in search of the baroque flute the flute family 1680-1750

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In Search of the Baroque Flute: The Flute Family 1680-1750Author(s): Christopher AddingtonReviewed work(s):Source: Early Music, Vol. 12, No. 1 (Feb., 1984), pp. 34-47Published by: Oxford University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3127151 .

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if an

instrument

once

existed in two versions,

that

now

represented

by

the

larger

numberof museum

speci-

mens

is often

regarded

as

the 'standard'

one,

and

the

other

is treated

as

a

deviation.

But the

preservation

of

instruments

s

a

haphazard

affair:20

years

after

their

manufacture,

for

instance,

one model

may

become

fashionable

while

another,

now unsuitable

for

more

recent

music,

will be discarded

(especially

if it is

very

difficult

to

play)

I

believe

this is

precisely

what

happened

in

the case

of

the

Baroque

flute.

Historical

factors

and

geographical

accident also have to be taken

into

account:

the

British,

for

example,

are a nation

of

collectors,

whereas

the French

have been

extremely

unsuccessful

in

preserving

heir

old

instruments,

argely

because

of the

Revolution.'

This

is

particularly

unfor-

tunate

in view of the fact that the flutes

played

n

France

show a much

greater

variety

and

sophistication

than

those of

any

other

country:

n

the

history

of

the

flute,

Franceoccupied the centre of the stage during the

whole of

the

period

under

examination,

while

England

lurked

very

much

in

the

wings.

The third

preconception

concerns

pitch.

We have

become

accustomed to

the

idea of an international

pitch

standard

based

upon

a

value

for

a'

that

is

defined

in

terms

at least as

fine as

one

vibration

per

second.

Performers

f

Baroque

music have tended to

settle on a

pitch

standard

exactly

a semitone below

this

(a'=415)

as

being

'correct'

for

the music

they

play.

But all the

evidence

from the

period

shows

that

pitch

varied

wildly,

at least froma'=350 to a'=500. This

variation,

of

abouta 5th, arose fromvariousfactors.

According

o

Quantz,

national

pitch

varied

by

almost

a

5th,

with threemainstandards: he medium'German'

pitch,

which itself

varied

by

six

commas

(two-thirds

of a

tone);

Frenchchamber

pitch',

a minor3rd below

it;

and

the

high

'choir

pitch',

a

minor

3rd

above

it,

which was

used

especially

by

the Venetians.

There were also

pitches

proper

to

certain instru-

ments.

Instruments ended to become fixed at

particu-

lar

pitches-the

18th-century

German

rgan,

or

exam-

ple,

was often

in

choir

pitch.

We know

from

Quantz

hat

there

was a

similar

association between

wind

instru-

mentsandFrenchchamberpitch.Chamber ndorches-

tral music

may

each have had

an

appropriate

pitch.

Throughout

he late

Baroque

here

was a movement

towards a rationalization

of

pitch

and

its notation.

Corelli,

Couperin,

Bach,

Rameauand

Quantz

himselfall

played

a

leading

part

n

the

development

of

a

fixed,

in-

ternational

pitch.

However,

he

process

was

necessar-

ily

slow,

as

can

be

seen

from

Quantz'sdescription

of

a

prevailing

ituation

that

by

our

standards

was

chaotic.

The

question

of

pitch

is

particularly

mportant

in

relation

to

wind

instruments,

since

they

almost alone

have

a

fixed

sounding-length,

and

their 'voice'

is

defined

entirely by

that

length.

In the case

of

the

flute,

pitch

is not

merely

a technical

matter,

ince a

difference

r, a

? ?

? ?

? ?

I, ,

,

? I?

2 Five

18th-century

ivory

flutes

(Paris,

Musee

Instrumental

du

Conservatoire

National

Superieur

de

Musique)

EARLY MUSIC FEBRUARY

1984 35



of

even a semitone will

alter he

timbre

quite

noticeably,

while

larger

variations

involve

a

degree

of

difference

comparable

to that

between a

soprano

and an

alto

singer.

What then was

the

true

Baroque

lute

like?

It

is

clear

from written

and--occasionally--musical

sources

of the time that

he

following

types

of flute

were

playedin the firsthalf of the 18th century:

1

High

octave flute

(flauto

piccolo,

sopranino,

flutet').

In

D,

an

octave above

the

'ordinary'

lute.

2

Fife or

'Swiss

Pipe'.

In

B

flat,

a

military

nstrument.

3

Descant

flutes.

Quantz

mentions

a

'little

quart

lute'

in

G,

a 4th

above the

'ordinary'

lute;

there was

also

certainly

a

high quint

flute in

A.

4

Flauto

terzetto. A

medium-high

flute

in

D

at

choir

pitch,

playing

at

about

a'-480-500.

This

would

have

sounded

a

minor 3rd above

the

pitch

of most

harpsi-

chords and orchestras.

The terzettowas the ancestor of

the later 'flute in F'but seems to have been of slightly

different

construction.

5

Concert

flute. Known

to

Quantz

as

the

'ordinary'

flute,

this was

usually

in

D,

but that D

itself

was

highly

mobile,

varying

at

east

from

a

standard

of a'=390

to

one

of a'=450.2

Table

1

Baroque

flute

tunings.

6 Flute

d'amour,

flauto

d'amore. An

alto

instrument

tunedto D at French

chamber

pitch

(about

a'=350)

and

thus

sounding

a

major

or

minor

3rd

below

the

normal

pitch

of

harpsichords,

and

played

at

either of

these

transpositions.

It

was

treatedas

an

instrument n

either

B or B

flat;

in the latter

pitch

it

was

known

as the

flute

pastourelle.3

7 Tenor

or

intermediate bass

flute.

Quantz

mentions

a

low

quart

flute in

A,

but a

more

common

instrument

seems

to have

been

the

bass

flute

in

G,

that

is,

the low

quint

flute,

based on

the 6'

organ

pipe.

8 Octave

bass flute.

In

the

D

below that

of the concert

flute.

Specimens

of most

of the

flutes

listed

above survive

(and

can be identified

with

surviving nstruments)

with

the

exception

of the

descant

flutes and

also

possibly

the

original flauto

terzetto

and

the

low

quart

flute.

Bearingin mind the critical

importance

of a flute's

length,

a

good

idea of the

variety

of instruments

played

in

the

18th

century may

be

gained

from

illus.2,

which

shows

ivory

flutes in

the

instruments museum of

the

Paris

Conservatoire.

This

by

no means covers the

full

range

of

flutes in

that

collection;

there is

one

flute with

Bass flutes

Flfite

d'amour

Concert flute

Terzetto

Descant

flutes

Piccolo

Octavej

Quint

I

Quart

in

Bb

in B in C

in

D

in

D

I

in E in F

Quart Quint

in 8a

Clef

and

key

transpositions:

Open

(c)

-

C#

F#

G#

A

A#

B

CO

Cx

D

E

F

G#

C#

(B> B

E F0

G

G# A

B

B0 C#

D

E

F0

B

Closea

(F)

-

Fo B

C•

D

D•

E

F•

FX

G

A B C A

()E

A B C D E E F G A B E

-

-7

D

G

A

B6 B

C

D

D#

E

F

G

A

D

Bottom

note

'

_1_1

(Dfingering):

_~-

This table

is based on

the flute methods of

Quantz,

Hotteterre

and Corrette

and sources

of music

by

Hotteterre,

Couperin,

Philidor,Bach,

Telemann,

Quantz,

Graupner

and

Molter.

