain piquant effects and accentuate brilliant points in the score better than any other member of the orchestra. The chief vocation of the piccolo is to reproduce the noises of the elements of nature, the strident howling of the tempest, the flash of the lightning, the torrent of the rain. There is something diabolic and mocking in its upper notes ; hence it has been employed by many dramatic composers to typify infernal revelry and Satanic orgies. Marschner uses two piccolos in his Le Vampire, and Gounod and Berlioz both introduce it along with Mephistopheles in their respective Fausts. So, too, Sullivan, in The Golden Legend, heralds the approach of Lucifer by a lightning flash on the piccolo. 82 Piccolo in Great Scores It is clearly a diabolical instrument — often in more senses than one ! Weber, Wagner, and Sullivan have used the piccolo in scenes of magic and the supernatural with striking effect. Wagner several times portrays the rustling of leaves and of trees by means of it. Owing to its bright, gay character, the piccolo is also much used in joyous pastoral scenes, village f^tes, and dances. Verdi uses it to produce comic effects in his Falstaff. It is very rarely used in sacred music: Bizet, Carmen, i. 3, March. Alle 2 PICCOLOS ONLT. :. at first ftlone then with Strings pizz. Cherubini introduces it into his Coronation Mass in A, Berlioz uses it in \\\s L' Enfance du Christ and Te Deum, and Brahm in his Requiem, as does also Dvorik. In Massenet's Scenes Pittoresques the lower notes are used effectively in the slow, quiet "Angelas." In the orchestra the piccolo is often very useful to continue an ascending passage above the compass of the flute, and to brighten the tone. Its sharp, accen- tuated rhythm is very useful in martial scenes, as in Bizet's Carmen. Auber uses the instrument with great skill. 83 Story of the Flute Two Piccolos Though usually played along with the flute in orchestral works, the piccolo is often used alone very effectively. Two piccolos are occasionally used, either in addition to the flutes or with- out them. Spohr has a passage in his over- ture Jessonda for two piccolos in F without flutes. Berlioz, in his Faust (" Evocation "), uses three piccolos (without flutes), playing separate parts. This is the only instance I know of three being used. I don't think any composer has introduced four separate parts for Berlioz, Faust, " Evocation.'' Allegro 3 FICCOLOS. With Cymbals, etc. piccolos in any orchestral work. Spontini (Nour- mahal) was apparently the first to discover th« com- bination of the piccolo with the cymbals. " It cuts and rends instantaneously like the stab of a poignard," says Berlioz. Modern composers have frequently used it along with the cymbals, bells, triangle, or glockenspiel ; Saint-Saens produces a ghastly effect in his Danse Macabre by combining it with the xylophone. Owing to its great agility, the piccolo is frequently used as a solo instrument, chiefly to imitate birds or 84 F Flute for squealing variations. These sparkling (but utterly trivial) compositions are usually in the polka or waltz form, and Bousquet, Donjon, and others have written several pieces of this kind for s o o two piccolos. But such things are only tolerable in a very large hall or in the open air, where they are often performed by military bands. A piccolo solo in the drawing-room is not to be tolerated save by those who are stone-deaf. In military bands various other sizes of piccolo are used. The French use one in D[j, a minor gth higher than the concert flute, whilst the Italians prefer one in E|>.i These are practically never used ^ ■ «■■ in orchestra, the only instances of which I am aware being Schumann's Paradise and the Peri, Berlioz's Symphonie Funebre (as originally written for a military band), and Spohr's overture The Fall of Babylon; in all of which the Db piccolo is used. Numerous other varieties of small flutes have from time to time been devised. One in E], is specially adapted for military bands; their music being usually written in flat keys. The only variety ever found in orchestral works is the F flute, sometimes called the Tierce, or Third Flute, as it sounds a minor third above the concert flute. It is less piercing than the piccolo, and has more vigour than the C flute. It is introduced by Mozart in the original score of L Enlevement au Serail, by Spohr in ^ JuUien in his Zouave's Band (1856) had one piccolo in F|, one in D(>, one F flute and two concert flutes. 85 Story of the Flute his Power of Sound symphony — in addition to an ordinary flute — and by Gade in the Siren's song in The Crusaders, probably to avoid the difficulty of the key on the ordinary flute. Bishop originally wrote the obligato to his famous song, " Lo, hear the Gentle Lark," for an F flute. 86 CHAPTER VIII. ALTO AND BASS. FLUTES. The true bass flute— Early examples— Alto flutes— Modern examples — The flute d'amour — Recent revival. Bass and alto flutes are mentioned by Agricola in 1528. Mersenne (1637) describes a cylinder bass flute an octave below the concert flute. This is a true bass flute, a term which is generally "^ applied to flutes which are really alto '''■ ^ ^ or tenor instruments. The Museum of the Paris Conservatoire contains a true bass boxwood flute (presented by Dorus), which is known as the "Five- foot Flute," though it really measures a little over four English feet. It has three brass keys, is inscribed with the maker's name, "J. Beuker, Amsterdam," and has open keys for two holes (A and E) which could not be reached easily by the fingers. The only other key is for D|. It dates from early in the eighteenth century. Malcolm Macgregor, a musical instrument maker in Carey Street, London, patented in 1810 a true bass flute. He doubled back the head-joint in order that the fingers might reach the lower holes (a device which is mentioned by Mersenne and also in Borde's Essay, 1780). The 87 Story of the Flute head-joint is a solid block of wood, containing two bores, connected together at the cork-end (Page 89, Fig. i). The finger-holes are about double as far apart as on an ordinary flute, but they are brought within reach by means of keys. It measures about forty-three inches in all, the turned back portion being about twelve inches. Macgregor sometimes made the con- nection between the turned back head and the main body of the flute by means of a semi-circular metal pipe, the two tubes standing slightly apart. Diderot and D'Alembert's Encyclopcedia (Paris, 175 1- 80) has a woodcut of a so-called bass flute in G with four open keys, covering the B G FJ and E holes, and a closed key for D| (Page 89, Fig. 2). It is very slightly conoidal, with an ornamental bulb-end, and is bent back at the top with a small semi-circular tube of brass at the end. It is in four joints. A very similar flute, which is now in the Paris Conservatoire, was made by Charles Delusse, a Parisian flautist and composer (c. 1758). It measures fifty inches, and is ot dark-stained boxwood, with ivory tips and brass keys. There is in the Museo Civico at Verona a so-called bass flute of the seventeeth century^, pitched in Eb, and measuring nearly three feet seven inches from the cork to the end. As the lowest hole is thirty and a half inches from the mouth-hole, no person of ordinary stature could finger the lower holes. Those for the little fingers are double. The alto or tenor flute (sometimes called Flauto di Voce) occasionally has a large hole at the side near 88 Alto and Bass Flutes 89 Story of the Flute the C"| hole, covered with thin skin in order to give a sympathetic or reedy tone. Macgregor made flutes of this kind, sometir^es with a turned- „, ° back head-ioint, and measuring about two Flutes r <. ^u ■ u Tu ri feet three mches. Ihey were generally pitched in G. Bohm made an alto flute a fourth lower than the ordinary flute, and wrote solos (now lost) for it. It was made of silver, and "compared to the C flute, it was like the voice of a powerful soprano in contrast to a child. Once when I played It in a church it was mistaken for a French horn." Many foreign makers of the early nineteenth century have made tenor and alto flutes, especially the Viennese and Parisians, and several were exhibited in the Exhibition of 1855. Some had no less than seven keys below the D, worked by the two little fingers and the left-hand thumb. In some the low G was so difficult to sound that when the flautist Sedlatzek succeeded in doing so, he stood the flute up in the corner of the room and saluted it ! This very instrument is now in the possession of Rudall, Carte & Co. It is made of ebony by Koch of Vienna {c. 1827), and has thirteen keys. Similar flutes were made by several English makers, Banbridge {1820), Burleigh (1855), Potter, and others. They generally measure about two feet Modern ^j^^^ inches to three feet. Messrs. Rudall, xamp es q^^^^ g^ q^^ have recently perfected an alto flute (Page 89, Fig. 3). It is of silver, about thirty- two inches long, and descends to G. This very beauti- ful instrument has a full, rich tone of novel character, 90 Flute d'Amour and, strange to say, though so much longer and of so much larger a bore than the concert flute, it requires almost less expenditure of breath to sound. Moritz of Berlin has recently produced a similar instrument. Another variety, frequently used in Bach's day, was termed the " Flute d'Amour." Flautists will remember that the slow movement in Terschak's fine solo, La Sirdne, is marked to be played "^^f ^'"'^ as by a flute d'amour. This instrument is ^'Amour pitched a minor third below the concert flute and stands in the key of B. Oberlender made flutes of this pitch early in the nineteenth century. They had one key, and the finger-holes were bored obliquely. Clementi in 1819 made them with four square silver keys, going down to Bt] or Bb. Berlioz regretted that the alto flute was not more used in his day. There is, however, a tendency of late to return to the ancient practice of employing in the orchestra a complete family of each of the different classes of wind instrument. The alto flute has already been employed in a considerable number of modern orchestral works (chiefly Russian) to produce special effects, and will doubtless be more largely used in future. Examples occur in Weingartner's Das Gefilde der Seligen, in one of Rimsky-Kosakow's ballets, and also in works by Glazounow and Joseph Holbrooke.' ^ Mr. E. Graeme Browne gave a recital on the so-called bass flute (in G) in London on July 23rd, 1913. He informs me that it has a compass of three full octaves, though no existing orchestra! part extends above B". 91 CHAPTER IX. CHARACTERISTICS OF THE FLUTE. Popularity of the flute — Its tone — Various registers — Its agility — HarmoBics — Double tongueing — The glide — Vibrato effect — Shakes and turns — Tremolo — Best keys — Hygenic aspect. The flute excites more enthusiasm among its votaries than any other instrument. There is a kind of free- p , masonry among flute-players. "Can any mortal mixture of Earth's mould breathe such divine, enchanting ravishment?" cries one. Mer- senne says that "if the concert of angels had not the sole right to be called ' ravishing,' the flute would merit this superlatively admiring epithet." An American enthusiast writes: " 'Tis so elegant, so stately, so powerful, so gracious, that I can think of nothing to liken it to, except a tall, slender, grey-eyed, manifold- cultured young Queen, pure with all the reverend characteristics of maidenhood, and at the same time eloquent with that instinctive understanding of the whole humanity of life, by which genius gives expres- sion to emotions it does not need to experience." (!) The Paradisical pleasures of the Mohammedans are said to consist largely of playing on the flute. 92 Popularity of the Flute Macfarren in 1837 found in the Isle of Man sixteen flute-players to a single violoncellist and clarinetist. Special journals, such as The Flutists' Magaeine and The Flutonicon (1842), containing music and critical notices of the great players of the day, were issued by Mr. James for the delectation of the countless amateurs of the instrument. Whole operas were transcribed for two, or even one flute. Schopenhauer mentions in his Table-Talk that he possessed all of Rossini's operas arranged for the flute, and that he played them for an hour daily; luckily he never required — or even per- mitted — any one to listen to him ! The Musical Monthly for 1820 complained that accompaniments "for the German flute " were added to every piece of music. The climax was reached about 1S20-50. It was fol- lowed by a decline in popularity. Of late, however, there has been a very perceptible increase of interest taken in the flute, due in a great measure to the skill and high artistic standard of some of the present-day solo players, and to the good class of compositions favoured by them. Several notable soloists have given successful flute recitals in London and elsewhere ; their programmes have included much really good music, and the public are discovering that, as Hamlet says, "There is much music, excellent voice, in this little organ." The most obvious feature of the flute is the limpid sweetness and clearness of its tone. This liquid sound is quite peculiar to it; even the organ cannot exactly reproduce it. It rather resembles the human voice, 93 Story of the Flute especially that of a boy. There is something particu- larly fascinating about the soft, velvety, so to speak, "glassy" tone of the flute, which "falls Tone of ^^^^ ^j^^ ^^^ y^^^ g^j^g^ ^^ snow." Though passionate, it is quite devoid of the rough, tearing tone of the reed instruments. Many orchestral players produce a hard, mechanical tone like a clarinet or oboe ; others strive apparently to rival the cornet or trombone, but this is not the true flute tone. The old flute had undoubtedly more of this characteristic melli- fluous sound than the modern Bohm. The cause of this peculiar tone-quality is not known with certainty, but it probably arises from the absence of a mouthpiece of any kind. Flute tone requires gentle treatment, is limited in power or quantity, and is unsuited for large concert halls ; but is capable of the most delicate effects in skilful hands, when the player becomes, as it were, united sympathetically to his flute. Too many play /orie throughout. Goethe says, "To blow is not to play upon the flute ; you must move the fingers " ; he might have added, " and vary the strength and manner of your blowing." Its real character is too often sacri- ficed to rapid execution, calculated to show off the technique of the player rather than the beauty of the instrument. The tone varies very considerably in the various registers. The characteristic notes of the lowest octave (especially if played piano and in a minor key) are invaluable in soft, mournful, elegaic passages, express- ing, as Berlioz says, "an accent of desolation, but of 94 Tone and Nature of the Flute humility and resignation at the same time." They are admirable in solos, but require careful treatment in orchestral writing, being easily rendered in- audible. They can also infuse a certain s various tinge of mystery into the music. On the whole, the best part of the instrument is the middle register: there the notes are mild, sweet, plaintive, and poetic, admirably suited to convey the dreaminess of love. Walckiers mentions melancholy as one of the chief characteristics of the flute; hence Sir Henry Irving, at a dinner of the Royal Society of Musicians, once humorously referred to the flute as "perhaps the most conspicuous interpreter of all the melancholy of these damp islands. What a stimulus to charitable impulse ought to be given by the flute !" The upper register is brilliant, bright, gay, lark-like. In an orchestra it tells out and penetrates the whole mass of the strings. The flute has been termed " the diamond of the orchestra"; and Gevaert says, " Les flutes, grace et ornament de I'orchestre, errant au dessus de la masse sonore une atmosphere de lumi^re azur^e." Schumann speaks of the "ethereal tones" of the upper register, which have been compared to a delicate light blue in painting. Someone has spoken of the "fatal facility" of the flute. It certainly is much the most flexible and agile of all wind instruments. Rapid sequences, scales, arpeggios, and octaves in all keys, skips from high to low notes and vice-versA, all are easily playable on it. " Harmonics " are also possible in the 95 Story of the Flute hands of skilled players, and they occasionally use them even in orchestral compositions, in order to simplify difficult passag'es. Sometimes they are used (especially by continental flautists) for the purpose of varying the tone-colour and expression, and Terschak, Doppler, and others have introduced these " flageletto '' notes into some of their solo compositions. The tone of harmonics produced from the lowest Ctl and Ct (and B, if on the instrument) is very remarkable. Drouet objected to the use of harmonics, owing to their being always accompanied by a very slight sound of a fifth below. A peculiarity of the flute is that very rapid staccato passages can be played with great distinctness by ^ ,, means of " double-tongueing " and " triple- Double- ^ • .. 4.U 1 ^U • <- 4. tonguemg ; the only other mstrument on tongueing o => > j which this can be done is the cornet. This effect, which was known in the days of Hotteterre, is produced by the rapid enunciation of such syllables as " dou-gou " or " too-coo-too," in which the tongue strikes alternately on two different parts of the palate. This is, no doubt, more or less of a trick — James terms it "Babylonish gabble" (which it too often is) — and should only be used when absolutely necessary. It is very usual in old-fashioned flute solos, but is not very frequently employed in orchestral music. Raff, how- ever, uses it in his Third Symphony, Saint-Saens in his ballet in Ascanto; and Rimsky-Korsakow, in his Grande Paque Russe, produces a tremolo effect by very rapid double-torjgueing on a piccolo and two flutes. 96 Double-tongueing Drouet and Richardson excelled in this device. Good "double-tongueing" can only be acquired by constant practice. One Dothel Figlio is said by Southey to have slit his tongue that he might excel in it. Mr. Taylor mentions a player who always carried the head-joint of his flute with him on solitary walks in the country and practised his "double-tongueing" as he walked along. I have known a flautist to silently practise this action of the tongue (but, of course, without the flute) during the sermon in church! In the hands of a skilful player a single flute can produce the eff"ect of two, one playing the melody and the other the accompaniment. The extraordinary performances of one George Bayr {c. 1810) created a great sensa- tion in Vienna, and to this day it is sometimes stated that he played double notes on the flute. Mr. Broadwood tells an amusing story of a Dutchman who was noted for his power of sustaining chords on his flute: — " I was present," he says, " at the Philharmonic rehearsal [in London], and well remember the brilliant and rapid staccato articula- tion with which the special wonder was ushered in. Presently came a pause; then amid deep silence and breathless expectation, the player emitted three several simultaneous sounds, . . . which were greeted by the orchestra and its conductor (Sterndale Bennett) with one vast, irrepressible shout of laughter. When this subsided the Dutchman had fled." The name or this magician was Koppitz; he com- posed a concerto with a long cadenza in these double notes. 97 7 Story of the Flute Another trick much used in old times, when the holes of the flute were directly covered by the fingers, was entitled the "glide," a kind of sigh created * ^' by sliding the fingers slowly off the holes and thus producing quarter-tones, as in strings. Nicholson and Richardson were much addicted to this trick, which, according to an old writer, "is used to express great tenderness or pity, or anguish or despair." It is now happily impossible on modern flutes with solid metal "touches." The vibrato effect can also be produced on the flute, and is sometimes extremely effective if introduced sparingly. Turns and graces of all kinds, especially trills and shakes, are perhaps more effective on the flute than „. , on any other instrument. Prolonged shakes Shakes etc ' * have been frequently introduced by the great composers. Auber in his Bronze Horse has one twenty bars long. They are highly effective also on the piccolo. Wagner often introduces them ; in Siegfried two piccolos have one for twenty bars, and in the Walkure's ride the flutes shake on the topmost notes of their compass. Strauss in Til Eulenspiegel has a long piccolo shake. Two flutes playing in thirds or sixths (if not too high up on their compass) are peculiarly effective, as has been noticed by all the leading composers since the era of Bach and even before it; but tremolo passages in thirds, etc., although occasionally used, are not so effective on the flute as on strings, and are sometimes very difficult, especially if on the top register. 98 Medical Aspect Certain keys are peculiarly suited to the flute ; thus the flat keys, especially Db and Ab, are most effective in pathetic or elegaic adagio movements. , In lively brisk movements the sharp keys, „ especially E and B, are brilliant, sparkling, and effervescent. Drouet's favourite key was G, a rather difficult one on his old German flute; Nicholson preferred F. The ancients used the flute in cases of certain com- plaints, epilepsy, sciatica, gout, and to cure the bite of a viper ; and Galen advises that the instrument be played on the suffering part. It was supposed , , also to soften the rigour of punishment, and ^r ^ the Tyrrhenians scourged their slaves to the sound of flutes. The medical profession has in recent times recognised that flute-playing (in moderation) is decidedly beneficial to the health, and is especially valuable as strengthening the chest and lungs, owing to the deep but not excessive inhalations it necessitates. Flute-playing has often been ordered by doctors as a cure for a tendency to pulmonary disease, as in the case of Bbhm himself. 99 CHAPTER X. MUSIC FOR THE FLUTE. Early Composers — Loeillet— Mercy — Blavet — Quantz — Classical Com- posers — Flautist Composers— Kuhlau — His Successors — Good flute music — Taste of the public — Airs with variations — Doppler — Terschak — Modern School of Flute Composers — Flute and Harp or Guitar — Flute and Voice. The flute has a more extensive repertoire than any other wind instrument ; it is the best adapted for the drawing-room, being the least powerful and pronounced in tone. One of the first to write regular solos for the flute was Jean Baptiste Loeillet (1653-1728), a native of Ghent, who is said" to have been the first virtuoso to play the transverse flute in England (1705). He lived in Hart Street, Covent Garden, where he held a _, ^ weekly concert, at which Corelli's concertos Composers ■; , , , „ . . _ , . were heard for the first time m England. He was the first flute in the orchestra of the Hay- market Theatre, and taught both the flute and the harpsichord. He died worth ;^i6,ogo. Loeillet wrote numerous sonatas for one or two flutes, or flute and oboe, with bass, and for two flutes alone. Many of these compositions are preserved in the British Museum, 100 Loeillet — Me rci — Bla vet and some have recently been republished in Paris. They are specially interesting as being the oldest flute solos now in print. An Englishman of French extrac- tion named Louis Merci or Mercy (1690-1750), who lived in Orange Court, Castle Street, Leicester Fields, would appear to have been the first British composer of solos for the flute, any of whose music still exists. Some of his flute solos can be seen in the British Museum. In his preface, Merci asserts the superiority of the flute to the violin, as equally capable of doing hard things and less loud or harsh in the high notes. He seems, however, to have always retained a hankering fondness for the recorder (his original instrument) ; and along with Stanesby (a famous wind instrument maker of that day) he devised a new system of non-transposing recorder. Michel Blavet (1700-1768), a native of Besangon, gained a very high reputation by his playing, as both Quantz and Voltaire have testified. Frederick the Great tried in vain to retain his services. Blavet (who was left-handed) was principal flute in the Paris Opera House. He composed six sonatas for the flute, with figured bass (1732), and also some duets for two flutes. The sonatas have been recently republished, edited by L. Fleury for flute and pianoforte. They are in the Handelian style, each consisting of four or five short movements, chiefly in early dance measures, of a simple and tuneful character, and absolutely devoid of subtleties or intricacies of any kind. The first German composer of original pieces for the flute was J.J. Quantz, who wrote his first six sonatas lOI Story of the Flute in 1734. As Court musician to Frederick the Great, Quantz composed about three hundred flute concertos Q (the last is said to have been completed by the king himself after Quantz's death), two hundred flute solos, and numerous other works. The vast majority remain still in MS. in the Royal Library at Potsdam. A couple of the concertos, however, have been published. These have a quaint old-world, and somewhat ecclesiastical, flavour ; they are dignified and melodious, exhibiting powerful treatment of the bass, careful and clever harmony, and skilful handling of the solo instrument; though Burney (c. 1770) considered them old-fashioned and commonplace. A movement from one of Quantz's concertos was played by M. Dumon, on a single-keyed ivory flute, at the Inventions Exhibition in London in 1885. The great composers have written very little for the flute as a solo instrument. The six sonatas of ^. , , J. S. Bach, for flute and pianoforte (c. 1747), _ are amongst the treasures of the flute-player's Composers ° . . , library, and are in every respect quite worthy of the great master. Though lying chiefly within the first two octaves of the flute, they are by no means easy of execution ; abounding in the arpeggios, rapid runs and groups of notes so characteristic of Bach. Frequent use is made of the low notes down to D below the stave, and they contain no cadenzas or passages for the flute alone. Handel has also written half a dozen sonatas for flute and figured bass. They are by no means so difficult as those of Bach. Handel 102 Flute Solos likewise very seldom travels above the first two octaves, but he occasionally gives the flute some bars by itself. They are tuneful and playable, but present no features of special importance. Haydn's chief contribution is a Sonata for flute or violin and pianoforte, containing a celebrated Adagio. This graceful work has many rapid passages for the flute, and it ascends to the top B"'b, a note which is also reached in Mozart's flute concerto in G. Mozart wrote two concertos for the flute, which are frequently performed, and some short trifles for flute and pianoforte. It was long thought that, save some themes (op. 105, 107) and an arrangement (op. 41) of his Serenade (op. 25), Beethoven wrote no solos for the flute. Quite recently, however, Mr. Ary van Leeuwen of Vienna discovered in the Royal Library, Berlin, the MS. of a Sonata in E flat, the title-page of which is said to be certainly in Beethoven's handwriting, though the score is not. It bears no opus number, but if really composed by Beethoven it is clearly an early work. Weber's solitary contribution is a pretty but quite unimportant Romatisa Siciliana, and the same may be said of Mendelssohn's Hirtenlied, of which the flute part only was found among his MSS. Schubert has written an exceedingly difficult duet for flute and pianoforte (op. 160) ; an introduction and seven variations on the song Trockene Blumen. This piece was written in 1824, probably to display the powers of Ferdinand Bogner, an accomplished flautist. Doppler, who was a personal 103 Story of the Flute friend of Schubert, played this work in Vienna in 1862 with great success. Amongst composers of the second rank, Rameau, Hoffmeister, Hummel, Kucken, Kaliiwoda, and Molique have all written solos for the flute. This practically exhausts the repertoire of the flute by elder composers whose names, at any rate, are familiar to the general musical public. No doubt the reason why it is so limited is to be found in the defective nature of the instrument till comparatively recent times. A German enthusiast some years ago compiled a list of flute music of all kinds then existing, in which some . 7,500 items are specified. The bulk of _ these are the work of flautists, many of Composers , , , -r^ • whose names even — (such as Uevienne, an indefatigable composer who wrote a work for ten wind instruments at the age of ten : he died in a lunatic asylum) — are quite unknown outside the flute-playing world, and whose compositions no longer exist. The earliest flautist-composer, whose works may still be said to live, is Antoine Tranquille Berbiguier, a most prolific but somewhat unequal writer ; his compositions num- ber over 200. Many abound in delicious melody and display vigour of imagination and very considerable depth of feeling. As an old writer says, "He captivates every description of players ; and to him may be appUed, with slight alteration, the emphatic words which Rousseau used in speaking of Gluck, "Que le chant lui sortait par les pores." Though many of his solos 104 Berbiguier — Kuhlau are of the "air with variations" type, he has also written some original pieces of great beauty. The greatest of all flautist-composers was Kuhlau, whose classical compositions have deservedly earned for him the proud title, "The Beethoven of the flute," and many of his works undoubtedly show the influence of that great master, and would be quite worthy of him. Frederick Daniel Rodolphe Kuhlau was born in 1786 at the village of Uelzen in Luneburg, Hanover. At an early age, his mother sent him one dark winter's evening to draw water at the fountain ; on the way thither he fell and injured one eye so much that he lost the sight of it. He studied the pianoforte, the flute, and other instruments at Hamburg. In order to avoid the Conscription of i8io, Kuhlau moved to Copenhagen, where he became Chamber Musician to the King, and in 1813 set about to revive the Danish opera. His operas were eminently successful. They had a pronounced national character, and skilfully introduced many of the famous old Danish folk-songs and national scenery. The King, voicing the popular enthusiasm, bestowed on him the title of Professor to the Faculty of Royal Danish Court Com- posers. Meanwhile Kuhlau had removed to Lyngbye, a little town near Copenhagen. In 1830, his house — a wooden structure — was burned and many valuable MSS. destroyed. Under this catastrophe his health gave way and he died on the 12th of March, 1832. A march of his own composition was performed at his funeral, which was one of great pomp. 105 Story of the Flute Kuhlau, on the and September, 1825, visited Beethoven at Baden. After a pleasant day in the open air they wound up with a supper party, at which Kuhlau extem- porised a canon, to which Beethoven responded at once. Next morning, however, the latter wrote to Zinesball the following note : — " My good friend, I had scarcely got home when I bethought me of the stuff I may have written yesterday. Give the enclosed to Kuhlau." The enclosed letter contained this canon which is one continuous pun on Beethoven's Canon on the name "Kuhlau." A.'