Story of the Flute
celebrated flautist played before Frederick at Potsdam the monarch only fetched his own flute and played a piece for the artist, who expected a more substantial reward. Voltaire says the King played "as well as the greatest artist," but Bach remarked, "You are mistaken if you think he loves the flute: all he cares for is playing himself." Two of his flutes are in the Royal Museum, Berlin; one silver, the other wood.[1]
The king was fond of triplet passages of this kind—
hence Quantz always introduced them into his concertos, and Kirnberger, the musical critic, said he could recognize Quantz's compositions by the "sugar-loaves." Quantz died of apoplexy at Potsdam on
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- ↑ The flute can boast that it is the only instrument on which a great sovereign has ever attained proficiency and for which a monarch has composed. Frederick was by no means the only flautist of Royal blood. The infamous Nero was a flute-player of some note in his day; King Auletes of Greece, the last of the Ptolemies and father of Cleopatra, played in public contests with professional flute-players and was inordinately proud of his performance. Our own bluff King Hal delighted in the flute and played it daily, says Holinshed (1577). Seventy-two "flutes" are mentioned in the Inventory of his Wardrobe, 1547; some are of ivory, tipped with gold, others of glass, and one of wood painted like glass. The same list mentions six fifes and numbers of recorders. Francis I. of Austria (c. 1804), Joseph I. of Hungary (1678-1711), and Frederick, Markgraf of Brandenburg—Culmbach—Bayreuth (1711-63), were flute-players. Albert, the Prince Consort,