36

EARLY MUSIC

FEBRUARY 1984



_Brjbd

-f•"

_"a

re.

,.

e

aa t

Am-.

"

I,

I,

TA .

-

I.lAm

LI

IITTAI,

I

T I

I,.

I

A

;~ -~t~bHA-i~rz~1- A--

3

Opening

of a

brunette

from

Jacques

Hotteterre's collection Airs et brunettes

. .

tirez des meilleurs autheurs

(Paris,

1721) (Paris,

Bibliotheque

Nationale)

a

sounding

length

four times that

of the

smallest

shown

here

and thus

pitched

two octaves

lower.)

Composers

hardly

ever

specified

the

type

of

flute

they

were

writing

or;

and the boundaries between the

different types were blurred.Since the playing pitch

both

of

other instruments and of the individual

flute

was so

variable,

many

nstruments

could

have

played

as

different

kinds of flute

in

different

performances.

The

problem

s

one

of

notation,

since

all

flutes

were written

as if

they

were

in

D--at

least

during

he first

quarter

of

the 18th

century--whatever

pitch

they

played

at. The

note

played

with

all

finger-holes

closed was written as

d' and

called

re

even

in

music

for

the bass

flute

in

G.

Thus t

is

often

extremely

difficult

to

judge

simply

from

the score which flute the

composer

had in mind.

In

discussing

this wide

range

of flutes I shall

begin

with the threetypes in the middlerange (nos.4-6) and

then

go

on to describe

briefly

the

distinctly high-

and

low-voiced varieties.

The middle

range

As

if

the

multiplicity

of

pitches

were not

complication

enough,

there

are

two

quite

different

designs

of

flute.

One,

constructed

in

three

pieces,

was

played

in

the first

quarter

of the 18th

century;

the

other,

in

four

pieces,

superseded

it

in

the

second

quarter.

The

three-piece

flute. The

conical

one-keyed

flute was

invented in France in the second half of the 17th

century,

probablyby

membersof the Hotteterre

amily.

For everal decades the Frenchhad

a

virtual

monopoly

in

flute

making.

The

frontispiece

(illus.

1)

of a collection

of

trios

by

Marais

or flute or

recorder

Paris,

1692)

s the

earliest

representation

known to me of the new

flute

design.

Some

of the

surviving

specimens,

however,

such

as the

Chevalier

Boston,

Museum

of Fine

Arts)

are

thought

to

be of

an earlierdate.

The first

compositions

scored

specifically

for the flute are La

Barre's

ive

Pidces

pour

a

fltlte

traversiere

Paris,

1702).

Overadozensurviving pecimensof this instrument,

all made

either

in

France or

by

Frenchmen

living

abroad,

have

now

been identified.

The

design

is dis-

tinctive and

appears

to

be

quite homogeneous, apart

from

small

variations

in

external

appearance

and

critical

differences

in the

all-important

matter

of

pitch.

The

exterior

consists

of two

long,

plain

tubes connect-

ed

to

three

ornately

urnedsmaller

parts:

he distinctive

cap

to

the

headpiece

(usually

very

long);

the socket

connecting

the

head with the

single

middle

joint;

and

the foot

joint

(often

of ovoid

design).

The

mountings

are

usually

made

of

ivory.

Other eatures

distinguish

this

flute acoustically fromthe laterfour-piece model: its

generally

wider,

less

regular

bore;

larger

and less

undercut

mouth-hole;

heavier

walls;

and

larger inger-

holes

placed

further down the

flute. Of

particular

interest

is

the

fact

that the end

appears

originally

to

have been

stopped

with

wood

rather

han cork.4

These

apparently

small details

combine

to make

a decisive

difference to

the

player's technique

and

the

instru-

ment's

sound.

But

most of the interest in

this flute

has focused on

the

question

of

pitch.

In his

Versuch,

Quantz

several

times

mentions the low

pitch

that

was a

distinctive

feature of the

early

French lute:

Indeed',

he

says

of the

entire new

generation

of wind

instruments created

by

the

French,

they

owe their

existence to the low

pitch.'

His identification of

French chamber

pitch

as

being

a

minor3rd below the

German tandard

of

his own

day

is

supported

by

the

most famous of all the

players

of the

three-

piece

flute,

Jacques

Hotteterrehimself.

InL'artde

EARLYMUSIC

FEBRUARY1984

37



t

t

?LY-,

i r L58~

F

P C

r ~

.91

ns ~: r;

?,

??:e ~c'

J

r~

?69P1-?at

~Ec

t

~i

i?

.?*???

'I

I?

r

?G

1 i .I'

`

\?~. , ` ~L~ ~81L~.i

C

:? - i7;

''

U.-- ?I ;~;L-'Y~llf:Tlf~:r-? ~?

r'

~

r

4

A

group

of French

musicians:

detail from

a

painting

by

Robert

Tournieres

(1667-1752)

(Lon-

don,

National

Gallery)

preluder,

written

in

1719,

he

devotes a

whole

chapter

(chap.x)

to flute

transpositions.

One of

these,

which

involves the

overplaying

f the

two G

clefs,

he considers

crucial to flute technique 'because it enables one to

play

tunes in their true

tonality

[or pitch'-the

French

ton

could mean

either],

and in

unison

with

the voice'.

This can mean

only

that the

flute was not

normally

n

unison with

the

voice,

but

played

a 3rd below.

(For

an

example

of this

overplaying

echnique,

see

illus.3,from

Hotteterre's

Airset brunettes

Paris,

1721).)

The

surviving

examples

of this

flute are o

be found

in

museums

and

collections

across he

world;

nd

although

their makers were

French,

nearly

all

of them

seem to

have been

owned

by

people

living

outside France.

Those that have survived in Britainhave pitches of

about

a'=405-1

5,

while those in

the

German-speaking

countries are

ower,

at

abouta'=390.

However,

hat

may

be an

indication of the

pitches

prevailing

in

the

countrieswhere

he

purchasers,

ather han the

makers,

lived.

Only

one of

these

instruments

remains

n

France,

and

it was almost

certainly

played

in

France:

he flute

made

by

Naust

(Strasbourg,

1700)

and

now

in the Paris

38

EARLY MUSIC FEBRUARY 1984



Conservatoire.

This is

pitched

at about

a'=360, which

corresponds

closely

enough

to

Quantz's

description.

There

s one other

surviving

nstrumentwhich

may

be

at an even lower

pitch:

the flute

by

Du Mont

(Paris,

cl

692)

in

the

Dayton

C. Miller

Collection,

Washington,

DC.

These two instruments

are,

I

believe,

the

only

sur-

viving

true

representatives

of the famous French

lute

thatcreated such a sensation in the early18thcentury.

We

have

strongpictorialsupport

for

this view in

the

well-known

group portrait,

attributed o

Robert

Tourn-

ieres

and

now

in

the National

Gallery,

London

(illus.4),

which shows four

musicians,

thought

to include

La

Barre,

Hotteterre

and

Marais,

grouped

around a

piece

by

La

Barre.

