Margaret N. Neuhaus
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THE BAROQUE BAROQUE FLUTE
FINGERING BOOK
Second Edition Edited by Ardal Powell
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The Baroque Flute Fingering Book
Preface to the first edition
In 1710, the French flutist-composer Michel de La Barre (1675-1743) advertised his Deuxième Livre de Pieces pour la Flûte traversière avec basse continue . In the preface to the music, he commented that “there are two or three notes which I believe no one knows [how to produce], and I would not know how to tell him in writing how to perform these notes; but if those who would like to learn would take the trouble to pass by my home … it would give me great pleasure, with no obligation to them, to show them how….” 1 The above quotation shows how close the relationship between composer and performer often was in earlier times. Alas, the modern performer on the one-keyed traverso can no longer knock on Monsieur La Barre’s door to solve a fingering problem. While there are many original sources of flute fingerings from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, they are not all readily available. It was my own experience in learning to play the traverso that gave rise to the idea of writing a comprehensive fingering guide for the instrument. The advantage of having instant access to several fingering possibilities for a particular note will be appreciated by anyone who has tried the alternative of looking up a note in several independent sources. The first version of this book was written as a term project in musicology at the American Conservatory of Music about five years ago [1981]. It has proven invaluable to me and to other traverso players. The present version is greatly expanded, both in the number of sources and the time span covered. The addition of flattement and battement fingerings makes it even more useful. I would like to acknowledge the help of many people in the completion of this project: Dr. G. Nicholas Bullat for his encouragement of my initial efforts in his musicology class; my flute teacher Mary Louise Poor for her continuing guidance and advice; Shelley Gruskin, Stephen Preston, Jeremy Montagu, and John Solum for helpful discussions; and the British Library and the Library of Congress for providing copies of several of the sources. And, special thanks to my husband, Francis Neuhaus, both for his technical help in preparing the manuscript and for his enthusiastic support of my musical endeavors. 1
James R. Anthony, French Baroque Music from Beaujoyeulx to Rameau (New York: W. W. Norton, 1978) 336-37.
Preface
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Preface to the second edition
Margaret N. Neuhaus (dates) held a Bachelor of Arts degree in music history from Duke University and Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees in flute performance from the American Conservatory of Music. Her flute teachers included Earl Slocum, Charles Delaney, and Mary Louise Poor, and she performed in masterclasses and baroque flute courses with Stephen Preston, Betty Bang Mather, and John Solum. She was a member of Flutes Unlimited, the North Shore Concert Band, and of the National Flute Association, of which she was a Life Member and Archivist/Historian. During her last illness she asked Folkers & Powell to take over the distribution of her popular Baroque Flute Fingering Book , two printings of which she had produced in a photocopied edition with a comb binding. I undertook to produce a revised edition with several aims in mind: to make it more widely available, hopefully at a lower cost; to update the bibliographies; and to bring some areas, such as Part 1 and various details regarding sources, authors, and dates, in line with the current state of knowledge. In addition a few typographical errors and inconsistencies have been corrected. The book’s title uses the term “baroque flute” in its colloquial sense to refer to the one-keyed flute, not just the instrument of the Baroque period. In fact the work covers the period 1707-1825, in the latter part of which beginners and dilettantes still usually played one-keyed flutes though these were no longer heard in public performance. The work is a practical survey of that period’s sources on fingering rather than an exhaustive one, and omits a few of the less important works listed in my Bibliography of Flute Method Books (www.flutehistory.com) as well as in Thomas E. Warner’s An Annotated Bibliography of Woodwind Instruc- tion Books, 1600-1830 , to which W numbers in the source listings refer. Two of the most authoritative sources that are included, by Quantz and Tromlitz, were written for the two-keyed flute: Ms Neuhaus adapted their instructions for the one-keyed instrument. I should like to acknowledge the invaluable assistance of William R. West (Indiana Wesleyan University) and of Catherine E. Folkers (Folkers & Powell) in preparing this edition. A.P. March 2002
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The Baroque Flute Fingering Book
This sample shows a few pages from The Baroque Flute Fingering Book by Margaret N. Neuhaus. Click here to ordera copy from flutehistory.com.
