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March 2017 1
PAN March 2017.indd 1 11/04/2017 17:53 The Council and Officers of the British Flute Society Chairman Malcolm Pollock Treasurer Julie Butler Area Representative Co-ordinator Kate Cuzner Council Members The British Flute Society Jocelyn Campbell; Andy Findon; Kate Hill; Anne Hodgson; Niall O’Riordan; Rachel Smith; Carole Jenner Timms AFT Representative President William Bennett OBE Hugh Phillips Vice President Wissam Boustany Membership Secretary Honorary Patrons Sir James Galway Nicola Thompson and Lady Jeanne Galway Legal Advisor Chairman Malcolm Pollock Nancy Sun BFS Secretary and Advertising Manager The Journal of the Anna Munks British Flute Society Editor Elisabeth Hobbs Volume 36 Number 1 March 2017 Full contact details for all council members Editor Elisabeth Hobbs and officers are available from the secretary. [email protected]
Contacting the BFS Secretary and Advertising Area Representatives Anna Munks 27 Eskdale Gardens Anglesey/Wales Emily Knowles 07746 122695 Purley, Surrey CR8 1ET Avon & Somerset Carole Jenner-Timms Telephone and fax 020 8668 3360 01761 233982 [email protected] Buckinghamshire Lizzie Molloy 01296 437392 Cardiff Justine Swainson 029 2075 1313 Cheshire Dawn Savell 01925 416647 Membership Secretary Cumbria Suzanne de Lozey 01539 560054 Nicola Thompson Derry/NI Sarah Murphy 07811 107065 48 Wistow Road East Sussex Anne Hodgson 01273 812580 Selby YO8 3LY Hertford Sally Quantrill 01992 536236 Telephone 0845 680 1983 Hertfordshire Wendy Walshe 01707 261573 [email protected] Hertfordshire (Hitchin) Liz Childs 07711 080275 Kent Pat Daniels 01732 770141 Editorial Committee Lancashire Mark Parkinson 01257 410856 Jocelyn Campbell Leicestershire Elizabeth Rowan 0116 2514595 Carole Jenner-Timms London E & Essex Kate Cuzner 01787 273628 Anna Munks NW London Joss Campbell 07930 093564 Niall O’Riordan Oxfordshire Kate Hill 01491 681 915 Scotland Marysia Williamson 01501 762 510 Southampton/Hants Sarah Heard 07779 Design and layout Elisabeth Hobbs 927613 Editorial Assistant Julia Hogan-Roberts Swansea Hugh Phillips 01792 865825 Cover : John Dyer West Yorkshire Tracey Smurthwaite 01924 Printed by Magprint 211538
Views expressed by contributors are their INTERNATIONAL own and do not necessarily reflect an Australia (NSW) Derek Galloway +61 4 official view of the British Flute Society. 50045753 All copyrights reserved. Canada (Ontario) Samantha Chang +001 416 801 9196 France Atarah Ben-Tovim +33 5574 74428 Italy Geoff Warren +39 85 4155549 Muscat, Oman Nicholas Foster +968 95203966 Registered charity No. 326473 ISSN 2052-6814
PAN March 2017.indd 2 11/04/2017 17:53 Contents
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In this issue
4 News and people 8 BFS Competitions 20 14 Summer schools 2017 20 Averil Williams: 50 years at the Guildhall 24 New year, new you: goal setting in practice 30 History of the flute, part 4: developments 36 Finding variety in trills 40 Masterpieces on flute and guitar 30 44 The flute, the hammer and the sickle 54 Luna’s Magic Flute 56 Reviews
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PAN March 2017.indd 3 11/04/2017 17:53 News and People
Flutewise/ABRSM Flute Choir Competition by Liz Goodwin
have to admit I’m into the ‘Wrong Grade completely non- Exam’. It was so good we competitive. I’d go as all wanted to repeat it, Ifar to say I really loathe especially as the Chief competition in music. As a Examiner, John Holmes, child I was touted around was up to being murdered festivals together with my again by Darth Vader! If friend, Lynne. We were you weren’t there and are always up against each a bit confused, the ‘Wrong other in classes, taking Exam’ is an educational at how to encourage really tricky to project the it in turns to come first. musical pantomime where involvement with as many size of venue we would need At the time it struck me professional flute players players as possible. Then if we held the first round that this wasn’t doing us take an exam and ‘get things the idea of the flute choir live. The final round will much good as developing wrong’ then it is explained competition came up. This be live on the morning of young musicians, but it how the system works so the appealed to me because 16 July. If the competition was just giving the adults audience know how to get it although it would be a is well supported with lots involved with us kudos. I right. It’s much easier to get competition it’s not one on of entries then I’ll plan a can understand the need the message across that you one, everyone is in a team. bigger event to run it again for competitions for older really do need to learn your Whenever we are teaching at some later date. players, but I’m still not a scales and/or rehearse with we need some goal to work The next question that I fan. your pianist and/or play towards and to give flute had to explore was whether However, I might be what the composer wrote choirs this goal seemed a the competition should be changing my mind after down not what you feel like really good idea. open to just school aged 16 July. On that day we are through comedy. I have no idea how people or should it be having a Flutewise event So the ‘Wrong Grade popular this competition is open to all ages. There are at the John McIntosh Arts Exam’ is going to be the going to be at this stage. The so many adults who enjoy Centre, London Oratory focal point of the event people I’ve talked to have all playing in flute choirs, it School. It’s a good venue and there will be other been very positive about it. seemed wrong to exclude that we’ve used before many activities including warm- Because of the uncertainty them. It brings up child years ago to celebrate Jimmy ups, playalongs, flute choir, of numbers and wanting safe guarding issues for our Galway’s 60th birthday. This shopping and workshops to make it as accessible as afternoon event, but I feel time we are celebrating the for parents and also flute possible, I explored the idea confident we can cope with launch of the new ABRSM teachers. It promises to be a of the possibility of holding those. flute syllabus. We had a great event. the first round by YouTube And then there was the really lovely event at LSO Having looked at the submission. This seemed a question of what should St Luke’s four years ago for venue and planned the perfect way to do something they play? Own choice the launch of the current afternoon event I got as ‘risk free’ as possible. It’s or set piece? Set pieces syllabus and as part of it we thinking about what else a bit scary trying any new seemed the fairest way changed Abbie Burrow’s to do as we had time and venture and it would be forward, but what? I spent famous ‘Wrong Concert’ capacity. I also was looking
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a long time exploring this This was a tricky one for me. when people hear what the Now all the details are and discussing it with There are obviously quite a first prizes are, I think it will out there all I can do is people. It would have been number of costs involved really encourage them to sit and wait and see what wonderful to be able to have and as we’ve no idea how enter! I’m still working on happens. If you have any commissioned new pieces many groups will enter, the prizes but so far I am feedback about it, I’d really for this, but there wasn’t most of it is guess work. £30 thrilled to announce that appreciate hearing from the budget and time, so we was the amount decided on, Guo are giving a G treble you. I would like to think decided to keep to pieces maybe we’ll break even with flute, The Vibe are giving that this could be the start with a strong Flutewise that, make a loss or make a a £300 voucher towards of something very exciting connection. For the Open profit … we’ll see. Of course a low flute, Just Flutes are for our flute world. Category (all ages) the set any profit, which would be offering £150 worth of flute We’ve got a new website piece is The Flutewise Theme lovely, will just be ploughed choir music, Top Wind dedicated just to Flutewise by Gareth McLearnon back into Flutewise for are offering a voucher and events, you can find it at plus their own choice. It future events. Azumi are sponsoring a www.flutewiselive.org should be obvious why The Every group that enters prize that every entry will This is due to our original Flutewise Theme, yes, it was will win a prize which will receive and also every website being a bit full and written for Flutewise. We be awarded on or after 16 member in the choirs that out of date, I hope it will be settled on two pieces for the July. For the main prizes I’m win a place in the final all rebuilt very soon. There School age Category, Walk relying on the generosity of will receive. They are still a is the function to sign up for Like This by Ian Clarke, the flute trade, I know from secret at the moment, but a Flutewise Newsletter on which was commissioned by long experience they are I know everyone will want this new site so interested Flutewise and The Dolphin always willing to support a one! Enormous thanks go to people can keep in touch from Luna’s Magic Flute by good flute event and cause. ABRSM, The Vibe, Azumi, with what is going on. Blaz Pucihar. Blaz has been We are so lucky in our flute Guo and Just Flutes, Top Booking forms and full involved with Flutewise for world to have so many of Wind, All Flutes Plus and details of the event and many years and he is going these wonderful people in Wonderful Winds who are competition can be found to be one of our guest artists the flute trade. all offering their support, as on this site. for the event. I know many I talked to several flute well as Abbie Burrows and The set pieces, The teachers will be delighted choir directors about what Gareth McLearnon. Flutewise Theme by Gareth to know that some of his prizes would attract them As I said earlier, the McLearnon and The works are on the new flute to enter a competition and, final will be on Sunday 16 Dolphin by Blaz Pucihar syllabus (that’s a secret at although they all said it July and the two first place can be found on Gareth’s the moment but I’m sure no would be lovely to win a choirs will perform in the site www.garethmclearnon. one will mind me sharing it prize, the most important end of the event concert com/flutechoirworks/ with you!) thing was to have a goal and maybe we will be able the-flutewise-theme-pdf- Luna’s Magic Flute was to work towards and a to arrange them to perform download and www. originally for flute and platform to perform on. But at another Flutewise event garethmclearnon.com/the- piano, but Blaz recently soon. dolphin. published it for flute choir. I asked him if he was willing to re-arrange this movement for C flutes only and I’m delighted he agreed. This makes it accessible to all school flute choirs, but if they do have alto and bass flutes, they can perform the original version. The C version is available as a PDF download from Gareth McLearnon’s website. The question of an entry fee was discussed at length.
Photos by Carla Rees
March 2017 5
PAN March 2017.indd 5 11/04/2017 17:53 25 Years of FLUIT composer, flute maker and inventor of the Böhm flute. his year marks the Thies Roorda played Böhm‘s 25th anniversary of “Du, du liegst mir im the establishment Herzen”, opus 22, followed Tof Fluit, the journal of by Böhm’s arrangement the Dutch Flute Society of Beethoven’s Trio, opus (Nederlands Fluit 87, which Thies performed Genootschap) by Mia with two of his students. Dreese. To mark the Next, the American occasion, around 80 flautists flautist and composer Ned gathered to celebrate on 5 McGowan, improvised on February 2017 in the former the contrabass flute. monastery of Woerden, a Before lunch, the mayor small town about 35 km of Woerden gave a short south of Amsterdam. speech commending the The programme began work of Mia Dreese and with a concert by flautist awarded her a medal. This Hanspeter Spannring from was followed by a further Graz, who has lived in the concert, with Ilonka Netherlands since 1991. Kolthof on piccolo and This was followed by a Marieke Schneemann on lecture given by Wieke flute. Lectures by Marten Karsten, after which Ludwig Root and Peter Verhoyen Benjamin Creighton-Griffiths concluded the programme. Böhm gave a lecture about ave you ever showcase pieces worked on his great-great-grandfather, wanted to play throughout the day. Ludwig Böhm Theobald Böhm, flautist, your flute with a The event will take Hharpist but never had the place in Abergavenny opportunity? Come to Community Centre, Park Wales, home of the harp, Street, NP75YB on Sunday and give it a go! 24 September from 10am to A new flute day will 5pm. Creightons Collection take place in September (www.creightonscollection. led by flautists Catherine co.uk) will have a stall at Handley and Jane Groves the event which stocks a who have enjoyed working wealth of flute & harp music in Wales for many years & CDs. with many harpists and Abergavenny is just over will be joined for this day the border in South Wales by the talented harpist & easily accessible by road Benjamin Creighton- or rail. It is surrounded by Griffiths www.bjcg.co.uk. beautiful hills for walking The event will be designed so why not make a weekend around the attendees and is of it & explore. www. aimed at the amateur adult visitabergavenny.co.uk. who enjoys playing in a More details will be group and with the added available in the next issue opportunity to play a solo of Pan, but in the meantime item also accompanied by any queries can be sent via Benjamin. There will be a the contact page at www. short concert at the end to catherinehandley.co.uk. Mia Dreese with Ludwig Böhm
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A hundred and one flutes: disjointed recollections of an amateur collector
t was around fifty years ago, shortly for the flute. They jumped at the deal instruments except the flutes. As I after I had emigrated to Canada, and so began my collection of flutes. travelled through Europe, the Middle that I attended a Herbie Mann Expo 67 was one of the best-ever and Far East, I continued to acquire the Iconcert in Montreal. Mann, probably World Exhibitions. About 120 nations fascinating ethnic variations of a pipe the finest jazz flute player (not flautist, participated, all of which had pavilions with holes in it. please) swept me off my feet with which usually housed shops. It was Although I haven’t made an exact his musicianship and showmanship. here that my collection really got going count I think the collection must Within weeks I had obtained a cheap – success sort of went to my head and number around 100, kept in various secondhand flute and taught myself to I bought any musical instrument I drawers, and a gilt frame holding about play (a fatal mistake). clapped eyes, not only from Expos 67 30 flutes. In changing my profession from but from the antique shops in any part I feel that this collection should be advertising to broadcasting, five years of North America that I visited. Now given public exposure somewhere and later, when Mann came to play at the my apartment had a flute section, a so if some institution is interested in Montreal World Festival (Expo 67) I brass section and a string section. I acquiring them –price very negotiable lost no time in interviewing him and think the word is addiction. – please contact me at martbron@sky. touching his gold Haynes flute. Before On returning to England in com. that I had also interviewed Jean-Pierre the early eighties I got rid of all the Martin Bronstein Rampal for my own arts programme (and touched his golden Haynes flute, too). Best of all was my interview with Jeannie Baxtresser, an American from the mid-west who had been captivated by the flute as a young girl. She went from Juilliard straight into the first flute chair at the Montreal Symphony Orchestra when Zubin Mehta was the conductor and was then poached by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra (TSO) for their first chair. It was in her Toronto house that I interviewed Baxtresser and at the close of the interview Pinchas Zukerman arrived. He made himself a cup of tea, told her the milk was sour and unpacked his violin. He and Baxtresser were duetting with the TSO that week and they proceeded to practice. A performance for an audience of one – me! Close to my apartment in Montreal was an antique shop run by two confirmed bachelors. One day a I saw an ivory and wooden flute in their window but as a struggling freelance writer, I didn’t have the spare money. A week later I was given two tickets to the ballet (a fairly pointless exercise in jumping and twirling) and offered the tickets to the antiquarians in exchange
March 2017 7
PAN March 2017.indd 7 11/04/2017 17:53 Competitions BFS Competitions, London February 2017
e were as usual treated to some stunning playing from competitors in the BFS Young Artist Competition, adjudicated by Juliette Bausor and WSarah Newbold. One of the great strengths of this BFS event is that players can choose anything they like and Jo Sealey and Richard Shaw can provide superb support as accompanists. The range of music performed was wide, from Bach and Mozart through Gaubert and Reinecke to Prokofiev, Messiaen and Robert Dick. As always the most satisfying results came from the performance of repertoire best suited to showcase the strengths of the performer. Of the prize-winners, Meera Maharaj (in third place) played Wissam Boustany’s highly effective Broken Child with great sensitivity, and Hannah Foster (second place) performed Messiaen’s Le Merle Noir almost as if (as the adjudicators commented) she were the blackbird. Winner Amy Yule gave a very moving account of Braunstein’s arrangement of Lensky’s Aria from Eugene Onegin. Congratulations to all who performed, and sincere thanks to Trevor James, All Flutes Plus, Just Flutes and Niall O’Riordan for donating the prizes.