The

ivory

instrument

held,

with

apparent

pride,

by

the

player

seated

in

the

foreground

s

almost

entirely

visible. From the

proportions

of

the

picture,

this

flute is

extremely ong (and

therefore

ow-pitched),

even

longer perhaps

than the Naust. Further

visual

evidence is

provided

by

the two offset

holes in the third

and sixth positions, which are clearly visible in the

painting

and have

long

puzzled

writers.The

principal

problem

n

the

making

and

playing

of

long,

low-pitched

flutes is that on

any

instrument

arger

han the

concert

flute the distance

between

the

finger-holes

stretches

the

hand

to its

limits,

particularly

as

regards

he third

and sixth holes. In the

Naust

flute,

for

example,

each

hand must stretch about 15mm

further than on the

average

concert flute. On

my

own

copy

of this

instru-

ment I have

brought

these two holes within reach

by

drilling

them

slightly

high,

in

an

offset

position.

I

believe this is

the

explanation

of the extra

holes

in

the

'LaBarre'lute:the thirdand sixthholes were

originally

so

widely

spaced

that the

player

had

them filled

with

wax and

new

holes

drilled

n

a

more

accessible

position.

Most

convincing,

however,

s

surely

the

sound of the

instrument.It is

difficult

to believe

that

the

instrument

that

took France

by

storm and

inspired

an

entirely

new

form of musical

composition

was

the rather bland-

sounding

Baroque

lute heard

n

the

concert

hall

today.

The

sound of the

alto-voiced

Naust flute is

quite

dif-

ferent: t has a far

richer,

more

eloquent

sound than

any

other

flute I have

heard;

and

it is

perfectly

suited to

the

music

composed by

the

great

flautists

of

the

day,

La

Barre,

Hotteterre

and

Philidor.

Not

only

is

it tuned

to

a

very

low

pitch,

but it

is

designed

to

play

particularly

strongly

in

its lower

range.

Thus it

sounds at its best

playing

the

notes

at

the bottom of

the

staff,

which

were

much

favoured

by

those

composers.

It

also has the

plaintivequality

considered so

typical

of French flute

music.

The

four-piece

flute.

Quantz,

writing

n

1752,

tells

us

that the

four-piece

version

of the flute came into use

'about

30

years

ago'.

Naturally,

he

changeover

from

one

design

to the other did not take

place

overnight.

Some

early

versions of the

four-piece

design,

such

as

those

by

Thomas

Stanesby (i)

and P. J. Bressan,

date

from around

1720 and have some transitional

eatures.

The latest appearance of the three-piece flute is in

Majer's

Museummusicumheoretico

racticum

Swdbisch

Hall,

1732).

This has an illustration of a

flute,

together

with a

fingering

chart,

and

they

are

particularly

nterest-

ing

for two

reasons: he

instrument

has a

very'

advanced'

feature

in

the

form of an extended

footjoint

giving

c';

but this

is connected

to the

out-of-date,

single-piece

middle

joint.

Majer

makes no mention of

the

new

four-

piece

design.

But

a

transition

of

only

ten

years

is

quite

short,

compared

for

example

with the

length

of time

it

took for

the

cylindrical

lute to

replace

the conical

one

in

the 19th

century.

The external appearanceof the four-piece flute is

very

different

from that

of its

predecessor

and is too

familiar

nowadays

to

require

description. Acoustically

there

are a

number

of

subtle

but

very

important

differences,

which

affect all

the

sounding

elements of

the

instrument:

the

bore,

the

cork

position,

the em-

bouchure,

the

finger-holes

and

the

thickness of

the

walls. The new kind

of

instrument

has

a

more

refined

sound than the

old

French

flute,

and a

much wider

range:

it can cover

as

much

as three

octaves and a

semitone

and

is

very

strong

in

most of the

notes above

the

staff,

which

in

the

French

lute

are little

more than

falsetto notes. The nstrumenthasamuchclearer,more

precise

tone and

is

extremely

nimble,

handling

rapid

passage-work

and

dramatic

umps

with

ease. The

com-

pensating

loss

is

that,

even in

its

lower-pitched

orm,

t

cannot

quite

match

the

sensuous,

resonant

quality

of

the French

flute.

There is

nothing

to

suggest

that

immediately

the

four-piece

flute

was

invented t

took theform

exclusive-

ly

of the

Baroque

flute

played

today.

On the

contrary,

there seems

to

have been

a

period

of

experimentation-

and

of

extreme

confusion--lasting

ten or

twenty years.

Among

he

enormous

rangeofpitches used at hattime,

it is

nevertheless

possible

to

discern

three basic

levels,

describedin

the list

above

under

types

4-6.

As one would

expect,

the

majority

of instruments

thathave

survived rom

this

period

are of the same

type

as the

modern

Baroque

flute

at a'=415.

They

are

identical

to the

instruments that

remained standard

well into the

19th

century,

except

for

some small

EARLYMUSIC

FEBRUARY

984

39



changes

(especially

in

embouchure).

The

variability

of

pitch,

however,

can

hardly

be

overstated. At this

time,

almost

every

flute

originally

had

several

different

corps

de

rechange;

ndeed,

it

was

largely

the

problem

of

pitch,

according

to

Quantz,

that

brought

about

the

invention

of the

divided

middle

joint.

In

its lower

range,

the

four-piece

flute

remained at

the old French chamber pitch. This is the version

sometimes

called

thefltite d'amour

orflauto

d'amore.It

is

100-150mm

longer

than

the

concert flute

and

plays

about

a

major

or a

minor 3rd

below

a'=440.

A number of

these

instruments

have

survived.

The

most

interesting

thing

about them is

that,

apartfrom

their

length,

they

do

not differ

in

any way

from the

concert

flute;

that

is

to

say,

the bore

and

embouchure

are identical. This led me

some time

ago

to

suspect

that these two

forms were not

really

looked

upon

as different

kinds

of

instrument,

but

merely

as

the

same-flute at

different

pitches; logically,

it

seemed

possible

that

one flute

should be

capable

of

being adjusted

to

both

pitches.

I have since discovered

that

one of the flutes

in the

Paris

Conservatoire

does

precisely

this: the

remarkable

Schlegel

flute

(described

below

in

the

appendix).

Although

thefl,

te

d'amour

has the same

tuning

as

the

French

three-piece

flute,

its

sound

quality

is

quite

different,

and in the middle and

upper

registers

he

very

narrowbore

produces

a

haunting,

veiled

tone. It

is

as

expressive

as the French

flute,

but its timbre

is

quite

different,

being

darker,

more

innig.

I

know of no

surviving

specimens

of

the

original

flauto

terzetto.

The

well-known

flute in F'

seems

to

be

a

late

18th-

and

19th-century

type.

Quantz,

however,

speaks of flutes tuned to the high choir pitch, three

semitones above

German

pitch.

He

complains

of

their

unattractively

hrill

sound,

and

also makes an

interest-

ing

technical criticism.

According

o

a well-

established

principle

of flute

making

known

well

before Boehm's

treatise,

the

diameter

of a flute's bore

and

embouchure

should be

in

direct

proportion

to

its

length.

Quantz,

however,

notes that these

high-pitched

flutes had

the

same

bore as

the'ordinary'

lute,

and were

therefore

not

built to the usual

proportions. This

is not true of

the

later flute in

F,

whose makers seem

to

have

heeded

Quantz'sadvice.)

Some

Baroque

lutes

sound

consider-

ably

above a'=440

at their

highest setting,

and I

think

Quantz

was

indicating

that some flute

makers of

his

time were

taking

his

tendency

even further

and

cutting

another

50 or

60mm off

the

normal flute's

length.

Thus thereseem to have

been three

types

of flute

of

common

bore but

differing

in

length

by

up

to 50%.

