4456665The Story of the FluteHenry Macaulay Fitzgibbon
The Flute Player (pg ii, The Story of the Flute, 1914)
THE FLUTE PLAYER (Meissonier)
The Story of the Flute
By
H. Macaulay Fitzgibbon, M.A., SEN. MOD. (T.C.D.),
AUTHOR OF
"The early English and Scottish Poets and their Works."
London
The Walter Scott Publishing Co., Ltd.
New York: Charles Scribner's Sons
1914
Preface.
This volume is the result of nearly forty years' loving study of the Flute and everything connected with it. In addition to the knowledge acquired by many years of orchestral and chamber music playing, hundreds of volumes have been consulted in the Bibliothéque Nationale of Paris, the British Museum, the Bodleian, Dublin University, and other Public Libraries.
Whilst availing myself freely of the labours of my predecessors in the same field, I have verified their statements as far as possible. I desire to thank the various flautists, European and American, who have supplied me with much valuable information.
In conclusion, I pray my readers to excuse any slips I may have inadvertently made; wishing them (in the words of old Quarles) "as much pleasure in the reading as I had in the writing."
Antiquity of the flute—Classic legends—Egyptian origin—The Arab “Nay”—Development—The Fipple—Fingerholes—Double flutes—Popularity amongst the ancients—Ancient players of note—Their position and costume
Section I.—Was it known to the Greeks and Romans?—The Chinese—India—Early representations and references—The Schweitzerpfeiff—Virdung—Agricola—Prætorius—Mersenne's description—In England
Section II.—Flutes with keys—The D♯ key—Hotteterre—The conical bore—Structure of early flutes—Tuning slides—Quantz's inventions—The low C keys—Further keys added—Tromlitz's inventions—Open keys—The eight-keyed flute—Capeller and Nolan's keys
Biographical—Revolution in the flute—Gordon—His flutes—Böhm—His flutes of 1831, 1832, and 1847—His publications—As a player—His compositions—Böhm's centenary—The controversy—Priority of inventions—Coche's attack—Clinton's views—Revival of the controversy—Rockstro's attack—Summary
Various patentees—Coche and Buffet—Ward—The Dorus key—Siccama—Briccialdi's lever—Carte's flutes—Clinton—Pratten—Rockstro—Radcliff—Other minor "improvers"
Early history, examples, and references—Arbeau's description—Introduced into the French army—Into the English army—Duties of military fifers—Their position—Temporary disuse—Re-instatement—The true fife—In opera
Piccolo—Orchestral use—Characteristics—Berlioz on its abuse—Its various registers—As used by great composers—Two piccolos—With cymbals, bells, etc.—As a solo instrument—Military varieties—The F flute
Popularity of the flute—Its tone—Various registers—Its agility—Harmonics—Double-tongueing—The glide—Vibrato effect—Shakes and turns—Tremolo—Best keys—Hygienic aspect
Early composers—Loeillet—Mercy—Blavet—Quantz—Classical composers—Flautist composers—Kuhlau—His successors—Good flute music—Taste of the public—Airs with variations—Doppler—Terschak—Modern school of flute composers—Flute and harp or guitar—Flute and voice
Introduction of the flute into the orchestra—The flute and piccolo as used by the great composers—Bach—His obligatos—Handel—His flauto-piccolo—Flute and organ—Gluck—Haydn—The Creation—Symphonies—Mozart—Disliked the flute—Symphonies—Serenades—Operas—Concertos—Beethoven—His famous flute passages—Weber—Meyerbeer—Piccolo passages—Italian operatic composers—William Tell overture—Mendelssohn—Midsummer Night's Dream—Symphonies—Oratorios—Schubert—Schumann—Use by modern composers—Berlioz—Flute and harp—Brahms—Dvořák—The Spectre's Bride—Cadenzas—Grieg—Bizet's Carmen—Sullivan—The Golden Legend—Coleridge-Taylor—Wagner—Tschaïkowsky—R. Strauss—Passages of extreme difficulty
"The neglected wind"—Chamber pieces by great composers—Spohr's Nonett—Pieces for wind and pianoforte—For wind and strings—For wind alone—Larger combinations—For flutes alone
Section I.—Foreign players—Quantz—Frederick the Great—Royal flautists—Early French players—Hugot—Berbiguier—Tulou—Drouet—Furstenau—Doppler—Dorus—Demersseman—Ciardi—Briccialdi—Ribas—Terschak—Altes—Taffanel
Early English references—Chaucer—Flute and fife in Shakespeare—In the early dramatists—In the poets—References to the qualities of the flute—Epithets applied to it—Cowper—Longfellow—Other poets—Prose references—In modern novelists—Dickens—A weird flute story—Flute in American authors—Sidney Lanier—Other literary flautists—Legends
Flutes of curious materials—Walking-stick flutes—Ornamented flutes—Böhm's crutch—Ward's terminator—Various other inventions—The Giorgi flute—Automaton players—Dulon, the blind flautist—Rebsomen, the one-armed flautist—Hallet, the youthful prodigy—How to silence a flautist
Oriental flutes—Chinese—Japanese—Effect of the flute on animals—Indian flutes—Nose-flutes—South American flutes—The love flute—Ancient prejudices—The Fathers and the Puritans
The notes of the various octaves are expressed in the text thus: those of the first octave from the C below the treble stave to the B on the third line, inclusive, have one stroke thus—C′; those of the second octave have two strokes—e.g., C″; and those of the third octave have three strokes—e.g., C‴.
ADDENDA AND CORRIGENDA.
Page 2.—It has been suggested that the verb fluter or flauter preceded the noun, and that it represents a Low Latin flautlare = to sound the notes fa, ut, la; of this there is no evidence. (See Studies, September, 1913, p. 229.)
Page 34.—The passage cited from Bacon's Sylva Sylvarum is from c. ii., s. 116.
Page 66.—For "Ribcock" read "Ribock."
Page 78.—For "James I." read "James II."
Page 103, line 9.—Strike out the reference to Mozart's Concerto.
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published in 1914, before the cutoff of January 1, 1929.
The longest-living author of this work died in 1942, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 81 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.
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