Frederick's Playing
and merely coughed gently. Once he coughed several tunes during the performance of a new concerto by Frederick. When it was over Frederick said to his first violin, "Come, Benda, we must do what we can to cure Quantz's catarrh." Frederick employed a man specially to keep his flute in good order, calling it his "most adorable princess."[1] When he gave up playing, and left his flutes and music packed up at Potsdam, he said to Benda, with a voice quivering with emotion, "My dear Benda, I have lost my best friend!" He was extremely nervous when playing, often trembling violently, and never attempted a new piece without private practice. He did not possess much dexterity in rapid passages, and is said also to have been rather a bad timist. He never played any pieces save his own compositions or those of Quantz, which he would never allow to be printed. The King himself is said to have composed one hundred concertos (one was played at a concert in Dresden in 1912), chiefly after retiring for the night, which he did at 10 p.m. He merely wrote down the melody, with directions as to the other parts—e.g., "Here bass play in quavers"; the score was then completed by his Chapel Master. Late in life the King, having lost his front teeth, and beginning to be a trifle scant of breath, found Quantz's long passages somewhat trying, and he ultimately gave up practising the flute, or even listening to music. Once when a
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- ↑ Mr. James Mathews (see p. 72, ante) christened his gold flute "Chrysostom"—the golden-mouthed, and an American flautist of some notoriety (Mr. Clay Wysham) named his flute "Lamia."
