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Handel's Flute Obligatos
are written in the same key as the non-transposing instruments, whereas in others the contrary is the case. The same discrepancy occurs in the parts marked "flauto." It will be recollected that the flute-à-bec was a transposing instrument.
Several other flute obligates of note occur in Handel's works. Probably the best known is the soprano aria, "Sweet Bird," in Il Penseroso.Handel'sFlute
Obligatos The flute part is very florid and showy throughout, and an old critic has drawn attention to the admirable manner in which the words "Most musical, most melancholy," are treated. We have another bird-song in Joshua (1747), "Hark, 'tis the linnet [violin] and the thrush" [flute]. Apollo and Dafne has an important flute obligato to the duet, "Deh lascia." Like Bach, Handel uses the flute to convey the idea expressed by the words, as in "Softest sounds" in Athalia (i); with its thin string accompaniment, in order that the weak notes of the flute may not be drowned. Again, we find in Jephtha a remarkable flute obligato, "In gentle murmurs," and the words, "Tune the soft melodious lute, pleasant harp, and warbling flute," naturally are accompanied by a solo flute part, which instrument is also employed in solo passages and trills to illustrate "the soft-complaining flute" in St. Cecilia's Day,Flute and
Organ where the flute is used in combination with the lute and organ. The flute is introduced to represent tears in Deborah (iii. 5), "Tears such as fathers shed," being accompanied by
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