. .-I . . ^Et Kuhl nicht lau,mcht lau KuM nicht lau etc. the name " Kuhlau" :— " I must admit that the cham- pagne went a little to my head yesterday, and I learned once more from experience, that such things rather prostrate than promote my energies ; for, though able to respond fluently at the moment, still I can no longer recall what I wrote yesterday. Sometimes bear in mind your attached Beethoven" (N ohV s Lei^ers of Beethoven). Kuhlau certainly did more than any other composer to raise the standard ot flute-music, and Sir G. Mac- farren says he is one of the lights of modern art and ranks him with Schubert. One can play his eighteen sonatas for flute and pianoforte day after day with increased pleasure : they never pall. A great feature 106 Composers for Flute is the extremely interesting pianoforte accompani- ments ; they give full opportunity to the flautist and to the pianist alike for the display of executive skill. The Adagio movements are specially beautiful. These admirably constructed and brilliant works (w^ritten chiefly, it is said, at the desire of an enthusiastic amateur flautist) display the most thorough technical knowledge of the instrument. Kuhlau was a voluminous composer, and over two hundred of his works are still in existence. They are a complete refutation of the assertion so fre- quently made, that there is no really good Erroneous music written for the flute. This statement '^"^ *^^*^ merely displays the ignorance of those who , make it. We have already seen that several m„si(. fn, of the greatest composers have written for ^j^^ fiutg the instrument ; and Kummer, Fuirstenau, Gabrielsky, Walckiers, following in the footsteps of Kuhlau, have left behind them a mass of original flute compositions, much of which is of a high order of merit, whilst in more recent times quite a number of works, worthy to be ranked as " classical," have appeared.^ The origin of this idea that flute music is all trifling rubbish is not far to seek ; not only was the flute in its earlier stages a very imperfect instrument, but the 'Such as Reinecke's Undine (op. 167), Concerto, and Ballade; H. Hoffmann's Concertstuck, Macfarren's Concerto and Sonata, Buchner's eight concertos, Prout's sonata (op. 17), Mde. Chaminade's Concertino, Vinning's Andante and Tarentelle, and the Suites of Godard, Widor, and E. German. 107 Story of the Flute players were also mediocre. Hawkins, writing in 1776, is very severe on the poor flute. Soon after his day, it was considerably improved and many of its defects remedied. At the same time a number of skilled performers appeared, and the flute entered on a golden age. Nicholson, Richardson, Drouet, Tulou, Demers- seman (who wrote solos of terrific difficulty), Farrenc, Briccialdi, and other virtuosi were in turn delighting the public both in England and on the continent by their brilliant performances. The flute became the fashionable instrument; everybody who desired to be thought "a gentleman" played it "after a fashion." It was so portable, so convenient; also it was so much in keeping with the romantic Byronically gloomy bearing then in vogue. ^ The public taste was not educated : it was the age of the air variie. The great pro- fessional soloists naturally played the kind of music (?) which pleased their auditors and pupils most.^ Every suitable or unsuitable operatic air, every Welsh, Irish, Scottish, or English tune, was adapted by them for the flute, and tortured into all sorts of interminable scales and exercises yclept variations, with double-tongueing, skips from the highest to the lowest notes and such-like tricks ; written to show off the executive skill of the 1 Lord Byron himself played it, and in 1848 Byron's flute was offered to Charles Dickens, who declined the offer, as he could not play that instrument himself and had nobody in his household who could. ^ In fairness, however, it should be mentioned that several of them, notably Tulou and Demersseman, also wrote some music of a better stamp. 108 Taste of the Public performer and to make the audience wonder how it was all done. These were the pieces that filled the programmes at public concerts. Even at the London Philharmonic Con- cert in 1847, Ciardi chose as his solo his own fantasia on Lucia de Lammermoor, and , _, , , , _ ^ the Day at a concert at the Argyle Rooms on June 24th, 1829 (at which Mendelssohn's overture to Mid- summer Night's Dream, was seasonably performed for the first time in England, conducted by Mendelssohn in person), Drouet played his own variations on an air from one of Weber's operas and on God Save the King. As a sample of the criticism of the day let me quote Mr. James' description of the last-named solo: — " Here we have an abundance of difficulty in each variation. The first is made of running passages, and requires every note to be distinctly articulated; and it is, perhaps, the most arduous of the Vf hole five, for no performance short of perfection can make it effective. The air is preserved most admirably throughout, and yet there is nothing far-fetched, or that baffles the instrument to accomplish. The third variation is one of quite a di6ferent character. It is composed of octaves, and abounds with chromatic passages. The flute executes the one with the greatest precision, and there is no instrument in use among us which can accomplish the other with finer effect. The last variation of this distinguished piece is admirably calculated for the display of the instrument. It might be called a solfeggio passage; for the upper notes give distinctly the air, while an accompaniment is going on in the under ones. ... In this piece we have almost every difficulty, in three octaves, which music is capable of comprehending." The following very amusing description of this "here we go up, up, up, and here we go down, down, down " log Story of the Flute style of composition was given in Musical Opinion^ 1 890 : — "Air first, then common chord variation (staccato), 'runs' variation, slow movement with a turn between every other two notes, and pump handle shakes that wring tears of agony from the flute ; then the enormously difficult finale, in which you are up in the air on one note, then drop with a bang, which nearly breaks you, on to low C{||, only to bounce up again, hold on to a note, shake it (wring its neck, in fact), scatter it in all directions and come sailing down triumphantly on a chromatic (legato) with a perfect whirlpool of foaming notes, only to be bumped and pushed about until you are exhasuted. Some dear old soul of eighty summers, sitting among the listeners, remarks that ' she remembers hearing it when she was a girl, played by her father, who was really a good performer on the flute, and such a lovely flute he had, too : all inlaid with mother-of-pearl.'" When this was the kind of thing performed by the great Tritons of the day, of course the smaller fry and the amateurs (often incompetent and of the pale-young- curate type) followed their lead — at a considerable distance. Hence arose a general idea that this was the only kind of music that the flute was capable of render- ing ; in fact, one inquirer asked if there was any other piece ever written for the instrument besides "There's nae luck " with variations — so exclusively had he heard it both in public and private. This writing of shallow fantasias on operas, airs varied, and melodies "with embellishments" and ear- torturing effects, or imitations of the movements of butterflies or swallows, or of the noise of mills, spinning- wheels, etc., still continues to flourish, especially in Italy. One modern Italian composer (Galli) is respon- IIO Better Class of Compositions sible for no less than four hundred, but he has been beaten by a German, W. Popp (a pupil of Drouet), who probably has written more than any flute composer, ancient or modern ; his works exceed five hundred opus numbers. Happily, however, numerous compositions of a higher class exist. These works are somewhat in the nature of original fantasias ; and, all things con- sidered, are perhaps the best calculated to , ?i.°^t° show off the beauties of the flute. R. S. Pratten, the famous English player, may be said to have inaugurated this description of piece in his famous Concertstuck, in which he substitutes elaborate counter- point for variations. F. Doppler has written several extremely effective, though difficult, solos of this class. All his pieces are very florid and abound in cadenzas for the flute ; their chief defect is the thinness of the piano- forte accompaniments. This fault, however, cannot be found with the majority of the solos of Adolf Terschak — the most prolific and also the favourite composer of pieces of this description ; he has written over two hundred of them. They vary considerably in excellence, many being, as Bohm said, "like Terschak himself, much ado about nothing," and some of his later efforts are more like studies or finger exercises than solos. But many of his earlier compositions (such as Bahillard and La Sirine) are full of ear-haunting melody, and have rarely been equalled. Not only are they admirably written for, and extremely playable on the flute, but also the accompaniments are full and III Story of the Flute grateful to the pianist. Another composer of the same class is Luigi Hugues, an Italian whose works deserve to be better known in this country. Within the past ten years quite a new school of composers has arisen, who seem destined to give renewed life to the flute as a solo instrument. The Most Their work is characterised often by extreme Modern modernity and abounds in subtle and unusual , pj harmonies, frequent changes of key and Comoosers ''^ythm, etc. In many cases the pianoforte part (the weak point with most of the older flautist-composers) is quite as important as the flute part ; the two being interwoven, as it were. Some of these composers (such as Rossler, Verhey, Buchner, Langer) have adopted the regular sonata or concerto form, in three or four movements, with great success. Their works are, as a rule, of very considerable difficulty, and are mostly "made in Germany." Others, chiefly French, have, as a rule, adopted much shorter forms, especially the Romance. Their pieces are of a more simple type ; they often possess a certain elegaic or pastoral charm ; soft and unobtrusive, abounding more in pianissimo than in forie passages. Many of them are veritable "songs without words." The chief writers of this class are Joachim. Andersen and J. Donjon. Several of the compositions of the latter show the flute at its best ; they are very distinctive, and I know of no others in exactly the same style. Donjon makes most effective use of the low register, notably in his fine Offertoire (op. 12). The pieces I have referred to afford 112 Flute Combinations ample scope for the display of tone, of phrasing, of expression, and happily these are now more highly valued than mere virtuosity and digital dexterity. The flute is daily becoming more and more used to convey the ideas of modern composers of note. The days of what Mr. Collard terms, "ear-tickling fantasias," with their jog-trot accompaniment, are numbered: flute- players now "tune their pipe to loftier strains." The flute and harp is a very happy combination, the sustained notes of the flute contrasting well with the pizzicato of the harp. Mozart wrote a concerto for th,ese instruments, and several " e an modern French composers have adopted it. Guitar Haydn wrote a trio for flute, harp, and bass. At one time quite a number of pieces were written for flute and guitar, many of which were performed by Pratten, whose wife was an accomplished guitarist. But the combination is never heard in England now, probably owing to the dearth of guitar- players. The flute was formerly much used in obligatos, not only in operas, oratorios and cantatas, but also in songs. But nowadays it is only on rare occasions that a flute obligate is heard on the concert-platform ; when it is, it is nearly always the mad scena from Lucia de Lammermoor, or Bishop's song, Lo! hear the Gentle Lark. It is remark- Voice able that modern song-composers have not paid more attention to the possibilities of flute obligatos. The instrument is admiraby adapted, III « Story of the Flute owing to its sympathetic tone, to accompany the human voice (especially a light soprano), and in the hands of a skilful player blends so perfectly that it is often well-nigh impossible to distinguish the notes of the singer from those of the flautist. In order to be really effective, the obligate must be one specially written for the flute. Adaptations from the violin or violoncello are generally unsuited to the flute and do not bring out its best effects; they are, as a rule, too tame. Light, sparkling, bravura songs, with arpeggios and echoing, or imitative passages between voice and flute, are the most effective. The majority of songs with flute obligato — from Handel's Sweet Bird {II Penseroso) to Terschak's Nightingale — refer more or less directly to birds ; but an attempt to reproduce their song is dangerous, and one feels inclined to say with Philip of Macedon, " I prefer the nightingale herself." Many were specially composed for great singers, and are too high and florid for ordinary voices ; but amongst those of a simpler character and within average powers, Laville's The Brookside, De Jong's Twilight Carol, and Madame Chaminade's Portrait (for a tenor voice) deserve mention. 114 CHAPTER XI. THE FLUTE IN THE ORCHESTRA.^ Introduction of the flute into the orchestra — The flute and piccolo as used by the great composers — Bach — His obligatos— Handel — His flauto-piccolo — Flute and organ — Gluck — Haydn — The Creation — Symphonies — Mozart — Disliked the flute — Symphonies — Seren- ades — Operas — Concertos — Beethoven — His famous flute passages — Weber — Meyerbeer — Piccolo passages— Italian operatic com- posers — William Tell overture — Mendelssohn — Midsummer Night's Dream — Symphonies — Oratorios — Schubert — Schumann — Use by modern composers — Berlioz — P'lute and Harp — Brahms — Dvorak — The Spectre's Bride— ddenzsis — Grieg — Bizet's Carmen — Sullivan — The Golden Legend — Coleridge-Taylor — Wagner — Tschaikowsky — R. Strauss — Passages of extreme difficulty. The flute is the leader of the wood-wind, and if judiciously used is one of the most telling instruments) and is capable of producing a great variet)' of effects. The earliest representations of ^ ^^^ an orchestra rarely include a flute of any - , ^j. kind, but one in a Breviary of the fifteenth century, now in the Brussels Library, i;ontains two flutes-a-bec. Fifes and a flute were included in a band which played instrumental intermezzi at a performance of Ariosto's Suppositi before Pope Leo at the Vatican * In some instances the musical examples hdve been abbreviated. Story of the Flute in 1518. Flutes were used, along with lutes, in Corteccia's ballet music at the marriage of Cosmo I. and Eleanora of Toledo in 1539; and in Baltazarini's Ballet Comique de la Royne, the music of which was composed by Salmon and Beaulieu in 1581. In this work each character is always accompanied by special instruments (as also in Monteverde's Otfeo), those of Neptune being flutes and harp. In Cavaliere's oratorio Anima e Corpo, produced at Rome in 1600, the orchestra included two flutes, whilst in Jacopo Peri's Eurydice (December, 1600), the earliest Italian opera, three flutes behind the scene played a Ritornello, whilst Tirsi, a shepherd, pretended to play a triple flute (" tri-flauto") on the stage. Here is what he played, the longest piece of instrumental music in the entire opera ! — Peri, Eurydice. 1st k. Znd FLUTES. Early Orchestral Flute Parts Claudio Monteverde, who is generally termed the founder of the orchestra, in his opera Orfeo (1607-8), introduces an instrument described as " Uno Flautino alia Vigessima secunda," which would strictly m«an an instrument pitched an octave above the piccolo ! Prob- ably all the flutes mentioned in the above works were flutes-a-bec, the "flautino" being a little high-pitched whistle pipe. Alessandro Striggio is said to have employed a trans- verse flute (along with two flutes-a-bec — "Tenori de Flauti") in his La Cofanaria (1566). If so, he is to be credited with the first introduction of a transverse flute into the orchestra, a distinction usually attributed to Giovanni Battista Lulli, who beyond all doubt used the instrument in several of his operas, sometimes allotting it an independent part. Lulli has two such flutes in Alceste (1674), and gives solo passages along with bass in his Songe d'Atys (1676). In his Isis (iii.) two " German " flutes play in thirds in a minor key to repre- LuLLI, Proserpine. 8 FLUTES. BASS FLUTE (in sol) J- J^ J Story of the Flute sent the lamentations of Pan for the death of Syrinx. In Proserpine (iii.) he uses a third bass flute pitched a fifth below the others; in his Triomphe d' Amour [? 1681) we have a quartett of flutes; whilst in his Psyche (1674) we find no less than six flutes, two firsts, two seconds, and two bass. Some of these parts, however, were probably written for flutes-^-bec. Lulli invariably uses the flute to express pathos, sadness, and melancholy, an example which has been largely followed. J. S. Bach, living under Frederick the Great, naturally paid considerable attention to the favourite instrument _ , of that monarch. The treatment of the flute by Bach and Handel is particularly interest- ing, owing to the fact that they lived at the period when the flute-a-bec was being gradually superseded by the transverse flute. They each make use of both kinds. Bach uses the flutes much more freely than Handel, and gives them much more difficult passages — many indeed require very considerable executive skill on the part of the performer. He frequently employs the entire com- pass of the transverse flute of that day, which Handel hardly ever does. Many of Bach's cantatas have parts for one or two flutes. In these works we find almost every possible combination of the flute with the other instruments used, with one noticeable exception — viz., flute and bassoon, a combination very usual in Handel and Haydn. In the earlier works Bach uses the flute-k-bec. He hardly ever uses both it and the transverse flute in the same work, and never in the same piece. The 118 Bach's use of the Flute probability is that both varieties of flute were played by the same performers. It has been suggested that the flutes and oboes were so played, but as they are fre- quently used together in the same piece, this cannot have been the case as a general rule, although un- doubtedly many early flautists did also play the oboe. Bach is fond of flute obligates, and many (along with all varieties of voice, but chiefly with soprano) are to be found in these cantatas. Some of them are extremely florid and difficult, ^ ^ abounding in iterated notes and arpeggios, q, -, These obligatos are sometimes written for a single flute, sometimes for two flutes playing in unison or else playing independent parts. We often find two flutes and bass forming the sole accompani- ment, whilst occasionally the organ alone is combined with the two flutes. No. 170 contains an alto solo with a remarkable rapid obligate on the flute and organ combined. Bach often uses the flute to express the sentiments contained in the text. In No. 122 three flutes play a chorale (by Cyriacus Schneegass) to repre- sent angels singing. In the cantata " O ^^ ^ Holder Tag," at the words "Be silent, "^^ "fj^^^ flutes," they play weak, dying-away notes. He frequently introduces flutes when tears are referred to. Thus in the Si. Matthew Passion, at the words " May the drops of my tears have agreeable perfume for thee," two flutes play passages like cascades of pearls. 119 Story of the Flute Bach frequently combines oboes with flutes, often in unison, sometimes in harmony. He very rarely com- bines the flute with a single stringed instrument obligato, although the combination of flute and violin, or flute and violoncello piccolo (No. 115) — and also of flute and horn — are very occasionally to be met with in the cantatas. In the chorales to his Passions and else- where the flutes, first oboe, and first violins as a rule play the same part as the soprano voices — the flutes being an octave above the voices ; but in some choruses the flutes play the same part as the tenor voices, just as in some of the instrumental portions they play along with the violas, the violins and oboes playing the top part. This treatment of the flute as a tenor instrument is very remarkable. He occasionally makes effective use of the low holding notes, and frequently writes passages on the low register, which, if played under modern conditions as regards the balance of strings and wind, would be quite inaudible. Probably he doubled them on the organ, or very possibly several flutes played the same part — a custom which was quite usual in early times; we frequently find the directions "All the first flutes," " All the second flutes." In order to obtain the proper balance of tone in the works of Bach's era the orchestra should contain nearly as many flutes as first violins. When played by the huge orchestras of to-day, many of the delicate wind passages in the works of the great composers of the past are completely drowned by the mass of strings — e.g., the flute turns in the first movement of Beethoven's Pas- 120 Flauto-Piccolo in Bach toral Symphony and the flute and bassoon passages in the finale to Mozart's Symphony hi C, I have only noticed two instances in the cantatas of the use of the " flauto piccolo" (probably a small flute-&-bec) ; in No. 96 it is given a ^*" °~ very florid part, without any flute ; and in • n u No. 103 it is employed to express the joy of the world, in the midst of which the flute interjects a short melancholy motif hy way of contrast. Bach has, in his flute parts, anticipated almost every device adopted by more recent composers, save that he Bach, Suite in B minor. — Polonaise. does not give it chromatic passages and uses accidentals very sparingly. He has used it to express grief, melancholy, softness, delicacy, feebleness, also as a pastoral instrument and expressive of joy and mirth ; even occasionally to depict the supernatural and the anger of the Gods. He rarely introduces a flute into his purely instrumental writings. The Suite in B minor 121 Story of the Flute (which was a favourite with Mendelssohn), is for four strings and flute. The " Polonaise " in this work is for flute and bass only, the former being given a bravura variation; the flute is also very prominent in the bright " Badinerie." Bach has also written a concerto in F Bach, ib. Badinerie. major for flute, oboe, violin, and trumpet, two for flute, violin and clavier, and one for two flutes and clavier- all with string accompaniment. Handel employs the flute much less frequently. Quite a large number of his operas and oratorios have „ - no flute part ; The Messiah, for instance (to which, however, Mozart has added a flute and also a piccolo part). In many works he introduces the flute in one or two numbers only ; in none is it used anything approaching continuously throughout, as it often is by Bach, Handel's flute parts do not contain a single really diflficult passage. Strange to say, his few " flauto piccolo" passages are harder and much more elaborate than those for the flute (he hardly ever uses both instruments together) ; the piccolo solo in Rinaldo being about the most difficult he ever wrote for any kind of flute. Handel rarely travels beyond the two octaves D' to D'" of the flute « (it is to be noticed that the compass --#— — -" p of the older flutes-a-bec was two TOJ~ octaves as a rule) ; occasionally we 123 Handel's Flute Parts meet an E'", very rarely an F'", and I have only noticed a single case in which he has written a G'" for the flute. He uses the three lowest notes F to D much less fre- quently than Bach, who introduces them freely. Though he sometimes uses flutes in tutti movements along with oboes, trumpets, bassoons, and occasionally horns, as a rule, like Bach, he reserves them for special effects and to accompany vocal solos or duets. Although Handel introduced the transverse flute in a work written in 1705, in his earlier operas he almost exclusively uses the flute-k-bec, which instrument he continued to employ throughout his whole career, in- cluding his last work, The Triumph of Tr-uth and Time (1757). But this production was really a rechauffd of an earlier work written in 1708, and it is interesting to notice that in some numbers where the flute-ii-bec was used in 1708, the transverse flute is substituted for it in the later version. One number in this version in which the flute-i-bec is retained is taken bodily from his early opera Agrippina. In Giustino, i. 4 (1737), he uses a bass flute-a-bec, and in Riccardo (iii. 2) we have the solitary instance of his use of a bass trans- verse flute. It tranposes from F minor to G minor, and is allotted a melody, extending from , G' to B"b, the accompaniment being -^— [ 1 — -1 played on violins and violas only. Some- Wi^ =H ' times Handel uses both forms of flute in the one work. Thus in La Resurrezione (1708) and in Rodelinda (ii. 5) we have two flutes-i-iec and also a transverse flute — in the latter work they are used simul- 123 Story of the Flute taneously, the transverse flute playing the lower part — and in Tamerlane (iii. 5) two flutes-i-bec and two transverse flutes, one of each kind playing together in unison. Occasionally parts are marked for " flauto ou traverso," to be played on either kind of flute. The famous obligato to " Oh, ruddier than the Cherry," in Acis and Galatea, has a rather interesting history. In the first Italian version of the Serenata {1708) the flute-a-bec only is used, but this song does not occur in it, being first introduced in the English version published about 1720, where it is marked "flauto" — i.e., flute-a-bec. In the second Italian version (1732) we find the transverse flute used throughout, Handel, Acis and Galatea, " Oh, ruddier than the Cherry." Allegro. "Oh, ruddier than the Cherry " but again this song is omitted. When Mozart re-scored the work, he gave this obligato to a transverse flute, adding some beautiful and characteristic passages, whilst Mendelssohn allotted it to two flutes. At the Ancient Concerts (London) it used to be performed on a flageolet, but nowadays it is usually played on a piccolo ; possibly by way of a joking reply to the monster Polyphemus' demand for a pipe for his capa- 124 Handel's Flauto-Piccolo cious mouth ! Surely if Handel had intended this he would have marked it " flauto piccolo." In this very work the florid accompaniment to " Hush, ye pretty warbling choir " was originally so *" ^ ^ marked, though it is now always played on Piccolo a flute. (By the way, "The heart the seat of soft desire " was originally written for two flutes-a- bec). Handel used the "flauto piccolo" on several Handel, Acis, "Hush, ye pretty warbling choir." Andante. other occasions. The most notable of these is the very elaborate obligato and cadenza (which last is omitted in the later version of 1731) to Almirena's song, " Augelletti," in Rinaldo (171 1). This part was marked "flageolet" in the original autograph score, but it was altered to " flauto piccolo " in Handel's own writing. Addison in The Spectator, Nos. 5 and 14, has a most amusing description of this scene as performed at the Queen's Theatre in the Haymarket, where sparrows flew about the stage and put out the candles ; Addison calls the instruments used " flagellets and bird-calls." The "flauto piccolo" is allotted another very similar obligato in Riccardo (iii. 10). It is also used in the " Tamburino " in the ballet music in Alcina 125 Story of the Flute (1735), whilst in the " Menuet " in the Water Music (1715) several "flauti piccoli" play in unison with the Handel's Rinaldo. Cadenza for Piccolo. (Adagio. ......... ^ . i 2Z strings, but it is doubtful whether the names of these instruments were specified by the composer. The compass used in the passage in Alcina is from F' to G" only, but those in Rinaldo and Riccardo extend to the D'" above this, and that in the Water Music to the high E"', Probably all these passages were written for a small flute-a-bec, and not for a transverse piccolo, which would therefore appear never to have been used by Handel; but it is to be noticed that in some cases they 126 Handel's Flute Obligates are written in the same key as the non-transposing instruments, whereas in others the contrary is the case. The same discrepancy occurs in the parts marked "flauto." It will be recollected that the flute-k-bec was a transposing instrument. Several other flute obligatos of note occur in Handel's works. Probably the best known is the soprano aiia, "Sweet Bird," in II Pen- serosa. The flute part is very florid and p, . showy throughout, and an old critic has Ofalieatos drawn attention to the admirable manner in which the words " Most musical, most melancholy," are treated. We have another bird-song in Joshua (1747), "Hark, 'tis the linnet [violin] and the thrush" [flute]. Apollo and Dafne has an important flute obligato to the duet, " Deh lascia." Like Bach, Handel uses the flute to convey the idea expressed by the words, as in "Softest sounds " in Athalia (i); with its thin string accompaniment, in order that the weak notes of the flute may not be drowned. Again, we find vcijephtha a remarkable flute obligato, " In gentle murmurs," and the words, " Tune the soft melodious lute, pleasant harp, and warbling flute," naturally are accompanied by a solo flute part, which instrument is also employed in solo passages and trills to illustrate "the soft-complaining flute" in St. Cecilia's Day, where the flute is used in combina- _ tion with the lute and organ. The flute is introduced to represent tears in Deborah (iii. 5), "Tears such as fathers shed," being accompanied by 127 Story of the Flute two flutes and organ. This combination is also used in Alexander Balus, "Hark! he strikes the golden lyre," and in the famous " Dead March" in Saul. On one occasion when the present writer was playing at a public performance of this work, the second flute was horribly out of tune; at the conclusion of the number the second flautist discovered that he had left his bandana handkerchief (with which he cleaned his flute) in the tube all the time ! It has been pointed out that Handel uses the organ to accompany the flute in preference to the pianoforte, „ , J, probably as being more similar in tone. ~ . ^ The combination of flute and bassoon, Treatment , , t-i i . r n of the Flute ^^"^^^ used by Bach, also of flute and horn, occurs several times in Handel's works. In Solomon (1748) we find a curious obligato for a solo oboe, accompanied by all the flutes in unison. In La Resurrezione and in Parthenope (iii. 6) the flute is used in conjunction with the Theorbo (bass lute). It is evident that, though he once declared that all flautists were intelligent, the flute is used by Handel more or less as an appendage to the orchestra rather than as a regular constituent member of it, the number of flutes employed being less than that of the other members of the wood-wind. Rousseau says Handel's usual or- chestra contained but two flutes as against five oboes and five bassoons, and at the Handel commemora- tion in 1784 there were but six flutes, whereas the number of oboes and bassoons was twenty-six each. This preference for the double-reed tone is also very 128 Gluck— His "Orpheo" marked in Bach's writings, and even, though in a lesser degree, in those of Mozart. A notice in the General Advertiser of October 20th, 1740, announc- ing "a concerto for twenty-four bassoons, accom- panied by a 'cello, intermixed with duets for four double-bassoons accompanied by a German flute," ridicules this predilection. Many of Handel's flute passages were specially written for Karl Frederick Weidemann (said by Burney to have been a fine player), his principal flautist, who visited England about 1726. Gluck seems to have been particulary fond of the flute and has written some lovely music for it. He has caught its true characteristics better _, , . , ., r I • ^. « Gluck than any other composer of his time. As a rule his flute passages are simple, though he writes freely up to the top G'" or even A"'. In scenes of melancholy and grief he uses the solo flute with most telling effect. The most notable example is the famous scene in Orpkeo, where he employs the flute to express the desolation and solitude of the bereaved Eurydice. This unrivalled passage has been thus described by Berlioz: "On voit tout de suite qu'une fliite devant seule en faire entendre le chant. Et la melodie de Gluck est congue en telle sorte que la fliite se pr^te h, tous les mouvements inquiets de cette doulour eternelle, encore emprunte de I'accent des passions de la terrestre vie. C'est d'abord une voix a peine perceptible qui semble craindre d'etre entendue; puis elle g^mit douce- ment, s'eleve k I'accent du reproche, & celui de la 129 9 Story of the Flute douleur profonde, au cri d'un coeur d^chir^ d'incurables blessures et retombe peu a peu a la plaitite, au gemisse- ment, au murmure chagrin d'une ^me r^sign^e. . . . quel pofete ! " Gluck, Orpkeo, Lenta The desired effect is sometimes produced by a few notes only. Thus in Iphigenie en Tauride (ii. 4), at the words " II a tu6 sa m6re," Orestes utters a cry, I •50 Gluck and the Piccolo "Ah! ah! ah!" and the flutes play these three notes p J I with thrilling- effect at each "ah"; and n -^;^J in the same opera (iv. 4), at the words ■^1 ~ "Cruel! il est men fr^re," the F and ^ D sustained on two flutes for three bars create an impression of sadness. In the scene On the border of the enchanted river in Armide (ii. 3), the flute, during- the sleep of Renaud, plays a dainty Gluck, Armide, ii. 3. Andante ^r r r i rrrfTifi^ [ fr^r Wi ifPn ^'^^ I ^ ritornelle which "expresses the voluptuous languor of the soul of the hero under the seduction of the ma- g^cian's art; we seem to see the lovely landscape, smell the perfume of the flowers, and hear the birds sing."i Gluck was the first composer to discover the value and effectiveness of the sonorous, rich notes of the lowest register of the flute ; striking ex- amples will be found in Alceste. As a rule these flute solos are accompanied by strings only. He is also one of the first writers to ' A rather interesting little point about this flute solo is to be noted : in the original draft a passage beginning thus : ji .