Malcolm Pollock
Laura Jellicoe and Sue Thomas Young Artist winner Amy Yule (above) and below, receiving her prize
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Clockwise from top left: Hannah Foster (Young Artist 2nd prize), Meera Maharaj (Young Artist 3rd prize), Harmony Rose-Bremner (Wm S Haynes prize for most promising performer in School Performer Class A or B), Annabelle Dowell (School Performer Class A 1st prize)
All images copyright Malcolm Pollock March 2017 9
PAN March 2017.indd 9 11/04/2017 17:53 Competitions
School Performer Class A and B
Claire Edmiston, Class A third prize Francesca Biescas Rue, Class B first prize,
Europe’s favourite flute specialist
2 Lower Marsh, London SE1 7RJ. Tel 020 7401 8787 Fax 020 7401 8788 Email [email protected] www.topwind.com Gareth McLearnon presents Harmony Rose-Bremner with the Haynes Prize
10 bfs.org.uk flutes | repairs | music | accessories
PAN March 2017.indd 10 11/04/2017 17:53 Europe’s favourite flute specialist
2 Lower Marsh, London SE1 7RJ. Tel 020 7401 8787 Fax 020 7401 8788 Email [email protected] www.topwind.com
flutes | repairs | music | accessories
PAN March 2017.indd 11 11/04/2017 17:53
The British Flute Society Competitions Wednesday 15 February 2017 Competition Prize Winners
BFS School Performer Competition Classes A and B
Prize Prize details Prize Winner To be awarded William S Haynes Prize Harmony Rose- For the most promising performer to be Bremner In either Class A or B awarded in either class A or B
BFS School Performer 2017 Class A Prize Prize details Prize Winner First Prize Pearl Flutes Prize: PFP-105E Grenaditte Annabelle Dowell piccolo
Beaumont Music microfibre cloth BFS Class A First Prize Medal Second Prize: Wonderful Winds Prize: £50 voucher Daisy Noton BFS Class A Second Prize Medal Beaumont Music microfiber cloth Third Prize: Beaumont Music Prize: Flute Case Claire Edmiston Beaumont Music microfibre cloth Beaumont BFS Class A Third Prize Medal BFS Merit 1. BFS Class A Merit Medal Daniel Pengelly Medals 2. BFS Class A Merit Medal Amélie Sainsbury To be awarded Free download of Embodied Musician - Annabelle Dowell to one prize Better Tone & Jaw Comfort with the winner in Class A Feldenkrais Method by Niall O’Riordan https://gumroad.com/l/EAIEn
BFS School Performer 2017 Class B Prize Prize details Prize Winner First prize Verne Q. Powell® Flutes, Inc Prize Francesca Biescas Rue Handmade Custom, Sterling Silver, Lumina style headjoint BFS Prize: Free entry to the BFS Flute Festival 2018 (event and details subject to confirmation) and an opportunity to perform Beaumont Music Bamboo flute swab BFS Class B First Prize Medal Second prize Top Wind Prize Prize: £75 voucher Fiona Sweeney Beaumont Music Bamboo flute swab BFS Class B Second Prize Medal
Third prize Beaumont Music Prize: Flute Bag Emilija Jonusaite Beaumont Music Bamboo flute swab Beaumont BFS Class B Third Prize Medal BFS Merit 1. BFS Class B Merit Medal Lloyd Hampton Medals 2. BFS Class B Merit Medal Daniel Jacob-Ormson To be awarded Free download of Embodied Musician - Ellie Holland to one prize Better Tone & Jaw Comfort with the winner Class B Feldenkrais Method by Niall O’Riordan https://gumroad.com/l/EAIEn www.bfs.org.uk Registered Charity No. 326473
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The British Flute Society Competitions Wednesday 15 February 2017 BFS Young Artist Prize Winners
BFS Young Artist 2017
Prize Prize details Prize Winner First prize: Trevor James Prize: TJ Alto Flute. Amy Yule BFS Prize: Free entry to the BFS Flute Festival 2018 (event and details subject to confirmation) and an opportunity to perform at the event. Beaumont Music large microfibre cloth
Second prize: All Flutes Plus Prize: £100 voucher Hannah Foster Beaumont Music large microfibre cloth
Third prize: Just Flutes Prize: £75 voucher Meera Maharaj Beaumont Music large microfibre cloth
To be awarded Free download of Embodied Musician - Meera Maharaj to one prize Better Tone & Jaw Comfort with the winner in this Feldenkrais Method by Niall O’Riordan class https://gumroad.com/l/EAIEn
Many congratulations to our prize winners and all competitors who took part in this year’s competitions. We would like to thank all our prize sponsors for their generous support
BFS Competition Officials
BFS School Performer Class A Laura Jellicoe Sue Thomas
BFS School Performer Class B Laura Jellicoe Sue Thomas
BFS Young Artist Juliette Bausor Sarah Newbold
BFS Accompanists Jo Sealey Richard Shaw
www.bfs.org.uk Registered Charity No. 326473 PAN March 2017.indd 13 11/04/2017 17:53 Summer Schools Diary 2017
MAY
3–7 Atarah’s 15th Advanced Adult Course in the Dordogne, E: [email protected], T: 0033557474428, W: www.atarah.tv; or Facebook Atarah Ben -Tovim MBE.
7 Flutes at the Barns Day - French Music and Influence, St Albans, Hertforshire. E: [email protected]; T: 01727 765511/07976 613750; W: www.flutesatthebarns.com/flutedays.html.
8–11 Flute Works with Kia Bennett and Tim Carey at Benslow Music Trust, Hitchin, Herts SG4 9RB. E: [email protected]; T: 01462 459446; W: www.benslowmusic.org.
13–19 The Flute Feast in France at Ay, Champagne, with Elisabeth Hobbs and Paul Edmund-Davies. E: [email protected]; Flute Feast fun with Paul Edmund-Davies W: www.flutesinspired.co.uk/flutefeastfrance; T: 01865 343369/07896 507229.
13–20 Flutes en Vacances in Portugal. E: [email protected]; T: 07922 169122; W: www.flutesenvacances.co.uk/wp/flute-courses/.
14 Flute Day with Katherine Bryan for grade 6+. Chandlers Ford SO53 4DD. T: 01962 857275; W: www.tickets.winchester-cathedral.org.uk.
20 Woodwind Fitness Day, Sharrow Performing Arts Space, Sheffield. E: [email protected]; W: www.sheffieldflute.co.uk/woodwind- fitness-day.html.
21–27 The Flute Feast in France at Ay, Champagne, with Elisabeth Hobbs and Paul Edmund-Davies. E: [email protected]; W: www.flutesinspired.co.uk/flutefeastfrance; T: 01865 343369/07896 507229.
25–28 Peter-Lukas Graf Masterclass 2017, Staufen (Germany), T: (07633) 7015 Fax: (07633) 7016, E: [email protected], W: http://www. peterlukasgraf.ch/
26–28 Small Mixed Chamber Music with Lisa Nelsen, Julian Metzger, Paul Turner at Benslow Music, Hitchin, Herts SG4 9RB; E: [email protected]; T: 01462 459446; W: http://www.benslowmusic.org/
27–30 BWA Flute Ensemble Germany Tour May 2017 - open to all adult flautists. Concerts in/around Cologne, Germany; info@bedfordshirewoodwind. co.uk; W: http://www.bedfordshirewoodwind.co.uk/flute_ensembles.
27–31 Flute School London at Monplaisir with Janna Hüneke; E: marion@ monplaisirholidays.com; W: http://www.monplaisirholidays.com
Flutes du Soleil
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JUNE
3 Flute Day with Zoë Booth and Rachael Buxton, Benslow Music, Hitchin, Herts SG4 9RB; E: [email protected]; T: 01462 459446; W: http:// www.benslowmusic.org/
12–17 Benslow Chamber Orchestra with Anthony Halstead, Miles Golding, Anthony Robson at Benslow Music, Hitchin, Herts SG4 9RB; E: [email protected]; T: 01462 459446; www.benslowmusic.org
12–16 Flutes en Vacances in Yorkshire. E: [email protected]; T: 07922 169122; W: www.flutesenvacances.co.uk.
16–19 Flutes en Vacances in Shropshire. E: [email protected]; T: 07922 169122; W: www.flutesenvacances.co.uk.
Flute Feast fun with Paul Edmund-Davies 16–18 Mix and Match with the London Myriad Ensemble at Benslow Music, Hitchin, Herts SG4 9RB; E: [email protected]; T: 01462 459446; W: www.benslowmusic.org.
17–24 William Bennett Summer Flute Academy with Lisa Read Wolynec at Austin Peay University USA; E: [email protected], W: http://www.apsu.edu/ music/bennett
19–23 Flutes en Vacances in Shropshire. E: [email protected]; T: 07922 169122; W: www.flutesenvacances.co.uk.
22–25 The Refreshed Flautist Retreat with Jessica Quinones. W: www.bohofluteretreasts.com.
26/6 Pender Island International Flute Summer School 2016, Pender Island, BC –3/7 Canada with William Bennett and Lorna McGhee. E: [email protected], T: 403-993-3402; W: www.fluteretreat.com.
Galway Festival ensemble 30/6 An Introduction to Wind Chamber Music with Tricia Melville-Mason, Trona –2/7 Melville-Mason at Benslow Music, Hitchin, Herts SG4 9RB; E: info@ benslowmusic.org; T: 01462 459446; W: http://www.benslowmusic.org/
JULY
10–14 Flutes at the Barns July 2017 Derbyshire, UK with Zoë Booth; E: info@ flutesatthebarns.com T: 07976 613750; W: http://flutesatthebarns.com/ ukcourses.html
10–16 Flutes in Tuscany. Summer course in Tereglio, Tuscany with Elizabeth Walker. E: [email protected]; W: www.lizwalker.co.uk/flutes-in- tuscany-2017.
Flutes du Soleil
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17–22 International Flute Seminar Bruges with Aldo Baerten, Peter Verhoyen, Robert Pot, Blaž Snoj; Monastery School Zevenkerken, Bruges, Belgium; E: [email protected]; W: http://www.ifsb.be/
17–22 Llangenny Flute Summer School, Llangenny nr Crickhowell, Wales with Sarah Newbold and Zoe Smith (piano). E: [email protected], W: llangennyflutes.com.
21-24 Flutes en Vacances in Suffolk. E: [email protected], T: +44 7922169122, W: www.flutesenvacances.co.uk.
21–30 28th Annual Sir James Galway Flute Festival, Weggis, Switzerland. E: [email protected]; W: www.galwayflutefestival.com.
