In Search of the Baroque Flute the Flute Family 1680-1750

In Search of the Baroque Flute: The Flute Family 1680-1750 Author(s): Christopher Addington Reviewed work(s): Source: Early Music, Vol. 12, No. 1 (Feb., 1984), pp. 34-47 Published by: Oxford University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3127151 . Accessed: 15/09/2012 06:09 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

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ChristopherAddington In

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The'Baroqueflute' is now a familiarsight in the concert hall: it is readily identifiable as the type of instrument popularized by Quantz in the mid-18th century. This became the standardflute of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, and was the kind that was massproduced in England by Richard Potter and Henry Cahusac. Thus most of the instruments we know as 'Baroqueflutes' are actually of a type prevalent50 or a hundredyearsafterthe time of BachandTelemann.Itis open to question, then, whetherthey arerepresentative of the instrument for which those composers wrote. Paradoxically,many flutes from afterthe late Baroque period survive(and may still be bought quite cheaply), despite the fact that flute music from about 1750 onwardswas in a state of decline. Yetonly a few dozen survive from the period which ends with Quantz's

principlewe areno morejustified in identifyingthe true Baroque flute with the instrument played in the late 18th centurythan we wouldbe in identifying it with the cylindrical Boehm-type flute. Before examining the flute as it existed in the firsthalf of the 18thcentury,we must clear our minds of three 20th-century preconceptions. First,we are used to regarding'the flute' as a single instrumentratherthan as one member of a family of instruments. This results from the standardizationof the orchestral flute sounding d' with all seven holes closed (or'in D', and so on for flutes of other pitches). Butin the 16th and early 17th centuries the term'flute' -usually 'Germanflute'-denoted any member of a consort of instruments ranging from descant to bass, with the bass a particularlyprominentmember.Thereis Versuchof 1752. evidence that this usage continued into the 18th cenThis imbalance may not be entirely accidental. One tury far more widely than is generally appreciated. A second source of misunderstandingresults from a of the first principles of the search for 'authenticity'in music is that in dealing with a single historical period Darwinian attitude towards old instruments, which we should not rely on certaintiesof a laterdate:thus in tend to be evaluatedin termsof theirsurvivalrate.Thus, 34

EARLY MUSIC FEBRUARY 1984

if an instrumentonce existed in two versions, that now represented by the larger number of museum specimens is often regardedas the 'standard'one, and the other is treated as a deviation. But the preservationof instrumentsis a haphazardaffair:20 years after their manufacture, for instance, one model may become fashionable while another, now unsuitable for more recent music, will be discarded (especially if it is very difficult to play) I believe this is precisely what happened in the case of the Baroqueflute. Historical factorsand geographicalaccident also have to be taken into account: the British,for example, are a nation of collectors, whereas the French have been extremely unsuccessful in preservingtheirold instruments,largely because of the Revolution.' This is particularlyunfortunate in view of the fact thatthe flutes playedin France show a much greater variety and sophistication than those of any other country:in the history of the flute, France occupied the centre of the stage during the whole of the period under examination,while England lurkedvery much in the wings. The third preconception concerns pitch. We have become accustomed to the idea of an international pitch standardbased upon a value for a' that is defined in terms at least as fine as one vibration per second. Performersof Baroquemusic have tended to settle on a pitch standardexactly a semitone below this (a'=415) as being 'correct'for the music they play. But all the evidence from the period shows that pitch varied wildly,at least froma'=350 to a'=500. Thisvariation,of about a 5th, arose from various factors. Accordingto Quantz,national pitch variedby almost a 5th, with three main standards:the medium'German' pitch, which itself variedby six commas(two-thirdsof a tone);'Frenchchamberpitch',a minor3rdbelow it;and the high 'choir pitch', a minor3rd above it, which was used especially by the Venetians. There were also pitches proper to certain instruments. Instrumentstended to become fixed at particularpitches-the 18th-centuryGermanorgan,for example, was often in choir pitch. We knowfromQuantzthat there was a similar association between wind instruments and Frenchchamberpitch. Chamberandorchestral music may each have had an appropriatepitch. Throughoutthe late Baroquethere was a movement towards a rationalization of pitch and its notation. Corelli,Couperin,Bach,Rameauand Quantzhimself all played a leading partin the development of a fixed, internationalpitch. However,the process was necessar-

ily slow, as can be seen from Quantz'sdescription of a prevailingsituationthat by our standardswas chaotic. The question of pitch is particularlyimportant in relation to wind instruments, since they almost alone have a fixed sounding-length, and their 'voice' is defined entirely by that length. In the case of the flute, pitch is not merelya technical matter,since a difference

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35

of even a semitonewill alterthe timbrequitenoticeably, while largervariations involve a degree of difference comparable to that between a soprano and an alto singer. What then was the true Baroqueflute like? It is clear fromwrittenand--occasionally--musical sources of the time thatthe followingtypes of flute were played in the first half of the 18th century: 1 Highoctave flute (flautopiccolo, sopranino,'flutet'). In D, an octave above the 'ordinary'flute. 2 Fife or 'Swiss Pipe'. In B flat, a militaryinstrument. 3 Descant flutes. Quantzmentions a 'little quartflute' in G, a 4th above the 'ordinary'flute; there was also certainly a high quint flute in A. 4 Flauto terzetto. A medium-high flute in D at choir pitch, playing at about a'-480-500. This would have sounded a minor 3rd above the pitch of most harpsichords and orchestras.The terzettowas the ancestor of the later 'flute in F'but seems to have been of slightly different construction. 5 Concert flute. Known to Quantz as the 'ordinary' flute, this was usually in D, but that D itself was highly mobile,varyingat least froma standardof a'=390 to one of a'=450.2

