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-à-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 Bachof that monarch. The treatment of the flute by Bach and Handel is particularly interesting, owing to the fact that they lived at the period when the flute-à-bec was being gradually superseded by the transverse flute.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 compass 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-à-bec. He hardly ever uses both it and the transverse flute in the same work, and never in the same piece. The118