21–30 29th Forum for Flute and Piano, Diekirch / Luxembourg. E: [email protected]; W: www.forumflutepiano.com. Jazz flutes with Geoff Warren 22–29 26th Flute Summer Course ‘For the Contemporary Flutist’ with Wil Offermans in Sayalonga (Malaga), Spain; E: 2017@flutesummercourse. com; W: http://www.flutesummercourse.com
23–30 32nd William Bennett International Flute Summer School William Bennett and Lorna McGhee at the Woldingham School, Surrey UK E: [email protected]; W: http://www.williambennettflute.com/ summerinde.html
23–29 Flutes Du Soleil, Haute-Savoie, France. Andrea Kuypers and Louise Burnet. E: [email protected] W: www.flutesdusoleil.com.
23–29 The 22nd Scottish International Flute Summer School. E: admin@ flutescotland.co.uk, T: +44 (0) 7764 852 685, W: www.flutescotland.co.uk.
24–27 Flutes en Vacances Suffolk. E. [email protected]/zamzammusic@ gmail.com; W: www.flutesenvacances.co.uk/wp/flute-courses/ The Refreshed Flautist with Jessica Quinones 27/7 UK International Student Summer Music Camp with Julie Wright and -2/8 Nick Foster. E: [email protected]/[email protected]; W: flutesenvacances.co.uk/wp/international-student-summer-school/
31/7 rarescale Summer School for flute players and composers, Harlaxton -5/8 Manor, Lincolnshire. Tutors: Carla Rees, flutes, Michael Oliva, composition. E: [email protected], W: www.rarescale.org.uk.
31/7 Salzburg (Austria) 2017 International Summer Academy Peter-Lukas Graf -12/8 Masterclass, Mozarteum, Mirabellplatz 1, A-5020 Salzburg E: [email protected], W: www.summeracademymozarteum.at
Flutes Inspired at Hawkwood, Gloucestershire
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AUGUST
2–6 Flutes en Vacances Suffolk. E. [email protected]/zamzammusic@ gmail.com; W: www.flutesenvacances.co.uk/wp/flute-courses
3–6 Jazz Flute in Italy with Geoff Warren. E: [email protected], W: www. geoffwarren.com, www.borrellosite.com.
6–10 Flutes en Vacances Suffolk. Advanced adult/teachers’ ensembles and workshops. E: [email protected]/[email protected]; W: www.flutesenvacances.co.uk/wp/flute-courses/
6–13 Netherlands Flute Academy. Emily Beynon assisted by Jeroen Bron and Wieke Karsten, pianist Andrew West. E: [email protected]; W: www.neflac.nl Discount available in combination with Grolloo (see below) Jazz flutes with Geoff Warren 7–11 Philippa Davies’s Flute Summer School (Standard: Advanced). Tutors: Philippa Davies, Jan Willem Nelleke at Benslow Music, Hitchin, Herts E: [email protected]; T: 01462 459446; W: www.benslowmusic.org/
13–19 Intermediate & Advanced Flute with Philippa Davies, Cubertou, SW France; E: [email protected]; W: http://cubertou.com/home/diary/flute- holiday/
13–18 Oxford Flute Summer School 30th Anniversary, Radley College, Abingdon, Oxfordshire. With Robert Winn, Kate Hill, and Robert Manasse. E: [email protected]; T: 0118 950 7865/07745 377643; W: www.oxford-flutes.co.uk.
18–20 Elementary Winds with Tricia Melville-Mason and Trona Melville-Mason at Benslow Music, Hitchin, Herts SG4 9RB E: [email protected]; T: 01462 459446; W: www.benslowmusic.org/
The Refreshed Flautist with Jessica Quinones 19–26 Trevor Wye International Summer School, The Trevor Wye Studio, Hastingleigh near Ashford, Kent; E. [email protected]; T: +447922169122; W: flutesenvacances.co.uk/wp/trevor-wye-summer- course-2017/
20–25 Summer WindFest Colin Bradbury, Jean McCreery, Martin Gatt and friends at Benslow Music, Hitchin, Herts SG4 9RB E: [email protected]; T: 01462 459446; W: www.benslowmusic.org/
21–25 The Flute Kitchen, Harrogate, North Yorkshire. E: events@windstruments. co.uk; T: 01274 510050; W: www.windstruments.co.uk.
21–26 FluteFest Wales; E: [email protected]; W: http://www.flutefest. co.uk/
23–27 Grolloo Flute Session 3; W: www.grollooflute.com. Discount available in combination with Neflac (see above).
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PAN March 2017.indd 17 11/04/2017 17:54 Summer Schools Grolloo Flute Session 3 SEPTEMBER August, 23rd - 27th, 2017 Matthias Ziegler, Ian Clarke and 4–7 Flutes Inspired with Elisabeth Hobbs at Wissam Boustany are presenting Hawkwood College, Gloucestershire. E: elisabeth@ the third edition of this innovative flutesinspired.co.uk; T: 07896 507229; flute course, together with Eva W: http://www.hawkwoodcollege.co.uk/courses- Kingma and pianists Tim Carey and-events/arts/flutes-inspired-september-- and Kamelia Miladinova. elisabeth-hobbs Participants will be exploring many aspects of practice, 4–8 Flutes at the Barns, September 2017 Derbyshire, UK performance and musical with Zoë Booth; E: [email protected]; development in fully T: 07976 613750; W: http://flutesatthebarns.com/ interactive discussions and ukcourses.html workshops. Five full days of inspired music-making 15–18 Flutes en Vacances Stratford upon Avon with Julie and vibrant exchanging Wright; E: [email protected]/zamzammusic@ of ideas in Grolloo, The gmail.com; W: http://flutesenvacances.co.uk/wp/ Netherlands. This course is seeking to give flute-courses/ advanced players an opportunity to analyse and develop their playing 18–21 Flutes en Vacances Stratford upon Avon. Advanced in an atmosphere of openness, adult/teachers’ ensembles and workshops. E: julie. respect and curiosity. [email protected]/[email protected]; W: www.flutesenvacances.co.uk/wp/flute-courses/ Check the website for details: http://www.grollooflute.com
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Flute Feasts The Refreshed Flautist Retreat etting to grips with the challenges of playing the flute he Refreshed Flautist Retreat is designed over 4 days to can be daunting. We need to work on our body in give you both music & relaxation in a stunning natural a most unusual way. Years of practice are required, setting on the North Cornish coast. Deepen your Gmostly in solitary confinement, where self-doubt and paranoia Tflute playing skills, refresh your musicality and take time to become our constant companions! There are many moments rejuvenate by the sea, all with the popular coastal village of St. of frustration and even depression along the way, as well as Agnes as your backdrop. the uplifting euphoria of those ‘light bulb’ moments, when This retreat is for you if you want to fall in love with your something clicks and we are ready to tackle the next challenge. flute playing again and if you’re looking for some new ‘ah ha’ A flute course is a part of this process - a place where we moments in your skill-set. The line-up includes one-to-one can commune with other like-minded souls and discover new flute lessons and daily flute workshops with American flautist ideas and approaches. Listening to participants can give us an Dr. Jessica Quiñones. Her classes will focus not only on accurate idea as to how far we have travelled and how far we refining your flute skills, but on topics such as developing your would like to progress on our journey. musical creativity, refining extended techniques, trialling new For many, though, such courses can be intimidating and genres of music, and experimenting in improvisation. intense. Not putting too fine a point on it, the single-minded Further guest practitioners to the retreat include Ruth flute focus can end up being somewhat two dimensional and Ballantyne from 4flutes, who will be a delivering group suffocating to those who might also harbour desires to explore ensemble session for flute, piccolo, alto and bass. She also other interests. will be presenting a bespoke workshop on inspired score For a long time, I have wanted to put together flute courses interpretation for your solos, helping you to hone your for this ‘other’ category of flute enthusiast, as I am just as performance decisions when playing music from a variety of interested in these people as I am in those who have decided to musical eras--from Baroque to Romantic to modern works. make music their profession. How stimulating to gather people Given the focus towards approaching your musicianship together from all walks of life, with very different interests, but on a holistic level, Odry Bastianello delivers meditation and a unanimous interest in the flute! breathwork sessions especially designed for flautists, all with Suddenly, we find ourselves looking at a flute course that stunning beach-side views during her class. Amy Jones (a is very different! With Flute Feasts, we seek to pull all these qualified British Wheel of Yoga practitioner) will be giving an threads together, to provide these enthusiasts with an all- all-levels yoga class designed to help you use your body more encompassing and complete experience. effectively in your playing. The necessary ingredients are: Creativity coach and vocalist Sanchia Hylton-Smith A beautiful venue where participants can enjoy peace, has designed a workshop using highly sensory activities to privacy, relaxation and luxury. facilitate new ways that you can use the tools of lyricism to Gourmet dining is also a key part of the experience. revitalise your relationship with the music that you play. After all, the dining room is the main place for establishing Cornwall’s own Martin Miller is our retreat performance friendships, for engaging in vibrant conversations, for coach. He will help you take ownership of better experiences discussing the day’s activities, for laughter, and for relaxing. when playing in public, with actionable exercises to try before Champagne and fine wine. The celebratory and uplifting you take the stage. nature of champagne is well-chronicled and a glass or two of Free time is given each day for sunbathing at the three sparkling liquid gold is the perfect way to start the evening. village beaches, taking a spa treatment, browsing the local History. With Flute Feasts, we always stay in or near areas shops, taking a surf lesson, sea kayaking, or for having a of historical interest. To date, we have gazed into the fascinating well-deserved afternoon snooze. Also included in the retreat world of the Cathars in the Corbières region of France and price is a one-to-one 60 minute flute lesson, welcome drinks, a in May this year, we will be absorbing the influences of the traditional cream tea and a group tour of the Southwest coastal Abbeys and Monarchy, who were critical in the development path led by a local walking guide. Camping under the stars of champagne as a sparkling wine. In November, we will be in with beach views available from £19 per night and local B&B’s Normandy to visit Bayeux and the D-Day Beaches. are available from £30 a night. Each day is filled with a combination of one-to-one lessons, This retreat is for adults and for all levels of players, from ensemble coaching, duo sessions with our amazing course beginners (Gr. 1+) to advanced. Please note that there are only pianist John Alley, flute choir rehearsals and concerts. 10 places available to ensure that you will receive the highest If you are tempted by the idea of a Flute Feast, please write quality of attention during our time together. For more info to us at [email protected] for details of future courses. and to register visit www.bohofluteretreats.com. Paul Edmund-Davies Jessica Quinones
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PAN March 2017.indd 19 11/04/2017 17:54 Averil Williams Averil Williams: reflections on 50 years at the Guildhall by Nicolas Bricht n 7 July 2017, the Guildhall School of Music & Drama will put on a concert to celebrate 50 years of teaching by Averil Williams, professor of flute Ofrom 1966 to 2016. The event will feature GSMD professors Philippa Davies, Sarah Newbold, Ian Clarke, Gareth Davies and Christopher Green. Current GSMD students and some of Averil’s past students will also take part. New works have been commissioned specially for the occasion, and a new contrabass flute which Averil has kindly donated to the school will also be an important feature of the concert. Averil has produced some of the finest flute and piccolo players in the country, and her input into the life of the Guildhall has been remarkable. Her insights into flute playing and teaching have made her stand out throughout her career; no matter what the issue was, Averil would always come up with a solution. I studied with Averil at the Guildhall in the early 1990s. After my first lesson, in which I very proudly played the first movement of the Ibert Concerto, she explained to me that my embouchure needed to change in order to produce a good, controlled, in-tune sound. I knew that my sound needed improving, but changing embouchure was most definitely not in my plans. Despite my sounding like a Grade 1 student for the first two terms, she not only helped me to find my sound but also taught me how it is done, a tool that has always helped me greatly in my own teaching. For this, I will be forever grateful to her. I recently met with Averil at her Wimbledon home, and we had a long conversation about her teaching and playing Averil started playing the flute at the age of 16 and began career. It is not often that somebody remains loyal to an her studies at the RCM two months before her 18th birthday. institution for 50 whole years, yet this is what Averil has done: Her peers were James Galway and William Bennett (who she started teaching at GSMD in its old building in John she had met in the LSSO). It was only natural that she would Carpenter Street in September 1966 and stepped down in measure herself against them, not realising that they would June 2016. Many truly fine players have studied with her: Ian go on to be amongst the world’s greatest players. ‘I first met Clarke, Cormac Henry (Royal Liverpool Philharmonic), Julie WIBB in the London Schools Symphony Orchestra when I Stewart (Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra), Helen Benson (Oslo was 16 and he was studying with Geoffrey Gilbert. He talked Philharmonic), Eva Stewart (BBCNOW), Joanne Boddington about ‘embouchure’ a lot – a word I had never heard before! (Halle) Rebecca Lenton (Kammerensemble Neue Musik He was always experimenting and I was left in no doubt as Berlin), Vasco Gouveia, Javi Castiblanque (Flute Professor to the importance of the embouchure. After the RCM I too Real Conservatorio Superior de Musica de Granada), Neil had lessons with Geoffrey Gilbert and I am indebted to him McLaren (OAE), Jane Pickles, Gareth McLearnon, Gill Carter for sorting out the fundamentals of my playing, including my and Kieran Moynihan to name but a few. This list comes off distorted and unwieldly embouchure’. the top of my head but I am sure that Averil could add many In 1962, aged just 22 and only six years after starting to more names. learn the flute, Averil was appointed Principal Flute of the
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Iceland Symphony Orchestra. She describes this time in teachers she has particularly loved working with. Their quite Reykjavik as a pivotal event in her life; she was a principal different approaches seem to have added a wealth of ideas and player playing all the major solos and concerti. She was also a vibrancy that has made the flute department at Guildhall a member of the newly formed Musica Nova. ‘The playing so thriving. The four of them did a big fundraising project to opportunities were endless and it was like a training for open the Geoffrey Gilbert Room at the GSMD. They raised everything to come. This was a time when in the UK it was over £12000 to open this well equipped specialist flute room very difficult for female wind players to get positions’. Whilst on the second floor of the building (‘Room 230’ which is in Iceland, she taught at the Reykjavik Conservatoire where where we would always have our lessons with Averil before she had a 15-year old student called Jon Sigurbjörnsson. the room was renamed and opened as the Geoffrey Gilbert Sigurbjörnsson eventually came to England to study with Room). Geoffrey Gilbert, who seemed to have been impressed with With the addition of Gareth Davies and Christopher Green how Averil had taught Jon. to the department, Averil has no doubt that this collaborative When a vacancy arose at the Guildhall in 1966, Gilbert put way of working will go from strength to strength. Averil’s name forward. She started doing 18 hours of teaching Another major change in the late 80s and early 90s was the a week, and says that in those times teaching felt rewarding opportunity given to students to swap and share teachers from but quite isolated: she would go into the building, teach her their third year on. Averil found letting go of her students students and go home. There was hardly any interaction quite hard to deal with at the start, but she believes that this between teachers and furthermore, students seemed to has been a very good thing for students and teachers alike, also ‘belong’ to their teachers, creating cliques. Averil believes contributing greatly to the cohesion of the flute department. that the appointment of Philip Jones and subsequently Peter For over twenty years Averil held termly Performance Gane and Richard Benjafield as Heads of Wind, Brass and Workshops, where students would perform complete works Percussion changed the situation dramatically. In Philip Jones, with piano and a well-known guest would give feedback. I there was somebody who became ‘the hub of the wheel’, and recall these events as both exciting and terrifying, but playing teachers and students became connected through his extensive to one’s fellow students and having a ‘flute celebrity’ listening network. was always one of the highlights of the term. In my time as Both he and Peter Gane listened and often gave the a student, our guests included James Galway, Michael Cox, go-ahead to new ideas and with them at the helm the flute Daniel Pailthorpe, Celia Chambers, William Bennett and Ian teachers became a true department. For Averil this was her Clarke. ‘golden era’ at Guildhall, full of ideas and creativity. She Both students and guests would give feedback after a mentions Ian Clarke, Philippa Davies and Sarah Newbold as couple of performances and I do remember that in my first