Table 2 The

expanding

Baroque

flute

Embouchure

Approximate

Diameter of

Diameter

of

distance

pitch

at

a'

bore

(mm)

embouchure

(mm)

Instrument

fingering (Hz)

Flauto

terzetto

?475 500

19-13.5

9x8.5

(from

Quantz's

description)

(choir

pitch)

Schuchart

Bate

Collection);

a

typical

concert

540

430

)

(German

19.5-13.6

9.5x8.8

flute,

at

two

corps

de

rechange

ettings

575

405

1

pitch)

Fridrich

Vienna,

Kunsthistorisches

Museum);

683 350 19-13.5

8.5x8.5

a

typical

flzfted'amour

(French

chamber

pitch)

Scherer

(Bate

Collection);

low

flzte

d'amour

715

330

19-13.5

8.9x8.3

or pastourelle

Anciuti

(Vienna,

Kunsthistorisches

Museum);

970

280

19.5-14

9.5x9

bass flute

in

?G

Note: In

all

these

cases,

the

last

two

figures

remain

almost

unchanged.

Sources:

Quantz's

Versuch,

ate Collection

Catalogue

and

author's

own measurements

40 EARLY

MUSIC

FEBRUARY

1984



Stranger

still,

this

anomaly

is also to be found in

the

bass

members of the flute

family.

Table 2 shows

the

measurements

of

several

Baroque

flutes whose

pitch

varies

by

almost

an

octave. Thus it seems that

many

flute makersof this

period

considered the flute to

have

a

certain

ideal

bore,

which could

be

lengthened

and

shortened

at

will,

as

it

were

a

trombone.

Those who

have

observedthis anomalyhave naturallyconcluded that

the dimensions of the

higher

and the lower flutes

are

deviations

from the'correct'

proportions

of the

concert

flute. But

Quantz,

who

surely

would have known

better

than

anybody,

expressly

contradicts

this,

saying

that

the dimensions

of the

four-piece

flute were

originally

based on

the

design

of

the low flute. Thismeans that

the

fl^te

d'amour

must be the

archetype

of the

Baroque

lute

from

which

the

other

forms

are

derived

(in

the

Encyclo-

pedie

t is stated that the flute's

range

s

particularly

wide

in

the

d'amore

etting);

and it

tells

us a

great

deal

about

the sound

quality

that

people

of the

time

expected

of a

flute.

Before

examining

he

way

in which these

differences

in

the

flute's

design may

have affected the

playing

of

the

instrument,

we

ought

to

consider

several

important

and

closely

related events in

the

history

of the flute

that

took

place

at

exactly

the same time

as

the

invention of

the

four-piece

design.

Until the

early

1720s,

all

French

lute

music

was

written

in

the French violin

clef

(Gl).

In

general,

any

music

written

n

this clef would

have been

played

at

a

tuning

about

a

3rd

below

a'=415,

that

is

at about a'=350.

But

there were serious

discrepancies.

Italianmusicians had

for

many years

been

settling

in

France,

and

they

brought

with them the

exciting

new

go?t

italien.One of

the most

striking

differences

between the

two national

schools

of

music was

that of

taste

in

instrumental

colouring.

The Italians

played

at a much

higher

pitch

than

the

French,

using

the

moderntreble

clef(G2).

In

theory,

the two Gs were

the

same;

n

practicethey

must

have

been several

semitones

apart.

n

France,

music

for

the

harpsichord

and

the

voice

had

always

been

written

in the treble clef, and the impact of the brilliant but

strident

Italian

violin

must have

been intense. The

everyday

Baroque

olution to the

problem

of

fitting

the

idiosyncratic

French lute

into this

variety

of contrast-

ing

sounds

was

transposition,

as

may

be

seen

in

illus.3.5

Hotteterre's

nstructions to the

bass are to

'play

in this

clef in order

to tune

with the

upper

voices'

(i.e.

the

flutes).

This

technique

of

transposingby,

as

Quantz

put

it,

'[imagining]

a

different

clef

for

the

notes'

was

part

of

every

flautist's

technique.

Couperin

seems to have been

particularly

roubled

by

these

discrepancies

and went

to

great lengths

to

'unite the

tastes'. He

was

a conscious innovator

and

seems to have been

aiming

for an

international

pitch

standard

based on a

compromise

between

the

low(doux)

French sonority and the shrill, harsh (hagard) talian

one.6

He was the

first Frenchman to write

chamber

music

in the

modern treble

clef.

By

doing

so he

abandoned

the

low

chamber

pitch

associated

with

the

dessus line and fixed the

pitch

of

a

piece according

to

that of

the

bass line. This

does

not

mean,

of

course,

that

Couperinexpected

the wind

instruments to

alter

their

pitch;

instead,

he

intended that

they

should

transpose

up

to the

key

of

the bass. This

technique

may

perhaps

have been

known as

playing

en

amour.

Couperin

s not

usually

thought

of as a

composer

for

the flute. His

music

is

too

low-pitched

and

the

keys

he uses

too

difficult. However,in his avertissemento the Concerts

royaux

he

does

mention the

flute

as

one of the

instru-

ments for which

the

music

was

intended,

and

if

we

consider that

he

was

writing

or a

low,

transposing

lute

(in

his

case,

always by

a

minor

3rd),

much

of

his

writing

suddenly

emerges

as

beautifully

idiomatic

for

the

instrument. For

example,

the

passage

from

Ritratto

dell'amore

hown

in

ex.

1

is

unplayable

on the

flute

as

written

ex.

1

a),

but

transposed

backto the

French

violin

clef

(ex.lb),

in

which it

must

originally

have

been

written,

t

reads

like a

passage

by

La

Barre

r Hotteterre

(particularly

with

the

passing

c'

sharp).By

1730,

most

other

French

composers

hadfollowed

Couperin's

ead

and

abandoned

the

French

violin

clef

in

favour

of

the

treble

clef.

Ex.

From

Frangois

Couperin,

Ritratto

ell'amore:Nouveau

concert

no.9 from

Les

gofits-refinis

(Paris,

1724)

(a)

as written

&

"

#W

wo

reIL

w,

,

-

,,'IW

W

•-'-

(b)

transposed

to

the

French

clef

...

-I-

EARLY

MUSIC

FEBRUARY

1984

41



Although

the French

kept

their

primacy

in

perfor-

mance on

the

flute,

the

new

generation

of

composers

had

completely

lost

the

spirit

of the

gotit

rancois,

and

French

composition

for

the

flute went into a

sharp

decline.

Of

the two

leading

flute

virtuosos,

Michel

Blavet

wrote music that is

indistinguishable

from

any

other

compositions

of the international

style

galant,

while Pierre-GabrielBuffardin became so italianized

that he even

styled

himself

'I1

Sigr.

Bufardini'.

The Germans

ook

up

the flute

with

almost

as much

enthusiasm

as

the

French,

and

before

ong

it once

again

became

the 'German

lute',

in fact

as well

as

name.

There

is

very

little Germanflute

music

from before

1720.

Bach was one

of the

pioneers,

and

his interest

may

have

been

stimulated

by

the new

four-piece

design,

since

only

one of

his

compositions

seems to

have been written for the

bottom-heavy

three-piece

flute. This

is

the

early

G

major

Trio Sonata

BWV

039,

a

work

quite

different

in

style

from

Bach's other

flute

music.

At

this

time too the flute

began

to

be

heard

with an

orchestra.