6 Flute d'amour,flauto d'amore. An alto instrument tuned to D at Frenchchamberpitch (abouta'=350) and thus sounding a majoror minor 3rd below the normal pitch of harpsichords, and played at either of these transpositions.It was treatedas an instrumentin either B or B flat; in the latter pitch it was known as the flute pastourelle.3 7 Tenoror intermediate bass flute. Quantzmentions a low quartflute in A, but a more common instrument seems to have been the bass flute in G, that is, the low quint flute, based on the 6' organ pipe. 8 Octavebass flute. In the D below that of the concert flute. Specimens of most of the flutes listed above survive (and can be identified with survivinginstruments)with the exception of the descant flutes and also possibly the original flauto terzettoand the low quart flute. Bearing in mind the critical importance of a flute's length, a good idea of the varietyof instrumentsplayed in the 18th century may be gained from illus.2, which shows ivory flutes in the instruments museum of the ParisConservatoire.(This by no means covers the full rangeof flutes in that collection; there is one flute with

Table 1 Baroque flute tunings. Bass flutes Octavej Quint I Quart

Flfite d'amour in Bb in B

in C

Concert flute in D in D

I in E

Terzetto Descant flutes in F Quart Quint

Piccolo in 8a

Clef and key transpositions: Open

(c)

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(B> )

(F)

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C#

F#

G#

A

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D

E

F

B

E

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G

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A

B

B0

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A

B

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F A

F

G

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Bottom note

(D fingering):

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' This table is based on the flute methods of Quantz, Hotteterreand Corretteand sources of music by Hotteterre,Couperin, Philidor,Bach, Telemann, Quantz, Graupnerand Molter.

36


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a sounding length four times that of the smallest shown here and thus pitched two octaves lower.) Composers hardly ever specified the type of flute they were writingfor; and the boundariesbetween the different types were blurred. Since the playing pitch both of other instruments and of the individual flute was so variable,manyinstrumentscould have playedas different kinds of flute in different performances.The problemis one of notation, since all flutes werewritten least duringthe first quarterof as if they were in D--at the 18th century--whatever pitch they played at. The note played with all finger-holes closed was writtenas d' and called re even in music for the bass flute in G. Thusit is often extremelydifficult to judge simplyfrom the score which flute the composer had in mind. In discussing this wide range of flutes I shall begin with the three types in the middle range (nos.4-6) and then go on to describe briefly the distinctly high- and low-voiced varieties. The middle range As if the multiplicity of pitches were not complication enough, there are two quite different designs of flute. One,constructed in three pieces, was played in the first quarterof the 18th century;the other, in four pieces, superseded it in the second quarter. Thethree-piece flute. The conical one-keyed flute was invented in France in the second half of the 17th century,probablyby membersof the Hotteterrefamily. Forseveral decades the Frenchhad a virtualmonopoly in flute making.Thefrontispiece(illus.1)of a collection of triosby Maraisforflute orrecorder(Paris,1692)is the earliest representation known to me of the new flute design. Some of the surviving specimens, however,

such as the Chevalier(Boston,Museumof FineArts)are thought to be of an earlierdate. The first compositions scored specifically for the flute areLaBarre'sfive Pidces pourla fltltetraversiere (Paris, 1702). Overa dozen survivingspecimens of this instrument, all made either in France or by Frenchmen living abroad, have now been identified. The design is distinctive and appears to be quite homogeneous, apart from small variations in external appearance and criticaldifferences in the all-importantmatterof pitch. The exteriorconsists of two long, plain tubes connected to three ornatelyturnedsmallerparts:the distinctive cap to the headpiece (usually very long); the socket connecting the head with the single middle joint; and the foot joint (often of ovoid design).Themountingsare usually made of ivory. Otherfeatures distinguish this flute acoustically from the later four-piece model: its generally wider, less regular bore; larger and less undercut mouth-hole; heavierwalls; and largerfingerholes placed further down the flute. Of particular interest is the fact that the end appears originally to have been stopped with wood ratherthan cork.4These apparentlysmall details combine to make a decisive difference to the player's technique and the instrument's sound. But most of the interest in this flute has focused on the question of pitch. In his Versuch,Quantz several times mentions the low pitch that was a distinctive featureof the earlyFrenchflute:'Indeed',he says of the entire new generation of wind instrumentscreated by the French,'they owe their existence to the low pitch.' His identification of Frenchchamber pitch as being a minor3rd below the Germanstandardof his own day is supportedby the most famous of all the players of the three-piece flute, Jacques Hotteterrehimself. InL'artde EARLYMUSIC FEBRUARY1984

37

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preluder,written in 1719, he devotes a whole chapter (chap.x) to flute transpositions. One of these, which involves the overplayingof the twoGclefs, he considers crucial to flute technique 'because it enables one to play tunes in their true tonality [or'pitch'-the French ton could mean either], and in unison with the voice'. This can mean only that the flute was not normallyin unison with the voice, but played a 3rd below. (Foran example of this overplayingtechnique, see illus.3,from Hotteterre'sAirset brunettes(Paris, 1721).) Thesurvivingexamplesof this flute areto be found in 38


museumsandcollections acrossthe world;and although their makers were French, nearly all of them seem to have been owned by people living outside France. Those that have survived in Britain have pitches of about a'=405-1 5, while those in the German-speaking countriesarelower,at abouta'=390. However,that may be an indication of the pitches prevailing in the countrieswherethe purchasers,ratherthan the makers, lived. Onlyone of these instrumentsremainsin France, and it was almost certainlyplayed in France:the flute made by Naust(Strasbourg,c 1700)and now in the Paris