Averil (far left)playing bass flute in a recording session of Bernard Herrmann’s film music, 1976
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Ian Clarke, Averil, Sarah Newbold, and Philippa Davies with Pamela Lidiard celebrating the inauguration of the Geoffrey Gilbert Flute Room in 2008
terms, as a foreigner, this was not an easy task. My words of the London Bach Orchestra. She tells me that she feels would come out as ‘bum’ instead of Boehm, ‘Gaaalway’ incredibly lucky to have played all the big symphonies under instead of Galway, the list is endless.. But with time we would great conductors during her time at the Guildhall, and her all learn how to think of what it is exactly that makes a good performance experience has clearly informed and enriched performance and how to be critical, yet constructive with each her teaching. other. This created a real sense of camaraderie amongst us. In time, even though Averil was playing with all the These workshops were always recorded and we would major orchestras and conductors, she felt she wanted more all get a cassette to take with us a ‘souvenir’. Having yourself from her career and began studying music therapy which recorded properly was not easy in those times and the quality uses improvisation in clinical work. She feels that learning to of the recordings was extremely good. Listening to my playing improvise opened up a whole new creative world for her and was not always a fun experience but I learnt a lot from these made her a much better performer and teacher. She continued tapes. studying and also became a Jungian psychoanalyst. I was curious to find out Averil’s opinion on what makes Averil has always been keen on instruments and has owned a good teacher. Instead of a detailed analysis she immediately the entire family of flutes. In fact she can be seen in one of the gave me two names: Geoffrey Gilbert and Marcel Moyse. pictures playing her own bass flute during a recording session. They are the two teachers she had who gave her everything on which she built her playing. ‘They were very different yet also very similar: they were passionate about their subject, had a huge capacity to communicate their knowledge, were genuinely interested in their students and able to inspire them’. I thought this was a wonderful way of summarising it. Averil’s years in Iceland were to prepare her for what was to follow on her return to the UK, and on coming back she quickly established a long-standing relationship with the BBCSO. Averil is particularly keen to mention the influence of working with Pierre Boulez: the most wonderful musical mind. He had every single musician sitting on the edge of his or her seat wanting to play every single note to its utmost musical perfection. Averil also played regularly with the LPO (including many years at Glyndebourne), London Sinfonietta, held the flute chair of the original Jesus Christ Superstar in the London West End and was a member and soloist Philippa testing headjoints with Eva Kingma
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The idea of a contrabass flute had been on Averil’s mind since she saw one in action during a visit to the GSMD by Andy Findon. She developed a fascination with the instrument, both for its huge potential in creating a soundscape and because she thinks that it is beautiful, like a piece of sculpture. Her interest culminated in having a contrabass flute made by Eva Kingma, which Philippa Davies picked up from Holland at the beginning of 2017. In February Gareth McLearnon gave a class to show the huge potential of the instrument. The idea of having this contrabass flute made and donating it to the Guildhall was an amazing gesture by a truly generous and unique teacher. Having spoken to Averil’s recent colleagues in the flute department at Guildhall it is clear that her wisdom, dedication and friendship have been deeply valued. The Guildhall’s flute faculty has a ‘who’s who’ list of past teachers and alumni, and perhaps more importantly, there are countless students who have been through its doors and have gone on to contribute to society’s fabric in varied and equally valuable ways. It is clear that Averil has played a significant and timeless role in many people’s lives and, without them knowing it, many many more people’s lives. Thank you Averil!
Averil improvising on contrabass with Gareth McLearnon
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New Year, New You? Goal-setting and how to make it work! by Anne Allen t the start of each year many of us set New Year including the following: resolutions, most of which are extremely ambitious • By setting outcomes that we want to achieve we create and end up fizzling out somewhere around the middle direction and purpose in life. Aof February. Your personal goals over the last few years may • If we know what we want, we are more likely to achieve it. have included joining a gym to get fit, learning those tricky • By knowing what we want, we can continuously assess studies in the book you’ve been meaning to work through for whether we are on the right track and make changes if we ages or putting on your own recital. are not. There are several reasons why a New Year resolution fails: • Successful people tend to set well-formed goals. it soon seems too ambitious, too much like hard work or we • Achieving our goals and continually reviewing and setting panic and our inner voice tells us we’ll never do it. Perhaps in new goals, both short and long term, helps us create reality the idea we had just does not tie in with our values. success and happiness in all areas of our life. Since the invention of MRI scanners scientists have Why do we fail? discovered so much about the brain but we still know very If goal-setting is such a great idea, why do we so often little about things like happiness, positivity, goal-achievement, fail? There are many reasons, which is actually a good thing motivation, habits etc. Unfortunately that means a lot of advice because you can be reassured that it is probably not your fault! out there has been purely anecdotal or we just try to copy what This applies not only to help from well-meaning friends and looks like it has worked for someone else. You may, like me, family but also to many self-help books. have tried reading several books on motivation and self-help, As most advice is purely anecdotal there is no way of read articles in magazines and set goals over and over again verifying whether it is any good or not. Even if it is good, if promising yourself you will ‘try harder this time’. Repeatedly it feels even slightly counterintuitive then we will not invest you fail to achieve those goals and feel worse and worse, ourselves fully in it and sooner or later the advice is dismissed. wondering why everyone else seems to be able to get results Sometimes we are given advice on the basis of ‘this is what so what is going wrong? The turning point for me came when worked for me so it has to help you’. Sometimes that might be I started to ask questions about everything I was hearing and true but I can see two problems with this perspective. Firstly, reading. Once I started to look for evidence to back up what I we are all designed very differently! The person giving that was being told I actually became more confident that a lot of advice might not even know why it worked for them so how advice was never going to work anyway, and it reassured me would they know if it would work for us? My personal pet hate about the strategies I was therefore able to accept as helpful in this category would be the ‘positive thinking’ argument. and the confidence to move forward with new energy. ‘Just think positive thoughts and everything will turn out the This article will help you to think more deeply about what way you want it!’ Grrr… Perhaps that (probably very well- goals actually are, make you feel better about why they usually meaning) person was always a positive thinker and it really fail (spoiler alert: it’s not your fault!) and then suggest some does help them. But we are not all like that and it seems to be easy, practical ways of helping you think about and set your just as useful as if they were saying ‘just add another 6 hours to own goals. your day and you will be fine!’ The second reason this style of Why set goals? advice giving can be unhelpful is that it places huge pressure First of all let us consider why we set goals at all?! Some on you. If you do not find it works are you not trying as hard people react to the endless year in year out cycle of New Year as they did? Are you just doing it wrong? Are you not as resolution-setting/resolution-breaking by deciding never ‘clever’ a person as they are? to come up with any at all in order to avoid the inevitable Much advice given to us is over-simplified and does not disappointment! But we cannot help having hopes and give us all the information we need. There are often many dreams! Angela Myles Beeching describes goals as merely factors that affect the outcome of taking some advice – for ‘dreams with deadlines’ (Beeching, 2005, p. 16). example, some people already have great habits in time There are several reasons why goal setting in many areas of management or have a positive mindset and this can be an life is a good idea, of which I am sure you can think of a few,
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essential part of what makes any particular advice work for to train and overcome all the obstacles between now and them. So, for example, creating a vision board might work the date of the race. If you only visualise the euphoria of the very well for someone with a visual and positive mindset but achievement, you will not even start planning how to train let completely fail for someone else which adds to their feeling alone all the steps along the way (no pun intended). of failure and makes things worse. We have no way of telling Fortunately psychologists have started to study the area of if it was making a vision board that worked or the positive behaviour called ‘positive psychology’ since Martin Seligman mindset, being a very visual person or something else entirely became the president of APA (the American Psychological that helped someone succeed. Correlations do not mean Association) and chose positive psychology as the theme for cause-effect is at work! his time in charge. Before that psychology mainly focused Another reason advice fails is that it is not tested so there on mental illness. Even the handbook used by psychologists is no evidence. Some advice feels right, but is actually not and psychiatrists was called the Diagnostic and Statistical helpful at all, for example, the advice to give yourself positive Manual of Mental Disorders and so to even the balance, affirmations. Intuitively it feels right that if we speak positively Martin Seligman and Christopher Peterson created a positive to ourselves and use positive affirmations we will increase our equivalent after extensive research, Character Strengths and likelihood of reaching our goals. In reality, research by Dr Virtues, published in 2004. Along with other studies they Joanne Wood at the University of Waterloo has shown that have tested some of the conventional wisdoms that have been this can work well for people who already feel good about shared, verifying some and disproving others. Although a lot themselves but can actually have a negative effect on those of bad advice is still out there I have drawn together some who don’t and therefore really need it all the more! recommendations that really work so that you can increase your motivation and use simple tools and strategies to help you achieve your goals. Goal Setting and Happiness Happiness is usually seen as something we attain once we reach our goals and it is definitely true that achieving something we have been working towards can have a positive effect on our happiness level but thinking this way means that we leave ourselves unhappy for the majority of our life! Most of life is spent journeying towards our goals and what happens if we get part of the way there but never reach the end point? Does that mean we are doomed to be unhappy forever? Of course not! Dr Tal Ben-Shahar studied the concept of happiness at Harvard University and his findings are incredibly simple but very helpful to bear in mind before setting our goals. Another piece of advice we are usually given to help us 1. Everyone can learn to be happier achieve our goals is to use visualisation. It seems logical that 2. People who pursue goals are happier than those who do if we spend lots of time visualising our end point we will be not more motivated to work towards it. However, 25 years of 3. People who frequently engage in activities that make them research by Gabrielle Oettingen at the Universities of New happy are happier than people who do not York and Hamburg has shown conclusively that the more 4. Happiness involves pleasure AND meaning time people spend visualising having achieved their goal, Perhaps these points seem obvious yet how many times the less likely they are to actually take action towards it! Her do you put off doing something you really enjoy as a sacrifice suggestion is that when we visualise a particular outcome our to a future goal? Or how often do we give up on having goals mind is tricked in to thinking that we have actually attained and end up bored and frustrated? There is a middle ground it which in turn physiologically decreases our blood pressure that allows us to be happy AND progress towards our goals. and mentally decreases our motivation. It is of course very In the past I have done both; I have shut myself off to practise important to think about your end goals as part of your for a competition and not seen friends for weeks, making goal-setting but within the context of setting a direction and myself thoroughly miserable in the process, or at the other focusing on the possible challenges you must plan how to extreme I have not even bothered to apply for a job I really navigate along the way rather than as a motivation tool in would have loved because I convinced myself I would not get itself. If your goal is to run a marathon for example, you think the position anyway so why put in all the hard work only to about the great feeling you will have running through the end be disappointed? We can make some sacrifices but allow a banner but your focus will quickly shift to how you are going certain amount of time for fun and we can also choose goals
