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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 mean an instrument pitched an octave above the piccolo! Probably all the flutes mentioned in the above works were flutes-à-bec, the "flautino" being a little high-pitched whistle pipe.

Alessandro Striggio is said to have employed a transverse flute (along with two flutes-à-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.

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