Story of the Flute
in 1734. As Court musician to Frederick the Great, Quantz composed about three hundred flute concertosQuantz (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 ofClassicalComposers J. S. Bach, for flute and pianoforte (c. 1747), are amongst the treasures of the flute-player's 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
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