Conservatoire.This is pitched at about a'=360, which corresponds closely enough to Quantz's description. Thereis one other survivinginstrumentwhich may be at an even lower pitch: the flute by Du Mont (Paris, cl 692) in the DaytonC. MillerCollection, Washington, DC.These two instrumentsare, I believe, the only surviving true representativesof the famous Frenchflute that createdsuch a sensation in the early 18th century. We have strong pictorialsupportfor this view in the well-known groupportrait,attributedto RobertTournieres and now in the National Gallery,London (illus.4), which shows four musicians, thought to include La Barre,Hotteterreand Marais,grouped around a piece by La Barre.The ivory instrumentheld, with apparent pride, by the player seated in the foregroundis almost entirely visible. Fromthe proportions of the picture, this flute is extremelylong (andthereforelow-pitched), even longer perhaps than the Naust. Furthervisual evidence is providedby the two offset holes in the third and sixth positions, which are clearly visible in the painting and have long puzzled writers.The principal problemin the makingand playingof long, low-pitched flutes is that on any instrumentlargerthan the concert flute the distance between the finger-holes stretches the hand to its limits, particularlyas regardsthe third and sixth holes. In the Naust flute, for example, each hand must stretch about 15mm further than on the average concert flute. On my own copy of this instrument I have brought these two holes within reach by drilling them slightly high, in an offset position. I believe this is the explanationof the extraholes in the 'LaBarre'flute: the thirdand sixth holes wereoriginally so widely spaced that the player had them filled with waxand new holes drilledin a moreaccessible position. Most convincing, however,is surelythe sound of the instrument.It is difficult to believe that the instrument that took Franceby stormand inspired an entirely new form of musical composition was the rather blandsounding Baroqueflute heardin the concert hall today. The sound of the alto-voiced Naust flute is quite different:it has a farricher,moreeloquent sound than any other flute I have heard;and it is perfectly suited to the music composed by the great flautists of the day, La Barre,Hotteterreand Philidor.Not only is it tuned to a very low pitch, but it is designed to play particularly strongly in its lower range. Thus it sounds at its best playingthe notes at the bottom of the staff, which were much favoured by those composers. It also has the plaintive quality considered so typical of Frenchflute music.

The four-piece flute. Quantz, writing in 1752, tells us that the four-piece version of the flute came into use 'about 30 years ago'. Naturally,the changeover from one design to the other did not take place overnight. Some early versions of the four-piece design, such as those by Thomas Stanesby (i) and P. J. Bressan, date from around 1720 and have some transitionalfeatures. The latest appearance of the three-piece flute is in practicum(Swdbisch Majer'sMuseummusicumtheoretico Hall, 1732). This has an illustration of a flute, together with a fingeringchart,andthey areparticularlyinteresting fortworeasons:the instrumenthas a very'advanced' feature in the form of an extended footjoint giving c'; but this is connected to the out-of-date, single-piece middle joint. Majermakes no mention of the new fourpiece design. But a transition of only ten years is quite short, comparedfor example with the length of time it took for the cylindricalflute to replace the conical one in the 19th century. The external appearance of the four-piece flute is very different from that of its predecessor and is too familiarnowadaysto requiredescription. Acoustically there are a number of subtle but very important differences, which affect all the sounding elements of the instrument:the bore, the cork position, the embouchure, the finger-holes and the thickness of the walls. The new kind of instrumenthas a more refined sound than the old French flute, and a much wider range: it can cover as much as three octaves and a semitone and is very strong in most of the notes above the staff, which in the Frenchflute are little more than falsetto notes. Theinstrumenthas a much clearer,more precise tone and is extremely nimble, handling rapid passage-workand dramaticjumps with ease. The compensating loss is that, even in its lower-pitchedform,it cannot quite match the sensuous, resonant quality of the Frenchflute. There is nothing to suggest that immediately the four-pieceflute was inventedit took the formexclusively of the Baroqueflute played today. On the contrary, there seems to have been a periodof experimentationand of extremeconfusion--lasting ten ortwentyyears. Amongthe enormousrangeof pitches used atthattime, it is nevertheless possible to discern three basic levels, described in the list above under types 4-6. As one would expect, the majority of instruments that have survivedfromthis period are of the same type as the modern Baroque flute at a'=415. They are identical to the instruments that remained standard well into the 19th century, except for some small EARLYMUSICFEBRUARY 1984

39

changes (especially in embouchure). The variability of pitch, however, can hardly be overstated. At this time, almost every flute originally had several different corps de rechange;indeed, it was largely the problem of pitch, according to Quantz, that brought about the invention of the divided middle joint. In its lower range, the four-piece flute remained at the old French chamber pitch. This is the version sometimes called thefltite d'amourorflauto d'amore.It is 100-150mm longer than the concert flute and plays about a major or a minor 3rd below a'=440. A number of these instruments have survived. The most interesting thing about them is that, apartfrom their length, they do not differ in any way from the concert flute; that is to say, the bore and embouchure are identical. This led me some time ago to suspect that these two forms were not really looked upon as different kinds of instrument, but merely as the same-flute at different pitches; logically, it seemed possible that one flute should be capable of being adjusted to both pitches. I have since discovered that one of the flutes in the Paris Conservatoire does precisely this: the remarkable Schlegel flute (described below in the appendix). te d'amourhas the same tuning as the Although thefl, French three-piece flute, its sound quality is quite

different,and in the middleand upperregistersthe very narrowbore produces a haunting, veiled tone. It is as expressive as the French flute, but its timbre is quite different, being darker,more innig. I know of no surviving specimens of the original flautoterzetto.The well-known'flute in F'seems to be a late 18th- and 19th-century type. Quantz, however, speaks of flutes tuned to the high choir pitch, three semitones above Germanpitch. He complains of their unattractivelyshrill sound, and also makes an interesting technical criticism.Accordingto a well-established principle of flute making known well before Boehm's treatise,the diameterof a flute's bore and embouchure should be in direct proportion to its length. Quantz, however, notes that these high-pitched flutes had the same bore as the'ordinary'flute, and werethereforenot built to the usual proportions.(This is not true of the later flute in F, whose makers seem to have heeded Quantz'sadvice.)Some Baroqueflutes sound considerably above a'=440 at their highest setting, and I think Quantz was indicating that some flute makers of his time weretakingthis tendency even furtherand cutting another 50 or 60mm off the normalflute's length. Thus there seem to have been three types of flute of common bore but differing in length by up to 50%.