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a specific direction in order to work towards something you really want. It is a simple but powerful way of focusing your thoughts, your time and your energy. Several studies have shown it is important to do it the old-fashioned way, with pen and paper, rather than only using a computer. We do not know exactly why, but there are several ideas that are all possible explanations: writing things by hand takes longer and so our brain is engaged in the process for that we can enjoy working towards. We can enjoy the climb more time and we focus more on the and the sights along the way as well as the view from the top task at hand. More of the brain is used when we write things when we reach the peak of the mountain. So if we do reach the by hand (this can be clearly seen by using an MRI scanner) peak we will feel wonderful, but if for any reason we do not, and therefore it is possible that the process is seen as more we can still feel great. To sum up, we should choose goals that significant. It is a great excuse to go out and buy yourself a make us happy and give us meaning whether we achieve the really special notebook that you can use to write down your end result or not so that we can be happy now rather than look goals and your progress towards them along with any other forward to becoming happy in the future. thoughts and ideas along the way to increase your chance of Setting Good Goals success. Seligman and Peterson’s research laid the foundation for how we can use psychology to help us in our everyday life including goal setting. They lay out three important realisations that will help us to increase our chance of realising our goals and they are summed up as self-awareness. 1. People who use their unique strengths in life are happier and more satisfied than those who do not. 2. People who use their unique strengths make more progress towards their goals. 3. People who use their strengths for a purpose GREATER than their own personal goals are happier than those who do not. These findings show us that it will be beneficial to take a bit of time to think before we start looking at what our goals actually are. First of all we need to identify our individual strengths and make good use of them in our goal setting and planning. If we do, then we will be happier. If we really want to take this further then we should make sure our goals Breaking goals down include other people in some way. It does not mean we have There are three main types of goals: outcome, performance to change our plans but factoring in those around us increases and process goals. Performance and process goals can be seen our motivation as we journey towards our goals. For example as the milestones on the way to achieving an outcome goals so if our goal is to play in a recital we might like to include some there would be more performance goals than outcome goals friends and family by amending our goal and the preparation and many more process goals. and practice suddenly becomes so much more fun! Outcome goals: These are the ‘big picture’ goals such as Setting our goals ‘winning xyz competition’. A Harvard study of business graduates monitored MBA Performance goals: These are the regular performances or graduates from 1979 to 1989. ‘Researchers found that ten feats we would need to accomplish in order to give us the years after graduation the three percent who had written best possibility of achieving the outcome goal, for example goals were making ten times as much money as the other 97 being able to play all our competition pieces without note or percent combined (Richmond, n.d.).’ Even if financial success rhythm errors at optimum speed, as musically as possible. is not the area you are considering, the study suggests that It is important to set performance goals because there are writing your goals down is a way of committing yourself to usually factors outside our control which can impact on the
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achievement of the outcome goal, such as the performance of • Make sure the first step you need to take is specific and the other musicians in the competition. achievable. Process goals: These are the specific tasks that would need to • Attaining the outcome increases your choices in life. be done to achieve the performance goals. They would include • Your goal should allow you to keep all the positive goals such as to learn all the notes of a piece under speed. qualities of your current situation. Here are three simple methods used in performance • Your goal is achievable and realistic. psychology and NLP (Neurolinguistic Programming) to help Goal-setting Method Three set positive, realistic goals. Use your new notebook and start writing! (Good for people who work in business and are used to SMART principles and for those who like mnemonics) Goal-Setting Method One SMART GOALS are: (Good for people who like lots of questions!) • S: Short, Specific, Simple Ask yourself the following questions to help clarify your • M: Measurable, Meaningful to you, More than one way to goal, increase your motivation or maybe help you to reassess achieve it what it is you really want: • A: As if now, present tense, Achievable, All areas of your • What specifically do you want? State it in the positive. life • What position are you in now? Specify your current • R: Realistic, Responsible/Ecological, Right for you situation. • T: Timed, Towards what YOU want • What will the outcome look/sound/feel like when you SMART goals have been used in business management have it? Be specific, describe it as if it is ‘now’ and use your for many years and this tool can work especially well for goals imagination! relating to your work. An example of a well-formed SMART • How will you know when you have accomplished your goal: ‘It is November 1st 2017 and I look and feel fitter and goal? Describe what will prove you have got there. healthier than ever as I have been to the gym for an hour three • Is the outcome you describe consistent with the rest of times a week every week since March 1st 2017.’ your life? Think what it will allow you to do or stop you You will notice that all methods ask you to state the goal in from doing. the positive or in ‘towards’ terms. This is very different from • Is it a personal goal? Is it something that you can initiate positive thinking. The way you state your goals is incredibly and maintain yourself? important and researchers in the 1970s discovered that a goal • What is the context of your goal? Be specific about where, which is positively stated is more likely to be accomplished when, how and whom (is anyone else involved). than one that is stated in the negative. So when you are • What resources do you need? Make a list of what you have thinking or speaking about your goals it is important to say already and what you would need to buy, borrow etc. ‘I will…(be able to play the Anderson studies)’ rather than • What inner resources do you need? Speak to other people ‘I don’t want…(to keep stopping when I play through my you might know who have achieved this goal and ask for studies)’. advice. Close your eyes and imagine you have achieved You have your big outcome goal(s) and have started your goal; is there any inner resource you need to work on to think about the steps leading to achieving them; the and add as process or performance goals? performance and process goals. Now you can break your • Is your goal ecological (good for you and the world you performance and process goals into small practical actions live in)? Why do you want this? What will you gain and e.g. a list of phone calls to make, books you need to buy or what will you lose if you have it? What will happen if borrow, music you need to listen to or looking up local gyms you achieve it? What will happen if you don’t get it? It is online. Decide on small, simple, measurable tasks so that you important that you are really honest! keep your motivation going and feel a continued sense of Goal-Setting Method Two achievement as you tick each one off as it is done. Once you (Good for people who like thinking in bullet points) start jotting down your thoughts you will start to think of Criteria for well-formed goals: lots of things you need to do. To avoid being overwhelmed, • State your goal in positive terms. allocate the ones that are priorities or have a deadline coming • Make sure your goal can be initiated and maintained up and make a to-do list for the day. I like to then write these personally. on post-it notes with stars by the tasks that must be completed • Describe as precisely as possible, as if you were there now, that day and a few tasks that would be nice to get done but I how the outcome looks/sounds/feels, including the date will not give myself a hard time if I do not manage all of them. and time and the steps you took to get there. At the end of the day I get a great sense of satisfaction seeing • Make sure your goal is ecological, i.e. that it will fit in with all the ticks and screwing the paper up and throwing it into the the rest of your life, your friends and your family. bin! • Are there several ways in which you could achieve your goal?
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Ecology set aside half an hour before leaving for work or school, or half We need to spend a little time thinking about the possible an hour before dinner, or even 15 minutes after brushing your consequences of achieving our goals, not only for ourselves teeth twice a day! It does not take too long before that task or but those around us and potentially even the planet as a whole! time of day becomes an automatic trigger and you move from This is called doing an ecology check and it is important consciously having to use willpower to make the decision so that we do not overlook something that could be very to practise, which we all know fluctuates with our level of destructive (for example planning 6 hours piccolo practice motivation, to a subconscious routine that requires much less every day might affect your relationship with a flatmate) or effort. A small victory of mine was to discover that if I packed something that might subconsciously holds us back. We then my gym bag and laid out my gym kit at night, I was infinitely have an opportunity to either adapt our goals or have an more likely to get to the gym first thing in the morning when increased awareness of what we might want to avoid along the my alarm clock went off! Simple, practical tasks like this can way, or plan alternative ways of navigating that obstacle. add up over time to achieving big goals that we might once Staying motivated have thought out of our reach. However excited we feel about our goals the truth is Summary that sometimes our energy levels slump and our motivation By now you have a good understanding of why you can subsides. Willpower is often hard to conjure up when we need forgive yourself for previously unachieved goals! You also it! So how can we feel more motivated and what can we do understand the importance of including your strengths and when we just do not ‘feel’ it? You might have tried listening what makes you happy in your progress towards your goals. to motivational talks and videos on youtube or reading If you have followed one or two of the methods you now have inspirational quotes that you write out and put up on your wall one or more outcome goals which are divided in manageable but this just does not work. steps into performance and process goals. Hopefully you have You may be surprised to find that there is a motivation an increased understanding of how motivation works and equation! Temporal Motivation Theory says that: the benefit of concentrating more on the process than the Motivation = (Expectancy x Value) / (Impulsiveness x Delay) outcome including the formation of good habits. You will be To put it in words, you want Expectancy and Value to be as ticking off the ‘to do’ points on your list regularly so there will big as possible and Impulsiveness and Delay to be as small as be a consistent sense of satisfaction and the feeling that you possible. are working towards something you really want! It is worth Expectancy is how likely you think you will achieve your revisiting your goals annually or every few months by working goal. So if you make a goal more manageable or increase your through the same methods just to check that your thoughts confidence in a skill you can increase your expectancy and and ideas are still along the same path. We all change as we therefore increase your motivation. get more experienced, as we get older and as our life situations Value is how much reaching the goal means to you. change around us so it is important to be flexible and our goals Impulsiveness is how likely we are to be side-tracked by or the steps required to achieve them might need to change other things, often important things but distractions none too. There are no magic pills and there are no guarantees that the less. By strengthening our will-power and removing you will achieve everything you want but you will get real distractions as much as we can (does the thought of turning results that will help you become happier and more fulfilled. off your mobile for a while every day sound scary?!) we can Finally, set goals and make plans but remember too that life increase our motivation. is also about the journey. We can have so much fun along the Delay is how far into the distance we are looking at way. attaining our goal. This is the reason we are more able to sit down and study for an exam tomorrow than one that is in Anne Allen is a freelance flautist, two months. By breaking down goals into smaller goals that teacher and Performance Coach for fit along the journey (process and performance goals) you can groups and one to one clients. This is focus on these along the way and increase your motivation. one of a series of articles combining The best way to ensure continued success along the route many years of experience performing in to achieving your goals is found in your daily routine, or to different settings with NLP, psychology, give it a more prosaic term, your habits. It sounds very boring fitness and wellbeing for performers in but if you get into good habits then you will find yourself all fields. ticking off your to do lists daily and achieving your short and If there are any topics you would long term goals. Studies at MIT showed that the most effective be interested in seeing covered or you way of creating and sticking to a new habit is to create a would like to let Anne know how you are getting on with routine that is tied to the same time of day or to a habit you are your goals then please get in touch! contact@anne-allen. already in. For example, I suggest to my new pupils that they com
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PAN March 2017.indd 29 11/04/2017 17:54 History of the flute A history of the flute Part 4: Development by Trevor Wye
heobald Boehm’s newly designed flute was first shown in 1847 and in 1849 Giulio Briccialdi suggested an addition and alteration to the thumb key making it Teasier to play Bb. There were about two or three years of relative quiet while everyone digested Boehm’s controversial flute, not only its keywork and new fingering system but the change in the bore width. It was now cylindrical with a tapered head which made a radical difference affecting both the tone and the performer’s impression when playing it. Then the fun begins. In 1850 Richard Carte’s new flute appeared; in 1852 Richard Rockstro’s conical adaptation of Boehm’s flute was shown; in 1852, Robert Sidney Pratten’s Perfected Flute made its appearance; in 1855 John Clinton’s Equisonant Flute appeared ; in 1858 Rockstro’s first cylindrical flute; 1866 Carte patented Carte and Boehm Systems Combined, known as Carte’s 1867; in 1870, John Radcliff’s flute, the Radcliff System made it’s debut and in 1885 Maximilian Schwedler’s Reform Flute. There were others too, which were either new systems or modifications to the well- known ones. And so it went on… If you are confused, so were the flute playing public. It depended on whom you studied with, or which player you most admired as to which model of flute you might end up playing. To understand the changes and make them more understandable, the reader simply needs to appreciate that the new models were either an attempt to retain the old fingering where F# was played with the 1st finger of the right hand, or a refusal to accept the larger toned and somewhat louder cylindrical bore. The tone holes were also larger and required covering with keys. But perhaps it was just a dislike of the use of metal instead of wood though wooden versions of the new systems were widely available options. Looking at the alternatives to Boehm, in 1867 came the Eli Hudson best of them all, Carte’s 1867 Model, subsequently used by The characteristics of the 1867 flute are that, although it several notable players, amongst whom were Winnie and is similar to a Boehm flute in that it has a cylindrical bore of Eli Hudson, who later, were amongst the first to play flute 19 millimetres and follows his idea of large, evenly spaced and piccolo solos on the new recording machines. The wall toneholes with open-standing keys, its difference is that it has thickness of the silver tubed version of the 1867 was usually of a different fingering system that some believe was the best yet ‘ten thou’, that is ten thousands of an inch in thickness, quite devised. It removes most of the difficulties of the Boehm flute, thin compared to our flutes of today which are between 14 and such as moving from E to F# as it had two touch-pieces for 18 thousands of an inch, or ‘thou’. the right hand 1st finger, one for F# and one for F natural, so