«. .t :f: ^ was considered too high and accordingly ^ ^^ " F "I T" "F was re-written an octave lower, as it now ^ I H I I — I — I occux^ in the full score. 131 Glucfc's Hse of the Piccolo i EE^^BHJ Story of the Flute make use of the piccolo; he introduces it with dramatic effect in Iphigenie en Tauride (using it right up to the top G'"), where we have double trills on two piccolos — as afterwards used by Weber and Meyerbeer. Hitherto the flute had been used in a fitful manner, chiefly to produce special eifects and for obligatos, but with Haydn and Mozart it becomes a regular and indispensable member of the orchestra, being frequently combined with other instruments and no longer almost exclusively confined to solo passages. Haydn evidently had a great predilection for the flute, and has written largely for it, using it much more freely than any of his predecessors. In fact, the wind instruments were only beginning to be understood by composers — as Haydn remarked pathetically to Kalkbrenner, " I have only just learned in my old age how to use the wind instruments, and now that I do un- derstand them, I must leave them." Many of Haydn's symphonies have very prominent solo passages for the flute ; especially in the slow movements. In a symphony composed in 1788 (Biedermann's ed. No. 3), the andante movement contains quite a long solo for the flute accompanied by two violins only. As the Esterhazy band included only a single flute-player (Hirsch was his name), Haydn often only uses one. Sometimes the flute is only introduced in a single movement, and is the only wind instrument used in that movement. In The Creation we find several graceful flute solo passages ; and in the lovely introduction to the 132 "Creation" Flute Parts third part, three flutes are used to depict the earthly paradise. The third flute was apparently to be played Haydn, The Creation, "On Mighty Pens." / Moderato.. by the oboe-player, as it is written into his part. Macfarren has said of this passage, "The morning of Haydn, The Creation. Opening, Part HI. Larg«L Jsl FLUTE, the world, with all the freshness and stillness of our loveliest summer-tide experience, might by such gentle sounds indeed be wakened to find the pulse , of nature vibrating in soft harmonies like c^g^tj^ntf priestly voices from the ancient statue [of Memnon] to greet its dawning." Haydn shows great skill in combining the flute with several other instru- ments; thus in the opening of his "Military" symphony 133 Story of the Flute we have one flute and two oboes playing quite long and delightfully fresh passages entirely alone. Duets for Haydn, Military Symphony. Alie|[ro. . FLUTE. 2 OBOES Haydn's Symphonies flute and bassoon in octaves frequently occur in his works, and, like Mozart, he is fond of writing melodious passages for the flute, clarinet, and bassoon in three distinct octaves. The finale to the Seventh Symphony has a regular solo for two flutes in thirds. His flute passages avoid the notes at either extreme of the compass, and as a rule lie between F' and F'". They have a delightful freshness and are skilfully written to display the beauties of the middle register of the old flute. He often gives the flute a little ascending passage quite alone at the end of a phrase or movement, as in the Largo of the Twelfth Symphony — 134 P^m m^f t» Mozart and Flute The flute does not take nearly so outstanding a part in Mozart's music as it does in that of Haydn. He hardly ever gives it a solo of any length or prominence. He does not consider it ™o«art a necessary part of his orchestra : his first eight symphonies, and several others written quite late in life, and also his Requiem, have no flute parts. In each of his three great symphonies he only uses one flute. Apparently he shared the opinion of Cherubini, of whom it is related that once when a conductor, whose orchestra included only a single flute, complained piteously "What is worse than one flute in an orchestra?" the master replied laconically, "Two flutes" — meaning thereby that they are never in tune — or as the old German joke has it, "nothing is more dreadful to a musical ear than a flute concerto, except a concerto for two flutes." 1 As a matter of fact, Mozart did not like the flute and had a profound distrust of flute- players, for the same reason as that given by the Greek, Aristoxenus, who complained that the flutes of his day were continually shifting their pitch and never remained in the same state. The only flautist whom Mozart seems to have liked , , ,, was one J. Wendling, of whom he said, "He is not a piper, and one need not be always in terror for fear the next note should be too high or too ^ Cherubini was noted for his dry and caustic manner. When Brod, his oboe-player, died, Tulou the flautist said, "Ah ! maestro, we have lost our dear friend Brod." " What ?" said Cherubini, who was deaf. "Brod is dead," shouted Tulou. "Ah!" replied Cherubini, as he turned away, "Petit son, petit son" ("little tone"). Story of the Flute low ; he is always right ; his heart and his ear and the tip of his tongue are all in the right place, and he does not imagine that blowing and making faces is all that is needed ; he knows too what Adagio means." In several symphonies a flute is introduced into the slow movement only, and in the early works the flutes __ , are generally in unison with the violins. c t ' The first symphony in which the flute has oymphonies . , . , ^ any independent part is the fourteenth. In the Twentieth Symphony we find' a part marked "flute obligato" in the andante, but it is in unison with the first violins almost throughout. In the Serenades the flute is much used. In the ninth the trio is for flute and bassoon (a very favourite combination with him), whilst the Rondo contains the nearest approach to a real flute solo in all Mozart. It is of quite considerable length and is accompanied by the strings. In another trio in this serenade „ , a " flautino " (i.e. piccolo) is named along with two violins and bass, but no notes are written for it. In the fifth the two flutes have a great deal to do, and in one of the trios the second flute is given a solo accompanied by the strings, Although Mozart never introduces the piccolo into any of his symphonies, we find it in several of his Operas, and above all in his Minuets and His Piccolo Dances. In a contre-danse entitled "La Bataille " the piccolo plays the part of Hamlet, whilst in another two piccolos play along with two oboes. Mozart uses the piccolo in these 136 Flute with Mozart works in all sorts of combinations: sometimes it plays with the bassoons, sometimes with the violins, once with the lyre. Sometimes the piccolo plays the accom- paniment along with the second violins, whilst the first violins and bassoon play the melody. In one dance we have a piccolo and two flutes playing together, and ending up with a solo piccolo run and shake. Mozart seems to have been fond of trying curious and unusual combinations : in his Twenty-seventh Symphony we find two flutes combined with the viola in thirds ; in several we have passages for two flutes and two horns alone ; the Fifth Divertimento is for two flutes (which play the melody), five trumpets, and four drums (in C, G, D, and A) only. This and another similar composition were written by Mozart whilst at Salzburg in 1774, probably for some special occasion. The flute is again used along with the brass and drums in the finale to Act ii. of The Magic Flute with great eff'ect to portray Tamino (originally acted by a flautist named B. Schack) with his flute overcoming the brute forces of Nature. This weird melody on the solo flute may be compared to the famous solo in Gluck's Orpheo. Mozart, Magic FhUe Overture. FLUTE. Mozart's Operas Story of the Flute Although the flute is not so much used in this opera as we should have expected from its title, the mag- nificent overture contains several important passages for the instrument. Skilfully written flute passages also occur in the overtures to Don Juan, Cost fan Tuiti, and L' Enlevement au Serail, in which, by the way, the piccolo part descends to low Ct| in Bretkopf and Hartel's edition — possibly this is meant for the flute only. In this opera the piccolo is much used (occa- sionally one in G), and is sometimes given quite florid passages ; as also in The Magic Flute. It will thus be seen that, notwithstanding his pre- judice, Mozart scores for the flute very considerably; chiefly in rapid, bright passages. It is to be noted that he always uses the middle and upper registers ; in fact, the lowest register is practically never used (, by Haydn, Mozart, or Beethoven. Like the ^ X^ other composers of his day, Mozart rarely 2 t travels above F"'. tj Mozart has- written two concertos for the flute — one was first performed by Cosel in 1774; the other was composed in 1778 for Deschamps, a rich Indian Dutchman who played the flute, and whom Mozart calls "a true philanthropist." Also a concerto in C ^, . for flute and harp, a bright, melodious „ '^ work with a fine andante. This last Concertos .,, . 01 -kx , was written m 1778, when Mozart was at Mannheim, and had fallen in love with Aloysia Weber. The composer, though disliking both instru- ments, wrote the work at the request of the Duke de 138 Mozart and Beethoven Guisnes (an amateur flautist) and his daughter, who played the harp. It is said that the Duke was niggardly in his payment. Mozart also wrote an Andante in C for the flute, with an accompaniment of oboes, horns, and strings; and two quartetts for flute and strings. The flautist Furstenau bears testimony to Mozart's perfect knowledge of the instrument, its technique, and easily-attained effects. Beethoven's symphonies abound in fine flute passages, written with consummate skill; there is not one in which the flute has not something important to play. The Fifth Symphony has a curious ^^^^""""^ passage of contrary motion for the flute, oboe, and clarinets; when this was first performed the audience Beethoven, Fifth Symphony. Andante con moto. FLUTE. OBOE 139 Story of the Flute considered it to be a joke on the composer's part. The most remarkable flute passage in the immortal nine is that known as " Lang-age des Oiseaux," at the conclu- sion of the andante in the "Pastorale" Symphony, where, amidst the murmurs of the stream, we suddenly hear the voices of the cuckoo (clarinet), quail (oboe), and nightingale, the last-named being repro- duced by a trilling passage on the flute. Grove says that these "imitations, or rather carica- tures," were intended by Beethoven as a joke of the most open kind, and adds "how completely are the The Famous Passage in the " Pastorale" Beethoven, Pastorale Symphony. Andante. FLUTE. (Nightingale.) Phrase repeated. 140 " Pastorale " Symphony raw travesties atoned for and brought into keeping by the lovely phrase (on the violin) with which Beethoven has bound them together and made them one with the music which comes before and after them." But this "joke" view has not been shared by other critics ot note. Teetgen writes poetically: — " At last the brook is still, the trees rustle no more : we have already once said farewell to the soft babbling that long kept us spell-bound. Quail, cuckoo, and nightingale are alone still heard. — Beautifully imagined ! as it were also saying 'farewell' to the sympathetic wan- derer up the vale ; who, only another human form of them, had stayed so long with them, loving them like their brother, enchanted by their song — enchanted in Nature's bosom." An American critic dissects the passage more coldly: — • "Neither the nightingale, the quail, nor the cuckoo sings precisely thus. The nightingale does not imitate itself in the proportions of the musical scale ; it only makes itself heard by inappreciable or variable sounds, and cannot be imitated by instruments of fixed intervals and absolute pitch. The quail has been well rendered as to its usual rhythm, but not in relation to its pitch and quality. As to the cuckoo, it gives the minor third, not the major." At the conclusion of the opening movement of this symphony the flute is given a very dainty and character- istic ascending passage, the rest of the orchestra being Beethoven, Pastorale Symphony. Allegro non troppa Pdolce 141 Story of the Flute silent. In the "Storm" section the piccolo is used with fine effect. Beethoven was the first to Piccolo in Beethoven introduce this instrument into a symphony, and he uses it also in the Fifth and Ninth Symphonies ("like g-olden braid on tapestry, lending dazzling glitter to the design "), in the overture to Egmont, in his Ruins of Athens, King Stephen, and Beethoven, Overture to Egmont. Allegro con brio. "3 PICCOLO ORCHESTRA.' jj.i.f , fiff ^ the " Battle" Symphony (op. 94), where he assigns to it "Rule Britannia" and " Marlbrook," the latter in a minor key to typify that the French were defeated. He never uses two piccolos. In the overture Leonora, No. 3, the flute plays an ascending scale from the low D upwards, followed by a gay succession of rapid sequences in the • (tr ^^*^* upper register. This very prominent p, ,, ' passage is written for the first flute only. Owing to the weakness of the low register of the flute, the earlier portion of the ascending scale is not heard as a rule. 142 Piccolo in "Leonora," No. 3 On one occasion a very celebrated conductor at a rehearsal of this work desired all three flutes to play the scale in unison. The first flautist refused to allow this, on the ground that Beethoven wrote it for one Beethoven, Overture, Leonora, No. 3. SOLO FLUTE. ,n.ffffr rtt |fffff¥FP|^ffffTP|rrff]f flute only, and that it must be so played. Both were obstinate on the point, a quarrel ensued, and the first flute soon after threw up his post. Weber may almost be said to have inaugurated a new era in scoring for the wood-wind. His treatment of the flute in Der Freischiitz is very remarkable. Berlioz says of the sustained notes in " Softly sighs " : " There is something ineffably dreamy in these low holding notes of the two flutes, during the 14^ Weber Story of the Flute melancholy prayer of Agitha, as she contemplates the summits of the trees silvered by the rays of the night Weber, Der Freischiita, " Softly sighs." _^^ Andante.^ 8 FLUTES. planet." Weber makes the listener almost shudder in the Wolf's Glen scene, by giving the two flutes long sus- tained chords on the low register while Caspar is mixing the ingredients for the magic bullets. „ , The weird effect thus produced some- ^gfc^ r~ zu~z what resembles that in Wagner's t) ~§ -'t^ Lohengrin (ii. 2), where Elsa says " Wer ruft ? wie schauerlich und klagend ertont mein Name durch die Nacht," whilst the two flutes sustain Cb and K\>pianissiitf.o. In this same scene of Freischutz we find the two flutes on their low register playing in unison with the second violins to produce a Weber, Der Freischutz. Andante. veiled and gloomy impression, and later on to express agitation. In Oberon (ii) the flute is used to create a fairy effect, the first flute and first clarinet playing the 144 Weber's Operas melody, whilst the second flute and second clarinet play ^'■psg'irios with contrary motion. Weber is fond of arpeggios on the flute and also of blending the flutes and clarinets together. He very frequently uses the flute in urjison with the voice. In Euryanthe, when the heroine is deserted in the forest, it is the flute that voices her desolation. He also makes full use of the middle and upper registers, and has written many bright and florid flute passages : — e.g., the overture to Weber, Preciosa Overture. Allegro moderatq^ FLUTE. Preciosa. The flute is very prominent throughout all his operas — he writes well for it and gives it good, full, and melodious parts ; I would instance Killian's song in the first scene of Freischiltz, where the flute plays a Weber, Der Freischulz. Killian's Song. ^Allegrett^^ ^^^ ^^- SOLO FLUTE &. CELLO. Story of the Flute Webbr, Der Freischiltz. The Hermit's Song. Allegretto. ^ , ^ FLOTE. lively little tune in octave with the solo 'cello, and the Hermit's song in the finale of the same opera; the Preciosa, ii, Lied No. 6. Larg-hetto. (Auf dem Theater.) lovely woodwind passage at the opening of the third scene in Preciosa, the Lied, No. 6, in the same, and the Weber, Oberon, Finale, Act II., " Let us sail over the sea." Allegro giocoso assai. *s — — V i -^ Weber and Piccolo Finale to Act II. of Oberon. The fifth and sixth bars of the overture to Oberon contain a prominent descending- passage for the two flutes in thirds pianissimo along with the clarinets. . Weber, Overture to Oberon. Adagio. FLUTES. I have dwelt at some length on Weber, as his writings show a more complete grasp of the possibilities of the flute than those of any of his predecessors ; I might almost add, than most of his Weber's n «■ use of the successors. Moreover, they are most grate- p, ful to the player, are eminently playable, and present no great difficulties of execution. He also uses the piccolo in a very original manner to produce a startling and weird effect, as in the ghost scene in Weber, Der Freisch'utz. Caspar's song. Allegro feroce. a PICCOLOS. Friischutz and in Caspar's drinking song. The mocking effect of the shakes on two piccolos is termed by Berlioz a "diabolic sneer," and "a fiendish laugh of scorn" 147 Story of the Flute when repeated at the words " Revenge, thy triumph is nigh." But Weber does not always employ the piccolo in this manner. We find two piccolos used in the Bridal March in Euryanthe, in Oberon, and in Preciosa (ii.), where they have a remarkable passage. In the Weber, Preciosa, Opening Chorus, 2nd Act. Moderato S PICCOLOS. last-named opera (sc. viii.) we have the piccolo combined with the clarinet, with an accompaniment of bassoon, horns, drums, triangle, and tambourine — no strings. Another curious combination occurs in the Cantata on Waterloo, where the Grenadier's March is written for two piccolos and side drums only, along with the voices. Meyerbeer was very fond of the piccolo, especially in scenes of devilry, and introduces it largely into all his operas. Thus in Robert le Diable it is largely eyer eer ^gg^j jj^ ^^ Baccanale and the Valse Infernale (i.) and in the frantic dance of the condemned nuns (iii.). In the Couplets Bachiques in Le Prophete (v.) a telling effect is produced by a few piccolo notes, along with harps and flutes, and in the Bene- diction of the Daggers in Les Huguenots it creates an almost savage effect, where at the word "strike" it represents the clinking ot iron. In Robert le Diable it 148 and the Piccolo Meyerbeer's Piccolo Passages represents the whistling of bullets. In Dinorah lightning is imitated by means of an ascending scale on the piccolo, the flute playing a descending scale in the opposite direction. In his Kronungs March we find two piccolos Meyerbeer, Robert le Viable, Valse Infernale (for voices, piccolo, trumpets and cornets, trombones, tuba, triangle and cymbals). AUegTo moderato. three times PICCOLO. and two flutes all playing separate parts simultaneously. Two piccolos and two flutes soli are used in L'Etoile du Nord, and in the Soldiers' March there are four piccolos on the stage, but they play only two distinct parts. In lb. Dance of the Nuns. Alia breve con moto. p tr'es feger. the overture to Dinorah we again find two piccolos and two flutes used. He frequently uses the piccolo without the flute, and sometimes in very curious combinations — e.g., with the cor anglais or with the bass clarinet. " Piff, paif," sung by the soldier Marcel in The Huguenots (i.) is accompanied solely by the piccolo, cymbals pianissimo, four bassoons, big drum, and double bass pizzicato ; the piccolo, as an introduction, 149 Story of the Flute shaking successively on G, G|, A, and B. This song gave rise to Rossini's sarcastic comment, " musique champetre." In the finale to Act I. we find the piccolo, viola, bassoons, and trombones united ; in the Bohemian rondo (act iii.) we have the piccolo, flute, drum de basque, and triangle; also the piccolo, trumpet, drums, and horns. In the valse in L'Etoile (ii.) we have the piccolo, bassoon, 'celli, and double-basses r and in the gallop in Le PropMte the piccolo, flute, and triangle have a very important solo passage. Meyerbeer's treatment of the flute is masterly. He uses it largely to brighten the strings ; bringing out all its charm and sweetness, all its descriptive TT^^^^f^"^ and dramatic powers. In the dream scene , pj in Le Prophite a mystical eff'ect is pro- duced by the low notes of the flute (right down to lowest C), accompanied by violins playing arpeggios, drum, and cymbals. In "L'Exorcisme" (iv.) two flutes and a piccolo are used along with violas, divided violins, and a cor anglais to create an ethereal effect at the words, "Que la sainte lumidre descende sur ton front." In the prelude to the song, " Quand je quittais la Normandie," in Robert le Diable, the flutes, in conjunction with the oboes and clarinets, are most delightfully handled, echoing and interlacing each other, as it were. In Les Huguenots the flute has many florid solo passages, and is given a long cadenza in the prelude to Act II. He frequently combines the flute with the harp, and in Dinorah (ii.) produces a peculiar eff'ect by means of the flute and some harmonic sounds of the Meyerbeer and Flute harp, which are heard above the melody which is sung out by the 'cellos. The solo "Dall' Aurora," in EEtoile du Nord, is accompanied by a double obligfato on two flutes — one flute is behind the scene and the other is on the stage, and has a cadenza along with the voice. Chorley remarks that this trio is "better as a concert-piece Meyerbeer, Cadenza in Les Huguenots, ii. Andante cant^Jbile. than when heard in the opera, because there the songstress must remain at such a distance from both instruments (the flautist on the stage being merely a mime) that all the intimacy of response and dialogue is lost, and the effect is that of a soprano scrambling against a double echo." It was performed at the Phil- harmonic Concerts in 1857 (Pratten and Card) and in Story of the Flute 1868 (Svendsen and Card), and by Madame Albani and Messrs. Fransella and Warner-Hollis at the Norwich Festival of 1899. Bach has accompanied a soprano aria with two flutes in several of his works, and Verdi accompanies the soprano and contralto voices in his " Ag-nus Dei" {Requiem) with three flutes: these, how- ever, are not, strictly speaking, obligatos. The Italian operatic composers, Rossini, Donizetti, Bellini, etc., write melodious passages for the flute, often in unison with the voice or the violin. A notable obligato occurs in the mad scene Composers '" Lucia de Lammermoor, which has given rise to the remark that whenever the principal female character in opera becomes distraught with passion or grief, her recovery is marked by a flute Rossini, Overture, Semiramide. obligato ! Rossini frequently combines the flute with the oboe or clarinet in rapid passages ; as in the over- tures to La Gazza Ladra and Semiramide, in the latter the above well-known passage is given first to the 152 Flute in Rossini piccolo and oboe together, then to the flute, and finally to both flute and piccolo. ^ Rossini does not use the piccolo very much, he, however, introduces two in The Barber of Seville at the words "Point de bruit" — probably a joke. He seldom gives the flute a solo of any length; several, however, occur in William Tell. The Andantino in that overture is the best known flute passage in the whole range of orches- tral music ; the flute playing: a florid em- broidery, as it were, to the Alpine " Ranz , des Vaches " on the cor anglais. This ^ . ^ Overture passage stands out wonderfully : I have seen a first-rate player from the Halld orchestra actually trembling with nervousness when he approached it. After the final sustained top G had died away into nothing, he remarked to me, "I never come to that passage without shaking all over like an aspen leaf; if Rossini, Overture to William Tell. ^^ Andantino. FLUTE. COR ANOLAIS vM^pTa m-m •■ ■ >,,,ki'fif\ F^fi^^ ;»■•••• 1 ^^ rf' s p-p^^!v S 1 — .-* ^ ^ - -tea ^' r r -kJ — 1 b=j— — * ' Some outstanding passages for the flute occur in Balfe's overture Le Putts d' Amour. '53 Story of the Flute ^ V 7 t^[ faL i^ U ri| Mendelssohn's use of Flute I made the slightest slip every single person in this large audience would notice it." Chorley tells us how, in 1847, Mendelssohn and he, when taking a walk together near Interlacken, heard the sound of distant cow-bells in the valley below, Mendelssohn stopped, listened, and began to sing this cor anglais melody. " How beautifully," he exclaimed, "Rossini has found that. All the introduction too is truly Swiss. I wish I could make some Swiss music." Mendelssohn has given very considerable prominence to the flute, and writes most delightfully for it. His Midsummer Nighfs Dream, music — in which one writer says the composer has J"ena"ssohn s exhausted the resources of the instru- " J^'^summer ment — contains quite a number of fasci- j^ „ nating flute passages. In the very first bars of the overture he makes a very striking effect by means of slow ascending chords sustained by two Mendelssohn, Midsummer Night' s Dream Overture. 8 FLUTES. flutes ; the delicate, elfin-like scherz^o contains one of the most famous flute passages ever written — namely, the concluding rapid staccato passage (Mendelssohn was one of the first to introduce such passages for the wind) lying in the middle and lower registers, and descending to the low Ct Mendelssohn fully appreciated the value 155 Story of the Flute of this lower register, and frequently made use of it. The words "Spotted snakes" have a curious triplet accompaniment for two flutes in unison on the low D Mendelssohn, Midsummer Night's Dream, Scherzo. ^/ m^ \ t:^mif\mf{ ]i ^ \^m and E, and at the words " Beetles black approach not near" they shake on the low CH and E respectively with thrilling effect. In the Nocturne we find most charm- Mkndei.ssohn, Midsummer Night's Dream, Nocturne. Con moto trongsilliL. 8 FLUTES. 4' ii *'F'rF*fFrFfMVi» i'Pi' P i' f i'ririrPi P ing writing for the flutes; notice the effective shakes. Mendelssohn is continually giving delicate little trills to the flutes — e.g., the scherzo in his "Reformation" 156 Flute in "St. Paul" His Symphonies Symphony. The finale of this symphony appropriately opens with the German chorale " Eine feste Burg ist unser Gott " in G major (in its original form, and not as used by Bach and Meyerbeer) on the first flute absolutely alone. "The grand old air thus heard alone and on one instrument comes like a response from the skies [to the prayer in the preceding andante], and its introduc- tion is perhaps the most impressive that could be conceived." In the andante to the "Italian" Sym- phony Mendelssohn uses the soft notes of the middle register to produce a feeling of desolation, and by way of contrast gives very lively solo parts to the two flutes in the subsequent " Salterello." Next to his use of the flute to produce an impalpable, sylph-like eff'ect (" He brought the fairies into the orchestra and fixed them there." — Sir G. Grove), Mendelssohn's most outstanding , _,. feature in the treatment of the instrument is his use of rapid, iterated chords, often in triplets, on flutes and other wood-wind instruments — a device pre- viously used by Bach, Beethoven, and Weber, and Mendelssohn. — St. Paul, "Jerusalem." Adagio. FLUTE. CLARt in Bk SASSOONS. Story of the Flute adopted by many modern composers. A typical ex- ample occurs in the accompaniment to "Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets " {Si. Paul). He is also very fond of smooth, running legato passages for the two flutes, generally in thirds, as in the accompaniment to "Let all men praise the Lord" (Hymn of Praise). Mendelssohn, Hymn of Praise, " Let all men praise the Lord." Andante eon mgtor— 2 FLUTES, He assigns to the flute a dainty little obligate to the contralto solo " Oh rest in the Lord " (Elijah)^ giving it a graceful turn at the conclusion. Mendelssohn never writes anything difficult or in the bravura style for the flute ; and although in the overture to Athalie he uses the high Bb'", as a rule he does not go _. oTs' above A"'. He was one of the first to intro- ^ CzziX- duce tremolo passages on the flute. ^r— Mendelssohn seldom introduces the piccolo. The only instances I can find are the overtures Meeresstille ; Loreley; the MiHtary Overture, op. 24, for wind and drums only; and several times in the Walpurgis' Nacht. Strange to say, it is not used in Midsummer Night's Dream, where we might have expected it. He never employs more than one, or uses it above G'". 