Table 2 The expanding Baroqueflute Embouchure distance

Diameter of bore (mm)

Diameter of embouchure (mm)

19-13.5

9x8.5

430 ) (German 405 1 pitch)

19.5-13.6

9.5x8.8

350

19-13.5

8.5x8.5

Approximate pitch at a'

Instrument Flauto terzetto

fingering (Hz) ?475

(from Quantz's description)

500 (choir pitch)

Schuchart(BateCollection);a typical concert flute, at two corpsde rechangesettings

540 575

Fridrich(Vienna,KunsthistorischesMuseum);

683

a typical flzfte d'amour

(French chamber pitch)

Scherer (Bate Collection); low flzte d'amour or pastourelle

715

330

19-13.5

8.9x8.3

Anciuti (Vienna, KunsthistorischesMuseum); bass flute in ?G

970

280

19.5-14

9.5x9

Note: In all these cases, the last two figures remain almost unchanged. Sources: Quantz'sVersuch,Bate Collection Catalogue and author'sown measurements

40


it, '[imagining]a different clef for the notes' was partof every flautist's technique. Couperin seems to have been particularlytroubled by these discrepancies and went to great lengths to 'unite the tastes'. He was a conscious innovator and seems to have been aiming for an internationalpitch standardbased on a compromisebetween the low(doux) French sonority and the shrill, harsh (hagard)Italian one.6 He was the first Frenchman to write chamber music in the modern treble clef. By doing so he abandoned the low chamberpitch associated with the dessus line and fixed the pitch of a piece according to that of the bass line. Thisdoes not mean, of course, that Couperinexpected the wind instrumentsto alter their pitch; instead, he intended that they should transpose up to the key of the bass. This technique may perhaps have been known as playing en amour.Couperinis not usually thought of as a composer for the flute. His music is too low-pitched and the keys he uses too difficult. However, in his avertissementto the Concerts royauxhe does mention the flute as one of the instruments for which the music was intended, and if we consider that he was writingfor a low, transposingflute (in his case, alwaysby a minor3rd),much of his writing suddenly emerges as beautifully idiomatic for the instrument. For example, the passage from Ritratto dell'amoreshown in ex. 1 is unplayable on the flute as written(ex.1a), but transposedbackto the Frenchviolin Untilthe early 1720s, all Frenchflute music was written clef (ex.lb), in which it must originally have been in the French violin clef (Gl). In general, any music written,it reads like a passage by LaBarreor Hotteterre writtenin this clef would have been played at a tuning (particularlywith the passing c' sharp).By 1730, most about a 3rd below a'=415, that is at about a'=350. But other Frenchcomposers had followed Couperin'slead therewere serious discrepancies. Italianmusicians had and abandoned the Frenchviolin clef in favour of the for many years been settling in France, and they treble clef. broughtwith them the exciting newgo?t italien.One of the most strikingdifferences between the two national Ex.1 FromFrangoisCouperin,Ritrattodell'amore:Nouveau concert schools of music was that of taste in instrumental no.9 from Les gofits-refinis(Paris,1724) colouring. The Italians played at a much higher pitch (a)as written than the French, using the modern treble clef(G2). In theory, the two Gswerethe same;in practicethey must have been severalsemitones apart.In France,music for the harpsichordand the voice had alwaysbeen written in the treble clef, and the impact of the brilliant but strident Italian violin must have been intense. The (b) transposed to the French clef everydayBaroquesolution to the problemof fitting the idiosyncratic Frenchflute into this variety of contrasting sounds was transposition,as maybe seen in illus.3.5 Hotteterre'sinstructions to the bass are to 'play in this ... clef in order to tune with the upper voices' (i.e. the -I-I flutes). Thistechnique of transposingby, as Quantzput

Strangerstill, this anomaly is also to be found in the bass members of the flute family. Table 2 shows the measurements of several Baroqueflutes whose pitch varies by almost an octave. Thus it seems that many flute makersof this periodconsidered the flute to have a certain ideal bore, which could be lengthened and shortenedatwill, as it werea trombone.Thosewho have observed this anomaly have naturallyconcluded that the dimensions of the higher and the lower flutes are deviations fromthe'correct'proportionsof the concert flute. ButQuantz,who surelywould have knownbetter than anybody, expressly contradicts this, saying that the dimensions of the four-piece flute were originally based on the design of the low flute. Thismeans thatthe fl^ted'amourmust be the archetypeof the Baroqueflute fromwhich the other forms are derived(in the Encyclopedieit is statedthatthe flute'srangeis particularlywide in the d'amoresetting);and it tells us a greatdeal about the sound qualitythat people of the time expected of a flute. Beforeexaminingthe way in which these differences in the flute's design may have affected the playing of the instrument,we ought to consider several important and closely relatedevents in the historyof the flute that took place at exactly the same time as the invention of the four-piece design.