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that in a sharp key you simply used the F# right-hand button. wrote to him after hearing him play his Fourth Symphony, Even though F# is now available as a first finger right hand telling how much he enjoyed his playing. One would have note - as on the simple system flutes - you could still play F# assumed that Wagner too, would have enjoyed the Boehm with the second finger of the right hand as on the standard flute’s big tone but he referred to it scathingly as a cannon! Boehm flute of today, too. The all-fingers-off ‘open D’ was Schwedler started off with the standard 8 keyed flute and another particularly useful device in some quick passages and as an energetic man, he was constantly improving it, adding the fingering as a whole is rather easier in the upper register. keys and improvements, aptly naming it the Reform Flute, This system was far from rare and Rudall Carte sold as many even changing the shape of the lip plate known later as the of these as they sold standard Boehm systems until the 1880s. ‘reform lip-plate’. Schwedler vigorously objected to composers Other leading players who used 1867 flutes included W.L. scoring for the fourth octave, saying that the piccolo was Barrett, the professor of flute at the Royal College of Music at the correct instrument for these notes. Even in 1935, he still the end of the nineteenth century and the system was still in insisted that the Reform Flute was the best instrument. He professional use as recently as the 1980s, played by William died in 1940, aged 87. Bartlett, first flute in the one of the BBC orchestras. It is pure It is surprising how one man can change the course of our conjecture to speculate that, had the 1867 model appeared flute history, but that is what Schwedler did in Germany. In before Boehm’s 1847 flute, it might have become the flute we modern times, the tone of the flute and of players worldwide is all play today. gradually merging and becoming similar in quality resulting in
The 1867 model flute (author’s collection)
The ‘barrel’ lip plate, seen above, was just a way of making the a kind of ‘uni- flute’ tone. Only because of history’s ‘oddballs’, feel of it similar to the thicker wooden head joint. like Schwedler, do we keep some individuality and originality. What of the rest of the world? During the mid to late But by 1920, the large majority of German players had finally 19th century, most of the notable French, Belgian, and other succumbed to the wonders of Boehm. European players had adopted the Boehm system. Only Due to this huge rise in popularity of the flute, there were in Germany did players steadfastly refuse to be seduced amusing offshoots such as the Walking Stick Flute, which by Boehm’s design, mainly due to one man, Maximilian was just an extended plain wooden one-keyed flute with a Schwedler who was born in 1853 and lived most of his life metal tip and a stout handle at the top. Some models were in Leipzig. Was he stubborn or did he have good reasons for even furnished with a thin sword blade inside the bore which holding out for so long? Yes, he maintained that there were could be drawn out from the head joint end. Another even subtleties of expression on the old flutes which were not had an umbrella attached to the foot end too, just in case available on the Boehm flute: more than that, he preferred you might be practicing in the rain with the added security the tone of the simple conical bore flute, a view that some of being able to defend yourself in case of attack! There were of today’s historically inspired players have sympathy with models available which had a flute at one end and a piccolo because of the distinct difference in tone quality. Schwedler at the other. If you think that this is odd, just consider the had already familiarised himself with the Boehm flute in gentleman’s special bowler hat which had a mechanism fitted Amsterdam and admitted in later life that he admired it, but inside; when the wearer approached a lady in the street, he he always played on his own variety of the ‘simple system’ could sharply nod his head and the hat would automatically flute. Not only did he play on it but he insisted that his many rise up clear of the scalp. In all probability, the lady would faint pupils also adopt this system. clean away. Schwedler was an important and influential player, giving Walking stick flute first performances of some of our best known works. Brahms
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made in the 1950’s by Rudall Carte and formerly owned by Geoffrey Gilbert. (From the author’s collection) For those who preferred to play the flute vertically, Boehm Mention must be made of the extraordinary Chevalier Rebsomen, who having lost part of his arm in battle, had a single-handed flute made for him which rested on a pillar support which was screwed to a table top. During the 19th century, due to a big increase in the numbers of people playing the flute, it resulted in a great deal of new music. Frederick Kuhlau, a concert pianist, wrote a large number of flute solos with and without accompaniment and many fine duets, trios and quartets including the excellent Quartet in E for four flutes. Caspar Kummer’s trios for three flutes are amongst the very best, as is Eugene Walkiers’ Quartet in F# minor for four flutes. It was for the performing pleasure of the players that these pieces were written though for public performance Kuhlau and Kummer also wrote chamber music for two flutes and piano as well as flute, viola and piano. Kummer and Ignaz Pleyel wrote more than a dozen full length quartets for flute, violin, viola and cello. Franz Doppler was born in 1821 in Lemberg, Poland, and together with his brother Karl were destined to provide us with some of the most useful repertoire for the flute, especially music for two flutes and piano. No flute player contemplating a concert for two flutes could imagine not playing one of the fine madeDrawing the :Munich drawing Municipal below Archive, as a speculative Munich: with idea thanks which to Ludwig has seenBöhm a Doppler compositions. Franz, born four years before his modern equivalent now widely available. brother Carl was the leader of the two, and the better player or so their audiences said! Franz was also the better composer, though they often collaborated in composing and even in Carlo Giorgi (1856–1953), an Italian, patented the ebonite writing successful operas together. As performers, they were best known for their duet recitals in which they played so well together that they astonished their audiences. On a visit to London in 1856, it was reported that ‘they caused quite a sensation all over Europe by the manner in which they played the most rapid passages absolutely together...and with every delicate nuance of expression...’ Franz died in 1883 and his brother in 1900. flute shown below in 1888 which employs all of the fingers of Robert Pratten was one of the many English flute players each a hand and both thumbs with a total of eleven holes. who dabbled in invention, designing new key systems and in The other upright head joint above is an experimental one tuning the flute to new scales, as in our past. It is a curious fact often commented on by foreigners that this tradition of messing about with flutes has carried on to the present day. In London there have been more flute performers (as opposed to makers) experimenting with their flutes than anywhere else in the world. Amongst them is William Bennett, who continues to experiment with scales and headjoints; Elmer Cole, the retired former principal flute of the Saddlers Wells Orchestra who has, behind the scenes, been influential in designing flute scales, including Coopers Scale, and the late Sebastian Bell, an enthusiastic experimenter, as well as Alexander Murray, former principal flute of the London Symphony Orchestra, who designed an entirely new keywork system known as the Murray Flute. There have been many others, including your author, who all found messing about with flutes totally irresistible.
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Robert Sidney Pratten was born in 1824 in Bristol into a Louis Lot, the famous French flute maker probably made musical family. He had help learning the eight keyed ‘simple the first gold flute in 1869, No 1375 in 18K gold. It was system’ flute from his family when he was young and at the age subsequently owned and played by the eminent French flutist, of twelve, was playing solos in public. He also played the viola Jean-Pierre Rampal. left handed as well as the piano. In 1845, at the age of 21, he Flutes were made of other metals besides silver, the most became principal flute in the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden. A popular being nickel silver, an alloy of copper, zinc and nickel. rich and generous baronet, Sir Warwick Tonkin took him on This alloy was said to have been invented in Germany, hence tour in Europe to give him the opportunity to see some of the its alternate name, German silver, due when polished, to its world, and give him the chance to play in the major European resemblance to silver. In France, it was reinvented again under capitals, which he did with great success. the name, Maillechort, said to have been named after the two On his return, he changed to the Siccama System flute, Frenchman who ‘invented ‘ it, but, in fact nickel silver was another keywork system, though such was his skill that it already in existence long ago in China as paktong metal. didn’t matter what kind of flute he played. His only objection The classic nickel silver flutes made by Louis Lot, was having too many extra keys on his flutes. Whilst pursuing Lebret and Bonneville, amongst others, were made of his career in London, he composed a great deal for the flute, an alloy containing 6.7 percent nickel. After about 1900, though much of this music has been forgotten. According to perhaps because of the greater use of this alloy in electrical the author R.S. Rockstro, he was ‘one of the most generous, components, the formula was changed to about 19 percent amiable and warm hearted of men’. His performing career nickel. It is thought today that this change made the flutes earned him the respect of his colleagues and of the public, less responsive. The tubes were made by cutting a length of who were enthusiastic in their praise of him. In 1852 he began sheet silver or alloy to an exact width and placing the sheet his experiments on the keywork and fingering system which lengthways between two metal rollers which resembled the later resulted in his ‘Pratten’s Perfected’ flute, and this was clothes mangle or clothes wringer of former days.The sheet manufactured by Messrs. Boosey & Co. He died in Ramsgate was rolled under great pressure, the result of which action is in 1868. that it rolled in on itself, forming a tube. The two long sides Seen below is the Lot flute formerly owned by the were then hard-soldered together before being worked on and celebrated player and teacher, Paul Taffanel which was bought made into a perfect cylinder. The seamed-tube flutes of these for him by Louis Dorus, his teacher when he was a student. French makers are highly sought after for their special tone Taffanel was the teacher of Philippe Gaubert, Marcel Moyse, today. Adolphe Hennebains and many other renowned players.
Louis Lot no. 600 owned by Paul Taffanel (photo: author)
The entry below in the Louis Lot Company account books Around 1900, a method was found to make seamless tubes for November 1861 reads: ‘A cylindrical flute of silver with an for flutes which many believe were less responsive when this embouchure of gold’. The author has played the Taffanel flute new technique was introduced. The seamless tubes are almost on two occasions and it had a very sweet sound, underlining in universal use today, though a couple of makers do offer the reports about the great master’s tone. According to Marcel seamed tube ones. Moyse, Taffanel considered top B as the highest note the flute Emil Rittershausen (1852-1927) was a Boehm flute maker should play, disliking any higher notes as of poor quality and who trained under Boehm and Boehm’s partner, Carl Mendler, unusable. in Munich. He too made a gold flute which he presented to the Tsar of Russia, Nicholas ll who in turn gave it to Emil Prill, the German flutist in his court orchestra in the late 1880s. Kurt Gemeinhardt studied flute making under Rittershausen and then emigrated to the USA where he founded the company of that name. Meanwhile, during the rest of the century and into the 20th, there were several newly pitched flutes such as piccolos and flutes in Db and F used for the military bands, flutes in Bb
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and A -wrongly named tenor flutes - alto flutes in G and bass flutes in F and C. The rise of interest in flute bands, especially in Northern Ireland, also encouraged new pitches which Rudall Carte and the Potter company were able to fulfil. The materials used were various metals, many kinds of ‘African Blackwood’ just another collective term for more than a dozen varieties of hard timber. Those travelling to the tropics were advised to take an ‘ebonite’ flute, which is in fact, a form of hardened rubber and unlikely to crack in tropical heat. Gradually, the new key-system madness quietened down as players almost universally adopted Boehm’s 1847 system with just a few still playing the 1867, the Radcliff and the Siccama systems. The rise in popularity of the French teachers such as Paul Taffanel, Philippe Gaubert and Marcel Moyse was due not only to their warmer playing with its use of vibrato, but also to the regulated system of study they developed in finger technique, tone and articulation, clearly evident in their performances. Similarly, in Italy the prominent teachers there, Emmanuele Krakamp and Rafaele Galli wrote many studies, exercises and pieces. In Germany, there were also both great makers and composers too. In this list we must include the composer, Joachim Andersen, born in Denmark in 1847 who worked in Germany for many years before retiring to Copenhagen. He wrote some of the most beautiful and intelligent flute studies ever written, such as the 24 Studies, Opus 15. Paul Taffanel said of these: ‘They are comparable in quality to the études of Chopin’. Indeed they are. ©Trevor Wye
Suzuki Method for Flute Introductory Day for Suzuki Method Teacher Training www.britishsuzuki.com
2 - 5 August Great Malvern
The internationally acclaimed Suzuki Method has an established Flute Teacher Training course in the UK. The 2017/18 Teacher Training course will start from 2nd to 5th August in Great Malvern alongside the International Summer School at Malvern St James School. If you would like to find out more on how you can learn to teach the flute using this unique method and how to apply for the course please contact Diana Dickerson at [email protected]
34 bfs.org.uk
PAN March 2017.indd 34 11/04/2017 17:54 The British Flute Society Annual General Meeting 2017 The Annual General Meeting of The British Flute Society will be held at 1.30 pm on Sunday 11 June 2017 Dragon Hall, 17 Stukeley Street, London, WC2B 5LT
AGENDA 1. Apologies for absence 2. Minutes of the AGM held on Sunday 21 August 2016 to be approved 3. Matters arising from the above minutes 4. Election of BFS Chair, officers and council members 5. Officer Reports 6. Future projects 7. BFS Council’s proposal to change the British Flute Society’s charitable status from an Association to a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO). Further information and a draft CIO constitution will be sent to members in advance of the AGM. 8. Announcement of BFS Chair, officers and council members (if an election is required) 9. Questions and comments from the floor
Join the BFS Council Election and Re-election of New Officers and Council Members
Council Nominations are required for the following posts • Chair to serve for 2 years • Vice-Chair to serve for 2 years • Treasurer to serve for 2 years • Membership Secretary to serve for 2 years • Legal Adviser to serve for 2 years • Council Members to serve for three years
If you feel you have ideas or experience to offer, please contact Anna Munks, the Society’s Secretary, for further information and a nomination form. Nomination forms are also available to download from the BFS website (www.bfs.org.uk). In the event that there are more nominations than vacancies, an election will be held during the AGM.