It

is

notable that all the French lute music of

the

first

quarter

of the

18th

century

was scored

for

very

small forces-for

one,

two

or

occasionally

more flutes

playing ogether,

often without

a

bass.

The

French

eem

to

have had the

greatest

difficulty

in

combining

the

flute with

any

other

instrument,

even the

harpsichord,

and

it was not

until the 1730s that a French

composer

ventured to write a flute

concerto.

The Italians were

great

orchestral nnovatorsbut

they

had little interest

n

wind

nstruments,

hough

Vivaldi

began

to

compose

for

the flute

in

this

period.

German

composers

took the

lead

here; Bach,

from

his

Brandenburg

Concertos

onwards,

was an

important

nnovator.

Initially,

the

'ordinary' lauto

traverso

was

probably

the

flzte

d'amour.

The

conical-bore

flute

was

entirely

a

French

invention,

and

it had

acquired

a

status

almost

equal

to that of the

violin,

purely

on

account

of its

mellow,

inimitable

tone colour. When

the use of

the

flute,

in

its altered

our-piece

form,

became

more

wide-

spread,

musicians must

naturally

have

preferred

the

version which came closest

to

the

sounds

of

the low

French lute-in otherwords,thefluted amour.Quantz

describes the ideal flute tone

as

being

'thick, round,

masculine'. In

general',

he

says,'the

most

pleasing

tone

quality

on

the flute is that which

more

nearly

resembles

a contraltothan a

soprano,

orwhich imitates

the chest

tones of the

human voice.' This is

plainly

a

description

of the

flzite

damour.

Quantz's

evidence

is

particularly

telling,

for he was

writing

at a time when the standardi-

..,;..

5 A

lute

player,

possibly

he

imperial

court

musician F.

J.

Lemberger

painting

(1709-24/5)

by

Jan

Kupeckdl

1667-1740)

(Nuremberg,

Germanisches

Nationalmuseum)

zation of the flute at

the

higher

pitch

was

already

well

under

way,

and he

himself

contributed more

than

any

other to

that

process.

An

interestingsign

of

the

d'amore's

opularity

an

be

found

in

the

inventory

of

instruments

belonging

to

the

Kapelle

of

Sayn-Wittgenstein.

In this

collection,

the

wind instruments

in

the lower

range

far outnumber

their

ordinary

ounterparts.

Of

he

flutes,

there are

only

two

ordinary

nstruments

o three

flzites

d'amour

one

of

which

is

described as

'large').

Again,

the

surprising

thing

is that this

inventory

s

dated as late

as

1741,

only

a decade before

Quantz's

Versuch.

think

it

probable

that for

the

first 10-15

years

after the introduction of

the four-

piece design,

the

d'amore

as

played

at least

as

much as the

type nowadays

knownas the

Baroque

lute.

The choice of differenttypes of flute must have been

first and

foremost

according

to function.

The

flzte

d'amour

s

essentially

a

chamber

nstrument:

t was the

flute

on

which

one would

play

serious,

expressive

music

such as the

trio

sonata

in

the Musical

Offering.

Most

f

not

all

of

Bach'schamber

music for the

flute was

written for

this

instrument.

The Sonata Bwv1030

is

particularly mportant.

Bach

wrote

two

scores of

the

42

EARLYMUSIC

FEBRUARY

984



keyboard

part

or

this

sonata,

one

in

B

minor,

the other

in

G

minor.

Oboists,

perhaps

frustrated

by

the lack

of

any

chamber

music

by

Bachfor their

instrument,

have

sometimes claimed

the G minor as Bach's

original

version,

for

oboe. But

since

we know that

the

flute

at

this

time was a

transposing

instrument,

there is

no

reason

to

suppose

that Bach

intended

the

two

versions

for different instruments.They are merelywrittenin

two different

keys

for the instruments

used,

flute

and

harpsichord.

It will be observed

(ex.2)

that

the trans-

position

used in this

piece-two

flats to two

sharps-is

the

same

as that

used

by

Hotteterre

in the

brunette

shown

in illus.3.

And

t

is the

harpsichord

part

alone of

BWV030 that survives

in

G

minor.

Ex.2

J.

S.

Bach,

Sonata

in

B

minor

Bwv1030

Andante

A

-"

'

Bach'stwo eldest sons also showed

a

preference

for

the

flfite

d'amour,

whose

sound is ideal

for the

empfind-

samer

Stil of their music. With

its

strong

vocal

quality,

the instrument would also be the

perfect

obbligato

instrument

n

vocal music.

Philip Bate7

has

pointed

out

that

flute

obbligatos

n

Bach'schurch cantatasare often

intended for the

d'amore.

The

soprano-voiced

concert

flute,

on the other

hand,

owes

its

popularity

and eventual

predominance

over

other flutes

to the

rise

of

the

orchestra.

The

develop-

ment

of orchestral

music

during

his

period

is

perhaps

the most critical

factor in the

history

of the instrument.

Theflu^te

'amour

s unsuitable for

combination with an

orchestra

or

two reasons.

First,

t is at a

different

pitch

from

the other

instruments

(though

this

could,

of

course,

be

solved

through

transposition).

The

main

disadvantage,

however,

is

its

mellow,

intimate tone

quality,

which tends to blend rather han contrast with

string

nstruments.Orchestral

music

demands

a level

of

uniformity

and balance

between

instruments that we

take for

granted,

but which was

signally

lacking

at

the

beginning

of

the 18th

century.

The

flute

joined

forces

with the orchestraonly after its design and technique

had been

considerably

modified-that

is to

say,

after

t

had

become transformed

rom

a

basicallylow-pitched

instrument into the

soprano

instrument

that

it

has

remained. There

are

nevertheless

a

dozen or

so

pieces

forflate

d'amour nd orchestra

written

n

the late 1720s

and

early

1730s

by

Telemann,

Graupner

and

Molter

(possibly

for one

particular

player).

The

striking

thing

about

these

compositions

is their

unity

of

idiom.

They

all

have a

distinctly

pastoral

air,

and

in one of

them

Telemann

actually

calls

the instrument

the

'fli

te

pas-

tourelle'.

It

is

significant

that the

only piece

in which

Bach

combines

the

fluited'amour

with orchestra s

the

Pastorale

from

the

Christmas

Oratorio.

This group

of

pieces

is

the

only

context

in

which

I have

encountered

the name'flautod'amore'n manuscriptsof the period;

unless

we

are

to

conclude

that the instrument

was

seldom

played,

this

must mean

its

use

was so normal

that

it

was

only exceptionally

specified

by name.)

The

flauto

terzetto

also

probably

had its

origins

in

these

experiments

with

the

orchestra. Its

descendant,

the

flute

in

F,

can hold its own

in

any

band or orchestra

by

virtue of

its

penetrating

sound.

There

are two

concertos

written

for the

terzetto

by

one

of the

Graun

brothers,

who were

Quantz's

colleagues

at the

court

of

Frederick

he Great.But

quite

a

lot

more of

the

early

music for

flute and

orchestra

may originally

have been

scored for it. In view of Quantz'scomment that the

Venetians

used

to

play

at the

shrill

choir

pitch,

it

may

be

that

the terzetto

was the

flute for

which

Vivaldi

com-

posed.

Certainly

ts

chirpy

sound

is ideal for

his

'Gold-

finch'

Concerto

RV428.

High-pitched

flutes

It is

often stated

that the true

piccolo

at the octave did

not come into use until

Beethoven's

ime.