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Although the French kept their primacy in performance on the flute, the new generation of composers had completely lost the spirit of the gotitfrancois,and French composition for the flute went into a sharp decline. Of the two leading flute virtuosos, Michel Blavet wrote music that is indistinguishable from any other compositions of the international style galant, while Pierre-GabrielBuffardinbecame so italianized that he even styled himself 'I1Sigr. Bufardini'. The Germanstook up the flute with almost as much enthusiasm as the French,andbefore long it once again became the 'Germanflute', in fact as well as name. There is very little Germanflute music from before 1720. Bach was one of the pioneers, and his interest may have been stimulated by the new four-piece design, since only one of his compositions seems to have been written for the bottom-heavy three-piece flute. This is the early G majorTrioSonataBWV 1039, a work quite different in style from Bach's other flute music. At this time too the flute began to be heard with an orchestra.It is notable that all the Frenchflute music of the first quarterof the 18th centurywas scored for very small forces-for one, two or occasionally moreflutes playingtogether,often withouta bass. TheFrenchseem to have had the greatest difficulty in combining the flute with any other instrument,even the harpsichord, and it was not until the 1730s that a Frenchcomposer ventured to write a flute concerto. The Italians were greatorchestralinnovatorsbutthey had little interestin windinstruments,though Vivaldibeganto compose for the flute in this period. Germancomposers took the lead here; Bach, from his BrandenburgConcertos onwards,was an importantinnovator. Initially, the 'ordinary'flauto traversowas probably the flzte d'amour.The conical-bore flute was entirely a French invention, and it had acquired a status almost equal to that of the violin, purely on account of its mellow, inimitable tone colour. When the use of the flute, in its alteredfour-piece form,became morewidespread, musicians must naturally have preferredthe version which came closest to the sounds of the low Frenchflute-in other words,theflute d amour.Quantz describes the ideal flute tone as being 'thick, round, masculine'.'Ingeneral',he says,'the most pleasing tone qualityon the flute is thatwhich morenearlyresembles a contraltothan a soprano, or which imitates the chest tones of the human voice.' This is plainly a description of the flzitedamour.Quantz'sevidence is particularly telling, for he was writingat a time when the standardi42

1984 EARLYMUSICFEBRUARY

..,;..

5 Aflute player,possiblythe imperialcourtmusicianF.J. Lemberger painting (1709-24/5) by Jan Kupeckdl(1667-1740) (Nuremberg, GermanischesNationalmuseum)

zation of the flute at the higher pitch was alreadywell under way, and he himself contributed more than any other to that process. An interestingsign of the d'amore's popularitycan be found in the inventoryof instrumentsbelonging to the Kapelle of Sayn-Wittgenstein.In this collection, the wind instruments in the lower range far outnumber theirordinarycounterparts.Ofthe flutes, there areonly two ordinaryinstrumentsto threeflzitesd'amour(one of which is described as 'large').Again, the surprising thing is that this inventoryis dated as late as 1741, only a decade before Quantz's Versuch.I think it probable that for the first 10-15 years after the introduction of the four-piece design, the d'amorewas played at least as much as the type nowadaysknownas the Baroqueflute. The choice of different types of flute must have been first and foremost according to function. The flzte d'amouris essentially a chamberinstrument:it was the flute on which one would play serious, expressive music such as the trio sonata in the MusicalOffering. Mostif not all of Bach'schambermusic for the flute was written for this instrument. The Sonata Bwv1030 is particularlyimportant. Bach wrote two scores of the

about these compositions is their unity of idiom. They all have a distinctly pastoral air, and in one of them Telemann actually calls the instrumentthe 'fli te pastourelle'. It is significant that the only piece in which Bach combines the fluited'amourwith orchestra is the Pastoralefrom the ChristmasOratorio.(This group of pieces is the only context in which I have encountered the name'flauto d'amore'in manuscriptsof the period; unless we are to conclude that the instrument was seldom played, this must mean its use was so normal that it was only exceptionally specified by name.) The flauto terzettoalso probably had its origins in these experimentswith the orchestra. Its descendant, the flute in F, can hold its own in any band or orchestra by virtue of its penetrating sound. There are two concertos written for the terzettoby one of the Graun Ex.2 J. S. Bach, Sonata in B minor Bwv1030 brothers,who were Quantz'scolleagues at the court of Andante Frederickthe Great.But quite a lot more of the early A ' -" music for flute and orchestramay originallyhave been scored for it. In view of Quantz's comment that the used to playat the shrillchoir pitch, it maybe Venetians Bach'stwo eldest sons also showed a preference for was the flute for which Vivaldi comthe terzetto that the flfited'amour,whose sound is ideal for the empfindsamerStil of their music. With its strong vocal quality, posed. Certainlyits chirpysound is ideal for his 'Goldthe instrument would also be the perfect obbligato finch' ConcertoRV428. instrumentin vocal music. PhilipBate7has pointed out thatflute obbligatosin Bach'schurchcantatasareoften High-pitched flutes intended for the d'amore. It is often stated that the true piccolo at the octave did on the other not come into use until Beethoven'stime. In fact, it was The soprano-voicedconcertflute, hand, and eventual over its owes predominance very common in the Baroque era, from which some popularity other flutes to the rise of the orchestra. The develop- examples have survived.It is difficult to see what other ment of orchestralmusic duringthis period is perhaps instrumentBach can have had in mind as the'Fl. Trav. the most criticalfactor in the historyof the instrument. in 8a' of his choral scores. Correttetells us that the d'amouris unsuitable for combinationwith an piccolo was the correct instrument for playing the Theflu^te orchestrafor two reasons. First,it is at a different pitch tambourinpieces that werebecoming fashionable at the from the other instruments (though this could, of time he wrote his Mdthode(c1740).The quartand quint course, be solved through transposition). The main flutes were probably played mostly in France, as disadvantage, however, is its mellow, intimate tone descant membersof the three-piece flute consort. The quality,which tends to blend ratherthan contrastwith rathershort instrument in Jan Kupeck,'s portraitof a stringinstruments.Orchestralmusic demandsa level of flautist (illus.5) may be of this type. And what were uniformity and balance between instruments that we Bach's 'fiauti d'eco' in BrandenburgConcerto no.4? take for granted,but which was signally lacking at the Were they perhaps two little quartflutes?8 beginning of the 18th century. The flute joined forces with the orchestra only after its design and technique Bass flutes had been considerablymodified-that is to say, afterit Variouskinds of bass flute seem to have been played a had become transformedfrom a basically low-pitched greatdeal throughoutthe Baroqueperiod,though until instrument into the soprano instrument that it has recently only one piece of music was known to have remained. Thereare nevertheless a dozen or so pieces been composed for such an instrument-C. P.E.Bach's forflate d'amourand orchestrawrittenin the late 1720s delightfulFmajorTrioSonatawQ163.(Moderneditions and early 1730s by Telemann, Graupnerand Molter specify bass recorderfor the 'Bassfl6te'called for here, (possibly for one particularplayer).The strikingthing but it is difficult to see why C. P. E. Bach should have

