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Story of the Flute
two flutes and organ. This combination is also used in Alexander Balus, "Hark! he strikes the golden lyre," and in the famous "Dead March" in Saul. On one occasion when the present writer was playing at a public performance of this work, the second flute was horribly out of tune; at the conclusion of the number the second flautist discovered that he had left his bandana handkerchief (with which he cleaned his flute) in the tube all the time!
It has been pointed out that Handel uses the organ to accompany the flute in preference to the pianoforte, probably as being more similar in tone.Handel'sTreatment
of the Flute The combination of flute and bassoon, never used by Bach, also of flute and horn, occurs several times in Handel's works. In Solomon (1748) we find a curious obligato for a solo oboe, accompanied by all the flutes in unison. In La Resurresione and in Parthenope (iii. 6) the flute is used in conjunction with the Theorbo (bass lute). It is evident that, though he once declared that all flautists were intelligent, the flute is used by Handel more or less as an appendage to the orchestra rather than as a regular constituent member of it, the number of flutes employed being less than that of the other members of the wood-wind. Rousseau says Handel's usual orchestra contained but two flutes as against five oboes and five bassoons, and at the Handel commemoration in 1784 there were but six flutes, whereas the number of oboes and bassoons was twenty-six each. This preference for the double-reed tone is also very
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