In

fact,

it was

very

common

in

the

Baroque

era,

from

which

some

examples

have

survived.It is

difficult

to see

what

other

instrumentBach can have had

in

mind as the'Fl. Trav.

in 8a' of his

choral

scores.

Corrette ells us that the

piccolo

was the

correct

instrument for

playing

the

tambourin

ieces

that were

becoming

fashionable at the

time

he

wrote

his

Mdthode

c1740).

The

quart

and

quint

flutes were

probably

played

mostly

in

France,

as

descant members

of the

three-piece

flute

consort.

The

rather short

instrument in Jan

Kupeck,'s

portrait

of

a

flautist

(illus.5) may

be of

this

type.

And what were

Bach's 'fiauti

d'eco'

in

Brandenburg

Concerto no.4?

Were

they

perhaps

two little

quart

flutes?8

Bass flutes

Various

kinds

of

bass

flute seem

to

have

been

played

a

great

deal

throughout

he

Baroqueperiod,

though

until

recently only

one

piece

of

music was known to

have

been

composed

for such an

instrument-C. P.E.Bach's

delightful

F

major

Trio

Sonata

wQ163.

Modern

ditions

specify

bass

recorder

or the

'Bassfl6te'

called

for

here,

but it is

difficult to see

why

C. P. E. Bachshould have

EARLYMUSIC

FEBRUARY

984

43



chosen

to

writesuch a

sophisticated piece

of

music for

an obsolete

instrument that would have

been

inaud-

ible

against

a

viola,

rather

han for one which seems

to

have been

very

popular

at the

time.)

By

the

middle

of

the

century,

French

makers

had

evolved

an elaborate

five-keyed design

with the

head

connected

to a

U-pipe;

his instrument

was

eitherin G

orin the octaveat D. Twoother kindsof bass flutehave

survived from

this

period,

one

by

I. Beuker

of

Amster-

dam

(now

in the Paris

Conservatoire),

he

other

by

J. M. Anciutiof

Milan,

1739

(Vienna,

Kunsthistorisches

Museum;

illus.6).

Both

instruments are

fascinating,

above

all because their makers set out

in

opposite

directions

to solve the

problems

of bass

flute

design.

In

essence,

the

Beuker

is

simply

an

oversize

four-piece

flute. Its

length

is double that of the concert

flute,

and

the

maker followed the

principles

later

approved

by

Quantz

and Boehm

in

making

he diameter

of

the

bore

and embouchure

correspondingly

large.

The

finger-

holes are argeandwidelyspaced,but the difficultthird

and sixth holes are

brought

within reach

by

a double-

action

key

system

similar

to that of

the oboe.

The

instrument

s

surprisingly ight

for its

size.

The Anciuti

flute

is

extraordinary

n

every respect,

and deserves

furtherdiscussion.

Especially

remarkable

is

the

fact that

although

it

has a

sounding length

almost

as

great

as that

of

the

Beuker,

ts

embouchureand bore

measurements

are

exactly

the

same as those of

the

concert

flute.

The

problem

of

reach

on the Anciuti is

solved

through

two devices:

a bent-back

head-piece

made out of

a

single piece

of

wood,

and an

ingenious

system

of

cutting

the

finger-holes,

which are raised

above

the

outside

of the wall

and

cut at a

very

acute

angle

with fine

craftsmanship. Despite

its

curious

features,

though,

the Anciuti

is

easy

to

play

and has

a

lovely

sound.

Mersenne,

discussing

the

problems

of

the bass flute

a hundred

years

before

these

two

irstru-

ments were

made,

says:

'Still,

one

can

remedy

this

defect

in

the bass of the said flute

by many

keys,

or

by

breaking

hem and

doubling

them

back,

as is

done

in

the

bassoon'.9

In

other

words,

these instruments

are

both of

a

very

old

design. (Even

in

Mersenne's time

therewasnothingnewabouttheuse ofkeysto make he

diatonic

notes

reachable;

but

the

concept

of

adding

keys

for chromaticnotes was

revolutionary,

nd did not

take hold

until the end of the 18th

century.)

The bass

flute seems to have been

particularly

favoured

in

France.

Included in the

pieces

in Hotteterre'sAirs et

brunettes resome trios n which a flute

plays

basstotwo

higher-pitched

flutes in

consort,

and

several

of the

6 Bass

flute

by

J.

M. Anciuti

(Milan,

1739) (Vienna,

Kunst-

historisches

Museum,

Samm-

lung

alter

Musikinstrumente)

It

44 EARLY MUSIC FEBRUARY 1984



transposed

solo

pieces

are written for the low

quart

or

quint

flutes. Two

passages

in

Couperin's

L'apotheose

e

Lulli

appear

o have been scored for the bass flute in

G;

another

piece

written

specifically

for tis Philidor's

olo

La

chasse

(ex.3).

Since such an instrumentwould

have

been the flute

equivalent

of the oboe

da caccia, itwould

have

been ideal for such a

composition.

'At

present',

says Quantz,

of the

'unusual'

ypes

of flute

like the

flt2te

d'amour,

none

approaches

the

regular

transverse lute

in trueness and

beauty

of tone.' But

his

is a value

judgement,

and

a

highly

partisan

one

at

that,

which comes

from the

person

most

responsible

for

making

these instruments obsolete. His

use of

the

words

'at

present'

is

significant:

they

imply

that the

situation was

not

always

so,

and that

the

'regular

transverse flute'

had

only

recently

begun

to

matchthe

'unusual' ones.

From

he

extremelycomplex

state

of

affairsdescribed

above, it appearsthat the standardizationof the flute

was a farfrom

straightforwardrocess.

Quantz

s

not

as

reliable in

questions

of taste

as

he

is

in

mattersof fact:

this

is

one of

the rare

areas

n

which

we find

something

self-contradictory

and

equivocal

in

the

Versuch.

Onthe

one

hand,

he

several times

emphasizes

the

importance

of the

low

tone of the

flute,

and

speaks

out

strongly

against

the

shrill

sound

of the terzetto flute then

becoming

prevalent.

He

complains

that this

tendency

was'denaturing'

he flute

and

turning

t

into

a fife.

At he

same time he

says:

'I do not wish

to

argue

for

the

very

low French hamber

itch,

although

tis

mostadvantageous

for

the transverse

lute'

my talics)

and decides in

favour

of the

medium

German

pitch,

which is

'neither too low

nor too

high'.

Perhaps

many

of his

contemporaries

would have been

convinced

by

these

statements;

but

the

jump

from

the

old French

pitch

to that

of

Quantz's

'ordinary'

flute

was

greater,

if

anything,

than the

interval between

Quantz's

pitch

and

that of the

shrill

terzetto.

f La

Barre,

or

example,

had heard

Quantz

play

one of

his

soprano-voiced

flutes,

he

might

well have

found its

pipsqueak

sound as

excruciating

as

Quantz

found that

of the terzetto.

Quantz

was

probablyaiming,

as acompromise,at a level somewhere atthe lowerend

of

the

middle German

pitch.

His

own

flutes

appear,

fromtheir

measurements,

to have

gone

down to about

a'=400.

It

may

be

significant

that

quite

a few flutes

made

in

Franceat the

same

time-by Bizey,

Lot and

Leclercq-

are tuned

to the same

pitch.)

In

fact,

Quantz

was

largely

endorsing

a

process

that had been

taking

place quietly

during

he 1730s

and1740s. Bach's

Sonata

Ex.3

Pierre Danican

Philidor,

La

chasse,

from

op.3 (Paris,

1718)

DI.