keyboardpartfor this sonata, one in B minor,the other in G minor. Oboists, perhaps frustratedby the lack of any chambermusic by Bach for their instrument,have sometimes claimed the G minor as Bach's original version, for oboe. But since we know that the flute at this time was a transposing instrument, there is no reason to suppose that Bach intended the two versions for different instruments. They are merely written in two different keys for the instruments used, flute and harpsichord. It will be observed (ex.2) that the transposition used in this piece-two flats to two sharps-is the same as that used by Hotteterre in the brunette shown in illus.3. Andit is the harpsichordpartalone of BWV 1030 that survives in G minor.

EARLYMUSIC FEBRUARY1984

43

chosen to writesuch a sophisticated piece of music for an obsolete instrument that would have been inaudible against a viola, ratherthan for one which seems to have been very popular at the time.) By the middle of the century, French makers had evolved an elaborate five-keyed design with the head connected to a U-pipe;this instrumentwas either in G or in the octave at D. Twoother kinds of bass flute have survivedfrom this period, one by I. Beukerof Amsterdam (now in the Paris Conservatoire),the other by J. M.Anciutiof Milan,1739(Vienna,Kunsthistorisches Museum; illus.6). Both instruments are fascinating, above all because their makers set out in opposite directionsto solve the problemsof bass flute design. In essence, the Beuker is simply an oversize four-piece flute. Its length is double that of the concert flute, and the maker followed the principles later approved by Quantzand Boehm in makingthe diameterof the bore and embouchure correspondingly large. The fingerholes arelargeandwidely spaced, but the difficult third and sixth holes are broughtwithin reach by a doubleaction key system similar to that of the oboe. The instrumentis surprisinglylight for its size. The Anciuti flute is extraordinaryin every respect, anddeserves furtherdiscussion. Especiallyremarkable is the fact that although it has a sounding length almost as greatas that of the Beuker,its embouchureand bore measurements are exactly the same as those of the concert flute. The problem of reach on the Anciuti is solved through two devices: a bent-back head-piece made out of a single piece of wood, and an ingenious system of cutting the finger-holes, which are raised above the outside of the wall and cut at a very acute angle with fine craftsmanship. Despite its curious features, though, the Anciuti is easy to play and has a lovely sound. Mersenne, discussing the problems of the bass flute a hundredyears before these two irstruments were made, says: 'Still, one can remedy this defect in the bass of the said flute by many keys, or by breakingthem and doubling them back, as is done in the bassoon'.9 In other words, these instruments are both of a very old design. (Even in Mersenne's time therewas nothing new aboutthe use of keys to makethe diatonic notes reachable; but the concept of adding keys for chromaticnotes was revolutionary,anddid not take hold until the end of the 18th century.)The bass flute seems to have been particularly favoured in France. Included in the pieces in Hotteterre'sAirs et brunettesaresome triosin which a flute plays bass to two higher-pitched flutes in consort, and several of the 44


6 Bass flute by J. M. Anciuti (Milan, 1739) (Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Sammlung alter Musikinstrumente)

It

transposed solo pieces are writtenfor the low quartor de quint flutes. Twopassages in Couperin'sL'apotheose Lulliappearto have been scored for the bass flute in G; anotherpiece writtenspecifically foritis Philidor'ssolo La chasse (ex.3). Since such an instrumentwould have been the flute equivalentof the oboe da caccia, it would have been ideal for such a composition.

Ex.3 Pierre Danican Philidor,La chasse, from op.3 (Paris,1718)