Election of BFS Officers and Council Members (item 4) Members of the BFS who will not be able to attend the AGM may obtain a postal voting forms (detailing all nominations received) by application to the Secretary. The nomination form should be returned before 22 May 2017 and postal voting slips by Friday 9 June 2017. Proxy voting is allowed (by appointment in writing to the Secretary).
Proposed change to the British Flute Society’s Charitable Status to CIO (item 7) There will be a vote during the meeting on the BFS Council’s proposal to change the British Flute Society’s charitable status from an Association to a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO). Members of the BFS who are not able to attend the AGM may download a postal voting form from the BFS website (www.bfs.org.uk) or may obtain one by application to the Secretary. Proxy voting is allowed (by appointment in writing). Postal votes must arrive no later than 9 June 2017.
Anna Munks, BFS Secretary, 27 Eskdale Gardens, Purley, Surrey CR8 1ET Telephone and fax: 020 8668 3360 Email: [email protected]
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PAN March 2017.indd 35 11/04/2017 17:54 Baroque trills Finding variety in trills by Elizabeth Walker
No ornament has had a more varied or interesting baroque flute, through all the keys. On occasion he indicates a history,” writes Robert Donnington and indeed when preference for a fingering that produces a wide or ‘out of tune’ writing any study book, but particularly one focusing on interval. “This widens the interval and brings out the trill more “baroque music, exercises for perfecting the execution of trills successfully”. The aim was to produce a “brilliant effect.” are essential (I have included two pages from my recent book, Somewhat later, in his 1752 Essay of a method for Playing the Baroque Studies for Modern Flute). However, whilst the trill Transverse Flute Johann Joachim Quantz devotes chapter 9 to is an essential baroque ornament and widely used in music the trill, introducing the ornament with the statement “Shakes from this period, there are of course frequent brilliant uses of (Die Triller) add great lustre to one’s playing…and are quite this ornament throughout all genres of flute repertoire (the indispensable”. characterful trilling flutes in the Four Last Songs of Richard Some key quotes to highlight from this chapter: Strauss for example). • All shakes do not have to be struck with the same speed. So when was the trill first used, in what context, and why? • In melancholy pieces the shake must be struck more Trills are first mentioned in early treatises and singing slowly, in gay ones, more quickly. methods in the sixteenth century. Before this, they would • The fingers must never be raised higher at one stroke than have been spontaneously and freely employed in music, but at another. would not have been written down or notated. However, • Each shake begins with the appoggiatura that precedes its there was a distinction to be drawn in this era between a trill note, the appoggiatura may be taken from above or below. ‘tremolo’ – a repetition of two pitches; vibrato ‘flattenment’ – • The ending of each shake consists of two little notes, an accelerating pulsation of one note, produced by the shading which follow the notes of the shake, and are added to it or lowering of the adjacent tone-hole on the flute, and ‘trillo’ at the same speed. They are called the termination (Der mentioned by Giulio Caccini in Le Nuove Musiche (1602), Nachschlag/le coup d’après). described as an articulated repetition of a note at the same • The preparation (or appoggiatura) must be kept firmly in pitch. mind, and must be produced with full wind. None of these ornaments can be executed quickly and were He also makes this following memorable observation: used therefore on long notes and at cadences. In French, one “Some players succeed with all their fingers, some with only of the words for a trill was ‘cadence’. a few, and for still others the shake remains throughout life The symbols used at this time were: +, tr, t, or a long a stumbling-block presumably more dependent upon the wavy line similar to an extended mordent. In baroque music, constitution of the man’s tendons than upon his will.” whether marked or not, trills should be added to all strong, If I were to choose one example that highlights the most dominant cadences. exuberant use of the trill, it would be the Musical Offering by Written instructions J.S.Bach, BWV 1079. In this Trio Sonata, the trill falls on 23 different notes; requiring careful, nimble and virtuosic finger By looking at various instructions in flute treatises, we find work in a combination of keys, speeds and expressions. whole chapters devoted to this little ornament. Clearly “start In 1791, the flautist Johann Tromlitz devoted chapter 11 all baroque trills on the upper note” is not enough! of his Tutor for Playing the Flute to the ornament, justifying Jacques-Martin Hotteterre’s treatise Principes de la Flûte his ‘excessive’ detail on the difficulties the trill causes: “No (1728), includes the following instructions and observations: matter how beautifully an instrumentalist or singer performs, • Trills can be described as an agitation of two sounds, his performance will lose a great part of its beauty if this either a step or a half step apart. ornament is missing, especially if he ends cadences without • The trill is started on the higher note and finished on the trills, or with bad ones.” lower. He goes on to explain: “If you wish to possess firmness, • It is tongued only at the beginning. certainty and security, you must exercise each finger • Remember, above all, not to rush the trill, but instead to separately, slowly at first, until you clearly feel that their delay it about half the value of the note, especially in the movement is quite even; then faster in the same way, and then slow movements. faster and faster until you have thoroughly and completely Hotteterre explains in great detail exact fingerings on the trained all seven on an ordinary, and on a keyed flute all ten”.
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The keyed flute he mentions here is the emerging Classical flexible and creative with the use of the air, the speed of the 8-keyed flute, the predecessor to Boehm’s flute and the repetitions and the dynamics. instrument for which Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven and Rossini There are many fingering charts available on the Internet, would have been composing for. but also explore your own alternative fingerings. I always aim So when should a trill start on the upper note? If the to move as few keys as possible. appoggiatura is written in the original, attached to the trill, On the baroque flute, the connection between the finger then it should be played with length and emphasis; if an and finger hole is immediate, but the mechanism of the keys upper note enhances the melodic line and adds beauty of the can create a barrier (I am reminded of the long low C trill in cadence, then it should be played. I would add an upper note the Sonatine by Henri Dutilleux). However, the addition of to all trills in French baroque cadences. Also, to differentiate keys gives many opportunities for experimentation, together between a rapid trill and a mordent, I add an upper note to with the use of harmonics. Be creative! these trills. However, where trills are placed above a melodic Further useful studies for trills can be found in:- line of a descending scale, the main note should be perceived • Quantz Solfeggi by starting the trill on the note; also if trills are on a leading • Th. Boehm 12 Etudes for Flute solo op.15 (no. 5) note, to maintain the tension to the resolution, I would start • Th. Boehm 24 Capriccios op 26 (no. 5) the trill on the note. • Th. Boehm 24 Studies for the Flute op.37 (no. 15) Lengthy discussions can be found in Frederick Neumann’s • A.B Fürstenau Die Kunst Des Flötenspiels op. 138 book Ornamentation and Improvisation in Mozart where he • Taffanel/Gaubert 24 Progressive Studies from ‘Méthod identifies five varieties of trill: 1) an appoggiatura trill starting complete de flûte’ (Nos. 11 & 20) with a long, on the beat, accented upper or lower note 2) a trill • Henry Altès 26 Selected Studies (no. 25) starting on the main note 3) a grace note trill, starting with a quick unaccented, before the beat note 4) a fast ‘Pralltriller’ a Examples from Elizabeth Walker’s Baroque Studes for Modern quick miniature trill and 5) a Slide-trill or Turn-trill that has a Flute are given overleaf. three-note prefix. He advocates that “the monopoly of the appoggiatura trill was limited to a few islands of doctrinaire rigidity; that even in France, the homeland of the upper-note start, the other trill forms played a substantial role during the whole of the 17th and 18th centuries…Only in ripieno or chamber music, where trills occur in thirds or sixths, do all involved have to agree on the way to start the trill and on its speed”. In his summary, Neumann gives what I believe to be the most useful advice, “For choosing the most appropriate trill type in any given situation, the suggested test is to leave out the trill, then consider whether the addition of an appoggiatura or a grace note to the ‘naked’ tone would be fitt i n g .” Execution of the perfect trill Use the trill exercise from my Baroque Studies for Modern Flute, to absorb the pattern and aim to play from memory. Start in an easy key and begin with the slow, quaver repetitions, focusing on a relaxed posture. Feel the feet supporting, the knees soften, the shoulders, chest and throat open while you gently think about first pushing, and then lifting your finger with as little tension and effort as possible. As you speed up this action, subdivide the quavers accurately into triplets, semiquavers, sextuplets etc. until you reach a dizzying speed! Only after you have found a totally relaxed position will you fully master the trill and be able to let it fly effortlessly. It won’t be easy on every finger and you will need to return to working on the slow repetitions, repeating these exercises daily, in all keys, with or without the grace note and terminations. Finally improvements will be noticable. Be
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Masterpieces on flute and guitar Noemi Gyori on the launch of the Doblinger ’Classical Flute and Guitar Collection’, featuring new transcriptions of works by Haydn and Mozart
he past thirty years have been a constant Alongside the advancements in contemporary repertoire metamorphosis in the history of the flute and guitar and the increasing number of distinctive recordings, the past duo. In 1986, Ástor Piazzolla composed his emblematic few years have demonstrated a radical evolution of scholarly Tpiece, Histoire du Tango, clearly delineating the start of a new material in regard to the duo. In 2010 Kristi Benedick epoch. Histoire du Tango, due to its astonishing popularity, published her DMA dissertation An annotated guide to became a symbol of the ensemble, a benchmark for the duo flute and guitar music; in 2011 the Italian flute-guitar duo of and a piece that gave recognition to the formation. Whereas Salvatore Lombardi and Piero Viti published their book Il previously the flute and guitar duo was viewed predominantly duo flauto e chitarra: storia e repertorio: Catalogo completo as a solo and accompaniment type of formation, the past della opera dall’Ottocento a oggi (The Flute and Guitar Duo: decades has given us new musical texts by prominent History and Repertoire: Complete Catalogue of Works from composers that are equally challenging for both players, the Nineteenth Century to Today) and the American flautist, resulting in increasing numbers of leading professionals Lisa Schroeder completed her DMA thesis The flute and guitar engaging with this ensemble. These illustrious duos are not duo: the development of an equal partnership at the University only performing, but also recording refined, sophisticated of Iowa in 2015. These serve as invaluable sources for the music. The release of influential CDs such as Around the World education of the formation and for professionals in this field, by Emmanuel Pahud and Christian Rivet published in 2013 while contributing greatly to the transformation of the duo as by Warner Classics, the complete Bach Sonatas by Marina an established chamber music ensemble. Piccinini and the Brasil Guitar Duo for Avie records released As playing with the guitar has been an essential experience in 2010, and the album called Italian Music for Flute and for me and constituted my first fundamental exposure to Guitar by Andrea Griminelli and Filomena Moretti released in serious chamber music playing as a student, I have followed 2006 by Decca are good examples of these developments. this progress closely and with great enthusiasm. In 2002, I established the Dialogue Duo with Hungarian guitarist Katalin
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fundamental role in the ensemble remaining distant from the mainstream chamber music scene for so many years, regardless of its potential. Therefore Katalin and I began searching for potentially transcribable material for our duo, turning our attention towards the Viennese classical keyboard works as a particularly extensive and valuable resource. The Classical Flute and Guitar project, which I am now working on as part of my doctoral studies at the Royal Academy of Music, has evolved from this journey. The CFG project aims to redefine the whole context of the evolution and raison d’être of the flute and guitar duo through presenting full concerts of masterpieces and creating original transcriptions of versatile music with a deep level of complexity from the 18th and early 19th centuries. Transcriptions for the flute and guitar from Viennese masters The adaptation of Mozart’s A major Sonata (after K331/332) for flute and guitar, probably already published Koltai, and for years we have been commissioning new pieces in 1803 under the title A collection of various pieces with and and performing a large number of original compositions without accompaniment, arranged for the guitar by Andreas and transcriptions for the formation. In 2011, through our Traeg, shows evidence of the historic custom of interpreting collaboration with musicologist-guitarist Massimo Agostinelli, keyboard works for this particular duo. This practice was we have exposed a large and valuable, original oeuvre of by no means considered sacrilegous at the time, providing Antonio Nava (1775-1826), a celebrated Milanese composer. a strong argument for the existence of a broader anthology, The experience and process of this discovery started to draw based on similar repertoire. As an addition to Traeg’s our attention more and more towards the late 18th and early publication, there are large amounts of original transcriptions 19th centuries, to the time when the flute and guitar duo was – arrangements for small chamber music formations, of born. familiar opera melodies (arias, ensembles, dances) and even Origins of the flute and guitar duo whole symphonies – made by the composers themselves; and Vienna in the late 18th and early 19th centuries played a others by their pupils or contemporaries that can also be used fundamental role in the history of the flute and guitar duo, and as points of reference and that provide reason for such works may be regarded as the most important point of origin for the to be created. ensemble. This era is often recognized as the guitar’s “golden Based on extensive online search and Benedick’s An age”, the time when modern classical guitar was established, annotated guide to flute and guitar music, there is currently primarily through the activities of Italian guitarist and only one transcription available of a Haydn Sonata: Sonate composer Mauro Giuliani. Giuliani was a major figure in the en do pour flûte et guitare. (transcribed by Jean-Maurice propagation of the flute-guitar duo and composed the greater Mourat. Paris: Gérard Billaudot, 1999). The exact Hoboken part of his works for this formation between 1806 and 1819, number of the work was not possible to trace. Many of the while living in the Austrian capital. existing transcriptions listed by Benedick of classical works Giuliani’s playing, as well as his compositional style, have been published by minor editions, making it hard to presented the guitar in a new and effective way; importantly, estimate the quality of the work, and the pieces themselves influencing other composers of the time to begin exploring virtually impossible to find. When trying to get hold of both this combination and the guitar itself (such as Antonio some of the transcriptions, I discovered that a large amount Nava). Before Giuliani, little had been written for the of the repertoire on the list has been out of print for many ensemble, other than duos intended for recorder and guitar years. Compounding these challenges, one also sees a clear or lute. Thus, the existing, original pieces for flute and guitar, tendency in Benedick’s list towards the majority of the music from the 18th and 19th Centuries, are either by Giuliani or being published in editions that are rarely associated with his Italian contemporaries, who may have been important in quality music. This might provide an explanation for the their time, but are not considered mainstream or well-known limited interest of professional duos for the already available composers today. transcriptions, which are seldom used in flute and guitar I was convinced that the lack of historic repertoire recitals. representing prime musical qualities and a balanced In the end, the few available transcriptions that could partnership between the flute and guitar duo, played a serve as important reference points for our work have