A]I

I J

.

J

.

03

lo

* *

for flute and

obbligatoharpsichord

BWV

032

s

thought

to have

been

written

n its

presentkey

of

A

major

around

1736,

apparently

n

transposition

from

an

original

C

major (though

the middle

movement seems to

have

been

raiseda minor

3rd).

These

alterations

are

entirely

consistent

with

the idea that Bach was

rewriting

the

sonata orthe

soprano-voiced

oncert

flute then

coming

into fashion.

10

Musicians

now

seem

for the first time to have

thought

in terms of a

fixed,

international

pitch

system.

Even

unaccompanied

flute

pieces

were

now

written in

remotekeys:for example,of W.F. Bach'ssix duets for

flutes,

two

are in

E flat and

one

is in

F

minor,

a

key

almost

unheard

of

in

such

music.

Thesewere

definitely

intended

for the

fltte

d'amour

n

B

flat,

but

an

earlier

composer

would

have

written

them in

G

major

and A

minor

respectively

and

left the

choice

of flute to the

discretion of the

player.

This

brings

us

to a

very

mportant

et of

pieces

written

around

1740,

Telemann's

12

Fantasias for unaccom-

panied

flute.

This is

the

flautist's

Well-tempered

lavier,

for

it

is

the

only

collection of

pieces

for

the

flute

systematically

covering

a

range

of different

keys.

Frans

Vesterhas

suggested (letter

o the

author)

hat themore

'remote' of

these

fantasias were

meant

for

the

fltte

d'amour.

am

inclined

to

agree

with

him,

but it is

also

worth

bearing

in

mind

that at this time

the

ordinary

flute's

technique

was

being

extended

to

cover

all

keys,

and

that Telemann

may

have

been

putting

the

instru-

ment

through

its

paces.

Hitherto,

the flute had had

a

variety

of

higher

and

lower

'voices',

each

of which

was

only

really

at

home

in

the

four

or five

keys

it

could

play

most

naturally.

As

the

Potsdam

lautists

began

to

use

only

one

type

of instru-

ment,the concertflute, they compensated bydevelop-

ing

a

technique

that made a

much wider

range

of

keys

available.

Frederick

the

Great's

rigorous

solfeggios

cover

about

15

different

keys.

But one

wonders

how

widespread

these

techniques

were.

(Prussia,

after

all,

was

still the

only

country

n

Europe

whose soldiers were

drilled

to march

in

step )

No

one

really

succeeded

in

turning

the

one-keyed

flute

into

a

fully

chromatic

EARLY

MUSIC

FEBRUARY

1984

45



instrument:

within

20

years

of

the

Versuch,

Kirst,

who

must

have know

Quantz

well,

was

already introducing

extra

keys

for the more difficult notes.

The traditional attitude to the flute had its

champion

in

Sans

Souci

itself.

C.

P.

E.

Bach,

who

was one

of

Quantz's

colleagues,

seems to have

been

particularly

fond of

the unusual

types

of flute. To

Quantz,

with his

reformer's zeal, this attitude must have seemed like an

irresponsible

and

retrograde

desire

for

the chaos from

which

he was

trying

to rescue

the

flute;

and

it no

doubt

contributed

to the

poor relationship

between the two

men.

Quantz

was

trying,

in

fact,

to

do to the flute what

his

employer

was

doing

to

Germany;

his success was

every

bit

as swift and

as far

reaching.

From the time of

his

Versuch,

a

single type

of

instrument

came to

be

regarded

as

the flute: the orchestral

instrument

which is

known

nowadays

as the

Baroque

flute.

By

then,

how-

ever,

the

Baroque

era was almost

at an

end.

Perhaps

this

instrument could

more

aptly

be

called

the

Rococo

flute."I

I

am

particularlygrateful

o

Frans

Vester,

who

sent

me the list

ofcompositionsfor

the

'flzte

d'amour'

hat

he

has

preparedfor

the second

edition

of

his

flute repertory

catalogue.

Appendix:

he

Schlegel

flute

One of the instrumentson

display

in

the instrument

museum

of the

Paris

Conservatoire

s an

ivory

lute

(no.

c.440)

made in

Basle

by

Schlegel

in

the third

quarter

of the 18th

century

(illus.7).

In

appearance

t

is a

typicalfluted'amour,

ery

similar

to the Scherer

n

the

BateCollection.

(The

museum

has

seven

other

pieces

of

the flute which

are not on

display.)

The

Schlegel

flute

is

the

missing

link

between

theflzted'amour,

he

low-pitched

old French

lute and

the German oncert flute.

It

is

unique

in that all

four of its

parts(if

we include the

sliding

cork)

can be

adjusted

in

some

way

to alter the

sounding

length.

The

upper

middle

joint

has seven numbered

corps

de

rechange;

here is a

longer

and

a shorter lower

joint;

and

the

foot

joint

expands

by

up

to

14mm.

The

expanding

sleeve

(or

'register')

s

calibrated

by

numbers o match he different

orps

de

rechange.

The silver

key

is

also

extendible.

There

is

a marked

difference

between

the first

corps

de

rechange

nd

the

remaining

six,

as can

be

seen from

illus.7.

No.1 is 75mm

longer

than

no.2;

but

no.2 is

only

42mm

longer

than no.7 (theshortest),andthe interveningsizes diminishin

steps

of 8-9mm.

The

longer

lower

joint,

with

its wider

spacings

for the

finger-holes, obviously goes

with

no.1,

the

shorter with

the

remaining

six

settings.

Between no.7

setting

and

no.l,

the distance from the

middleof the

embouchure o the

tip

of the foot

joint

increases

from 508 to

665mm;

in other

words,

the flute

can

vary

in

length

by nearly

a

third.At ts

longest,

the instrumenthas the

same dimensions as either a

flzte

damour or

the

type

of

t?;:'

1' ? .

~..??1?

??~:?

r::

...:

i?~,?;

jb:~:d??t::

?s

:i`

~:ii ~II

i~ ::~:~ :ri:

~"" "" ~~~

::o:

P~?i:

~':?

o

I:::

i?

s:li*:, k:%

i' ?

.i- .

ii::?.tF

(;~`-?T

; "?::

?.;.,t:

.,. i$i

I'

45

:

: :" I:i?::P:Pil4j;

c

?:::~:

I`,

t4 ~;a--?

7

Ivory

our-piece

flute

by

Schlegel (Basle,

c1730-40),

shown at

the

no.

1

setting,

with

corps

de

rechangeParis,

MuseeInstrumental

u

Conservatoire

ational

Superieur

e

Musique)

instrumentseen in

the

Tournieres

painting

(illus.4);

t

is less

than a

quarter-tone

latter than

the Naust

flute in the same

collection. The

note a'=440 is

sounded

in

the C

sharp

position:

in

other

words,

he

flute

in

its

no.

1

setting

is in Bflat

at

modern

pitch

or in

D at a

tuning

of

a'=c350.

This no.1

setting

is almost

certainly

he

corpsd'amour

mentioned

in

the

'Flute allemande'

section

of

the

Encyclopedie.

he

other

six

settings bring

the

instrument o

exactly

the

proportions

hat

46 EARLYMUSIC FEBRUARY1984



are

most

typical

of the

German

18th-

entury

lute as

described

by

Quantz

and as found in

many

extant

examples.

No.2

tuning

is

around

a'=415

(present-day

Baroque'

pitch),

while

no.7

sounds

sharper

than

a'=440

(modern

concert

pitch).