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'Atpresent',says Quantz,of the 'unusual'types of flute for flute and obbligatoharpsichordBWV1032is thought like the flt2ted'amour,'none approaches the regular to have been writtenin its presentkey of Amajoraround transverseflute in trueness and beautyof tone.' Butthis 1736, apparentlyin transposition from an original C is a value judgement, and a highly partisanone at that, major (though the middle movement seems to have which comes from the person most responsible for been raiseda minor 3rd).These alterationsare entirely making these instruments obsolete. His use of the consistent with the idea that Bach was rewritingthe words 'at present' is significant: they imply that the sonatafor the soprano-voicedconcertflute then coming situation was not always so, and that the 'regular into fashion. 10 transverseflute' had only recently begun to match the Musicians now seem for the first time to have 'unusual' ones. thought in termsof a fixed, internationalpitch system. Fromthe extremelycomplexstate of affairsdescribed Even unaccompanied flute pieces were now written in above, it appearsthat the standardizationof the flute remote keys: for example, of W. F. Bach'ssix duets for was a farfromstraightforwardprocess. Quantzis not as flutes, two are in E flat and one is in F minor, a key reliable in questions of taste as he is in mattersof fact: almost unheardof in such music. Thesewere definitely this is one of the rareareasin which we find something intended for the fltte d'amourin B flat, but an earlier self-contradictoryand equivocal in the Versuch.Onthe composer would have written them in G major and A one hand, he several times emphasizes the importance minor respectively and left the choice of flute to the of the low tone of the flute, and speaks out strongly discretion of the player. Thisbringsus to a veryimportantset of pieces written against the shrill sound of the terzetto flute then becoming prevalent. He complains that this tendency around 1740, Telemann's 12 Fantasias for unaccomClavier, was'denaturing'the flute andturningit into a fife. Atthe panied flute. This is the flautist's Well-tempered same time he says: 'I do not wish to argue for the very for it is the only collection of pieces for the flute low Frenchchamberpitch,althoughitis mostadvantageous systematicallycovering a rangeof differentkeys. Frans for thetransverse flute'(myitalics) and decides in favour Vesterhas suggested (letterto the author)that the more of the medium Germanpitch, which is 'neithertoo low 'remote' of these fantasias were meant for the fltte nor too high'. Perhaps many of his contemporaries d'amour.I am inclined to agree with him, but it is also would have been convinced by these statements; but worth bearing in mind that at this time the ordinary the jump from the old Frenchpitch to that of Quantz's flute's technique was being extended to cover all keys, 'ordinary' flute was greater, if anything, than the and that Telemann may have been putting the instruinterval between Quantz'spitch and that of the shrill ment through its paces. terzetto.If La Barre,for example, had heard Quantzplay Hitherto, the flute had had a variety of higher and one of his soprano-voiced flutes, he might well have lower 'voices', each of which was only reallyat home in found its pipsqueak sound as excruciating as Quantz the four or five keys it could play most naturally.As the found that of the terzetto.(Quantzwas probablyaiming, Potsdamflautists began to use only one type of instruas a compromise,at a level somewhere at the lower end ment, the concert flute, they compensated by developof the middle Germanpitch. His own flutes appear, ing a technique that made a much widerrange of keys from their measurements,to have gone down to about available. Frederick the Great's rigorous solfeggios a'=400. It may be significant that quite a few flutes cover about 15 different keys. But one wonders how made in France at the same time-by Bizey, Lot and widespread these techniques were. (Prussia,after all, Leclercq- aretuned to the same pitch.) In fact, Quantz was still the only countryin Europewhose soldierswere was largely endorsing a process that had been taking drilled to march in step!) No one really succeeded in place quietlyduringthe 1730s and 1740s. Bach'sSonata turning the one-keyed flute into a fully chromatic EARLYMUSIC FEBRUARY1984

45

instrument: within 20 years of the Versuch, Kirst, who must have know Quantz well, was already introducing extra keys for the more difficult notes. The traditional attitude to the flute had its champion in Sans Souci itself. C. P. E. Bach, who was one of Quantz's colleagues, seems to have been particularly fond of the unusual types of flute. To Quantz, with his reformer's zeal, this attitude must have seemed like an irresponsible and retrograde desire for the chaos from which he was trying to rescue the flute; and it no doubt contributed to the poor relationship between the two men. Quantz was trying, in fact, to do to the flute what his employer was doing to Germany; his success was every bit as swift and as far reaching. From the time of his Versuch, a single type of instrument came to be regarded as the flute: the orchestral instrument which is known nowadays as the Baroque flute. By then, however, the Baroque era was almost at an end. Perhaps this instrument could more aptly be called the Rococo flute."I

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46


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I am particularlygratefulto Frans Vester,who sent me the list ofcompositionsfor the 'flzte d'amour'that he has preparedfor the second edition of his flute repertorycatalogue. Appendix:the Schlegel flute One of the instrumentson display in the instrumentmuseum of the ParisConservatoireis an ivoryflute (no. c.440) made in Basle by Schlegel in the third quarter of the 18th century (illus.7). In appearanceit is a typicalfluted'amour, very similar to the Schererin the BateCollection. (Themuseum has seven other pieces of the flute which are not on display.) The Schlegel flute is the missing link between theflzted'amour,the low-pitchedold Frenchflute and the Germanconcert flute. It is unique in that all four of its parts(if we include the sliding cork) can be adjusted in some way to alter the sounding length. The upper middle joint has seven numberedcorpsde rechange;there is a longer and a shorter lower joint; and the foot joint expands by up to 14mm.The expanding sleeve (or 'register')is calibratedby numbersto matchthe differentcorps de rechange.The silver key is also extendible. There is a marked difference between the first corpsde rechangeand the remaining six, as can be seen from illus.7. No.1 is 75mm longer than no.2; but no.2 is only 42mm longer than no.7 (the shortest),and the interveningsizes diminish in steps of 8-9mm. The longer lower joint, with its wider spacings for the finger-holes, obviously goes with no.1, the shorter with the remainingsix settings. Between no.7 setting and no.l, the distance from the middleof the embouchureto the tip of the foot joint increases from 508 to 665mm; in other words, the flute can vary in length by nearlya third.Atits longest, the instrumenthas the same dimensions as either a flzte damour or the type of

.

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7 Ivoryfour-piece flute by Schlegel (Basle,c1730-40), shown at the

du no.1 setting,withcorpsde rechange(Paris,MuseeInstrumental NationalSuperieurde Musique) Conservatoire instrumentseen in the Tournierespainting (illus.4);it is less than a quarter-toneflatter than the Naust flute in the same collection. The note a'=440 is sounded in the C sharp position: in otherwords,the flute in its no. 1 setting is in Bflat at modern pitch or in D at a tuning of a'=c350. This no.1 setting is almost certainlythe corpsd'amourmentioned in the 'Flute allemande' section of the Encyclopedie.The other six settings bringthe instrumentto exactly the proportionsthat