Contents
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Contents
Preface to the first edition
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Preface to the second edition
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1. Origin and history of the conical one-keyed flute (Ardal Powell)
1
2. Fingering principles and problems of the one-keyed Flute
3
3. The sources
5
4. Fingerings
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List of sources and their abbreviations
51
Symbols used in fingering tables
52
5. The Trill
67
6. The Flattement
103
7. The Battement
111
8. Examples of fingerings to make difficult passages easier
119
9. Playing in tune on a baroque flute (Catherine Folkers)
131
General bibliography
137
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The Baroque Flute Fingering Book
This sample shows a few pages from The Baroque Flute Fingering Book by Margaret N. Neuhaus. Click here to ordera copy from flutehistory.com.
3. The Sources
Prelleur, Peter, The Newest Method Flute. London, 1730/31 (W62)
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for Learners on the German
Peter Prelleur (1705?-41), an Englishman of French extraction, started his career as a writing master in Spitalfields, Middlesex. According to Hawkins, he had a genius for music and after much study took it up as a profession. In 1728, he was elected organist of St. Alban’s Church in London. A short time later, he joined the band at the theater in Goodman’s Fields as a harpsichordist. He was talented enough in composition to write dances and interludes for the theater. About 1735, he was recalled to Spitalfields as church organist. The Newest Method for Learners on the German Flute was Part III of the Modern Music Master , published anonymously about 1731 by Cluer and Dicey, music printers in Bow Church Yard. Hawkins credits Prelleur with the authorship of the series which includes instructions for singing, playing the recorder, transverse flute, oboe, violin, and harpsichord, and concludes with a Brief History of Music . The last is extracted mostly from Giovanni Bontempi’s Historia musica (1695), the first music history in Italian. The flute method appears to be largely copied from an early English translation of Hotteterre’s treatise. However, the two sources do not always agree on fingerings. Bibliography
Prelleur, Peter, The Newest Method for Learners on the German Flute, As Improv’d by the Greatest Masters of the Age , from The Modern Musick-Master or the Universal Musician [Second edition] London: Printing-Office in Bow Church Yard, 1730/31 Facsimile: London: Bärenreiter, “Documenta musicologica”, n.d.
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The Baroque Flute Fingering Book
TABLE OF FLATTEMENT FINGERINGS
DH 1
DG1 or EI1
Ht, P, C, Mah (All sources direct the performer to shake the flute with the right hand.)
Ht, P, C, Mah (See above) T
EH 1
Ht, P, C, Mah, T
FI 1
T
EG 1
Mah
FH 1
Ht, P, C, Mah, T
FG 1
Ht, P, C, Mah, T
GI 1
T
GH 1
Ht, P, T C, Mah Ht, P C, Mah Mah
GG 1
Ht, P, C (Or shake flute), Mah, T
AI 1
Ht, P, C (See above), Mah T
AH 1
Ht, P C Ht, P, C, Mah, T C (Not so easy), Mah
6. Flattement fingerings
AG 1
BI 1
BH 1
BG 1
Ht, P, C Mah T Ht, P, C, Mah Dl T Ht, P, Mah C T
or or
CH 2
T
Ht, P C
or or
CG 2
DI 2
DH 2
DG2 or EI2
Mah Mah
Mah Mah
T
Ht, P, Mah, C (Worth nothing because it lowers the pitch by a comma), T C T
Ht, P, C (All three say that hole must be stopped at beginning and end; Prelleur also cautions not to raise finger too high), Mah, Dl, T Mah Ht, P, C (All three say that hole must be stopped at beginning at end; Corrette also says this flattement may be played by shaking the flute), Mah, Dl T
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The Baroque Flute Fingering Book
Allegro
Allegretto
When pp
Allegro
Allegro
Andante
Allegretto
tr
8. Alternate fingerings
same
Allegro
Allegro
This sample shows a few pages from The Baroque Flute Fingering Book by Margaret N. Neuhaus. Click here to ordera copy from flutehistory.com. Allegro
Presto
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