The

grades

in

between

each

correspond

to a comma. The

flute

therefore

plays

at two

quite

distinct

levels,

the low

French

chamber

or

d'amorepitch,

and the variable German

pitch

probably

used

by

most orchestras. The intervals

between

these two levels are: a minor 3rd at the lower end of the

German

uning

(no.2)

and a

major

3rd at the

highest

(no.7).

Both

of

these intervals occur as

transpositions

in German

music for

the

flzte

d'amour

e.g.

in

Bach's

flute

sonatas).

Dr

Kriekeberg,

urator of the BerlinMusikinstrumenten-

Museum,

has sent

me informationon Exhibit

no. 1531

there,

which consists

of

several

ivory

flute

pieces

by

Scherer

that

belonged

to

Frederick

he Great.Dr

Kriekeberg

elieves

that

1531

was

originally

a

pair

of

flutes,

each

having

a

corps

d'amour.

Thus Frederick

definitely played

the

flzite

d'amour,

which corroborates

my

belief that

J.

S.

Bach's

two

Potsdam

flute works

(the

trio

sonata in the Musical

Offering

nd

the

E

major Sonata Bsw1035)

were

originally

intended for that

instrument;

he same

is also true of much of

C.

P. E. Bach's

flute

music,

particularly

he

TrioSonata

wQ162

n E

major,

a

characteristic

d'amore

ey.

'P.

T.

Young, Twenty-five

undredHistorical

nstruments

New

York,

1982),

ists

only

102

extant

flutes that can

definitely

be said to have

been

made between

1670 and

1750;

of

these,

55 were made

n

England

and

15

in

France,

and

only

two

of those

15

have been

preserved

n

France.

2The

use

of

exchangeable

upper

joints

known as

corps

de

rechange

enabled

the

pitch

of

many

flutes to be altered

by

well over a

tone,

but

even

this

was

not

always

sufficient to cover all the variations

n

pitch

between

different

kinds

of instruments. Thus the flautist would

sometimes be

obliged

to

transpose by

a

tone or a

semitone. The

concert flute was therefore sometimesplayedas a'flute in C',orE(or

even D

sharp).

The

picture

we

get

from

Quantz,

Corretteand Diderot

and

D'Alembert's

Encyclopddie

Paris, 1751-65)

is

that the

corps

de

rechange,

when

first

invented,

could alter

a

flute's

tuning

by

as

much

as three

semitones,

and that

the

span

was

refined at a later date to

between a semitone

and a

whole tone. Not

many

flutes have

survived

with

all their

corps

de

rechange.

n

general,

any

flute

from this

period

that

has

survived

as one

assembled

piece

should

be treated

as

only

one version

of a variable

nstrument.

3This

ould be

the instrumentknown as

theflf2te

cinqpieds.

Writers

are aware

of

the existence

of

theflf2te

d'amour

n

B,

but

seem

to have

some

resistance

to

the

idea of

one

in

B lat. But n

the

18th

century

any

flute was

likely

to

adjust

ts

tuning

by

at

east a semitone

(I

am

sure,

for

example,

that the

very low-pitched

Scherer in

the Bate

Collection,

Oxford,

originally

had

a

corps

de

rechange

hat raised its

pitch

by

a

semitone,

and I have reconstructed such a

joint

from

he

dimensions

of another flute in Vienna). Conclusive evidence is provided by

Molter's E flat

Concerto

for

'Flauto tray.

d'Amore'

and

orchestra

(Karlsruhe,

Badische

Landesbibliothek,

307).

In

the

manuscript

score,

thefluzte

'amour

art

s written n

G,

a

major

3rd

higher,

which

involves the

same

transposition

as I

use

in

playing

Bach'sE

lat

Flute

Sonata

swv

1031.

Molter

was

personally

acquainted

with Bach and his

family.

4SeeE.

Halfpenny,

A

Seventeenth-century

Fli7te

d'Allemagne',

GSJ,

iv

(1951), p.42;

the

replica

I

have

made

of

the Paris Naust

includes

such

a

stopper,

which I

find

gives

a

certain

edge

to the

tone.

5Editors

re

prone

o

regard

all

transpositions

hat

they

find in

18th-

century

flute

music

as recorder

ranspositions,

butthat cannot be

the

case

here. In

was Hotteterre

himself who

originated

the idea

of

recorder

ranspositions,

n

the avertissement

o

his

Livrepremier,

ut

his

suggestions

are

unconvincing--for

example,

that

the D

major

suite

should be

transposed

a

major

3rd

for

the

recorder,

which would

give

the

key

of F

sharp

major,

ittle

used on

any

instrument,

et alone

the

recorder.

6The laborately

constructed

programme

f

L'apothose

deLulli

s in

fact an

allegory

of

Couperin's

deas on the standardizationof

pitch.

An

article

in which

I

analyse

this

work

s

forthcoming

n

Recherches'

sur

la

musique

rangaise

lassique.

7The

lute

London,

1969),

p.185

8They

were

certainly

not

recorders

in F. Bach wrote a

different

version

of the

concerto

for the

latter,

n

their

home

key.

The

iauti

deco

must

have been

flutes or

recorders

pitched

a

tone

higher,

n

G;

andthe

'little

quart

flute',

which

is mentioned both

by

Quantz

and in

the

Encyclopedie,

its

the bill

exactly.

9Harmonie

niverselle,

(Paris,

1636),

bk

5,

sv

'Flfite

allemande'.

'?See

R. L.

Marshall,

J.

S.

Bach's

Compositions

for

Solo Flute:

a

Reconsideration

of their

Authenticity

and

Chronology',

AMS,

xxxii

(1979),pp.463-98.

Marshallbelieves

that,

in the extant

version,

Bach

has altered he

key

relationship

of the slow

movement

o the two

outer

ones,

raising

t fromthe

relative

o the tonic

minor,

possibly

because

in its

original

version

the

slow

movement

was the

only

one that went

below the rangeof the concert flute.

"After

Quantz, heflzte

d'amour ontinued

to be

played

sporadical-

ly, enjoying

a modest revival

at

the

turn of the

century.

To

meet this

new

demand,

the

London

workshop

of Muzio

Clementi

began

in the

181Os o

producecopies

of

the earlier

nstrument-the

firstcontribu-

tion,

perhaps,

to the

early

musical instrument

revival?

h e

O r i g i n a l

a r o q u e

l u t e

As seen in the well-known Tournieres

painting:

the French alto

flute,

for the

music

of

Hotteterre,

La Barre and

Couperin.

The C

& C

"Naust" flute is

copied

from

one

of

two

surviving

specimens.

It is

tuned

at

the

old

French

Chamber

Pitch,

and

will

play

with

other

instruments at

a'=415

or

440.

It

can also

tune

up

to

Concert Pitch with

an

extra

"Rippert" joint.

Standard

version:

Grenadilla with

boxwood

mounts:

?338.

Other materials:

by

arrangement

with

the

maker.

"Rippert" middle joint: ?70.

Each

instrument is

sold

with

instructions

on how

to

play

at

French

Chamber

Pitch,

together

with a

table

of

Hotteterre's

G-Clef

transpositions.

SC

& C

(Oxford)

Ltd

2

Bladon Close

Oxford

OX2

8AD

Tel.

(0865)

59185

EARLY

MUSIC

FEBRUARY

1984

47

in search of the baroque flute the flute family 1680-1750

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