aremosttypicalof the German18th-centuryflute as described by Quantzand as found in manyextantexamples. No.2 tuning is around a'=415 (present-day 'Baroque'pitch), while no.7 sounds sharper than a'=440 (modern concert pitch). The grades in between each correspond to a comma. The flute therefore plays at two quite distinct levels, the low French chamber or d'amorepitch, and the variable German pitch probably used by most orchestras. The intervals between these two levels are: a minor 3rd at the lower end of the Germantuning (no.2) and a major3rd at the highest (no.7). Both of these intervals occur as transpositions in German music for the flzte d'amour(e.g. in Bach's flute sonatas). Dr Kriekeberg,curator of the Berlin MusikinstrumentenMuseum, has sent me informationon Exhibitno. 1531 there, which consists of several ivory flute pieces by Scherer that belonged to Frederickthe Great.Dr Kriekebergbelieves that 1531 was originally a pair of flutes, each having a corps d'amour.Thus Frederickdefinitely played the flzited'amour, which corroboratesmy belief that J. S. Bach's two Potsdam flute works (the trio sonata in the MusicalOfferingand the E major Sonata Bsw1035) were originally intended for that instrument;the same is also true of much of C. P. E. Bach's flute music, particularlythe TrioSonata wQ162in E major,a characteristicd'amorekey. HundredHistoricalInstruments(New York, 'P. T. Young, Twenty-five 1982), lists only 102 extant flutes that can definitely be said to have been made between 1670and 1750;of these, 55 were madein England and 15 in France, and only two of those 15 have been preservedin France. 2Theuse of exchangeable upper joints known as corpsde rechange enabled the pitch of manyflutes to be alteredby well over a tone, but even this was not always sufficient to cover all the variationsin pitch between different kinds of instruments. Thus the flautist would sometimes be obliged to transpose by a tone or a semitone. The concert flute was therefore sometimes played as a'flute in C',or E (or even D sharp).The picture we get from Quantz,Corretteand Diderot and D'Alembert'sEncyclopddie(Paris, 1751-65) is that the corpsde rechange,when first invented, could altera flute's tuning by as much as three semitones, and that the span was refined at a later date to between a semitone and a whole tone. Not manyflutes have survived with all their corpsde rechange.In general, any flute from this period that has survived as one assembled piece should be treated as only one version of a variable instrument. 3Thiscould be the instrumentknown as theflf2ted cinqpieds.Writers are awareof the existence of theflf2ted'amourin B, but seem to have some resistance to the idea of one in Bflat. Butin the 18thcenturyany flute was likely to adjustits tuning by at least a semitone (Iamsure,for example, that the very low-pitched Scherer in the Bate Collection, Oxford,originally had a corpsde rechangethat raised its pitch by a semitone, and I have reconstructed such a joint fromthe dimensions of another flute in Vienna). Conclusive evidence is provided by Molter's E flat Concerto for 'Flauto tray. d'Amore'and orchestra (Karlsruhe, Badische Landesbibliothek, 307). In the manuscript score, thefluzted'amourpartis writtenin G, a major3rd higher, which involves the same transpositionas I use in playing Bach'sEflat Flute Sonataswv1031. Molterwas personallyacquaintedwith Bachand his family. 4SeeE.Halfpenny,'ASeventeenth-centuryFli7ted'Allemagne',GSJ, iv (1951), p.42; the replica I have made of the Paris Naust includes such a stopper, which I find gives a certain edge to the tone.

5Editorsareproneto regardall transpositionsthattheyfind in 18thcentury flute music as recordertranspositions,butthat cannot be the case here. In was Hotteterre himself who originated the idea of but his to his Livrepremier, recordertranspositions,inthe avertissement suggestions are unconvincing--for example, that the D majorsuite should be transposed a major3rd for the recorder,which would give the key of F sharp major,little used on any instrument,let alone the recorder. 6Theelaboratelyconstructedprogrammeof L'apothosedeLulliis in fact an allegory of Couperin'sideas on the standardizationof pitch. An article in which I analyse this workis forthcoming in Recherches' sur la musiquefrangaiseclassique. 7TheFlute(London, 1969), p.185 8Theywere certainly not recorders in F. Bach wrote a different version of the concerto forthe latter,in theirhome key. Thefiautideco must have been flutes orrecorderspitched a tone higher,in G;andthe 'little quart flute', which is mentioned both by Quantz and in the Encyclopedie,fits the bill exactly. universelle,i (Paris,1636), bk 5, sv 'Flfiteallemande'. 9Harmonie '?See R. L. Marshall,'J. S. Bach's Compositions for Solo Flute: a Reconsiderationof their Authenticityand Chronology',JAMS,xxxii (1979),pp.463-98. Marshallbelieves that, in the extantversion, Bach has alteredthe keyrelationshipof the slow movementto the two outer ones, raising it fromthe relativeto the tonic minor,possibly because in its originalversion the slow movementwas the only one that went below the range of the concert flute. "AfterQuantz,theflzte d'amourcontinued to be played sporadically, enjoying a modest revival at the turn of the century. To meet this new demand,the London workshopof Muzio Clementibegan in the 181Osto producecopies of the earlierinstrument-the firstcontribution, perhaps, to the early musical instrumentrevival?

The

Original Baroque

Flute

As seen in the well-known Tournieres painting: the French alto flute, for the music of Hotteterre, La Barre and Couperin. The C & C "Naust" flute is copied from one of two surviving specimens. It is tuned at the

old French Chamber Pitch, and will play

with other instruments at a'=415 or 440. It can also tune up to Concert Pitch with an extra "Rippert" joint. Standard version: Grenadilla with

boxwood mounts: ?338. Other materials: by arrangement with the maker. "Rippert" middle joint: ?70. Each instrument is sold with instructions on how to play at French Chamber Pitch, together with a table of Hotteterre's G-Clef transpositions. SC& C (Oxford) Ltd 2 Bladon Close Oxford OX2 8AD Tel. (0865) 59185


47

In Search of the Baroque Flute the Flute Family 1680-1750

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