158 Piccolo in Mendelssohn Schubert and Schumann Schubert gives the flutes a good deal of solo work ; sometimes he uses only one. The scherzo of the Ninth Symphony contains a delicious melody given to the flute: this was an afterthought. In the Schubert overture to Rosamunde von Cypem (op. 26) „ . *° c J < 1 < t \ . ochumann we nnd a remarkable scale passage for the flute alone. Important solo passages occur also in the overtures in Italian style and Des TeufeVs Lustschloss. The Sixth Symphony (andante) has a Haydn-like pass- age for two flutes and two oboes ; they are subsequently loined by the clarinet. He is skilful in contrasting the tone of the different wood-wind, and in the Rosamunde ballet music and entre-act makes the flute, oboe, and clarinet converse with one another in a most delightful manner. Schubert never uses the piccolo in his symphonies ; but it is to be found in several of his (now-forgotten) operas, which also contain several important flute solos. As a rule he employs only the upper register of the flute, often ascending to the Schumann, Symphony, No. 1, Cadenza. Andante. InSves h.^rffFYr^rrinrrf-ff^l^ tJ poeo ritard. Z a tempo ^■~. ^-^ Story of the Flute highest B\)"'. The same is the case with Schumann, who hardly ever writes a passage for the low notes. Schumann allots to the flutes, as a rule, either sustained chords along with the other wind, or else chromatic passages. The overture to Manfred has a flute solo of considerable length, and his First Symphony contains several important flute passages ; in the andante we find a remarkable shake and cadenza for the flute. The Fourth Symphony has elaborate running passages for two flutes in unison with the violins. Piccolo in o 1- xu • 1 • I.- „ , bchumann never uses the piccolo in his symphonies ; but we find it in Paradise and the Peri (where one in Db is used in a difficult passage in D minor), and in several of his over- tures. He rarely, if ever, uses the piccolo without the flute, but in his Concertstuck for horns (op. 83) he gives it an independent melody whilst the flutes play chords. The increased facility and the improvement in the instrument consequent on the introduction of the Bohm flute have caused modern composers to Zz'' '" write very freely for it. They use it often „ as they would a violin, and think nothing Composers .... ^ 1 . , of giving it passages of great technical difficulty, such as the earlier composers would never have dreamed of assigning to it. Moreover, the number used is systematically increased to three (Haydn, Gretry, and Meyerbeer had already occasion- ally introduced three), and sometimes a piccolo is used in addition. Quantz recommended that an orchestra 160 Berlioz should include four flutes — the number found in the Berlin Hof-Kapelle in 1742 — but he probably intended that the parts should be doubled. Thus Berlioz uses four flutes playing" only two parts in octaves in the march in his Te Deum (op. 22). In ^"?* the " Asrnus Dei" of his Great Mass for the . - I n f*f*PfiiSf*fi Dead the four flutes play some chords of four notes, accompanied only by the trombones : here the fourth flute was not in the score as first written. I cannot recall any other orchestral example of four flutes playing four distinct notes. In the " Tibi omnes " the flutes have some wonderful arpeggios. In Berlioz's Funeral Symphony fi-ve flutes and four piccolos are directed to be used (the piccolos were originally in Db and the third flutes in Et»), but they all play in unison or octaves. Berlioz was the only great composer ( save Tschaikowsky) who was himself a practical flautist. When a youth, his father bribed him to pursue his medical studies by the promise of a new flute with all the latest keys. Whilst quite a boy he was Berlio? able to play Drouet's most difficult solos. In early life he composed two quintetts for flute and four strings, which he subsequently destroyed ; but he afterwards used one of the themes in his Frane Juges. As a youthful student in Paris Berlioz gave lessons both on the flute and the guitar. In one of his letters he gives an amusing descrip- tion of the usual style of prize compositions at the Conservatoire : — 161 II Story of the Flute " The sun rises ; 'cello solo, gentle crescendo. The little birds wake ; flute solo, violins tremolo. The little rills gurgle ; alto solo. The little lambs bleat ; oboe solo," and so on. Berlioz makes frequent and delicious use of the flute, availing himself much of the low register; he employs the entire compass, right up to C in alt., as in Faust, in which work the flute has a fine running passage whilst the horn plays the melody. In L'Enfance du Christ we find an entire movement for two flutes and Tj harp — a rather unique combination. Berlioz was very fond of writing for the flute or piccolo along with the harp ; a notable example occurs in his arrangement of Weber's Invitation a la Valse. The combination appears to have been much favoured by the ancient Egyptians, and many modern composers have adopted it; amongst others, Mehul (Uthat), Mendelssohn {Antigone), Meyerbeer {Prophite and Stuensee overture), Adam {Si J'etais JRoi), R, Strauss {Tod und Verklarung), Brahms {Requiem).^ It is used by Wagner in The Rheingold (where the two instru- ments echo each other), in Lohengrin, and in The Walkure in a curious passage for two piccolos along with three harps answering each other. Berlioz frequently combines the flute and oboe, some- times giving the flute the lower part, an arrangement 1 Brahms uses the piccolo in his Fourth Symphony (allegro giocoso) in his Serenade, op. i6 (Rondo), and it is very prominent in the last of the Variations on a Theme by Haydn. Flute solos occur in his Rinaldo and in the Second and Fourth Symphonies. 163 Flute and Harp Piccolo in BerIio2 also found in Mendelssohn and Wagner (in Verdi's Requiem the flute plays below the clarinet). Noufflard, referring to the allegro in part two of the Fantastique Sytnpho7fy, speaks of " le cri eperdu que jette una flute de son timbre strident." Berlioz uses the piccolo very frequently, em- ploying it up to the top A'", and even B"'j, in the Funeral Symphony. In the " Apotheose " he combines two Brahms, Requiem, No. 2. Moderate. p f . f J] ^ . r#* f r< ^^^^ FLUTE. M_ VXS ^''-i \ V n P- ^-- ^ i ^ =sfe^ (J ,1, L, ffiff \ ^-m-^%,^h #m^=^= 5I nn fill ni rfn 1 1 iiiiii-ffff|etc piccolos and bassoons in a striking triplet passage. He allots the piccolo a very important passage along with the oboe in the Serenade in his Harold Symphony. In his "Pandemonium" {Damn, de Faust) we naturally have two piccolos, whilst in his "Heaven" we find three flutes and harps. He even uses the piccolo in the accompaniment to songs — e.g. , The Danish Huntsman, " Meditation," in Cleopatra (where two are used), and the choral ballad, Sara the Bather. Dvorak uses both the flute and piccolo with great skill. In his Third Rhapsody, and in the Second, Fourth, and Fifth Symphonies we find remarkable solos fbr the flute, whilst one of the most eff^ective flute parts ever written is to be found in his lovely 163 Story of the Flute cantata, The Spectre's Bride. In this work he has allotted the instrument a most charming obligate to the principal soprano aria (" Oh, Virgin Mother "), in which he shows how fully he appreciated its lower register, going down to the lowest note. In his Stabat Mater and his Sclavonic Dvorak Dvorak, The Spectre's Bride, " Where art thou, Father?" Andante con moto. yiM^J I J , J i ;,.v v i .L H rFj^ Rhapsody he uses the low B — a note not found on most flutes — and in his Second Symphony the topmost Ctj. In The Spectre's Bride he employs the flute to imitate the persistent crowing of the cock at sunrise, and also to 164 Flute Cadenzas depict the hero leaping over the wall (by a very rapid diatonic run from G' to G"). In "The Ride" the piccolo is used most effectively. In this work we also find a very elaborate cadenza, written, strange to say, for the second flute accompanying the voice. '^ Grieg in his Peer Gynt Suite, No. i ("Morning"), has a quiet passage for solo flute, and later on in the same piece he writes gracefully for _, , two flutes in thirds. In Olav Trygvason l^e uses two piccolos in thirds along with a flute in some effective chromatic runs, whilst in accom- Grieg, Peer Gynt. Alleirretto pastorale, FLUTE. paniment to his song Henrik Vergeland he assigns to the piccolo only four notes : the piccolo player here certainly earns his fee easily ! In his Second Suite (" Danse Arabe ") Grieg used two piccolos with drum and triangle. The modern school of French composers make great use of the flute, frequently writing for it passages of ^ Cadenzas on the flute are always remarkably telling; in addition to several already referred to, I might mention those in Boieldieu's Dame Blanche and in Listz's Hungarian Rhapsody, No. 2. Probably the longest flute cadenza in any yfork is that in an opera, entitled The Flautist, by Kling. It extends over a page. 165 Story of the Flute delicate.filigree and arabesques. They use the instru- ment " rather to ornament and brighten a subject than to propound it." Sometimes, however, this style degenerates into mere tinsel. Per- haps the most noticeable point about the modern use of the flute is the frequency of passages on the lower register, whose peculiar and unique beauty has been fully recognised by many recent composers. No one has more fully grasped the capabil- ities of the instrument than Bizet — who assigns the Modern French Composers Bizet, Carmen, Act III., Introductory March. FLUTE. Allegretto moderato. ' bl B - march in Act iii. of Carmen to the flute, playing staccato and pianissimo in the low register, with fine effect ; so again in the Seguidilla, No. lo. Other fine flute passages in this work are the Entr'acte (ii.), where the two flutes play running passages in thirds along Bizet, Carmen, Seguidilla, No. lo. AllegrettOj_ 1st FLUTE ONLY, - fl-ttj , with sustained chords -''■ ^ on Strings. Modern French Composers Bizet, Carmen, Act II., Opening. Zigeunerlied. AndaiicjhoqiiaBi Allegjretto. Bizet, Carmen, ii-iii. Zwischenspiel. Andant ino qnafli Allegr etto. l8t FLUTE, with Harp only. with the harp, 'cello, viola; and the Zwischenspiel (ii.-iii.) for solo flute and harp only. In fact, through- out the entire work, the flutes are splendidly handled. Turning to English composers of recent times, we find Sir Arthur Sullivan making great use of both the flute and piccolo in The Golden Legend. The flute parts are written very high. At ^° "^ the beginning of this work he uses the q^^^^I^^ flutes in sustained notes at the very top of their register to depict the whistling of the wind and the storm raging round the spire of the cathedral, and 167 Story of the Flute at the devil's words, " Shake the casements," he gives them a rapid staccato descending passage. The dying Sullivan, Golden Legend. "Shake the casements." Allegro. away of the storm is portrayed by chromatic passages, gradually descending from the C| in altissimo, on the flutes. In the sixth scene there is the long passage for Sullivan, Golden Legend, Sc. vi. Andante trangnillo. *J \l^\f^''p"~^"^'\ "^""^ '^" Li-sv^^"^^-^ ffl^ rm^i W'^ ^ ' r two flutes and piccolo in imitation of bells, and in the first scene we have a very peculiar effect produced by an accompaniment of two flutes and two piccolos — the 1 68 Sullivan — Coleridge Taylor Sullivan, Golden Legend, Sc. i. Andante .con moto. PiccII. latter answering each other in alternate phrases. In Coleridge Taylor's Hiawaiha we find some most appro- priate themes given to the flute. The work opens with an announcement of one of the principal motifs by a solo Coleridge Taylor, Hiawatha. Allegro moderato. flute, and the chief tenor solo has a delicate flute obligato. Some of the flute passages lie very high and are of great difficulty. A few can only be played with sufficient rapidity by the use of harmonics — a thing undreamt of by the older orchestral composers. Most of these, however, are doubled on the piccolo. This composer also gives a great number of shakes to the flute, in- cluding one of two and a half bars' duration on the top i6g Story of the Flute I have already spoken of Sullivan's use of the flutes in their highest register to depict a storm; Wagner uses them for the same purpose in his over- *^ ^' ture to The Flying Dutchman, and also in the "Ride" in the Walkiire, where he allots to the flutes chromatic runs and shakes on their very highest notes along with the piccolos. He uses the flutes in groups, generally employing three flutes (often in unison) and a piccolo, sometimes even more; thus in Siegfried (ii. 2) we find three flutes and a piccolo, but they play only three distinct parts, and in Tannhduser we have in the orchestra three flutes (one also plays piccolo), and also on the stage four flutes and two piccolos. As a rule, Wagner uses his flutes chiefly in sustained or reiterated chord accompaniments, or in unison with the rest of the wind in forte passages. He is fond of combining them with the oboe [e.g., Tann- hduser, iii. I, " The day breaks in," and in the Meister- singer several times). But he hardly ever gives the flute a solo of any length ; practically never a really long solo standing out prominently. The flutes are never used absolutely alone for more than a single bar. In my examples I have given the nearest approaches to solo passages to be found in his works. In Siegfried and elsewhere he uses the three flutes to imitate the flutter of birds. Wagner does not as a rule treat the flute as a melodic instrument, nor does he use it much for "con- versations " between the various instruments. We often find whole' pages of his scores with no flute or 170 Wagner Wagner, Tristan. Beginning of Act II. lebhaft£ C \^^ FLUTE. ' ^ V g i Crrftfi i fVfr i^ ffr-F^Fffffftfr^^^ fi^ Wagnkr, Gbtterdamtmerung. Act III., sc. 2. IstFLUTEi Wagner, Siegfried. Birds in Finale to Act II. 3 FLUTES. 1st VIOLINS, pizz. piccolo part at all, and often only a few isolated notes in an entire movement. One feels that he could almost dispense with the flute altogether, and I rather suspect that he had an antipathy to the instrument. He chiefly makes use of the higher register, writing fight up to 171 Story of the Flute the top C""tj, as in the Walkiire, where he also gives the whole three flutes an A'" in altissimo. He occasionally employs the low register {Siegfried and Meister singer), Wagner, Meistersinger, ii. 8 FLUTES. and in one instance we find the three flutes playing in harmony on their lowest notes in order to produce a specially mournful effect. His flute parts, while often tiring and exacting on the player, do not present any great technical difficulties, and as a rule they are well written, though Mr. Chorley complains of his placing the group of flutes above the tenor voice in Tannhduser. {Mod. Ger. Mus., p. 367). Wagner seems fonder of the piccolo than of the flute, and often gives it little ascending runs with good effect. He writes for it right up to the top G'" and agner s ^ggg j^ very freely (sometimes without the _, , flute), especially in Siegfried and the Rhein- gold. He is fond of combining it with the violins, as in the Gotterdanimerung, and in the Walkiire; and in the magic fire music in the latter opera (iii.) he makes remarkable use of the middle notes on the piccolo. He introduces this instrument into practically 172 Piccolo in Wagner all his works, and in the Meistersinger gives it a regujar solo, accompanied by two flutes. Wagner, Meistersinger, iii. 5 (abbreviated). PICCOLO. ri? y p f f f f f (■ i>. (i ""f • (■ rf r !• • , and a bass flute in G, was performed with such success that Sir George A. Macfarren said, "A new and glorious era for the flute has commenced, in which the present and future masters of the art will be delighted to embody their inspirations in the flute quartett" — a prophecy which, notwithstanding Mr. Fransella's recent revival of a similar quartett, unfortunately still lacks fulfilment. 185 CHAPTER XIII. FAMOUS FLAUTISTS. Sec. I. — Foreign players — Quantz — Frederick the Great — Royal flautists — Early French players — Hugot — Berbiguier — Tulou — Drouet — Furstenau — Doppler — Dorus — Demerssemau — Ciardi — Briccialdi — Ribas — Terschak — Alles — Taffanel. Sec. II. — British players — Early performers — Ashe — Charles Nicholson — Richardson — Clinton — Pratten — B. Wells — Henry Nicholson — Svendsen — Principal living flautists. SECTION I, — FOREIGN PLAYERS. A FRIEND once begged Scarlatti to listen to a flute- player. " My son " (replied the composer), " you know I detest wind instruments; they are never in tune." He did, however, at length con- sent to listen, and was forced to confess that he did not think the instrument was capable of playing so well in tune or producing such sweet sounds, and he sub- sequently composed two solos for the performer in question: Johann Joachim Quantz, the first European flautist of whom we have any full details. Born in Oberscheden, near Gottingen, in Hanover, on the 30th of January 1697, the son of the village blacksmith, young Quantz was for a time apprenticed to that trade. His father disliked music, but both his parents died 186 Quantz before the boy reached his tenth year; and Johann — who, though not knowing a single note of music, had already played the bass viol at fairs — went to live with his uncle Justus, the Stadt-Musikus at Merseberg. Here Quantz learned to play the violin, flute, oboe, trumpet, sackbut, cornet, horn, bassoon, viol-de-gamba, clavecin, and a few other instruments ! Trusting to his feet, his fiddle, and his flute, he went about 1714 to Dresden, and thence to Warsaw in 1718, where he was appointed oboist in the Polish Chapel Royal, having refused the post of Court trumpeter. Despairing of attaining perfection on the violin, and finding that oboe-playing injured his embouchure for the flute, he abandoned both these instruments, and henceforth devoted himself solely to the flute, studying undei BufFardin, the famous French flautist, who was a mem- ber of the King of Poland's band. He visited Italy (1724-6), where he met Vivaldi and Porpora. At Naples he was in the habit of playing daily with a certain handsome Marchioness. One day, whilst so engaged, the Spanish Ambassador, who was a lover of the lady, ^^alled and stared at Quantz, but said nothing. A few evenings later Quantz was shot at whilst driving to a concert; and instantly arriving at the just conclusion that he had aroused the jealousy of the Spaniard, forth- with quitted Naples, without even bidding the fair lady farewell ! He next visited Paris — where he was much pleased with Blavet, the flute-player at the Opera — and London (1727), where Handel and many others endeavoured to persuade him to remain, but after three 187 Story of the Flute months he returned to Dresden. In 1728 he began to give lessons in Berlin to the Crown Prince, who played the flute when only eight years old. Quantz is the only flautist, so far as I know, mentioned in any great his- torical work. Carlyle tells us that Rentzel, the drill- master of the Prince's miniature soldier company, was a fine flute-player, which probably drew little Fritz's attention to the flute. The Queen arranged and paid for the lessons unknown to the King, as the latter con- sidered music effeminate, classing his Court musicians with lacqueys, and forbade his son under severe penalties to play; "Fritz is a Querpfeifer and Poet, not a soldier," he would growl. At these clandestine lessons the Prince used to change his tight re er uniform for a gforsreous scarlet and erold the Great , . *= ^ ^ . , ^ dressing-gown. On one occasion he was nearly caught by his tyrannical father; there was only just time to hurry Quantz, with his music and flutes, into a closet used for firewood. His Majesty, by Heaven's express mercy, omitted to look into the closet, vvherein poor Quantz spent a bad quarter of an hour, trembling in every limb. In 1741 he entered the service of Frederick, and spent the remainder of his life as Court Composer at Potsdam. His salary was ;^300 a year for life, 100 ducats for every flute he made for the King, and also 25 ducats for each of his flute com- positions. He lived on terms of the closest intimacy and friendship with Frederick; they only once had a real quarrel, and even on that occasion the King admitted he was in the wrong. Quantz's decision on 188 Frederick the Great musical matters was considered final, no new player or singer being ever engaged without his approval. His duties consisted in daily playing flute duets with the King and writing flute concertos for the evening con- certs at the palace of Sans Souci.^ Burney, who was present at one of these concerts, which began at eight and lasted an hour, thus describes it: — The concert- room contained pianos by Silbermann and a tortoise- shell desk for his Majesty's use, most richly and elegantly inlaid with silver; also books of difiicult flute passages — "solfeggi," or preludes: some of these books still exist at Potsdam. Before the concert began Burney could hear Frederick in an adjoining room practising over stiff passages before calling in the band. The programme on the evening in question consisted of three long and diflicult concertos for the flute, accompanied by the band. The King (who generally played three, and occasionally five, concertos in a single evening) "played the solo flute parts with great precision, his embouchure was clear and even, ' There is a fine picture by Menzel in the Berlin National Gallery of one of the concerts, with Frederick standing at his desk playing the solo part, and Carl P. E. iiach at the pianoforte. Amongst other notable pictures in which the flute figures prominently are Van Ostade's Le Trio (Musee de Bruxelles), Ferret's Musicien AnnamiU (Musee du Luxembourg), and Watteau's L' Accord Par/ait (in all of which the flute-player is left-handed) ; David's Le Compositeur de Vienne (Musee Moderne de Bruxelles), Weber's Loisirs de Monsigneur (Paris Salon, 1908), Rosselli's La Triomphe de David (Louvre), Mazzani's A Difficult Passage, and Millais' An Idyll (fife) ; also in pictures in Punch for Jan. 8th, 1887; Dec. 6th, 1888; Jan. 4th, 1905; and May and, 1906. 189 Story of the Flute his finger brilliant, and his taste pure and simple. I was much pleased and surprised with the neatness of his execution in the allegros, as well as by his expres- sion and feeling in the adagios ; in short, his perform- ance surpassed in many particulars anything I had ever heard among dilletanti or even professors. His cadenzas were good, but long and studied. Quantz beat time with his hand at the beginning of each move- ment, and cried out 'Bravo!' to his royal pupil now and then at the end of solo passages, a privilege per- mitted to no other member of the band." On one occasion Karl Fascli, the pianist, dared to add a " Bravissimo !" The King stopped playing, and withering poor Fasch with a look, ordered him to depart, and it was only after an explanation to the King that Fasch was a new hand and did not under- stand etiquette that the sovereign permitted him to return. Sometimes during these concerts the King would sit behind the conductor and follow the score; woe betide any performer who made any mistake. In the morning, on rising from bed, the King often used to walk about his writing-room playing scales and improvising on his flute. He said that while thus employed he was considering all manner of things, and that sometimes the luckiest ideas about business matters occurred to him. He also often played for about half an hour after his early dinner. He allotted four hours daily to music. Quantz never flattered the King; if he played well, Quantz told him so; if not, Quantz held his tongue, 190 Frederick's Playing and merely coughed gently. Once he coughed several times during the performance of a new concerto by Frederick. When it was over Frederick said to his first violin, "Come, Benda, we must do what we can to cure Quantz's catarrh." Frederick employed a man specially to keep his flute in good order, calling it his " most adorable princess. "^ When he gave up playing, and left his flutes and music packed up at Potsdam, he said to Benda, with a voice quivering with emotion, "My dear Benda, I have lost my best friend!" He was extremely nervous when playing, often trembling violently, and never attempted a new piece without private practice. He did not possess much dexterity in rapid passages, and is said also to have been rather a bad timist. He never played any pieces save his own compositions or those of Quantz, which he would never allow to be printed. The King himself is said to have composed one hundred concertos (one was played at a concert in Dresden in 191 2), chiefly after retiring for the night, which he did at 10 p.m. He merely wrote down the melody, with directions as to the other parts — e.g., "Here bass play in quavers"; the score was then completed by his Chapel Master. Late in life the King, having lost his front teeth, and beginning to be a trifle scant of breath, found Quantz's long passages somewhat trying, and he ultimately gave up practising the flute, or even listening to music. Once when a ^ Mr. James Mathews (see p. 72, ante) christened his gold flute "Chrysoslom" = the golden-mouthed, and an American flautist of some notoriety (Mr. Clay Wysham) named his flute "Lamia." 191 Story of the Flute celebrated flautist played before Frederick at Potsdam the monarch only fetched his own flute and played a piece for the artist, who expected a more substantial reward. Voltaire says the King played " as well as the greatest artist," but Bach remarked, "You are mis- taken if you think he loves the flute: all he cares for is playing himself." Two of his flutes are in the Royal Museum, Berlin; one silver, the other wood.^ The king was fond of triplet passages of this kind — hence Quantz always introduced them into his con- certos, and Kirnberger, the musical critic, said he could recognize Quantz's compositions by the "sugar- loaves." Quantz died of apoplexy at Potsdam on ' The flute can boast that it is the only instrument on which a great sovereign has ever attained proficiency and for which a monarch has composed. Frederick was by no means the only flautist of Royal blood. The infamous Nero was a flute-player of some note in his day; King Auletes of Greece, the last of the Ptolemies and father of Cleopatra, played in public contests with professional flute-players and was inordinately proud of his performance. Our own bluff King Hal delighted in the flute and played it daily, says Holinshed (1577). Seventy-two "flutes" are mentioned in the Inventory of his Wardrobe, 1547; some are of ivory, tipped with gold, others of glass, and one of wood painted like glass. The same list mentions six fifes and numbers of recorders. Francis I. of Austria {c. 1804), Joseph 1. of Hungary (1678-1711), and Frederick, Markgraf of Brandenburg — Culmbach — Bayreuth (1711-63), weie flute-players. Albert, the Prince Consort, 192 Early French Players July i2th, 1773, and was attended in his last illness by Frederick himself, who erected a handsome sandstone monument there to his old instructor and friend. Contemporaries describe him as having- been a man of uncommon size, tall and strong-, patient and industrious, the picture of health, and extremely vigorous even in his old age. He is said to have excelled in playing slow movements — Carlyle speaks of his " heart-thrilling adagios" — and to have possessed considerable execution. His letters show good theoretical musical knowledge and considerable wit. Philbert is said by Quantz to have been the first distinguished player on the one-keyed flute, and on his skill the early French poet Lainds has written some pretty verses with the refrain, _, ^ " Sa flAte seule est un concert." He is the xm «— r^iaycrs " Draco " of La Bruyfere's Caracteres. He was followed by Hotteterre (see p. 35, ante), BufFardin, and other early players concerning whom we have few authentic details. At the end of the eighteenth century the most celebrated players in France were A. Hugot (1761-1803) and J. G. Wunderlich (1755-1819), both Professors at the Paris Conservatoire. The former is said to have possessed a fine tone and played well, and took lessons from Benjamin Wells. Prince Nicholas of Greece is an accomplished flautist, and has written a concerto on themes furnished by the compositions of Frederick the Great, some of whose instruments he possesses. The Count of Syracuse, brother to the King of Naples, learned the flute from Briccialdi in 1837. More- over, Carmen Sylvia, the Queen of Bohemia, is whispered to be a flautiste. Did not one of the English Georges also play it ? 193 13 Story of the Flute Famous Fiaiti^i^ oj- the Past.- 194 Famous Flautists of the Past Famous Flautists of the Past.— II, 195 Story of the Flute immense execution ; he wrote some interesting Studies for the flute. Whilst engaged on the preparation ot a new Method for the Flute, he was attacked by a nervous fever, in which he wounded himself with a knife and then threw himself headlong from a fourth- storey window, dying in a few seconds. Wunderlich completed the Method, which was long esteemed the best in existence. Wunderlich's most celebrated pupils were Benoit Tranquille Berbiguier (1782-1838) and ^. , Jean Louis Tulou (1786- 1 865). Like Blavet, Sola, and several other flautists of note, Berbiguier was left-handed. In 181 3 he left Paris in order to avoid the conscription (as did also Tulou and Camus), but two years later he became a lieutenant in the army, having owing to his small stature to obtain special permission to hold this appointment. In 1830 his devotion to the House of Bourbon got him into political trouble and forced him to quit Paris. He went to live near Blois with a friend named Desforges, a 'cello player for whom he wrote many duets for flute and 'cello. At Desforges' funeral, Berbiguier remarked, " In eight days you will bear me also to the grave" — a prediction that was literally fulfilled. Berbiguier had a peculiarly soft tone but was defective in articulation. Tulou began to take lessons at the age of eleven, and when thirteen he obtained the second prize for flute-playing at the Paris Conservatoire. The following year the first prize was withheld from him solely on account of his youth. At fifteen he was considered the finest flute-player in all France. 