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 effect of two, one playing the melody and the other the accompaniment. The extraordinary performances of one George Bayr (c. 1810) created a great sensation 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 articulation 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 composed a concerto with a long cadenza in these double notes.
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