196 Berbiguier — Tulou In politics Tulou was an ardent Republican. He was strangely neglectful of his playing, frequently mislaying his flute (which is still preserved in the Museum of the Paris Conservatoire) and having to borrow one to play on in public ! Once, when about to play a solo at a concert given by Catalini at the Theatre Royal Italien in Paris, he discovered at the last moment that one joint of his flute was cracked throughout; whereupon, on the platform and in the face of the expectant audience, he calmly produced some thread and a piece of wax from his pocket and proceeded to mend the flute, after which he played his diflicult solo magnifi- cently. Tulou had a fixed idea that his real vocation in life was not flute-playing but painting. He was passionately devoted to hunting, and somewhat un- steady in his habits. During his rather unsuccessful second visit to London, in 1821, he played at two Philharmonic Concerts, where he was coldly received. In 1829 he became Professor at the Paris Conservatoire, having been passed over ten years previously for Joseph Guillou, an inferior player. He was also created a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour. Tulou stuck to the old-fashioned conical flute to the end, preferring one with only four keys. Hjs playing was artistic and finished, remarkable for its liquid smoothness and absence of staccato. He had a rooted objection to double-tongueing ; hence his performance, though praised by Bohm, suffered from monotony. Tulou's principal rival was Louis Frangois Philippe Drouet (1792-1873), the son of a French refugee barber 197 Story of the Flute in Amsterdam. One day a musician who was in the habit of getting shaved by Drouet's father presented the child with a little flute. Drouet was a marvellously precocious musical genius, and is said to have begun the flute at the age of four and actually to have played a diflncult solo at a concert at the Paris Conservatoire when but seven years old. He achieved great success at a concert in Amsterdam in 1807. The only instruction on the flute he ever received was a few lessons in that city as a child. He is said, however, to have studied for eight hours a day for many years, even playing daily for a couple of hours in bed before he rose ! In 1808, Drouet was appointed solo flautist to King Louis of Holland, who presented him with a flute of glass having keys set with precious stones. Napoleon the Great invited him to Paris in 181 1 and appointed him Court flautist^ granting him an exemption from the conscription. Subsequently he belonged to the band of Louis XVHL Drouet travelled through Europe, creating an immense sensation everywhere. He appeared at the London Philharmonic in i8i6, and again in 1832. In March, 1817, he and Nicholson both played at Drury Lane Theatre within ten days of each other. In 1829 he again visited England along with his friend Mendels- sohn. He once more visited England in 1841-42, and appeared by command before Her Majesty Queen Victoria and Prince Albert at Buckingham Palace. About 1854 he visited America. Drouet, although he stuck to the old flute and never adopted the Bohm, 198 Drouet may well be termed "the Paganini of the flute." He possessed the most wonderfully rapid staccato execution, but his intonation was defective and his style lacked expression. His tone, though brilliant, was deficient in breadth and volume. He totally neg- lected the full, rich, mellow lower notes of the instrument. "It appears," said a critic, "that to produce the tone at which he aims, nothing more is requisite than to take a piccolo and play an octave below." He could not play an adagio properly, and his whole performance was monotonous. Hence in a contest held in Paris between him and Tulou, the latter gained a decisive victory by his performance of Lebrun's Le Rossignol. He had a wonderful facility in holding notes for an incredible length of time — sons files, as they were termed ; this was partly due to the small bore of his flute and partly to the smallness of his embouchure. His rapid and clear articulation closely resembled double-tongueing, and when he first came to London it set all the amateur flute-players wondering as to how it was produced, and acres of paper were covered with discussions on the subject. It is said to have been really the result of some unusual formation of the mouth, throat, and tongue peculiar to himself. Drouet was a very tall and thin red-haired man, and when playing stood in a very rigid attitude, like a rectangular sign-post. Even his very position gfave rise to a controversy. He left behind him over four hundred compositions, mostly rubbish, and is reported to have assisted Queen Hortense in the 199 Story of the Flute composition of the famous song, Partant pour la Syrie. The German family of the Furstenaus produced no less than three generations of famous flautists. Caspar Furstenau (1772-1819) was music master to _ * the Duke of Oldenburg. Though a fair furstenaus . , ., ,. , , , . performer, he was quite eclipsed by his son, Anton Bernard Furstenau (1792-1852), born at Miinster, who at the age of seven played a solo before the Duke, and was presented by him with a magnificent flute. The father and son made several musical tours together between 1803-18, and at their performances the remark- able finish of their execution excited quite a sensation. Anton, who was one of the finest flautists in Europe, was a great personal friend of Weber, in whose orchestra at Dresden he became first flute in 1820, and whom he accompanied to London in 1826. During this visit he played his own Concerto at the Philharmonic. Weber is supposed to have assisted him in some of his numerous compositions for the flute, and no doubt many of the fine flute passages in Weber's operas were written with a view to his flautist friend. Furstenau assisted Weber to undress on July 4th, 1826, the night before the composer died, for which service the latter thanked him, and said, "Now let me sleep" — his last words. Next morning, receiving no reply to his knock at Weber's door, Furstenau had it broken open, and found that his friend's spirit had departed from this world for ever. It was for A. B. Furstenau that Kuhlau wrote many of his compositions. Furstenau and Kuhlau used to play 200 Furstenau — Doppler these pieces together. Furstenau's tone was pure, but somewhat thin as compared with Nicholson's, and he abounded in light and shade; his execution was also brilliant. He objected to double-tongueing. He fre- quently practised before a looking-glass. In later life he toured through Europe with his son Moritz (1824-89), a very precocious flautist, who performed at a public concert in Dresden at the age of eight. The King pre- sented the child with a gold watch for his performance at a Court concert when nine years old. Moritz Furs- tenau was one of the first German flautists to adopt the Bohm flute, but he was forced — owing to the prejudice of the directors of the Saxon Court Band, of which he was a member — to return to the old flute in 1852. About 1850 the brothers Doppler appeared. The manner in which they played the most rapid passages (on two flutes) absolutely together, with every delicate nuance of expression, caused _ . * quite a sensation all over Europe. They visited London in 1856, playing their own compositions : the "Hungarian Concertante " at the Philharmonic concert. The elder brother, Franz (1821-83), born in Lemberg, learned the flute from his father, who was an oboist in Warsaw. He settled in Buda Pesth as principal flautist in the theatre. In 1858 he was appointed Con- ductor at Vienna, and subsequently became professor at the Conservatoire in that city. He composed not only many works of high merit for one or two flutes, but also several overtures, ballets, and operas; one, called Erfsebeth, composed by the two Dopplers along with 201 Story of the Flute Erkel, was put in rehearsal before it was finished, and the scoring was only completed on the day of the per- formance. His younger brother, Carl (1825-1900), who was not so fine a performer, settled in Stuttgart in 1865. The chief exponents of the French school of flautists after Tulou were Dorus and Demersseman. Vincent Joseph van Steenkiste Dorus (1812-96) suc- Uorus and needed Tulou as professor at the Paris Conservatoire. He was one of the first in man , t t^-. 1 . . France to adopt the Bohm system, which was introduced into the Conservatoire in 1838 (it was intro- duced into the Brussels Conservatoire by Demeurs in 1842), and advocated wood in preference to metal in the cylinder flute. Dorus is said by Bohm to have been a player of taste ; he became first flute at the Paris Grand Opera about 1834, and was also a member of the Emperor's band. Dorus played at the London Philhar- monic in 1841. Jules Auguste Edouard Demersseman (1833-66), a Hollander by birth, spent most of his life in Paris. Owing to his adherence to the old flute, he was not appointed professor at the Conservatoire. He excelled in double-tongueing and display of all kinds ; hence he has been termed "a French Richardson." Though not very artistic, his performance, especially of his own fantasia on Oberon — at a single passage of which he is said to have worked six months before playing it in public — raised the excitable audiences at the Pasdeloup concerts in Paris to the highest state of enthusiasm, causing them to start to their feet and yell their applause. He might be termed "the Sarasate 202 Italian and Spanish Flautists of the flute." His compositions, many of which are still often performed, abound in exaggerated cadenzas, sometimes occupying whole pages and wandering through half a dozen keys; they require that the player should, like Demersseman himself, possess most powerful and retentive lungs. Italy appears to have produced but few flute-players of note : Ciardi and Briccialdi are the only prominent names. Cagsar Ciardi (1818-1877) when he visited England in 1847 was encored at the Italian London opera-house, whilst Grisi, Mario, „ *.". and Tamburini were waiting to be heard. Flautists Mr. Broadwood says that he heard Ciardi sustain a crescendo for four consecutive bars of adagio, whereupon Mr. Rudall declared that he " was fit to play before a chorus of angels " — although his instrument was an old Viennese flute with a crack all down the head joint. Guilio Briccialdi {1818-1881), a native of Terni, learned the flute from his father. He ran away from home (to avoid being forced into the Church), with twopence halfpenny in his pocket. After a tramp of forty miles he reached Rome, and entered the Academy of St. Cecilia, where in course of time he became Professor. He subsequently visited the prin- cipal cities of Europe (London in 1848) and America, and was Professor at Florence when he died. He was a brilliant performer, although he held his flute extremely awkwardly. He adopted the Bohm. His tone is re- ported to have been poor. Briccialdi was a remarkably handsome man. Both these Italian players produced a 203 Story of the Flute peculiar singing eflfect, and excelled in playing from fortissimo to pianissimo and iiice versa. They possessed much power of colouring, and elegance of execution, the true Italian refinement of taste — broad, not finikin like the modern French school, in its finish. They both composed many solos for the flute, some of which are excellent. The only Spanish flautist deserving notice is Jos6 Maria del Carmen Ribas (1796-1861), who served as a soldier under Wellington in the Peninsular War, and fought at the battle of Toulouse. Ribas played the flute and the clarinet equally well — often at the same concert — and also played the concertina. For many years he was a leading orchestral player on the flute in London ; playing at the Philharmonic Concerts (1838-41) and the Italian opera. He was the first to play the famous Scherzo in Mendelssoln's Midsummer NigMs Dream in England, and the composer was so pleased at the rehearsal that he asked Ribas to play it over three times, saying that he had no idea it would be so effective. Ribas played the old flute and possessed a powerful tone. A remarkable and eccentric genius, whose name is familiar to every flautist, Adolf Terschak (1832-1901), T t. fc vislS born at Hermannstadt in Transylvania, and studied at the Vienna Conservatoire. In 1863 he had a quarrel with Bohm, whose flute he never would adopt. Terschak was a born "globe- trotter," and gave flute recitals in all sorts of out-of-the- way places, which had never before been visited by any European flautist of note. Much of his life was spent in Arabia, Astrachan, Siberia, Korea, China, Japan, and 204 Famous Flattists. — III. Top //;/■■— Sidney Lanier, A. de Vrove, Wh helm Popf-. Second Z/^;t'— Hexrv Nicholson, John Kvle, Fr. Tafeanel. Third Litu-— Franz Doi ilek, Fr. L. Dulon, Carl Doitler. Fourth Line— JoACHty\ Andersen, J. J. Quantz, E. Kohler. Taffanel and others Iceland. In 1897 he toured in Central Asia, and was almost shipwrecked in crossings the Caspian Sea ; suffering a very severe illness in consequence. He composed a large number of works for the flute, an opera Thais, and many other orchestral and vocal works. As a reward for his Nordlands Bilder (op. 164) the King of Norway created him a member of the Order of St. Andrew. He also possessed several other foreign decorations. As regards his playing, his power and execution were immense, but his tone was coarse and windy ; moreover he was generally out of tune, and in 1878 his attempts to tune with the orchestra at the Crystal Palace so signally failed that he left in disgust. He was a tall, strong, handsome man, but in later life he suffered much from his eyes, and his health broke down. He died in Breslau. To turn once more to the French school : — Dorus was succeeded by Joseph H. Alt^s (1826-1899), a pupil of Tulou at the Paris Conservatoire, where he gained first prize in 1842. He subsequently became first flute at the Opera and professor at the Conservatoire. He was succeeded by Paul Taflfanel (1844-1908), born at Bordeaux, the greatest French flautist of recent times. Taffanel began to learn the flute from his _ ^ father at the early age of seven. When ten years of age he made his dehut at a public concert in Rochelle, with great success. Through the influence of an amateur flautist the lad was placed in Dorus' class at the Paris Conservatoire in i860; where he carried off the first prize for flute-playing, and also for 205 Story of the Flute harmony, counterpoint, and fugue. In 187 1 TafFanel was appointed first solo flute in the Grand Opera, Paris, and in 1887 became conductor. Ten years later he was appointed conductor at the Conservatoire. In conjunction with Lalo, Armingaud, and Jacquard, he in 1872 founded the Soci6t^ Classique, a string and wind quintett Society which continued to give concerts in Paris and elsewhere for fifteen years ; by their perfect ensemble this Society raised the standard of wind- instrument chamber playing to a pitch never hitherto attained. Under the stress of his arduous duties as musical director at the Paris Exhibition, 1900, his health broke down, and in the following year he resigned his position at the Conservatoire. His execution was rapid and brilliant, his tone extremely soft and velvety, and his playing full of soul, expression, and refinement. He was a member of the Legion of Honour and of many other foreign orders.^ SECTION II. BRITISH PLAYERS. ^ Previous to Nicholson, very few English names appear in the list of eminent flautists. Concerning th^ ' Amongst other players of note (not referred to elsewhere in this volume) who appeared between 1770- 1850, the following deserve mention : — Saust, Dressier, Soussmann, Kreith, Heinemeyer (London Philharmonic Concert, 1838), Krakamp (German) ; Guillou (London Philharmonic Concert, 1824), Lahou, Remusat (French); Reichert (Belgian) ; Sola (Italian) ; Card, Saynor (English), ^ In this section I include players who, though not of British birth or parentage, have permanently settled in England. 206 Early English Players Guys and Laniers, etc., who played flutes in Charles the First's band, we know practically nothing. Burney mentions one "Jack" (his real name was Michael Christian John) Fasting in 1731 -^ as "good on the German flute"; and Joseph Tacet, who is credited with the invention of certain keys and who wrote some flute music, is mentioned in Miss Burney's Diary (May 5th, 1772) as a player, but little is known about him. Our earliest native player of note concerning whom any details are preserved would appear to have been Andrew Ashe (c. 1758-1841), a native of Lisburn in the County Antrim, Ireland. Ashe travelled much in early life along with Count Bentinck, and became proficient on several instruments, studying the flute from Mozart's friend Wendling (see p. 135, ante). He subsequently became first flute in the Brussels Opera House, having defeated Vanhall, the holder of that position, in a public trial of skill. Returning to Ireland in 1782, Ashe played at concerts in the Dublin Rotunda and at the Exchange Rooms in Belfast, where on November 29th, 1789, he per- formed a concerto of his. own composition, introducing Robin Gray, and also took part in a duet for flute and clarinet, on Arne's Sweet Echo. Salomon in 1791 came over to Dublin specially to hear him, and imme- diately engaged him as first flute for his famous London Concerts (where some of Haydn's symphonies were produced). On Monzani's retirement, Ashe filled his place at the first flute desk in the Italian Opera. He 207 Story of the Flute afterwards conducted the concerts in Bath for twelve years. Ashe was an original member of the London Philharmonic Society, being their only flute in 1813, and played there in several Chamber pieces in 181 5-16. He was nominated a Professor in the Royal Academy on its foundation in 1822 ; but returned to Dublin, where he was residing at the time of his death. Ashe was a remarkably healthy man, and used to boast that in his whole life he had only spent a single guinea in doctor's fees. He was one of the first to adopt the six-keyed flute, and is said to have possessed a full, rich tone and much taste and judgment. Probably the most striking flautist that England ever produced was Charles Nicholson (1795-1837), born in Liverpool, the son of a flute-player. He ^ ^^ ^^^ practically self-taught. A handsome man of commanding stature and endowed with great muscular power of chest and lip, Nicholson's popularity in England was absolutely unparalleled. He had more applicants for lessons at a guinea an hour than he could attend to. He played in the orchestra ot Drury Lane, at the Italian opera, and the Philharmonic Concerts (1816-36). His style was the very antithesis of the French school, and he was by no means so highly thought of on the Continent. Fetis says he was inferior to Tulou in elegance and to Drouet in brilliant execution. He had a very peculiar, strong reedy tone — something between the oboe and clarinet-^-grand, but so hard as to be almost metallic. His lower notes were specially powerful and "thick," and resembled 208 Charles Nicholson those of a cornet or an org-an. His double-tongueing was extremely effective, and a great feature in his per- formance was his whirlwind chromatic rush up the instrument from the lowest C to the very topmost notes in alt. ; he himself compared it to the rush of a sky- rocket, whilst his descending scale has been likened to the torrent of a waterfall. He simply revelled in difficulties, using harmonics freely, and also the vibrato and the " glide." He adopted very large holes (Bo'hm, whose fingers were small and tapering could not cover them), and had various excavations made in the wood of his flutes to fit his fingers and joints. He frequently performed in public without any accompaniment, and is said to have excelled in an adagio, his playing abounding in contrast and variety. As a rule, he played his own compositions — mostly rubbishy airs with well-nigh impossible variations, embellishments, cadences, cadenzas, and shakes of inordinate length. His flute had at first six, and later seven keys. On one occasion a duel was arranged between him and Mr. James, the author of A Word or Two on the Flute, but it never came off. Nicholson's posing and tricks gave rise to many satires, in one of which he is called "Phunniwistl." After all his vast popularity, Nicholson, owing to his extravagant habits, died (of dropsy) in absolute penury. He was appointed professor of the flute at the Royal Academy of Music in 1822. On Nicholson's death he was succeeded by his pupil Joseph Richardson (1814-62), popularly termed " The Ambidextrous," or "The English Drouet," in con- 209 14 Story of the Flute sequence of his rapid enunciation and tours de force. He was physically a great contrast to Nicholson, being a remarkably small man. For many years he was solo flautist in JuUien's band, and afterwards in Queen Victoria's private orchestra. He played at the Philharmonic Concerts in 1839 and 1842. Richardson is said to have practised all day and almost all night, and acquired a marvellous dexterity. He had an exceptionally fine embouchure, but his tone, though brilliant and very "intense," was hard, small, and thin. He is said to have been "cold" in slow movements. On one occasion Richardson and Nichol- son played the same solo — Drouet's " God Save the King " — at two rival concerts on the same evening in Dublin. Richardson was succeeded at the Academy by John Clinton (1810-64), an Irishman, who was one of the first to teach the Bohm flute in England. '" " Though his tone was coarse and his tune p defective, he was for many years first flute in the London Italian Opera, where he was succeeded in 1850 by Robert Sydney Pratten (1824-68), who also took Richardson's place in Jullien's band when the latter retired. Pratten, who was self-taught, played all over Europe with applause. He had a great objection to extra shake-keys, and would not have the one to shake C| D| on his flute. Sir Julius Benedict was once conducting a rehearsal of an overture of his own which contained this shake as a rather prominent feature. Pratten shook C| Dtj very rapidly, and Sir Famous English Flautists Julius in delig-ht exclaimed that he had never before heard that shake properly made, whereupon the entire orchestra burst out laughing-. Pratten became suddenly very seriously ill whilst playing the obligate to " O rest in the Lord," in the Elijah at Exeter Hall in November, 1867. He played on to the end of the item, but had then to leave the orchestra, never to play again in public. Pratten's great English contemporary flautist, Ben- jamin Wells (1826-99), a pupil of Richardson and Clinton, was at the age of nineteen appointed first flute at the Royal Academy concerts, and was congratulated on his performance by the Duke of Wellington, in company with Mendels- sohn. He was an intimate friend of Balfe, and played in the orchestra on the first performance of The Bohemian Girl at Drury Lane in 1843. Wells once performed a fresh solo from memory every evening for fifty consecutive nights. He played in Jullien's band, and was for some time president of the London Flute Society, and also Professor at the Academy. He was the representative of the Bohm flute at the great Exhibition of 1851, where Richardson performed on Siccama's model. "Seventy years a flautist!" Such was the proud boast of old Henry Nicholson (1825-1907), the most protninent figure in the musical world of Leicester for over half a century, and _,, , ."'"'^ ..... r . . i Nicholson probably the last survivor of the orchestra that played at the first performance of the Elijah (1846), Story of the Flute conducted by Mendelssohn himself. On that occasion the great composer inscribed his autograph in Mr. Nicholson's flute case, which also contained the auto- graphs of numbers of other leading musicians of the past and present. This veteran flautist also played (in 1847) under the biton of Berlioz, on the occasion of the ddbui of Sims Reeves, with whom he formed a life-long friendship. Mr. Nicholson began his musical career at the age of nine, but never received any regular musical tuition. At the age of thirteen he played flute solos in public. When twenty-two he became a member of Jullien's famous orchestra. He subsequently played at the opening of the great Exhibition of 1851, at the Covent Garden Opera, and at the first Handel Festival in 1857; he continued a member of the Festival orchestra till 1890. Mr. Nicholson organized a long series of concerts in his native town ; he also acted as musical conductor at the Dublin Exhibition of 1872. When in 1882 he appeared at St. James's Hall along with Mme. Marie Roze, Punch described the perform- ance: — "A mocking-bird, perched on his own flute, and hopping from note to note in the most delightfully impudent and irritating manner. Shut your eyes and there was the mocking-bird, open them and there was Mr. Nicholson. What a pity he couldn't appear in full plumage with a false head and tootle on the flootle through his beak !" As a player, Henry Nicholson was remarkable for his pure ringing tone and his extra- ordinary facility of execution. He played in public till very shortly before his death. In his younger days he Svendsen was an excellent cricketer, and scored ag^ainst crack elevens. Oluf Svendsen (1832-88), a native of Christiania, wa,s the son of a military bandmaster, and played first flute in the theatre there at the age of fourteen. He had two years before joined the Guards ^^Jyf^^"' band as first flute. He first learned from Niels Petersen, of Copenhagen, and subsequently from Reichert at the Brussels Conservatoire. In 1855 he came to London to play for Jullien at the Covent Garden promenade concerts, and settled in England. Svendsen held the post of Professor at the Royal Academy of Music for twenty years, was first flute at the Crystal Palace for some time, and for many years played at all the principal concerts in and about 1 London, joining Queen Victoria's private band in i860, a post which he retained till his death. He played in the Royal Italian Opera from 1862 till 1872, and frequently appeared at the Philharmonic (1861-85). His wife was a daughter of Clinton and a fine pianist. Personally, Svendsen was a quiet, modest man, with agreeable manners. He was very fond of his native land, and often visited it. He produced a beautiful tone from his silver flute, and was not only a fine orchestral player, but also excelled as a soloist. The great features in his playing were his exquisite, artistic phrasing and the singing effects he produced, like those of Ciardi and Briccialdi. I shall never forget the way in which, a few months before his death, he led a performance of one of Gabrielsky's quartetts for four 213 Story of the Flute flutes, in which I had the honour of taking part. Svendsen's principal pupil was A. P. Vivian (1855- 1903), who inherited much of the manner of his master, and became Professor at the Royal Academy and principal flute at many leading- concerts in London. There are in England to-day many fine flautists. The first name that will occur to every flute-player is that of John R. Radcliff' (b. 18^2), who began L,eading j^jg career, at the early age of seven, on a .U.J penny whistle, having stopped up the top in England ^ , .^, , ," . • . ^u To-dav ^ with a cork and improvised a mouth- hole at the side. He played in public when twelve years old. Mr. Radcliff mastered the Bohm system in a fortnight. His tone is remarkably powerful, recalling that of Charles Nicholson. Next in seniority stands Edward de Jong (b. 1837), a Hollander who has made England his home for very many years past. He arrived at our shores with the magnificent sum of is. 6d. in Dutch money in his pocket ! After playing in Jullien's band he joined the Hall^ orchestra, of which he remained a dis- tinguished member for fifteen years. Mr. E. de Jong is eminently successful as an orchestral conductor. In his hands the flute almost becomes articulate; it liter- ally sings, especially on the lower register. Other players of the older generation still happily with us are Jean Firmin Brossa, born in Geneva in 1839, for many years first flute of the Hall6 orchestra and possessed of wonderfully pure, delicate tone and a marvellous pianissimo; and William L. Barrett. On 214 Famous Flautists of To-day. Top Line — J. Radcmff, Eli Hudson, W. L. Barrett. Second Line — F. Brossa, V. L. Needham, IVIiss Cora Cardigan. Third Line—%. de Jong, F. Griffith, E. S. Redfern. Fourth Line—Jy. S. Wood, A. Fransella. Leading Flautists in England one occasion, when the Royal Italian Opera Company was about to perform Lucia de Lammermoor for the ddbut of Mdlle. Fohstrom, the mad scene had not been rehearsed. What was to be done ? Barrett was equal to the emergency. Standing outside the prima donna's doubly-locked door during the entre-act, he modestly tootled the obligato through the key-hole, whilst the lady warbled the voice part as she dressed ! The principal players of the younger generation are Albert Fransella (b. 1866 in Amsterdam), the well- known soloist of the Queen's Hall orchestra, a virtuoso to his finger-tips, who \vhen quite a lad attracted the attention of Brahms ; Eli Hudson, who began the piccolo when aged five and performed in public at seven ! a remarkable soloist, gifted with marvellously fluent, clean execution, and extremely powerful, even tone ; Vincent L. Needham, the present first flute of the Hall6 orchestra, whose rapid double-tongueing once caused a gentleman at a concert to get up out of his seat and walk round the stage to see if there were not another flute-player hid behind the scenes ; Frederick Griffith, probably the greatest flautist Wales has ever produced, who by practising always pianissimo attained exquisite delicacy of tone ; E. Stanley Redfern, who possesses a rich, smooth tone and remarkable tech- nique; and Daniel S. Wood, of the London Symphony orchestra. Space forbids my mentioning even the names of many other fine players now before the British public. CHAPTER XIV. BRITISH AND FOREIGN STYLES COMPARED. Statistics — Style of perrormance-^English, French, Italian, Germain — Bohm's opinion — Foreign players of note. It is interesting to note the comparative numbers of flute-players produced by the various civilized countries. . , Out of a fairly complete list of 486 flautists of all times I find of German or Austrian birth, 201 ; French, 85 ; English, 54 ; Italian, 46 ; Dutch, 21; Belgian, 14; Hungarian and American, 12 each; Danish, 11; Bohemian, 8; Russian, 6; Spanish and Swiss, 4 each; Polish, 3; Swedish and South American, 2 each ; Greek, i. The predominance of those of German origin is very remarkable. Flute-playing seems very frequently to run in families. Thus I find one instance of a father, son, and grandson; in three cases, a father and two sons ; about twenty cases of a father and son ; fivs cases of two brothers ; and one of an uncle and nephew. I also find four players of the name Kohler and four Mullers, three Petersens, Wunderlichs, Gabrielskys and Fahrbachs, and two each of the following names : Giinther, Heindl, Balleron, Bauer, Kuhlau, Maquarre, Voigt, 216 Varieties of Style and Sauvlet, whose relationship to each other I do not know. As regards style of performance, there is a consider- able difference between the various nationalities. The English school (founded by Charles Nichol- son) differs from that of most continental ^^Y^^ of players chiefly in its vigour and robustness " °'^'"" of tone, especially on the lower notes. In the hands of unskilful players of this type there is a certain tendency to coarseness of tone, and a lack of refinement and delicacy of expression. The English players have also introduced much greater variety of articulation. The French and Belgian flautists aim chiefly at producing silvery purity and sweetness of tone rather than volume — quality rather than quantity. Their tone almost invariably sounds weak to British ears — Berbiguier himself termed them "joueurs de flageolet." They often seem to lack fire and dash; they are too tame. On the other hand, the foreign style is marked by refinement and delicacy of taste, and the phrasing is often exquisite. Moreover, they seem some- how more sympathetic in their playing. In pianissimo passages the result is often perfect; they will make a shake on the highest notes die away into nothing ; but in fortissimo passages they seem, as a rule, afraid to bring out the full power of the instrument, especially on the lower register. The Italian players, whilst bold, full, firm in tone, and skilled in florid execution, are generally somewhat lacking in polish and delicacy, and often defective in tune. Mendelssohn in 1830, writing 217 Story of the Flute from Rome, says: — " I heard a solo on the flute where the flute was more than a quarter of a tone too high ; it set my teeth on edge, but no one remarked it, and when at the end a shake came they applauded mechanically." The Germans approach more nearly to the English style, but are too fond of technicalities. Bohm has some interesting remarks on the various players of his day — " As to your question about German , flute-players, I am sorry to say there is not « , . one like Dorus or De Vroye, if I speak of perfection in every respect." He speaks of some of his German pupils as being very good orches- tral players ; ' ' and I think about as good solo players as your London players, with the exception of Mr. Pratten, whom I like very much. ... As to fine taste, I consider Dorus and De Vroye as first; as to tone, Ott, Kriiger, and several others are superior. When De Vroye had played here many said to me, ' De Vroye is a very fine artist ; but if we remember your tone and playing, he seems little and weak in comparison.' . . . As to playing in a grand style, I never heard anything like Nicholson and Tulou. They play now [1866J much more, but less in quality." Again in 1871 he says: — " De Vroye is a first-rate artist, but his tone is too small for London, where Nicholson is still remembered. I did as well as any continental flautist in London in 1831, but I could not match Nicholson in power of tone, wherefore I set to work to remodel my flute. Had I not heard him, probably the Bohm flute would never have been made. . . . All Nicholson's immediate 218 Notable Foreign Players successors had, more or less, a powerful tone, but they made a trumpet of the fiute. [This reminds one of Mrs. Browning's line, ' I am no trumpet, but a reed.'] Their tone was loud enough, but loudness alone is not what is wanted for singing." Other famous exponents of the French style were Altes, Taffanel, and more recently Krantz, who is renowned for the softness and "flutey" character of his tone and his observance P-^^^^^ of light and shade. Amongst present-day f w » exponents of the German school the most prominent are Prill; Tillmetz, a pupil of Bohm, who in 1882 performed in Parsival at Bayreuth under Wagner himself, and is noted for his technique; and Biichner; whilst among the Italians — Negri, Rabboni, Boucher, Ciardi, and Briccialdi had an able successor in Ernesto Kohler, a native of Modena, who settled in St. Peters- burg, and whose brilliant execution and fine tone were considered second to none in all Europe. He died in 1907. 219 CHAPTER XV. WOMAN AND THE FLUTE. Suitability — Female players in classic times — More recent flautistes — English flautistes of to-day — American flautistes — Female com- posers for the flute. The flute is the only wind instrument which has to any appreciable extent been adopted by women. Still, in modern times at any rate, flute-playing; has „ . , „. never found many votaries amongfst women, Suitability . , ^ ,. ■ ^ ^u c I and none have ever attained the very first rank as performers. The mere man might attribute this to the fact that one cannot flute and talk at the same time, or possibly it may be, as a fair flautiste is recently reported to have said, because kissing is fatal to flute-playing: in such a contest it is, of course, the flute that goes under. In early Victorian times it was considered most unlady-like and vulgar. Yet the instru- ment is extremely well suited for ladies. The attitude when playing is graceful and healthy, afi^ording ample opportunity for the display of a beautiful arm ; it is a gentle instrument, requiring but little physical exertion. Moreover, women possess more delicacy of touch and deftness of finger than men, and their lips are softer and more flexible. 230 Ancient Flautistes Among the ancients female flute-players were numer- ous. One of Alexander's generals wrote that he had captured 329 ladies of the Persian monarch's harem, who were skilled in flute-playing; Female the biographies of no fewer than 535 fair , f-f^"^ flautistes are said to have been destroyed in Times the burning of the Alexandrian Library at Athens. The most celebrated of the ancient flautistes was a very beautiful Egyptian named Lamia, who lived at Athens. She was taken prisoner on the occasion of a battle between Ptolemy Soter (whose mistress she was) and Demetrius Poliorcetes, c. 312 b.c. ; whereupon Demetrius conceived so violent a passion for her that, at her instigation, he conferred extraordinary benefits on the Athenians, who in consequence dedicated a temple to her as "Venus Lamia." Her portrait is preserved on an amethyst in the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris. A sister of the Empress Theodora frequently performed in public. Athenaus mentions one Harmonia as a great female flautiste, and Diodorus Siculus says that Minerva with her flute was present at her wedding in Samothrace. Plutarch mentions Nanno, a beautiful girl flautiste of the sixth century B.C., in whose honour Mimnermus, himself a flautist, composed an elegaic poem. For many centuries we find no particulars of any female performers on the flute, but doubtless there were many such. The flute-player in the engraving in Spenser's Shepherd's Calender, 1579, is a lady (see p. 33, ante). There is a picture by Philip Mercier Story of the Flute (1743") of a concert with a lady playing a flute. Sarah Schofield played the flute in Gorton Chapel, Man- chester, in 1775. A flute was presented by " an admirer to the famous Susanna Kennedy, Recent _,j , Countess of Eglmton, m the days of George III. On attempting to blow it she found it obstructed by a copy of verses, expressing the donor's envy of the lucky pipe which was to be pressed to her lips ! A sister of the Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, about 1780, played a flute made by Quantz, and took lessons from Dulon. In 1825-26 a little girl of twelve, named Cann, of Hereford, created quite a sensation in England by her performances at the Hereford and Gloucester Festivals, and the Quarterly Musical Maga- zine (8,268) says that her tone was clear and sound, her execution rapid and neat. On these occasions she played Drouet's " God Save the King," " Rule Britannia," and Tulou's French air with variations. She died in Paris in her twentieth year. An Italian lady player of note, Signora Maria Bianchini, was a pupil of Briccialdi. A Danish flautiste. Miss Julie Petersen, of Copenhagen, performed in her own country with great success in 1894. She subsequently visited New York, and in 1898 gave flute recitals in London, where I had the pleasure of hearing her. During her stay there she had the honour of appearing before Queen Alexandra (then Princess of Wales) at Marlborough House, and was specially chosen for musical honours by the King ot Denmark. Two English flautistes, Miss Greenhead and Miss 222 Modern Flautistes Pagrgi. obtained considerable reputation, but probably the most famous of all English lady flute-players is Miss Cora Cordigan (Mrs. L. Honig), whose charming tone and brilliant execution has English earned for her the title "The Queen of ^^f-"''^*" Flute-players." Mrs. Honig plays also the ° °" '^^ piccolo and the violin. Several other British lady flautistes of the present day deserve brief mention. Miss ErroU Stanhope (a daughter of Mr. Collard, the well-known professor of the flute), Miss Mary Wool- house, Miss Nellie Flood- Porter, Miss N. Crump, Miss E. Penville (who has given recitals in London), Miss Elgar (sister of Mr. Eli Hudson, whose recent per- formances both on the flute and piccolo at the London Colisseum have attracted much attention), and Miss Elsie Wild — who originally took up the flute out of bravado, because her young brother, who played it a little, said "No ^irl could play it properly." Miss Wild was the first lady to play a wind instrument in the orchestra of the Royal College of Music, then under the conductorship of Sir Charles Villiers Stanford. On her first appearance in the orchestra she was so terrified that she wished there was no such instrument in the world as the flute. America has produced at least two lady flautistes of note^Miss May Lyle Smith of New York {b. 1873), who never visited England ; and Miss Marguerite de Forest Andersen, a native of Maryland. The last-named lady appeared in London in 1905 and gave a recital in the Queen's 223 Story of the Flute Hall, for which Mde. Chatninade specially orchestrated her fine flute concerto. Female composers for the flute are by no means numerous ; Miss E. A. Chamberlayne, whose Scherzo Ariel for strings, harp and flute was played Female ^j. ^j^^ crystal Palace in 1895, Miss Dora Bright, Miss G. Rockstro, Mrs. Honig, who has written for the piccolo, Madames Chaminade and De Grandval ; and quite recently, Miss Katherine Eggar — these practically exhaust the list. 224 CHAPTER XVI. FLUTE IN AMERICA AND AUSTRALIA. Early notices and players — Later players of foreign origin — Ernst — Introduction of the Bohm flute — Native American players — Kyle — Lemmone. The flute has always been quite a popular instrument in the United States of America, and The American Musical Journal of 1834 mentions that the amateurs of the flute in New York were , *'*"y numerous, and that many had attained con- p. siderable proficiency. In the eighteenth century the churches in Boston usually supplied the place of an organ by a flute, bassoon, and violoncello. The names of some of the early performers have been preserved. The Pennsylvania Gazette of 1749 contains an advertisement of "John Beals, music-master from London in his house Fourth Street, near Chestnut Street," as a teacher of both the German flute and common flute {i.e.. Recorder), and specially mentions that he will attend young ladies at their houses : possibly the fair dames of Boston favoured the flute. In Phila- delphia, James Bremner taught the German flute in 1763 ; and Ernest Barnard, George D'Eissenberg, and John Stadler played it in the principal concerts in that 225 15 Story of the Flute city at this period. Flutes were imported from Europe into New York by Peter Goelet (1773) and John Jacob Astor (1789), who lived in 81 Queen Street. In 1821, John R. Parker of Boston announced that he had a choice collection of fashionable music for the flute, and in 1823 Meline played the flute obligato to Bishop's Echo Song in that city, Mrs. Holman being the vocalist. In New York Italian Opera in 1825 the flute desks were occupied by Blondeau and P. Taylor, whilst Plotter (appropriate name !) was flute in the Park Theatre in that city in 1832. In 1839, Downe played Bohm's Introduction, Air, and Variations at the New York Euterpian Society's Concert in the City Hall, and there were on that occasion four flutes in the orchestra, whilst the oboes, clarinets, and bassoons only numbered two each. The scarcity of oboe-players in America at this time often necessitated the oboe parts being played on flutes, of which apparently there was no lack. In 1849, Edward Lehman played the flute part in Kalliwoda's Concertante for flute, violin, and violoncello at the Mendelssohn Quartett Club of Boston. Many European flautists have from time to time settled in America. One of the earliest, Philip Ernst (1792-1868), a gunsmith, was born at Mentz, Later Hesse Darmstadt, Germany. When re- Players of ■ r ■ • J i 1 • „ ', covermg from a serious accident his Foreign , . . Q . . physician advised him to play the flute to exercise his lungs, and he actually gave lessons and played at public concerts whilst still on crutches. After acting as first flute in the theatre of his 226 Early Players native town he made a tour of Germany and Switzer- land with success. The composer, Winter, engaged him as principal tenor singer in the Royal Theatre, Munich. Going to Paris, Ernst was appointed first flautist to King Charles. When the revolution of 1830 broke out he visited England and succeeded Nicholson at flute in the Royal Italian Opera. Whilst in England he gave flute lessons !-■ the Princess Augusta of Cam- bridge, Lord Brougham, Sir Robert Peel's daughters, and other distinguished pupils. Soon afterwards he settled in New York, and was one of the first to introduce the Bohm flute into that ^f^^'^^^'' city. This instrument had already been seen there, however, in the hands of a tourist named Brix, a South American, who had visited Europe. In 1846 a special musical committee was appointed in Boston to judge of its merits. The first Bohm flute manufactured in the United States was made by a Mr. Larribee. Felix J. Eben, another foreigner, became a leading player and conductor in New York about 1849. Carl Zerrahn (c. 1850), a native of Wurtzburg, who at one time played in Mapleson's opera orchestra and subsequently became first flute in the famous Germania orchestra and conductor of several leading musical societies in Boston ; he is said to have been a marvel- lous sight-reader and a fine orchestral artist. Two of Bohm's pupils, C. Wehner {b. 1838) and Heind'I, settled in America. The latter became a leading player in Boston, -and is reported to have possessed a very pure tone and good execution. He died" of a disease con- 227 Story of the Flute tracted from an infected flute which a stranger had requested him to try. These men laid the foundation of the popularity of the Bohm flute in America. Others deserving brief notice are Eugene Weiner (1847-1903), born in Breslau, a member of the New York Phil- harmonic Club and Thomas" Orchestra; Charles Mol^ {1857-1905), a Parisian and pupil of Altes' at the Paris Conservatoire ; Alfred Quesnel, born in Thuringia in 1869, who was first flute in the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, and subsequently became solo flautist in the Thomas Orchestra at Chicago ; and Leonardo de Lorenzo (b. 1875), composer of some fine studies and solos, who has settled in New York as first flute in the Philharmonic Society. He is a native of Naples and studied at the conservatoire in that city. The earliest' native-born player of note was John Kyle {c. 1810-70), son of an English bassoon-player. During most of his career he played the old eight-keyed flute, and later on the Siccama model. Towards thfe end of his life, he adopted a silver Bohm. Native Kyle was for many years a leading musician _, in New York. He filled the post of solo Players flute in the New York Opera and the Phil- harmonic Society. His tone was remarkably rich and sweet. Kyle accompanied Jenny Lind and Catherine Hayes in their tours through America, and subsequently performed at the Sontag Concerts. He is said to have played obligatos to the voice so skilfully that it was well-nigh impossible to tell which was voice and which flute. On one occasion when a prima donna broke 228 Later Players down in a solo, Kyle took up her part and played it till she had recovered, for which he was much applauded. He was a handsome man with a peculiarly oval face and most charming manners. When dying Kyle requested that his silver flute should be placed in his hands and buried with him, which was done. Another who gained a great reputation was Otto Osterle (1861-1895), born in St. Louis, of German parentage. He from time to time filled the post of first flute in Thomas' orchestra, and those of Seidl and the New York Philharmonic. He also was professor of the flute in the National Conservatoire in New York. When Patti visited America, Osterle played obligatos with her. He played on a wooden Bohm flute, and his taste and phrasing have been highly spoken of, whilst his tone is said to have been marvellously sympathetic and sonorous, especially in slow movements. Other prominent native-born American flautists were John S. Cox, of Philadelphia, a member of Gilmore's and Sousa's bands, and an excellent piccolo player ; and Sidney Lanier, the poet-flautist (see p. 246, pos£). No native American flautist, however, has attained any notoriety outside his own country. Australia has produced a remarkable flute-player — Mr. John Lemmone, who visited England some years ago and played with great success. Mr. * ^ »• Lemmone, who plays the RadclifF model, has a fine tone and good style. He is gifted with a remarkable memory, and can play over a hundred solos without the music. 229 CHAPTER XVII. FLUTE IN ENGLISH LITERATURE — POET FLAUTISTS. Early English references — Chaucer — Flute and fife in Shakespeare — In the early dramatists — In the poets — References to the qualities of the flute — Epithets applied to it— Cowper — Longfellow — Other poets — Prose references — In modern novelists — Dickens — A weird flute story — Flute in American authors — Sidney Lanier — Other literary flautists — Legends. The earliest mention of the flute that I can find occurs in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (c. 1386), *' J, In the Prologue to that work, the gay young „ f squire is described as singing or "floytynge" all the day. In The House of Fame, iii., 130 (c. 1394), the poet speaks of " jnany thousand times twelve "■ " That craftily begunne to pipe, Both in doucet [? flute-douce] and in rede. . . . And many floute and liltyng home And pipes made of grene come," and he mentions three ancient flute-players by name — Atiteris [PTityrus], Proserus [? Pronomus], and "Marcia that lost her skyn " (Dante in his Paradise, i, 13-27, had already turned Marsyas into a woman). Again in the Romaunt of the Rose [c. 1400), "floytes" and 230 Chaucer and Shakespeare "flowtours" are mentioned, and one named Wicked Tongue is said to have played discordantly. " Floutys ful of armonie" are mentioned by Lydgate {c. 1406), and Caxton, writing about 1483, names the flute several times. In Dunbar's early Scottish poem, The Flyting oj Dunbar and Kennedy {c. 1504) we find " Tak thee a ' fidall or a floyt to jeist." Skelton in his Vox Populi (c. 1529) has a quaint proverbial expression "They may go blow their flute" — i.e., whistle for something. The flute is frequently included in the lists of instruments which occur in our early poets. In several cases "flutes "are named as distinct from " recorders," e.^. Hollands' Pliny, v. i (1601), "the flute and single pipe or recorder" (see also p. 34, ante). Shakespeare mentions both the flute and recorder, and also the fife. I need not here refer to the famous passage about the recorder in Hamlet (iii. 2). The flute is named twice in Antony and Cleopatra: in act ii., 7, 137, flutes, drums, and trumpets jtpTr . are mentioned, and in the description of _, , Cleopatra's barge (ii., 2, 199)— "The oars speare were silver, which, to the tune of flutes, kept stroke " — (which is taken almost verbatim from North's Plutarch, c. 1580: Plutarch's word is o.v\6v, which North translates "flutes"). Shakespeare always refers to the fife along with the drum: "I have known when there was no music with him but the drum and fife " {Much Ado About Nothing, ii., 3, 14) ; "The trumpets, sackbuts, psalteries and fifes, tabors and cymbals and the shouting Romans, make the sun 231 Story of the Flute dance" {Coriolanus v., 4, 52), — a passage recalling Nebuchadnezzar's band; " The spirit-stirring drum, the ear-piercing fife" {Othello, iii., 3, 352), and in The Merchant of Venice (ii., 5, 29), "the drum and the vile squeaking of the wry-neck't fife." The epithet " wry-neck't" probably refers to the neck of the player = " wry-necked fifer"; as Barnaby Rich in his "Irish Hubbub" {Aphorisms, 1618) says, "a fife is a wry- neck't musician, for he always looks away from his instrument," and the footman in Overbury's Char- acters (1614) "with a wry neck falls to tuning his instrument." The fife is mentioned by Holinshed (1577), by King James ist in Chorus Venetus [c. 1600); and frequently in our early dramatists (almost always along with the drum).^ In Cartwright's Ordinary, ii., i (1651), a military character comparing dishes of food to military instruments has a fat collar of brawn served J -pf ^°^ ^ drum, and "a well-grown lamprey for , , _ J a fife " ; a curious allusion to the alleged Dramatists derivation of the word "flute," just as Browne in Britannia's Pastorals says a little stiffened lamprey's skin served the fairies for a flute. Sackville's Gorboduc (1561) mentions flutes and drums * e.g., Marlowe's Edward II. (1598), and his translation of Lucan (1600), Kyd's Spanish Tragedy (c. 1594), The True Tragedy of Richard III. (1594), Ciiettle's Death of Robert Earl of Huntington (1601), Middleton's Spanish Gipsy (1623), his Fair Quarrel (1617), also Lingua (1607), Lady Alimony (1659), Jonson's Masque of Hymen (1606), and Jonson's Masque at Christmas (1616). 232 Dramatic References (iii. v.). The dramatists seldom mention the " flute." It occurs in the morality play Mankind {c. 1475) and in the " Banns" prefixed to the Chester miracle plays for 1600. In the fifteen volumes of Dodsley's Old Plays, I only find it named once (The True Trojans, 1633, where it is rhymed with "lute"). It is mentioned once in Beau- mont and Fletcher {Monsieur Thomas). Jonson never mentions it in any regular play, but it occurs in several of his masques, in one of which {World in the Moon) he also speaks of a flute-case. Nor can I find it in any play by Randolph, Massinger, Marlowe, Chapman, T. Heywood, Middleton, Kyd, or Greene (who all mention the fife), Dekker, Ford, Peele, Webster, Wycherley, Vanbrugh, Congreve, or Farquhar. Lyly naturally has it in his Midas (1592). (j&scoyn€ s Jocasta (1566) mentions fifes and drums, and has a stage direction that the flutes should play a very doleful noise during the dumb shows. There is a similar direction in Marston's Sophonisha (1606), and in that author's Antonio and Mellida (1602) we have a stage direction, "The still flutes sound a mournful cynet" — probably low-pitched flutes are intended. He also speaks of " a noise {i.e. small band) of flutes" in his Dutch Courtesan (1605). The amorous Don Antonio in Dryden's Don Sebastian (ii. 2) plays the flute, and in Thomas Shadwell's Squire of Alsatia. (ii. i) a song is accompanied by " two flutes and a thro' bass." In the poets a flute is very frequently introduced when shepherds are mentioned, and as a rustic or pastoral instrument : — 233 Story of the Flute ' ' What ho ! my shepherds, sweet it were To fill' with song this leafy glade — Bring harp and flute" — {A Sylvan Revel, E. C. Lefroy). Patie in Ramsey's Gentle Shepherd plays the flute. Wordsworth's Ruth cheers herself in her loneliness with a flute made of hemlock stalk, and in p The Prelude (viii.) mention is made of the shepherd's sprightly fife ; but the poet more usually refers to "the fife of war" {ib., vi.), and twice speaks of "the thrill of fifes." Wordsworth did not himself play — he says " I whose breath would labour at the flute in vain" (Epis. to Beaumont) — but one of his boyish playmates was a flautist {Prehide, ii.), and in one of his sonnets he refers to the playing of a friend. How beautifully does Keats address the "happy melodist unwearied, for ever piping songs for ever new," depicted on a Grecian urn playing a double flute :— " Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard Are sweeter ; therefore ye soft pipes play on; Not to the sensual ear, but, more endear'd. Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone." In Endymion he speaks of " ebon-tippdd flutes." Shelley also refers to the double-flute (Unfinished Drama), and in his Prometheus Unbound speaks of "a lake-surrounding flute," whose sounds o'erflow the listener's brain, so sweet that joy is almost pain. Poetic reference is very frequently made to the 234 References in the Poets softness and sweetness of the flute : as Austin Dobson daintily sings — " With pipe and flute the rustic Pan Of old made music sweet for man . . . Ah ! would — ah ! would a little span, Some air of Arcady could fan This age of ours, too seldoni stirred With pipe and flute ! " Its power over the passions (more especially love) is alluded to in Dryden's oft-quoted lines (set to appro- priate music by Handel) — " The soft complaining flute In dying notes discovers The woes of hopeless lovers ; '' — St. Cecilia! s Day. and in Alexander's Feast, where he mentions Timotheus and his breathing flute, who could swell the soul to rage or kindle soft desire, and References raise a mortal to the skies. This varied ..*°* ^ power of the flute over the feelings and ^j^^ fj^^^ emotions is frequently referred to. Accord- ing to Thomas Gordon Hake (1809) it has a like power over animals — " No more the wily note is heard From his full flute, the riving air ' That tames the snake, decoys the bird, Worries the she- wolf from her lair. " — The Snake- Charmer. Prior in his Pleasure speaks of the softening effect of the flute on other mstruments, and Addison mentions the flute as mellowing the sharper sounds of the violin. 235 Story of the Flute Lewis Morris declares "The flute is sweet to Gods and men." Poets have termed it "mellow," "melodious," "softening-," "soft and tender," "peaceful," Epithets "amorous," "soul-delighting," "charming," rhTfluU "warbling," "wailing," "melancholy," "lonely." In Paradise Lost, Satan's army moves to "The Dorian mood of flutes and soft recorders." Milton elsewhere speaks of the "oaten flute" of Lycidas and the "jocund flute" of Comus. Browne in his Pastorals (iii. i) has a "hollow, heavy flute." Swinburne in Songs before Sunrise has "the fierce flute." Surely no epithet could be less appropriate ! Cowper evidently regarded the flute as an instrument of effeminacy and wantonness (see The Timepiece, 260, and The Progress of Error, 133) ; he con- Cowper sidered that Mrs. Throckmorton's bull-finch T _x ft could "all the sounds express of flageolet Longfellow *■ ° or flute." The songs of birds and the notes of the flute are frequently compared. Longfellow in The Masque of Pandora calls birds "feathered flute- players," and in The Spanish Student says the fife has "a cheerful, soul-stirring sound, that soars up to my lady's window like the song of a swallow." In Hiawatha the gentle Chibiabos, best of all musicians, plays on "Flutes so musical and mellow," and Pau- Puk-Keewis dances his mystic dance to the sound of flutes. In his Divine Tragedy Longfellow introduces the "flute-players" at the death of the daughter of Jairus. The poet has here anticipated the revisers of the Bible; they have substituted "the flute-players" 236 More Poetical References for "the minstrels" of the authorised version {Matthew, ix. 23). In Revelations (xviii. 22) the revised version again reads ' ' flute-players " where the authorised version read "pipers." The only instance of the word "flute "in the authorised version is in the account of Nebuchadnezzar's orchestra in Daniel, iii. (where pan- pipes or else a double flute is intended), but in /. Kings (i. 40) the word "pipes" has a marginal reading "flutes." Browning's references to the instrument are somewhat contemptuous. He speaks of a "fife-shriek," and of a candlestick-maker blowing his brains into a flute {Shop), and in Up at a Villa he ^^" has " bang- whang-whang goes the drum, tootle-te-tootle the fife," which recalls the delicious description of the tuning of the orchestra in Smith's Rejected Addresses — " In soft vibration sighs the whispering lute. Tang goes the harpsichord, too-too the flute." The fascination of rhyming " flute " with " lute " seems irresistible; it occurs in innumerable instances. One of the latest is in Oscar Wilde's Ballad of Reading Gaol, ii. 9. Tennyson says, " Knaves are men that lute and flute fantastic tenderness " (The Princess, iv.). Leigh Hunt in The Fancy Concert has a somewhat similar passage beginning " Flageolets one by one, and flutes blowing more fast." Robert L. Stevenson was very fpnd of playing his flute "to tune up his ideas," and refers to it several times in the Ne-w Arabian Nights Story of the Flute and elsewhere. In one of his poems he describes how "Aye the gauger played the flute." Stevenson also wrote some very curious verses entitled an auto- biographical reminiscence, " To Theobald Bohm, Flautist (inventor of the fingering which bears his name)." I quote a few lines. " Was it in dream, O Bbhm, You saw these keys that seem So singularly mingled? The devil doubtless, on some lonely track, . . . Met you by assignation, and displayed Three models diabolically made ? From which (being all amazement) it was this You rashly singled." The poet proceeds to tell how Bohm, having sold his soul to the fiend in exchange for the flute, found he could not play it. Apparently Stevenson did not like the Bohm system. Addison in one of his most whimsical and charming papers in The Taller (No. 157) compares rose ladies to various musical instruments; here 1? gf » J* a « ^ g g is his description of the lady who resembled a flute, by which probably he meant a recorder: — "The person who pleased me most was a flute, an instrument that, without any great compass, has something exquisitely sweet and soft in its sound ; it lulls and soothes the ear, and fills it with such a gentle kind of melody as keeps the mind awake without startling it, and raises a most agreeable passion between transport and indolence. In short, the music of the flute is the conversation of a mild and amiable woman, that has nothing in it very elevated, or at the same time anything mean or trivial." 238 Prose References In the end he suggests a marriage between the flute and the lute. Oliver Goldsmith as a youth used to play the flute accompanied by Miss Contarine on the harpsichord. He himself tells us he was but an indifferent performer, and when insulted he used to relieve his feelings by blowing into it "with a kind of desperate, mechanical vehem- ence." During his wanderings over Europe in 1755 he more or less supported himself by means of his flute. He recalls in The Traveller \\ovi he "lipped his flute in France." Under the name of George Primrose in The Vicar of Wakefield he describes how — "Whenever I approached a peasant's house [in France] towards nightfall, I played one of my most merry tunes, and that procured me not only a lodging, but subsistence for the next day. I once or twice attempted to play for people of fashion, but they always thought my performance odious, and never rewarded me even with a trifle." An American writer has said that the fable of the playing of Marsyas teaches us how to treat young men who play on the flute, and certainly several modern novelists seem to regard the instru- Flute in ment chiefly as a subject of ridicule. They „ ,, dwell principally upon its melancholy aspect. Dickens is the chief off'ender in this respect, but his humour excuses him. How delightful is the description of Mr. Mell, the mild schoolmaster (the assistant-master in Thackeray's Doctor Birch also plays the German flute) in David Copperfield, "a gaunt, sallow young man with hollow cheeks," who carried his flute in three 239 Story of the Flute pieces in his tail-coat pocket, and used at night to blow it until it seemed that he would gradually blow his whole being into the large hole at the top, and ooze away at the keys ! — "There never can have been anybody in the world who played worse. He made the most dismal sounds I have ever heard produced by any means, natural or artificial. . . . The influence of the strain upon me was first to make me think of all my sorrows until I could hardly keep my tears back ; then to take away my appetite ; and lastly to make me so sleepy that I couldn't keep my eyes open." Then, again, the description of Dick Swiveller {Old Curiosity Shop), who, hearing that Sophy Wackles was lost to him for ever, took to flute-playing as " a good, sound, dismal occupation," and for the greater part of the night lay on his back, half in and half out of bed, with a small oblong music book, endeavouring to play "Away with Melancholy" very slowly, and repeating one note a great many times before he could find the next, thereby maddening the inhabitants of all the surrounding houses. No wonder he received notice to quit next morning. As Goethe says, " There is scarcely a more melancholy suffering to be undergone than what is forced on us by the neighbourhood of an incipient player on the flute or violin." The young gentleman at Mrs. Todgers' musical party {Martin Chussleviit) blows his melancholy into a flute: "he didn't blow much out of it, but that was all the better." So, too, Bulwer Lytton in What Will He Do With It? speaks of Dick Fairfield as "the cleverest boy at the school, who unluckily took to the flute and unfitted 240 Flute in Dickens and others himself for the present century," a sentiment which was embodied in the ancient Greek proverb. "To flute- players, nature gave brains, there's no doubt: But alas ! 'tis in vain, for they soon blow them out." Readers of Mrs. Ward's Robert Elsmere will remember the description of the duet played by the Rev. Mr. Mayhew and Miss Banks : — "After an adagio opening in which the flute and piano were at magnificent cross-purposes from the beginning, the two instruments plunged into an allegro very long and very fast, which became ultim- ately a desperate race between the competing performers for the final chord. . . . The shriller and the wilder grew the flute, and the greater the exertion of the dark Hercules performing on it, the fiercer grew the pace of the piano. . . Crash came the last chord, and the poor flute nearly half a page behind was left shrilly hanging in mid-air, forsaken, and companionless, an object of derision to gods and men." Very frequently the novelist's flautist belongs to the Church, generally of the type of little Mr, Sweeting in Charlotte Bronte's Shirley {c. 7), who always carried about the pieces of his flute in his pocket. As its "squeaking and gasping notes" are mentioned, we gather he was not much of a performer. Another flute- playing curate (Mr. Baily) occurs in G. M. Fenn's This Man's Wifs. Pearson's Magaaine for May, 1903, contains a re- markable story entitled The Flautist by J. H. Yoxall, M.P. It relates how a drunken flautist in the band at the Alcazar Restaurant saw a German flute hang- ing in the window of a slop-shop, which, when he took it in his hand, felt warm and flexible, almost 241 16 Story of the Flute alive. Finding that it produced a magnificent tone, he purchased it, whereupon his playing improved so mar- vellously that he got an engagement at the A Weird Queen's Hall. Coming home very drunk g "*® one night, he staggered out of bed at two o'clock in the morning and took the flute out of its case to have a look at it. For the life of him, he could not get it back into its case. In drunken frenzy he seized it by the end and dashed it against the edge of the chest of drawers, again and again. "He cursed it, loosed it, and it seemed to spring at him ; like a warm, flexible, snaky cord it clipped his throat. . . A rustle, a rattle, a thick breath, a triumphant hiss. The flautist gasped, and fell backward against the dingy bed ;" where the next morning he was found dead with a mark on his throat. American writers often mention the flute. There is a pathetic story "The Flute-player" in Harper's Magazine, May, 1908, which tells of a blind i, flautist, who played a tiny flute " half pipe, Flute in u If \4 " f • 1, -/u . , half reed, for coppers m an archway ; it has. Authors however, no special reference to the flute. But in Mr. James L. Allen's Flute and Viol, we find a charming portrait of an old Kentucky parson, whose "shy divinity" was his flute, which was hung by a blue ribbon above the meagre top shelf of books. "The older he grew and the more patient and dreamy his grey eyes, always the more and more devotedly he blew his little friend." He used to play late at night before going to bed, till he almost fell asleep. "They 342 Flute in American Authors were airs of heavenly sweetness. . . His long out- stretched legs relaxed their tension, his feet fell over side-wise on the hearthstone, his eyes closed, his head sank on his shoulder. Still he managed to hold on to his flute, faintly puffing a few notes at greater intervals, until at last by the dropping of the flute from his hands or the sudden rolling of his big head backward, he would awaken with a violent jerk. The next minute he would be asleep in bed." Mr. H. ClayWysham has written some amusing lines entitled That Amateur Flute: — " Hear the fluter with his flute — German flute ! How it demi-semi quavers On the madden'd air of night ; And defieth all endeavours To escape the sound or sight Of the flute, flute, flute, With its tootle, tootle, toot. With reiterated tootleings Of exasperating toots, Of long protracted tootleings Of agonizing toots, Of the flute, floot, phlewt, fluit. And the wheezings and the spittings of its toots. Should he get that other flute— Silver flute — Oh, what a deeper anguish Will its presence institoot ! How his eyes to Heaven he'll raise As he plays All the days ; 243 Story of the Flute And far into the murky night, How he'll stop us on our ways With its praise ! And fill with sore affright All the people — oh, the people — Who don't live in the steeple. Where he visiteth and plays, Where he plays, plays, plays, In the cruelest of ways, And thinks we ought to listen. And expects us to be mute. Who would rather have the ear-ach Than the music of his flute : Of his flute, flute, flute, , And the tootleings of its toot. Of the toots wherewith he tootleth His agonizing toot Of the flewt, floot, fluit. Flute, phlute, phlewt, phlewght. Of the tootle, tootle, tootleing Of its toot, toot, toot, ' With the wheezings and the spittings Of its toots ! " Scribner's Magazine^ October 1800, contains a some- what mystical poem, "The Flute," too long to quote fully— " ' How sounds thy flute, great master?' said a child; . . . ' Hath it a music very soft and mild, Or loud its tone?' Then he, who loved all children tenderly, Brought forth his best companion, and his lips Set fondly 'gainst the wood. The melody Followed his flying finger-tips, 244 Poems on the Flute And broke upon her ear in trills of sound, So light and gay, that frolic revelry, And murmurs sweet . . . Filled with soft laughter all the air around. Then gushed in glee a little tune She knew full well, but made so bright with showers Of liquid notes, 'twas like a meadow brook. Whose face is kissed by sudden April rain." [The flautist then plays a quiet measure.] " How sweet and low Sang then the happy spirit in the flute ! Like some far distant chimes from some old tower, Speaking of peace and calm serenity At sunset hour. [He then plays a martial measure.] She listened, while to joy again Changed the rich tones. So thrilling, strong, and free. With such wild passion, power and energy Leapt they from forth the slender instrument." Louisa N. Alcott has written a pretty poem on Thoreau's flute, telling how after his death — " We sighing said, ' Our Pan is dead,' His pipe hangs mute beside the river, Around it wistful sunbeams quiver. But music's airy voice is fled. Spring mourns as for untimely frost. The blue-bird chants a requiem. The willow blossom wails for him. The genius of the wood is lost. 245 Story of the Flute Then from the flute untouched by hands, There came a low, harmonious breath : For such as he there is no death, His life the eternal life commands." Of a similar character is Bayard Taylor's Greeting to Sidney Lanier — " With glowing heart I do salute thee ! To whom the cradle gave the flute ! And thou dost celebrate its song in trills. Making the morning and the evening tints To blend in music rare as ether. And when thou makest the flute to weep. Thou awaken'st the sweetest call that's heard. With thy magic wand, the flute. Thou breathest life into the throbbing of a trill, (Pygmalion-like, unto the marble). And when thou flutest soft and low, 'Tis like the sea the shore caressing ; And so the roses bend them o'er From the blooming garden to the sea of song. Song is the spirit of thy flute. Which, bursting forth in rippling trills. Lulls the senses into dreams — Again, as full of life as mystic rose, And then like Etna's fiery stream — It wooes in melody the Realm of Beauty And wakes and melts the heart to tears." Sidney Lanier (1842-81) was one of the most brilliant flautists of America, and also a poet of no mean rank — he has been termed " an American Rossetti." He 6 Sidney Lanier was a tall, handsome man, born in Macon, Georgia, and descended from the Huguenot family of famous musicians (including several flautists) in the service of Charles I. and Charles II. of England. On the outbreak of the war between North and Sidney South, Lanier enlisted in the Confederate anier Army, and he took part in several battles. When taken prisoner he hid his flute up his sleeve, and by its means gained the favour of his gaolers. In 1874 he joined the Peabody orchestra in Baltimore, and devoted himself to music and literature, becoming Professor of English in the John Hopkins University. Lanier composed music to several of his own poems, and wrote a novel and several important works on literary subjects. He is said to have produced strange violin effects from his flute. Asger Hamerik, the director of the Peabody orchestra, says of Lanier^s flute-playing: "In his hands the flute no longer remained a mere material instrument, but was transformed into a voice that set heavenly harmonies into vibration. Its tones developed colours, warmth, and a low sweetness of unspeakable poetry. . . . His playing appealed alike to the musically learned and to the unlearned — for he would magnetize the listener." Lanier had a firm belief in a great future for the flute; he said: "The time is not far distant when the twenty violins of a good orchestra will be balanced by twenty flutes." Here is how he speaks of the instrument in his poem The Symphony : — 247 Story of the Flute "But presently A velvet flute-note fell down pleasantly Upon the bosom of that harmony, And sailed and sailed incessantly, As if a petal from a wild rose blown Had fluttered down upon that pool of tone. And boat-wise dropped o' the convex side And floated down the glassy tide, And clarified and glorified The solemn spaces where the shadows bide. From the warm concave of that fluted note Somewhat, half song, half odour, forth did float, As if a rose might somehow be a throat. When Nature from her far-off glen Flutes her soft messages to men, The flute can say them o'er again ; Yea, Nature, singing sweet and lone, Breathes through life's strident polyphone The flute-voice in the world of tone." A commemoration of Lanier was held in the John Hopkins University in February 1888, at which the poet's flute and a roll of his MS. music were hung on a bronze bust of the poet. A little memorial volume was published to commemorate this event. Another poet-flautist, Richard Yates Sturges, born in Birmingham in 1843, and known as "The Flute of of Flutes," attained very considerable tone Z^* *' and technique. He died in Bristol in June FI f t iQio- Sturges was an enthusiastic Dante student. His poems are of very decided merit. Terschak set some of them to music, and dedicated his flute piece " Die Flammen von Surachani " 248 Literary Flautists to Sturg-es. Denmark has also produced a poet-flautist and novelist in the person of Sten. Stenson Blicher (1782- 1 848). The classical tales of Minerva, Pan, Syrinz, Apollo, and Marsyas are often alluded to by English poets and dramatists ; amongst others by Lydgate (who makes Pan's instrument a bagpipe), by Legends Spenser, by Kyd, by Campion, by the author *^°"""*f^ of Lingua, by Cowper, by Mrs. Browning, p, by Matthew Arnold. Heywood gives a comic version, and Lyly has a most amusing comedy on Midas. In O'Hara's burlesque of the same name Apollo's instrument is the guitar and Pan's is the bagpipe. The following" modern Greek legend is said to have been derived from Asia Minor: — A great king had a son who was a fine flute-player but very shy and a woman-hater. His father, wishing him to marry, ships him off to a foreign court to select a wife from amongst the princesses. The ship is wrecked, but the prince is carried by the waves to a beautiful island. Here he exchanges clothes with a poor fisherman and sets out for the palace of the king of the island, where he obtains employment as a stable- boy. In the evening he plays so enchantingly upon his flute that even the nightingales stop their singing to listen. The king's daughter hears him play and persuades her father to make him her music-master. Perceiving that the princess loves him, he discloses to her that he is a king's son, and ere long they are happily married. 249 Story of the Flute Another curious flute story is current in Greece: — A boy to whom some superhuman being has given a flute, goes with it to the public market-place, where a quantity of crockery is for sale. He begins to play, whereupon all the pots, jugs, and basins begin to fly about in the air and are all broken to pieces. He also compels a priest to dance among thorns, which hurt his feet terribly. (Griechische und Albanische Mdrchen.) A Hindu fairy tale relates how Seventee Bai, the daughter of a Rajah, dresses herself up as a boy and starts out in search of adventures. She meets Hera, an enchantress, who, supposing her to be a man, falls desperately in love with her. Seventee alleges that before marrying Hera she must perform an important mission. The enchantress gives her a little golden flute, telling her whenever she is in need of assistance to go into the forest and play it, promising that before the sound ceases she (Hera) will appear. The maid puts the flute in the folds of her dress and whenever she is in a difficulty she plays on it, whereupon Hera always appears, swinging in a silver tree. (Frere, Old Deccan Days.) The legend of the Invisible Flute-player is current amongst the peasants of several parts of Germany. He usually haunts a particular house, playing some- times in one room, sometimes in another. In some versions he visits a whole district. Whenever the inhabitants name or whistle a few bars of a certain tune, it is at once played by the invisible flautist. When the milkmaid in the dairy takes an apple in her 250 Flute Legends hand and offers it to him if he plays a tune for her, the apple vanishes at once and the music begins. In the end the invisible player becomes rather a nuisance, playing practical jokes, breaking windows, and creating general confusion. He even snatches away the food at meals and then jeeringly plays his flute in a corner. Finally he is driven away by means of rhyming incanta- tions. (MuUenhaff, Sagen Mdrchen.) 251 CHAPTER XVIII. CURIOSITIES OF THE FLUTE. Flutes ol curious materials — Walking-stick flutes — Ornamented flutes — Bbhm's crutch — Ward's Terminator — Various other inventions — The Giorgi flute — Automaton players — Dulon, the blind flautist — Rebsomen, the one-armed flautist — Hallet, the youthful prodigy — How to silence a flautist. Flutes have been made out of some very extraordinary materials. The ancient Greeks and Egyptians often used the bones of animals and birds (" Sebi," Flutes made ,. Tibja," and " Schwegel " all mean " leg- __ , J bone"), as certain savage nations do to-day. Animals' horns were also used, and there is in the Ashmolean Museum a remarkable specimen of such a flute found in an early Egyptian tomb, having some of the holes pierced in the solid end of the horn, apparently merely for ornament. Marble and jade has been used by the Greeks and by the Chinese. The Portuguese make flutes of terra-cotta and baked clay. A porcelain flute, said to have once belonged to Charles II., is still in existence; and flutes made of Dresden china are to be seen in the Museum of the Paris Conservatoire. Rossini possessed a flute-k-bec made of tortoise-shell, inlaid with gold. Ivory flutes 252 Curious Flutes (also used by the ancients) and piccolos were quite common at one period, and Dorus possessed one with gold keys and mountings. It is still frequently used for the headjoint in Germany and Russia. Glass flutes are as old as Mersenne ; many such were made in Paris by Breton, and by Laurent about 1806, and in London by Garrett about 1820. Papier-mache and even wax have also been tried, and one Gavin Wilson, a shoe- maker in Edinburgh in 1789, says he made a flute of leather ! A very peculiar flute, which combined a tobacco-pouch, made from a cocoa-nut and engraved canes, and which formerly belonged to an itinerant musician at Fez in Northern Morocco, was exhibited at South Kensington in 1872. The great John Bunyan when in gaol cut a flute out of the leg of his prison chair; it is a pity that this interesting relic has not been preserved. In Mediaeval Europe one form of flute was known as "Pilgrim staves," and is said (probably erroneously) to have been so named because _ , , „, they were used by the pilgrims to the shrine of St. James of Compostella ; as Southey sings: — " The staff was bored and drilled for those Who on a flute could play ; And thus the merry pilgrim Had music on his way." — The Pilgrim to Compostella. Walking-stick flutes were at one time quite popular, especially in France, where they were termed "cannes- 253 Story of the Flute flutes." Fetis, the musical historian, always carried one about with him. Flutes-a-bec of this description, with two keys, were made as late as 1800; but they were more usually transverse flutes. Mr. Rockstro describes one which consisted of two small flutes placed in a line and so arranged that two persons walking arm-in-arm could play duets on them ; each flute had four wooden keys fashioned in imitation of the stumps of twigs. Other sticks had a flute at one end and a piccolo at the other, and some contained also a sword. Several specimens are to be seen in the Museum of the Paris Conservatoire, and they are still to be met with occasionally in slop-shops. Clinton had a flute- case made to resemble a closed umbrella. Ornamented j^^ ^j^^ ^^^^ ^^ Nicholson ornamental head- joints and rings were much used, and Monzani made head-joints fluted like Greek pillars. Another curious feature in some early nineteenth century flutes is that although the tube is outwardly cylindrical it is inwardly conoidal. In some very modern flutes the wood or ebonite of the head-joint is thinned till it becomes a mere shell, and in others this is done to the entire tube. This is supposed to produce a sympathetic and beautiful tone more easily, , but there is always a risk of breakage and of leakage of air. Several strange inventions have appeared from time to time, none of which has ever become general. Bohm invented a curious moveable " crutch" for the purpose of obtaining a steady hold of the instrument and 254 Crutch and Terminator Various Inventions leaving the left hand free. A short pillar is fastened into the under side of the tube near the C hole, and the other end of it is fitted with a small cross-piece of wood, which rests between the thumb and fore-finger of the left hand, thus supporting the whole weight of the flute. But this cramps FIG. i4.-B0HM's CRUTCH, jjjg actioH of the thumb. Capeller invented a moveable mouthpiece, which was highly praised by Carl Maria von Weber in 1811. This contrivance was placed on an oval plate fixed on the head-joint, and both it and the cork could be moved by a screw. Ward devised a some- what similar patent timing-head, which he called a Terminator and Indicator. The method of using it was as fol- lows: "Place the ring at N opposite a number (on either side of the circle) corresponding to that which shows itself at the top of the slide at M. This moves the (cork) termination of the flute correspondingly." Notice the square mouth-hole. One Charles G. Townley in 1808 invented a system of tuning levers, moved by the left-hand thumb, to 255 FIG. 15. — WARD*S TERMINATOR AND INDICATOR. Story of the Flute open or close the tuning-slide whilst playing. He also devised a mouthpiece to be attached to the end of the flute so as to enable it to be held straight rij downwards. W.Wheatstone( 1820) patented J a similar mouthpiece ; and the idea seems to FIG. 16.— SIGNOR GIOEGI AND HIS KBVLESS FLUTE. have taken the fancy of Bohm, who says that if he were a younger man he would make a flute that could be played like a clarinet. In 1896 this device was repro- 256 Giorgi Flute — Automatons duced by Signer Giorgi of Florence. His flute has no keys whatever (though they can be added to it), and has a mouthpiece fitted with a mouth- hole like the ordinary flute, but placed crosswise across the end of the tube. Heckel, of Biebrich, has recently ( invented a small metal cap to be "" attached to the open end of the tube; this, he claims, increases the purity and beauty of the tone. Mollenhauer, / another German maker, has produced '■ V-.- FIG. ig. — MOLLKNHAUERS MOUTHPIECE. a curious modification of the mouth- hole, which resembles that on the ancient flute found by Newton at Hali- carnassus (see p. 23, ante). D'Israeli in his Curiosities of Litera- ture, and Hoffmann in his Serapion Brethren, both make allusions to an automaton flute- player constructed by Jacques Vaucauson, which was exhibited in Paris in 1738 and is thus described in D'Alembert's EncyclopMie Methodique : " A gigantic mechanical flute- player stood on a pedestal in which some of the works were contained, and not only blew into the flute, but with its lips increased and diminished 257 17 KIG. 18. hecicel's cap. Automaton Fluter players Story of the Flute the tones whfch it forced out of the instrument, per- forming the legato and staccato passages with the utmost perfection. The fingering was also perfectly accurate." Another mechanical flute-player is men- tioned in Thomas Amory's Life of John Buncle, 1756; Buncle (probably Amory himself) is described as playing the German flute, which he always carried about with him in a long inside pocket of his coat. He met with this automaton at the house of a Mrs. Fitzgibbons at Clankford, near Knaresborough, in York- shire. Here is Amory's description:— " In the apartment were two figures dressed like a shepherd and shepherdess. They sat on a rich couch, in a gay alcove, and both played the German flute. They moved their heads, their arms, their eyes, their fingers, and seemed to look with a consciousness at each other, while they breathed, at my entering the room, that fine piece of music, the ' Masquerade Minuet ;' and afterwards several excellent pieces. I thought at first they were living creatures ; but on examination finding they were only wood, my admira- tion increased and became exceedingly great, when I saw by shutting their mouths and stopping their fingers, that the music did not proceed from any organ within the figures. It was an extraordinary piece of clock-work, invented and made by one John Nixon, a poor man." Several blind flautists have gained a considerable reputation. One named Joseph Winter lived about 1770. The most celebrated was Friedrich Ludwig 258 Dulon — Rebsomen Dulon (1769-1826), of Brandenburg, blind from child- hood, who played in public at the age of ten, his tone and execution attracting much attention. Two years later he gave a concert in Berlin, ^^'"<^ ^""^ and subsequently played duets with Tromlitz ~ . , • T-- Toi, r j^^L Flautists in Leipsic. In 1786 he performed at the English Court, and in 1795 became one of the Royal musicians at St. Petersburg. Dulon was a man of very considerable ability, and wrote several works for the flute and other instruments. Possessing a wonder- ful memory, he could learn a long concerto in a couple of hours, and at the age of forty he had a repertoire of over three hundred pieces. (For portrait see p. 204, anie. ) Several one-armed persons have been flautists, per- forming on flutes with special mechanism, the lower end being supported by a pillar attached to a table. Such a flute, descending to the low B, was made for Count Rebsomen in 1842, under tHe Count's own direction. Rebsomen had lost his left arm and his right leg in Napoleon's campaigns, and was sub- sequently connected with the French Embassy in London^ The fingering of the left hand was replaced by keys placed between the holes for the right hand. These keys were opened by the second joints of the right hand fingers. The Count was an excellent performer, possessing considerable execution, and it is said that the audience would not have discovered from his playing that he had only one hand. One day he presented himself to Berbiguier in Paris, with his flute 259 Story of the Flute under his solitary arm and demanded to play a duet with the virtuoso. The latter began to laugh, but on being pressed, consented. Rebsomen thereupon took out a little pole, screwed it on to the table, attached his flute to it, and proceeded to prelude. Berbiguier was so astonished at his playing that he not only played the duet with him, but actually dedicated the work (op. 46) to the Count. It may be noted here that Beckert has composed a flute solo entitled The Nightingale, for the left hand only, in which he uses harmonics to produce notes otherwise impossible. Karl Grenser (b. 1794) is reputed to have played the flute in public at the age of six. This, however, is , beaten by Benjamin Hallet, who is said to have appeared at Drury Lane Theatre in 1748, dressed as a .girl, when not quite five years old (he certainly does not look much older in his portrait), and to have played the flute there for fifty nights with extraordinary skill and applause. In the following year he appeared in public as a violoncellist. The General Advertiser of 1748-9 announced " by desire, a concerto on the flute by the child" to be played between the acts. In December 1751 he appeared in an entertain- ment entitled " The Old Woman's Oratory, conducted by Mrs. Mary Midnight," produced by Colley Gibber, and in November 1753 the advertisement of a pro- gramme of a concert at The Five Bells, New Ghurch in the Strand, Included "a solo on the little flute by Master Hallet." It is said that an eminent solo flautist at a public 260 Count Rersomex. (From a portrait in the po^^es^ion of Me^sr^. Rudall, Carte & Co.) Lemon-sucking performance was once rendered incapable of playing by an enemy who stationed himself in a prominent position and noisily sucked a lemon all the time. The sight of the sucker's mouth puckered up by the sour lemon juice produced this strange result. How to I have not myself tried the experiment, lf"*^^t ,._,,,-.,„ , . ^ , Flautist but Ihe Musical Record mentions that a scientist who was disturbed by a street band, paid a boy to suck a lemon in front of the flute-player. The band moved its position several times, pursued by the boy. At last the infuriated bandmaster struck the lemon from the boy's mouth, whereupon he began to howl and attracted a policeman, who inquired into the case and decided that the boy had a perfect right to suck the lemon in the public street. 261 CHAPTER XIX. FLUTES OF ORIENTAL AND SAVAGE NATIONS. Oriental flutes — Chinese — ^Japanese — Effect of the flute on animals — Indian flutes — Nose-flutes — South American flutes — The love flute — Ancient prejudices — The Fathers and the Puritans. The flute is to be found all over the globe, and in a vast variety of form. The Chinese have quite a large „., assortment, generally made of bamboo. Flute though one named the Yuti is made of marble. They are called by different names according to the purpose for which they are used. Many are blown through a lateral mouth-hole, especially those which contain the syllable it in their name, as Ti-tzu. The Seiteki, which is very popular, in addition to its six finger holes, has another hole which is covered with a thin membrane of reed or paper in order to produce a buzzing sound (a device also found in the Siamese Klin, and in some early European flutes). It is often bound round with waxed silk to prevent it splitting, and ornamented with tassels attached to " dummy" holes near the end of the tube. Another Chinese flute called the Lung-ti is ornamented with dragon's heads and tails at the ends ; this is used 262 (D O) CO CL (Ji CQ Tl (Q CD (D O) CO CL (Ji CQ Tl (Q CD South American Flutes a larger hole near one end, which latter is held just underneath the left nostril. The other nostril being closed by a peculiar movement of the muscles of the nose, the breath is forced into the tube and produces a soft dulcet sound." Sometimes the right nostril of the player is closed by the thumb of the right hand whilst its fingers stop the finger-holes. They are often adorned with lines and figures scorched on the surface, and sometimes with human hair. Pierre Loti in his Le Manage de Loti mentions the Vivo as used in Tahiti. The nose-flute is also to be found in Northern Australia and New Zealand, whither it was brought probably by Malay traders. The Malays are so fond of the sound of the flute that they bore holes in bamboos growing on the river-bank in order that the wind may play tunes upon them ! The Mexicans and Peruvians have always been great flute-players, and many specimens of their early pipes and flutes are still preserved in the Mexican museums. Some of these are made of °" pottery and others of human bones — a fact „, which recalls the story of the Maori chief who, when complimented by Bishop Selwyn on the tone of his flute, replied that he was very happy when playing it because it was made out of the shin-bone of a rival chief whom he had killed and eaten ! Alonzo de Ovalle {c. 1650) tells us that such flutes are quite usual among some native tribes in Guiana and Chili, the accompanying drums being made out of the skins of the vanquished, to which music the warriors danced. 267 Story of the Flute A flute of the whistle type, called Pito, played a pro- minent part in the public ceremonies of the Aztecs. At the religious festival in honour of the deity Tezcatlipoca " a young man was sacrificed who, in preparation for the ceremony, had been instructed in the art of playing the flute. . . . When the hour arrived in which he was to be sacrificed he observed the established symbolical rite of breaking a flute on each of the steps as he ascended the temple. Again, at the public ceremonies which took place on the accession of a prince to the throne the new monarch addressed a prayer to the god, in which occurred the following allegorical expression, ' I am thy flute ; reveal to me thy will ; breathe into me thy breath like into a flute, as thou hast done to my predecessors on the throne.'" (Engel, Mus. Instru- ments, 63.) The flute-4-bec is much used by the North American Indians. They do not appear, however, to possess any transverse flutes. Most of their pipes are merican love-flutes, such as the Winnebago court- ing flute. That of the Sioux and Dakotas is called " Chotonka-chanta-ki-yapi." When a chief's son wishes to get married, he takes his flute and goes at night towards his lady's cabin and plays melancholy tunes as a prelude, after which he sings words of his own composition, describing her charms and promising her a long series of happy days in his wigwam. He then plays again on his flute to express his feelings. This singing and playing is continued for hours day after day, till the lady yields. 268 Flute Prejudice This use of the flute in love-making — probably owing to its soft and rather effeminate tone — is very wide- spread and of very ancient origin. It is found in Formosa and in Peru, where there is a regular "love- language " for the flute, by which girls can be drawn quite a distance to fall into the arms of the player. Garcilasso mentions how a Spaniard wished to carry off an Indian woman in the streets of Cozco, whereupon she exclaimed: ''Let me go, for that pipe which you hear in yonder tower calls me with great passion, and I cannot refuse the summons, for Love constrains me to go, that I may be his wife and he my husband." Among the Shans it is customary for the lover to play short tunes in a minor key, with very melancholy cadences, outside the house of his lady-love before he enters; and if a young girl dies unmarried and has no lover, the young men of the village play tunes to her on their gourd flutes in turn as she lies dead. Amongst the ancient Greeks the flute was considered rather a "naughty" instrument, probably owing to the character and dress — or rather want of dress — of many of the ladies who played ""^"* it, and also to its frequent introduction in f^'" '^® XT / n T • • \ ^&**DSt the scenes of debauch. Horace (Sai. I., n. i) Flnte calls bands of female flautists " Ambubaj- arum collegia," a term of contempt, and "flute-player" was often used as equivalent to "courtezan." The Theodosian Code forbade women to adopt the profes- sion of flute-players. Apuleius calls it "the wantonly- sounding flute." Aristotle says the flute was not a 269 Story of the Flute moral instrument, but adapted to enthusiastic and passionate music, such as is improper for the sober purposes of education.^ Plato banished it from his republic, saying no modest woman could hear the Lydian flute with impunity. Aristonaetus attributes to it great power to excite the passions. Perhaps this is why it was such a favourite with Cleopatra, a fact which did not escape the notice of Shakespeare (see p. 231, ante). An ancient Greek hymn to Mercury speaks of "the amorous sighing of the flute." It is to be noticed that the Hebrews employed the pipe or flute very little ; that used in Nebuchadnezzar's band (Dan. iii.) was called " Mashrokitha." Owing to its bad reputation, and also to its connection with Pagan religious ceremonies, the flute (though said to have been used by the early Alexandrian Christians in A.D. 150 to accompany the chant of the Last Supper) was tabooed by the early Christian Church. '^^^ By the Canons of St. Paul (viii. 32), flute- j ^t players were refused the rite of baptism, and the t^ „, ,,.,,, Puritans Chrysostom calls pipes "the very pomps and hotchpotch of the devil." St. Clement asserted the flute was fit for beasts rather than men, and St. Cyprian goes so far as to say that to strive ' As Roger Ashara says quaintly in his Toxophilus (1545), "Pallas, when she invented a pipe, cast it away, not so much sayeth Aristotle, because it deformed her face, but muche rather because such an Instru- mente belongeth nothing to learnynge. Howe such Instrumentes agree with learnyng, the goodlye argument betwixt Apollo, god of learnyrg, and Marsyas the Satyr, defender of pipinge, doth well declare, where Marsyas had his skine quite pulled over his head for his labour." 270 Puritans and Flute to talk with the fingers (as on a flute) is an act of ingratitude to God, who gave men a tongue; whilst St. Epiphanius says the flute was modelled from the serpent in Eden, and compares the gestures of a flute- player to those of the devil himself when blaspheming. The same view was taken by the early English Puritans. Gosson, in his School of Abuse (1579), terms flute-players "the caterpillars of a Commonwealth." William Prynne, in his Histriomastix (1633), cites with evident gusto the dictum of St. Clement, that if a flute-player turn Christian he must either give up flute- playing or else be rejected (p. 654). Fox, in his Martyrs, tells us that Thomas Bilney (who was afterwards martyred) used to resort straight to his prayers when- ever the Rev. Dr. Thurlby, of Cambridge, played on his recorder. This, however, apparently did not prevent Thurlby from becoming a bishop. Johannes Secundus makes flutes the instrument of Venus, and it is said that Leonardo da Vinci employed flutes as a kind of spell in order to obtain the proper pose for the Mona Lisa countenance in his famous, picture^ in which a refined sensuality is the main characteristic (Rowbotham). Nothing could please Zubof, the favourite of Catherine of Russia, when in love but the voluptuous strains of the flute. 271 Appendices. I.— Early Instruction Books for the Transverse Flute. II. — Wooden and Metal Flutes. III. — Bibliography of the Flute. 273 18. Appendix I. Early Instruction Books for the Transverse Flute. The earliest known book of instructions for the transverse flute is Hotteterre's Principis de la Flute Traversiire ou Flute d" Allemagne, de la Flute-a-bec ou Flute Douce, et du Hautbois, first published by Christophe Ballard in Paris in 1707; this was re-issued in 1713, 1720, 1722, and again, with additions, in 1741. Several editions (some pirated) appeared in Amsterdam (1708, 1710, and 1728) and in London. This extremely rare little book gives full instruc- tions, tables of fingerings, directions as to breathing, position of the player (whom he advises to practise before a mirror), and two pictures of flutes, but it contains no music. The author also wrote a number of sonatas or suites, rondos, and other short solos for one or two flutes (see p. 37 ante); trios for flute, violin, and oboe (some of which still exist in the Bibliotheque National in Paris and in Brussels, but none have ever been re-published); and "The Art of Preluding on the Transverse Flute" (17 12)— ^probably the earliest book of studies for the instrument — and a Method for the musette (1737). Hotteterre's famous work was copied, with the addition of some music (simple airs and duets, the fingering of each note being given), by Michel Corrette in his Methode pour apfirendre aishnent a jouer de la I'lfite 275 Story of the Flute Trnversiere (Paris,? 1710). This book is praised by Hawkins. Corrette had a school of music under the Jesuits in Paris, which Fetis tells us was not a success, his pupils being termed "las anachoretes" {i.e., 'Mes anes d Corrette "). The earliest English instruction book now in existence appeared in 1730-31. It is entitled The Modern Mustek- Master or the Universal Musician, containing the Newest Method for Learners in [inter a/ia] the German Flute as Improved by the Greatest Masters of the age (Peter Prelleur. London: Bow Church Yard). This curious work contains separate parts dealing with the violin, German flute, flute-a- bec, hautboy, and harpsichord, giving a collection of airs from Handel's operas, minuets, rigadoons, etc., and a duet, "Se il cor," from Ptolemy, arranged for two transverse flutes. It is illustrated with artistic pictures of players performing on each instrument, and the frontispiece shows a group of persons performing on them all, including one playing a long trans- verse flute. This instrument is treated of in vol. ii. The scale given " of all the notes and half-notes " extends from low D to high G, as in Hotteterre's book, the top Y^ being omitted as hopelessly imperfect. A table of beats or shakes is also included. The author recommends the syllables Tu-Ku for tongueing. At the end there is an advertisement of Handel's o^exas Julius Ceesar, Tamerlane, and ^odelinda transposed for the flute. It was evidently a popular work, as it ran through four editions in a few years. In the same year Johann Christian Schickhard published Principes- de la Flute, etc., in Amsterdam; and in 1759 A. Mahault, of that city, issued a tutor which Fetis describes as "one of the first truly methodical works for the flute." About the same period Francesco Geminiani published in London Rules for Playing' in a true taste on the German Flute, etc as exemplified in a variety of Compositions. This work is mentioned by Burney. 276 Appendix I. The year 1752 was marked by the appearance of Quantz's famous Instructions for the Transverse Flute, with twenty- four pages of music. It was originally published in Berlin, and was dedicated to Frederick the Great. This work was at once translated into French, and in 1754 a Dutch trans- lation by J. W. Lustig appeared in Amsterdam. It was reprinted in German in 1780 and in 1789, and has been recently re-edited by Dr. Arnold Schering, of Leipsic (1906). There is also an incomplete English translation. This was much the largest and most complete book of instructions that had as yet appeared, and it obtained a lasting and wide- spread celebrity. Quantz gives elaborate directions as to improving the tune of the imperfect notes on the old one- keyed flute, and he recommends every flute-player, if possible, to l6arn how to make a flute himself — which was all very well at that time, but would be rather difficult now- adays. His table of fingering is very peculiar: in addition to the use of the alternative DJi Ej, keys, he often gives different fingerings for the same note — e.s;, Ajf and B|j, Bft and Ctj, Btj and Cb, etc. His system of tongueing was attacked by a Danish amateur flautist and composer named Joachim de Moldenit, to whom Quantz replied in Marpurg's essays. The very rare Italian book, A. Lorenzoni's Saggio per ben Sonare il Flauto iraverso (Vicenza, 1779), was founded on Quantz, as were also most of the numerous tutors (English and foreign) which appeared towards the end of the eighteenth and beginning of the nineteenth century. To give details of these would be wearisome to my readers; suffice it to say that the principal English ones were those of Wragg (1790), Gunn (1793), and Nicholson (1820). 277 Appendix II. Wooden and Metal Flutes. Modern flutes are made either of wood, silver, or ebonite, a mixture of india-rubber, lead, and sulphur, first used for this purpose about 1850. Our ancestors delighted in a yellow boxwood flute with square silver keys and ivory tips to the joints (I have several made by Astor), but it and all other woods have been superseded by cocus or grenadille. Various metals have been tried — tin, copper, brass, pewter, and even iron. In England and America the head-joint of wooden flutes is usually lined with metal, which preserves the exact proportion of the curves. Mr. Welch tells an amusing story of a flautist friend who played an old wooden flute. Having become subject to fancies, and fearing he was about to die, he said to Mr. Welch, " I shall soon be in Heaven, and then I shall play on a golden flute; but mind, it must be lined with wood." Gold flutes are said to pro- duce a very rich and pure tone; but as they cost about ;^i8o, are not likely ever to come into general use. Metal flutes are now almost exclusively made of silver or German silver. Bohm, who tried all kinds of materials, came to the con- clusion that, for the majority of players, wood is best. The chief advantages of a silver flute, besides its nice appearance and lightness, are its quick articulation, the facility with which the sound can be produced, especially in the upper 278 Appendix II. notes, and its brilliancy. Its chief disadvantages are its occasional shrillness unless very skilfully played and its slightly metallic sound. It is not so sympathetic or round in tone as the wooden flute, which is fuller and richer, but slower in response. Moreover, it is liable to rapid fluctua- tions of pitch, caused by the tube getting hot or cold very rapidly, heat causing it to rise and vice versA. It is admir- able as a solo instrument or in the drawing-room, but in the orchestra the tone does not blend so well with the other wood winds (which are never made of metal), and stands out too prominently. It carries farther, however, than wood. Mr. W. S. Broadwood told me that when he last heard Doppler playing in the orchestra at Salzburg he was almost inaudible, playing on an old wooden flute. The same authority mentions how on one occasion he heard the silver iiute in an orchestra from the further extremity of a large building, apparently playing isolated phrases without accom- paniment; as he approached nearer he heard the double basses, then the violins; it is not so with a wooden or ebonite flute. But no doubt much depends on the individual player: nothing could be more beautiful than Svendsen's tone on a silver flute or Ciardi's on a wooden one. The question of wood versus silver is in reality a matter of individual taste. Each prefers his own instrument. One who plays wood will tell you that silver is harsh and metallic, and that wood is sweeter; one who plays silver will tell you that it alone produces pure tone, and that wood is "fluffy" and "woolly." A player who has naturally a fine tone will be able to produce it on either material. I fancy that imagination has a good deal to say to it. On one occasion in my own house Mons. F. Brossa and some other flautists tried the experiment of each retiring in turn behind a screen and playing the same piece alternately on a wooden and a silver flute, with the result that we were all as often wrong as right in guessing which instrument was being played. 279 Story of the Flute The idea that the material used affects the tone has bteen questioned by Lavignac. M. Victor Mahillon recently ex- perimented with a wooden and a brass trumpet, and he declares that the tone of each is identical — the wood quite as "brassy" as the genuine article. Sax tried similar experiments with a brass clarinet with the like result. This certainly upsets all previous theories, and is well deserving of further investigation. The truth would appear to be that the tone quality does not depend so much on the material used (although it has a certain amount of influence on it) as upon the form of the instrument itself. 380 Appendix III. Bibliography of the Flute. [This list does not include ancient classical or mediaeval works, or books or dictionaries on the general history of music and instruments, or articles in encyclopaedias, or books of instruction or tutors, or scientific works on acoustics.] Marpurg, F. W., on Quantz. 1754 (in German). Ribock, J. J. H. — Bemerkungen iiber die Flote. 1782. Tromlitz, J. G. — Ueber die Fioten mit Mehrern Klappen. 1800. Wieland, C. M. — Dulons des blinden Flotenspielers Leben. 1808. James, W. N. — A word or two on the Flute. 1826. The Flutists' Magazine. 1827-29, Coche, V. — Examen Critique de la Flute Ordinaire Com- par^e a la Flute de Bohm. 1838. Annand, VV. — A few more Words on the Flute. 1843. Clinton, J. — Essay on the Bohm Flute. 1843. Treatise on the Mechanism, etc., of the Flute. 1846 and c. 1852. A few Practical Hints to Flute-players. 1855. Ward, C —The Flute Explained. 1844. Siccama, A. — Observations on Tune applied to the Flute. 1846. Theory of the New Patent Diatonic Flute. 1847. 281 Story of the Flute Bohm, Th.— Ueber den Flotenbau. 1847. (Translated into English in 1882 by W. S. Broadwood.) Die Flote und das Flotenspiel. 1871. (Translated into English by D. C. Millar, 191 1.) Carte, R. — Sketch of Improvements made in the Flute. 1851. Badger, A. G. — Illustrated History of the Flute. 1861. Skefifington, Rev. T. C— The Flute in its Transition Stage. 1862. Quantz, A, — Leben und Werke des Flotisten J J. Quantz. 1877. Carlez, J. — Les Hotteterre. 1877. Thoinan, E — Les Hotteterre et les Chedeville. 1894. Welch, C— History of the Bohm Flute. 1883-96. Rockstro, R. S. — Description of the Rockstro-Model Flute. 1884. Treatise on the Flute. 1890. Hints to Flute-players. Italo Piazza. — Dissertazione Storia-critica sul Flauto. 1890. Wysham, H. C— The Evolution of the Bohm Flute. 1898. Taylor, A. D. — The Art of Flute-playing. Goldberg, A. — Biographieen zur Portrats - Sammlung hervorragender Floten-Virtuosen, Dilettanten und Komponisten. 1906. Welch, C. — The Recorder and other Flutes in relation to Literature. 1912. MAGAZINE ARTICLES AND PAMPHLETS. Ribock, J. J. H. — Ueber Musik an Flotenliebhaber in Sonderheit. (Magazin der Musik Herausgegeben, Hamburg, 1783.) Tromlitz, J. G. — Nachricht von Tromlitzischen Floten. {3.) zSz Appendix III. Lambert, J. H. — Observations sur les Flutes. (Nouveaux Memoires de I'Academie Royal des Sciences de Berlin, I777-) Pottgiesser, H. W. — Ueber die Fehler der Bisherigen Floten. (AUgenneine Musikalische Zeitung, 1803 and 1824.J Furstenau, A. B. — Etwas ueber die Flote und des Floten- spiel. (Gazette Musicale de Leipsic, vol. xxvii. p. 709.) Weber, C. M. von. — Neue Erfindung zur Vervollkommnung der Flote. (All. Mus. Zeitung, 181 1.) Grenser, H — Letters and Articles on same. (/A 1800, 181 1, and 1824.) Weber, Gfr. — Klappen fur C" and B' auf der Flote. (Caecilia, Band 9, 1828.) Schafhautl, C. von.— Nachricht. (All. Mus. Zeitung, January 29, 1834.) Letter on Bohm Flute. (Musical World, February 18, 1882.) The Flute. (Penny Magazine, 1840, p. 170.) Ward, C. — Letter. (Musical World, November 7, 1843.) Carte, R. — Article in The Monthly Lecturer, vol. ii., p. 285. Mahillon, V. C. — On the Fingering of the Bohm Flute. (Musical Opinion, November 1884.) The Bohm Flute, by "Ebonite." {lb. August-October 1888.) Bohm's Life and Letters. {lb. March 1890.) Wysham, H. C. — On " Flute," etc., in Groves' Dictionary of Music. (Boston Leader, April 1890,) Evolution of the Bohm Flute. {lb. August 1891.) Rowbotham, J. F. — The Flute. (Musical Opinion, August I, 1892.) The Flute. (Good Words, 1904, p. 243.) American -Indian Flutes. (Journal of American Folk-lore, 1894, 1895, and 1896.) 28-, Story of the Flute Howard, A. A.— The Aulos. (Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, vol. iv., 1893, and vol. x., 1899.) The Giorgi Flute. (Musical Courier, November 12, 1896.) Frederick and his Flute. {lb. April 1899.) Southgate, T. L. — Ancient Egyptian Double Flutes. (Pro- ceedings of the Musical Association, 1890.) The Evolution of the Flute. {lb. 1907.) Flute Music, {lb 1909.) Welch, C— The Literature of the Recorder. {lb. 1897.) Hamlet and the Recorder. {lb. 1901.) Standish, H.— The Giorgi Flute. {lb. 1897.) Bridge, J. C. — The Chester Recorders. {lb. 1900.) FitzGibbon, H. M. — Flutes Ancient and Modern. (Leisure Hour, May 1884.) Famous Flautists Past and Present. (Musical World, 1906.) Lady Flautists. {lb.) Frederick the Great and Quantz. (Musical Opinion, March 1893.) The Flute in Chamber Music. {lb. April, June, July, 190s-) The Flute in Bach and Handel, {lb. October, December, 191 1.) — — Use of the Piccolo by Great Composers, {lb. October, December, 191 2.) The Flute in Early English Poetry and Drama, {lb. September, 1913.) And many other articles on flute subjects in the same journal, which also contains numerous other matters of interest to flautists, especially a series of letters (1892 and 1898), and quarterly reviews of flute music. 284 Index. Agility of the flute, 95 Agricola, 27 " Airs with variations," 109 Almain whistle, the, 74 Altes, H., 20s Alto flutes, 88-91 America, the flute in, 225 the Bohm introduced, 227 early players, 225 flute-dealers, 226 later players, 226 native-born players, 228 American authors, flute in, 236, 242 Amory's Life of John Buncle, 258 Ancient players of note, 1 2 Andersen, Miss, 223 Animals, effect of the flute on, 264 Antiquity of the flute, I Apuleius, 5 Arab "Nay," the, 6 Arbeau's Orchesographie, 74 " Archoo!," the, 9 " Arigot," the, 75 Art, the flute in, 25, 33, iSgw. Ashe, 207 " Aulos," the, 6 Australian flautist, 229 Automaton flute-players, 257 Avison, Musical Expression, 178 Bach, J. S., his flute passages, 118, 121 ■ flute obligates, 119 Bach, J. S. , his flute sonatas, 102 flauto-piccolo in, 121 Bacon on flutes, fifes, and re- corders, 34 Balance of tone, 120 Barrett, W. L., 214 his flute, 7 1 Bass flutes, 87-8 in Handel, 123 Bayr, George, 97 Beaked flutes, 16 Beethoven's flute sonata, 103 piccolo in, 82, 142 Leonora, No. 3, 143 symphonies, 139 the "Pastorale," 140 Berbiguier's life, 196 compositions, 104 Berlioz, 161-163 piccolo in, 82-85, '^3 remarks on, 81 Best keys for flute music, 99 Bianchini, Signora, 222 Bible, flute in the, 10, 237, 270 Bibliography, magazine articles, 282 treatises, 28l_^. Biglioni, 41 Birmingham flute society, 72 Bishop's Lo, hear the Gentle Lark, 86, 113 Bizet's Carmen, 83, 166 Blavet, M., 35, lOi Blicher, Si S., 249 28; Story of the Flute Blind flautists, 258 Bohm, 52-59 as a player, 58 centenary. 59 compositions, 58 "crutch," 254 flute of 1831, S3 '■ of 1832, 54 of 1847, 56 : — introduced in the Paris Conservatoire, 55, 202 in America, 227 his opinion on players, 218 on materials, 278 pamphlets, 58 schema, 57 Boie, 39 " Bombux," the, 8 Boucher, 219 Brahms, flute and piccolo in, 83, 162K. Bricciardi, 203 B|j lever, 69 Brossa, F., 214 Biichner, 219 Bufifardin, 35 Buffet's needle springs, 66 Bulbed flutes of ancients, 9 Burmese flutes, 266 Cadbnzas for flute, 151, i65«. Cann, Miss, 22Z Capeller, 52 mouthpiece, 255 ■ ^ shake-key, 45 " Capistrum," the, 14 Card, W., 67, 2o6«. Cardigan (Mrs. Honig), Miss, 223 Carte's flutes, 69-70 Chamber music by classical com- posers, 181 for wind alone, 183- 184 Chamber music for v/iad with strings, 184 large combinations, oc- tetts, nonetts, etc., best, 184 piccolo in, 184 for flutes alone, 185 Cherubini's famous joke, 135 Chevalier flute, the, 34 Chinese flutes, 25, 262 Ciardi, 203 Classical legends, 2 Clinton, 56, 210 his flutes, 70 on Bohm, 62 Coche's attack on Bohm, 60 inventions, 66 Coleridge-Taylor's Hiawatha, 169 Collard's flute, 71 Colonieu, 71 Conical bore introduced, 38 Corrette's Methode, 275 Costume, etc., of ancient players, 13 Cotgrave s Dictionary, 2, 75 Cox, John S. , 229 Crump, Miss, 223 Curious materials used for flutes, 252 D'Alembert's Encyclopidie Me- thodiqtte. 42, 257 De Jong, 214 De Vroye, 218 Demersseman, 108, 202 Demeurs, pupil of Dorus, 202 Denner, 38 Der Freischutz, 143 Destouches and Lalande's Ele- ments, 81 Devienne, 41, 43, 104 Dickens and the flute, 239 Diderot's bass flute, 88 Encyclopedia, 41 286 Index Difficult passages in modern com- positions, 176-179 Doppler, 201 compositions, 1 1 1 Dorus, 202 G j key, 67 Double and triple recorders, 19 flutes, ancient, 8 Double-tongueing, 96 Dragon flute, Chinese, 263 Dressier, 2o6«. Drouet, 197-200 Dulon, F. L , 258 Dvorak, 163-5 piccolo in, 83, 165 The Spectre's Bride, 164 Early British players, 206 Christians and the flute, 270 critiques, 109 composers for the flute, too musical treatises, 27 pictures containing flutes, 25, 33 references in English lit- erature, 230-3 Eben, Felix J., 227 Ebonite flutes, 278 Egyptian flutes, 4 Eight-keyed flute, the, 45 Elgar, Miss, 223 Encydopidie Methodique, 42, 257 Epithets applied to the flute, 236 Ernst, Philip, 226 Etruscan flutes, 9 Extreme high notes, 177 F FLUTE, the, 85 Farrenc, 108 Female Composers for the flute, 224 players, 220 Festing, 207 Fife, early history, 73 music for, 75 in English Literature, 231 Opera, 79 the true, 79 with drum, 75 Fingerholes, development of, 7 Fipple, the, 6 "Flageletto" notes, 96 Flageolet, the, 20 Flautist-composers, 104 Flautists, nationality of, 216 Flood- Porter, Miss, 223 Florio, 41 Flute-a-bec, the, 1 6 Flute d'Amour, the, 91 and harp, 113, 162 and guitar, 113 considered an amatory instru- ment, 269-271 early foreign representations and references, 25 epithets applied to, 236 legends about the, 249-251 quartetts, 185 in Addison, 238 in American authors, 236, 242-248 in Bible, 10, 237, 270 in Chaucer, etc. , 230 in Dickens and other novel- ists, 239 in early dramati&ts, 232 in English poets, 234-238 in Goldsmith, 239 in Milton, 236 in Shakespeare, 231 Flutes with keys, 34 Four flutes in orchestral works, 161 Fransella, A., 215 Frederick the Great, 188 Frisch, 81 Furstenau, 200 287 Story of the Flute Geminiam's Rules for Playing, 276 Gevaert on the flute, 95 ■- Giorgi flute, the, 257 "Glide" efi'ect, the, 98, 109 Gluck, his flute passages, 129-132 his Orfeo, 129 his use of the lowest notes, 1 3 1 piccolo in, 131 Godfroy, 56 Gold flutes, 278 Golden age of the flute, 108 Good flute music, 107, 11 1 Gordon, 48-52 his flutes, 50 Gordon-Bohm controversy, 59-64 Gounod, 82 Greenhead, Miss, 222 Grenser, K., 260 Grieg, flute and piccolo in, 165 Griffith, Y., 215 Guillou, 197, 2o6k. Halicarnassus flute, the, 24 Hallet, B., 260 Handel, his use of the flute, 122, 127 combines flute and organ, 127 his " flauto-piccolo," 125 his flautist, 129 his flute sonatas, 102 his obligatos, 124, 127 his orchestra, 128 Harmonics, 95 Haydn, his flute passages, 132-134 his chief flautist, 132 his flute sonata, 103 his symphonies, 134 The Creation, 133 Hebrew " Mashrokitha," the, 10, 231, 270 Hebrews considered flute profane, 270 Heckel's Cap, 257 Heind'l, 227 Heinemayer, 2o6«. Hirsch, 132 Hoffmann, G., 42 Hotteterre, 35 his flute, 38 his Principis de la FlAle traversiire, 35, 275 music by, 37, 275 Hudson, E,, 215 Miss, 223 Hugot, A., 193 Hummel's septetts, 182 Indian flutes, 25, 266 Instruction Books, early, 275 first English, 276 later English, 277 Interchangeable middle sections, 39 Ireland, flautist, 182 Ismenias, 15 Italian operatic composers, flute in, 152 Japanese flutes, 263 legend concerning the flute, 264 Juba's Theatrical History, 6 Juvigny, 20 Kaffir flute, 266 " Kaval," the, 6 Keyless flutes, 23 Keys, addition of, 34 the D#, 34 the low C, 41 Ft], G|, Bb, 41-42 — Ct|, 43 long Fj;, 43 long B|j, 44 Index Keys on recorders, 18 King Henry VIII., ig, 76, 192 ICircher, 17, 32 Kohler, E., 219 Koppitz, 97 Krakamp, 2o6«. Krantz, 219 Kreith, 2o6«. Kuhlau and his compositions, 105 his friendship with Beet- hoven, 106 his successors, 107 Kusder, 38, 42 Kyle, John, 228 La Barre, 35 Lady flautistes, 220 ancient, 221 modern, 223 American, 223 Lady Maket flutes, 5 Lahou, 2o6». Lamia, 221 Lanier, Sidney, 229, 246 Le Thiere, 8l Left-handed flautists, 196 Legendary date of invention of the flute, 2 Legends about the flute, 249-251 Lemmone, J., 229 Lemon-sucking, effect of, 261 Literary flautists, 246-8 Loeillet, J. B., 100 Lorenzo, L. de, 228 Lorenzoni's instruction book, 277 Love-flutes of American Indians, etc., 268 Lulli, 117 Luscinius, 27 Macgregor's bass and alto flutes, 87, 90 Machault and Deschamps, 26 Magic Flule, The, 137 Mahault's Tutor, 276 Marschner, 82 Marsyas, 3 " Mashrolcitha," the Hebrew, 10, 237, 270 Massenet, 83 Materials for flute-tubes, 278 Mathews, J., and his flute, 72 Mendelssohn, 155-158 his symphonies, 157 Midsummer A/ight's Dream, 15s use of low register, 156 piccolo in, 158 Merci, L., loi Mersenne's description, 29, 32 Metal flutes, 278 Mexican and Peruvian flutes, 267, 269 Meyerbeer, 148-152 curious combinations in, 149 his use of the flute, 150 obligate for two flutes, 151 piccolo in, 148 Midas, story of, 3 Military fifes and drums, 76-79 Minerva, Ascham on, 270K. Modern flute composers, 112 French composers, 165-6 Modern Musick Master, The, 22 276 Mole, Charles, 228 Mollenhauer's mouth-piece, 257 Monteverde's Orfeo, 117 Mouth-piece, Townley's, 255 Mollenhauer's, 257 Wheatstone's, 256 Mozart, flute passages, 135-138 his flute concertos, 138 his operas, 137 his Symphonies and Seren- ades, 136 289 19 Story of the Flute Mozart, his piccolo passages, 136 his dislike of the flute, 135 his favorite flautist, 135 Music for flute by classical com- posers, 102 Names given to favourite flutes, igiw. "Nay," the, 6 Nebuchadnezzar's flute, 10, 237, 270 Needham, V. L., 215 Needle-springs, 66 Negri, 219 Nicholson, Charles, 208 Nicholson, Henry, 211 Nolan's ring-key, 45 North American Indian flutes, 268 Nose-flutes, 266 Number of flutes used increased, 160 Obligatos for the flute, 113 in Lucia de Lammermoor, 152 in Bach, 119 in Handel, 124, 127 for two flutes, 151 "Oh, ruddier than the Cherry,'' ■124 One-armed flautists, 259 Open keys, 44 Orchestra, early examples of the flute in, 115 Organ and flute, 127 Origin of the flute, 4 Origin of the name "flute,'' 2 Ornamented flutes, 254 Osiris, the Egyptian God, 4 Osterle, Otto, 229 Paggi, Miss, 223 Paintings, the flute in, 33, i8g». Penville, Miss, 223 Perforated keys, 56 Petersen, Miss, 222 Philbert, 34, 193 "Photinx," the, 6 Piccolo, the, 80 as a solo instrument, 85 Berlioz's remarks on, 81 ■ characteristics of, 81 early examples of its use, 81 military varieties, 85 in D|j used, 84 two used, 81-84, 132, 136, 147, 149, i6s, 169, 170 three used, 84 use by great composers, 82 in Bach, 121 Beethoven, 82, 142 — Berlioz, 82-85, 163 Dvorak, 83, 165 Gluck, 131 Grieg, 165 Handel, 125 Mendelssohn, 158 Meyerbeer, 148 ■ Mozart, 136 Rossini, 153 Schubert, 159 Schumann, 82, 85, 160 . Spohr, 84, 85 • Strauss, 177 Sullivan, 82, l68 Tschaikowsky, 176 Wagner, 83, 172 Weber, 81, 147 in chamber music, 184 with cymbals, etc., 84 " Plagiaulos," the, 12 Polynesian flutes, 266 Popularity of the flute, 10, 94 recorder, 19 Pottgiesser, 44 Pratten, 210 290 Index Pratten, his " Terfected" flute, 71 Prsetorius, 28 Prejudice against the flute, 269 Present-day foreign players, 219 Prill, 219 Puritan attack on the flute, 271 QuANTZ, J. J., his life, 186-193 compositions, 102 instruction book, 277 inventions, 40 Quesnel, Alfred, 228 Quintetts for wind alone, 183-4 Rabboni, 219 Radcliff, 214 his flute, 71 Rameau; 81 Rebsomen, Count, 259 Recorder, the, 18 some old players, 20 Redfern, E. S., 215 "Register," The, 39 Reicha's Quintetts, 183 Reichert, 2o5m. Remusat, 2o6«. Ribas, 204 Ribock, 42, 43, 66 Richardson, 209 Ring-keys, 45 Rockstro's attack on Bohm, 63 flutes, 71 Roe, 81 Rossini's William Tell, 153 Royal flautists, I92«. Rudall, Carte & Co., 69 Salomon de Caus, 32 Saust, 2o6«. Saynor, 2o6«. Schafhault, 55 Schickhard's Principes, 276 Schubert's use of the flute and piccolo, 159 flute solo, 103 Schumann, the flute and piccolo in, 82, 85, 160 Schweitzerpfeiff, the, 26, 73 "Sebi,"the, 4 Shakes and trills, 98 Shakespeare, fife and flute in, 231 Shepherd's instrument, the flute a, 234 Sibelius, 177 Siccama's flutes, 67 Silver flutes, 278 Smith, Miss L., 223 Sola, 2o6k. Songs with flute obligate, 113 Soussmann, 2o6m. South American flutes, 267 Spohr's Nonett, 182 Spontini, 84 Stanhope, Miss, 223 Statistics about flautists, 216 Strauss, R., flute and piccolo in, 176-179 Striggio's La Cofanaria, 117 Sturges, R. Y. , 248 Style of performance, English and foreign, 217 Bohm's views on, 218 Sullivan, The Golden Legend, 82, 167-169 Svendsen, 213 Tacet, 42, 207 Taffanel, 184, 205 Terschak, 204 his compositions, 11 1 Theorbo and flute in Handel, 128 Thoinan's Les Hotteterre, 35 Tierce flute, the, 85 Tillmetz, 219 Tone of the flute, 93 291 Story of the Flute Tone affected by material used, 2^0 Townley's mouthpiece, 255 Transverse flute, was it known to the ancients? 23-24 known to ancient Chinese, 25 in mediaeval Europe, 25, 26 introducedinto England, 33 Tremolo passages, 96, 98 Tromlitz, 43 Tschaikowsky, 173-176 "Tsche," the Chinese, 263 Tuille's Sextett, 183 Tulou, 196-197 Tuning slides, 39 Two flutes in thirds, 98 V-NOTCH, the, 7 Various registers of the flute, 95 Verdi, 83 "Vibrato," the, 98 Virdung, 27 Vivian, 214 "Vivo," the, 266 Wagner, 170-173 piccolo in, 83, 172 Wagner's Lohengrin, 144 Walking-stick flutes, 253 Ward's flutes, So»., 66, 255 Weber, 143-148 Der Freischiitz, \i,i, piccolo in, 83, 147 Wehner, C, 227 Weidemann, 129 Weiner, Eugene, 228 Weird flute story, 241 Wells, B., 211 Wendling, J., 41, 135 Wheatstone's mouthpiece, 256 Wild, Miss, 223 William Te// overture, 153 Winnebago love-flute, 268 Winter, Joseph, 258 Wood, D. S.,2IS Wood and silver flutes compared, 278 Woolhouse, Miss, 223 Wunderlich, J. G., 193 Young, H., 81 Youthful prodigies, 260 Zerrahn, Carl, 227 THE WALTER SCOTT PUBLISHING CO,, LTD.. FELLING-ON-TYNE.