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been the following publications: three Mozart piano sonata musical jewel that encompasses a wide range of emotions and transcriptions by Stephan Schäfer published by Breitkopf dramatic variety. The Fantasy is still surrounded by mystery: and Härtel in 2003: C major, K. 330, C major KV 545, E-flat it is regarded as a fragment according to the current New Major for flute and guitar (K.282, 189g) and the arrangement Mozart Edition and was first published in 1804 in Vienna of Mozart Sonate A-Dur KV 331. by Peter-Lukas Graf and under the title Fantaisie d’Introduction by Bureau d’Arts et Konrad Ragossnig. (Frankfurt: Zimmermann, 1996). d’Industrie, a version that finishes on bar 97. With its current The ‘Classical Flute and Guitar Collection’ – a new series of ending and form, the Fantasy in D minor closely resonates sheet music consisting of works by Haydn and Mozart with the stylistic traditions of the original compositions for In December 2016 our CFG collection of transcriptions with the flute and guitar duo of the early 19th century, therefore it Katalin Koltai, consisting of works by Haydn and Mozart, was is a piece that sounds very natural and legitimate on these two launched by Doblinger Music Publishing Austria. We chose instruments, offering both the opportunity to showcase their compositions that had previously not been transcribed for versatile musicality and infinite shades of sound. the duo and attempted to remain true to the original text, Next to follow in May 2017, is the transcription of the while adapting the musical intentions of the composers to Sonata in D major, Hob XVI:37 by Haydn, which he composed our instruments in a way that highlights the articulate and in 1780 for the notable pianist sisters, Caterina and Marianna elaborate expressiveness of both the flute and the guitar and von Auenbrugger. With its flawless virtuosity and myriad their duo as a formation. humorous moments, the D major Sonata is among the most With our interpretation of voices and orchestration of spectacular, and thereby one of the most popular keyboard the musical texture, we aspired to create a dynamic dialogue works by Haydn. The piece results in an exclusive musical between the two instruments: on the one hand enhancing the experience on the flute and guitar, which embodies a uniquely leading and concerto like qualities of each voice, on the other vivid and bright conversation, creating an atmosphere similar hand providing them both the space to take on the supporting, to a double-concerto. accompanying role at various sections of the piece. To follow The Classical Flute and Guitar Project, our The first edition of the collection is the D minor Fantasy editions and interpretations of these works, please visit www. by Mozart, undoubtedly one of his most beloved pieces; a true classicalfluteandguitar.com. Flutist Quarterly direct to your desktop
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PAN March 2017.indd 42 11/04/2017 17:54 WARM ELEGANT SWEET DARK POWERFUL DYNAMIC Largo headjoint Forza headjoint
Only Quantz has headjoint options The essential acoustical element of every flute is the headjoint. developing and improving the performance of aspiring flutists. The headjoint captures nuances of colour, volume, pitch, Pearl offers 2 options for the student range Quantz series, Largo response, articulation which can realize your concept of sound. and Forza which offers 2 distinct differences in its sound/play Pearl considers finding the right headjoint paramount for characteristics. The choice is yours. Choose your sound. pearlflutes.eu
PAN March 2017.indd 43 11/04/2017 17:54 Soviet flutes
The flute, the hammer and the sickle in 1984 A fascinating account of flute playing in the Soviet Union 33 years ago, revisited by Trevor Wye t started at a dinner party. What are Soviet flute players Soviet institutions are run almost exclusively by what like? What repertoire do they play? What are their flutes became known as Jolly Ladies. In cloakrooms, restaurants and like? What style of playing do they adopt? Why don’t you in all concert halls, one finds these loud voiced formidable Igo and find out’, someone suggested. I wrote to the British Boadiceas, very accustomed to controlling crowds. There is Council and here I am. one on every floor of an hotel whose function is to provide hot Leningrad water, soft drinks, issue keys and keep the floor in order. A briefing at the British Council offices followed and a BA My first official trip was to hear Spivakof conducting the flight was arranged, two weeks in all, a week in Leningrad Moscow Chamber Orchestra in a Mozart programme. and one in Moscow. We flew over Denmark and then down Igor was slow in arranging the tickets. Eventually he was out of the brilliant sunlight for the descent to Moscow. I had handed an official pass and on arriving at the Philharmonic been warned of two-hour queues and careful bag searches, but Hall, walked to the front of a long queue and demanded two though everyone around me had to empty their suitcases and tickets. He got them and then the farce began. We fought - and were thoroughly searched, I was waved through the barrier to I mean fought - our way into the foyer to face a dense crowd await the arrival of the guide/interpreter, one Igor Tamaseev, trying to get in the hall. Eventually, a bell rang and there was who had been assigned to me for the next two weeks. a general stampede to get seats. As we only had ‘promenade’ Eventually, we met and were driven off to Moscow for a brief tickets, we stood at the back and at that point I read the glimpse of some of the famous sights including Red Square gist of Article Eight section ‘4’ of the Anglo Soviet Cultural and the Kremlin with its fascinating towers and churches. Agreement to poor Igor who was dashing about trying to After dinner, to the station to catch the overnight sleeper to find the Manager. The standing onlookers were pushing and Leningrad, each coach of which had a Jolly Tea Lady. shoving and eventually we stood at the back of the main Next morning I was met by Natasha, a multi-lingual gangway only to have various Jolly Ladies try to move us representative of the Ministry of Culture who drove me away. “It is against regulations” we were told. Poor Igor. He around the sights of Leningrad. In the afternoon, a visit to the listened to the Symphony sweating and shaking his head and fantastic Hermitage which houses an extraordinary collection apologising profusely between movements. of art, sculpture, and porcelain. Just before the piano concerto, a Jolly Lady produced a Leningrad is very beautiful and many of the facades are chair and placed it in the centre of the gangway and made a coloured in pastel shades which emphasise the colonnades, corridor through the crowd and indicated I should occupy doors and windows. it. As a guest of the Soviet Ministry of Culture, I had no The hotel is functional except for the plumbing which operates choice. Very embarrassing. There was a child standing next spasmodically. “It is not permitted to use the lift for persons to her parents. She was obviously tired of standing through under the influence of alcohol” says the legend in the lift. I this boring concert, so I went over to her and took her hand had already acquainted myself with vodka and found it very to bring her back to share my special seat in the centre. The influential. audience around me applauded. More embarrassment. The metro (underground) is very clean, easy to use, airy The orchestra was splendid, a singing string tone and and light. The fare is about 2p to go anywhere. beautiful phrasing. Not having my specs with me, I couldn’t They are justly very proud of their restoration work on the clearly see the soloist whom I thought good but lacking in many churches here. After the Battle of Leningrad in 1941, experience. Later I was told it was a ‘he’ and that he was 13 there was very extensive damage to this fine city. years old. It is safe to walk the streets at night and the only setback The Philharmonic Hall is chandelier lit; the audience were is the foreign exchange touts anxious to change sterling into almost all well dressed, extremely enthusiastic and obliged roubles. The black market rate is around three roubles to the the young pianist to perform the last movement again as an pound; the official rate is 1.1 to the pound. encore.
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I met Sian Edwards who graduated from the Royal Romeo & Juliet. Beautiful dancing and a wonderful theatre. Northern College of Music two years ago, and is now in her The orchestra owned a first trumpet who appeared to have second postgraduate year at the Leningrad Conservatory - been seconded from Wigan Pier Summer Orchestra. It was a more properly known as the Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory small orchestra but nowhere near the quality of the excellent - studying conducting. She is the only British student here chamber orchestra I had heard the previous night. The flute and was useful in providing information on how the Soviet playing was gentle toned, with less vibrato than the first oboe. students study. The piccolo player was neat and precise. Prokofiev, of course, Apparently, there is great emphasis on learning the isn’t easy, especially with so few fiddles and in a small theatre instrument properly and much less time spent in orchestras and with the composer’s tendency to write for high exposed and ensembles. It makes sense. I shall be visiting the strings. Conservatory on Monday. The audience was interesting; I was in the Government Meanwhile, poor Igor is desperately endeavouring to Official Box, the contents of which rarely applauded. The rest obtain a ticket for the Kirov Opera House to see Prokofiev’s of the audience did; they comprised many children, a good Romeo and Juliet ballet. sprinkling of ordinary ranks from the army, people dressed I had brought my own water boiling apparatus plus in jeans and in suits. Ticket prices are never more than two supplies of Earl Grey and Assam tea together with coffee mate pounds and for the back stalls, fifty pence. (or coffee comrade) but had to hide the apparatus by morning In the interval, army uniforms and suits alike, myself as it would have been confiscated by the Jolly Key Lady. Its included, ate slices of bread with a dollop of red caviar and a against regulations. Milk is difficult to obtain. glass of Soviet champagne. Not bad either, the bill for two was Sunday: I was to visit the Hermitage again and Igor two pounds. Beat that, Covent Garden! phoned to say he would come with me because there would be The next morning, Monday, I was taken to the Rimsky- long queues. Igor has a Pass that Passeth all Queues, for which Korsakov Conservatoire to meet Professor Nikitin, and to hear I was grateful. As it turned out, he had to arrange a ballet visit his class. In Room 5A. were eight students nervously awaiting for that evening, so I went by myself and, as instructed, went their Professor. There was a pianist for the whole morning to the front of the queue. The queue, being Sunday, was about and the first student, a girl, played on an open G sharp East 2,000 people long. An odd thing happened. Wandering around German flute. He told her she was not disciplined in her The Hermitage, I entered a room and a Jolly Lady instantly playing of the Hindemith Sonata and too gentle. Her tone was commanded me to report to the desk in the corner and hand soft and sort of middle of the road. No real stamp of character, in my Moscow Blue Guide and camera. No one argues with but not at all unpleasant. Jolly Ladies. Having done that and been issued with a metal Room 5A. was decorated with some six yards of framed ticket, a roped off portion of the room was opened up, and I hand written orchestral excerpts about 5 pages deep all at was ushered in through massive solid steel doors which must eye level. By the time a student had been round the room, he have been a foot thick. The room was ablaze with gold. would know all the basic tunes. In a daze, I started to wander around where another Jolly Lady Prof. Nikitin was demonstrative and frequently sang and ordered me to join a group which had just entered in front conducted her. A warm man. Top E flat was fingered with of me. I was in the Special Exhibition Room not normally the first finger left hand off, an oddity I hadn’t seen before open to the public, entrance being obtained in special groups but in her scale passages, it didn’t sound at all odd. She was by appointment only and a payment of £15.00 The first Jolly in her second year. The lesson concluded with a complete Lady thought I was in the group; the group thought I had been performance. Prof. Nikitin said if I had any questions of attached to them by the second Jolly Lady. The group were interpretation, we could settle it over coffee afterwards. If the English, as was the guide. questions were dif-ficult, he said, we will have cognac as well. This must be the most amazing, glittering, stupendous Tzybin was the next composer, another girl playing his display of the goldsmiths art from rare Scythian jewellery to Concert Allegro No. 2, a charming early 20th century priceless Faberge eggs. It was stunning. No wonder there was a piece. I was told he was professor of flute in Moscow and St. revolution! Petersburg and an important flute player in his day. This player I thanked the guide at the end. The group were amazed; had a somewhat more interesting sound though less developed they thought I was from the Soviet Security Police. Later, and she coped well with this technically quite difficult piece. outside the Winter Palace, there was a massive military Prof. N. explained it was given her for technical and expressive rehearsal for the big parade on November 7th. A security practise. Another had the perennial C sharp problem. A guard on the perimeter stopped me and said “Eengliski”? certain Vice President (Albert Cooper) should send a copy of “Yes”, I replied. “You good Eengliski; you have red tie” and his scale to both East Germany and the Soviet Union. roared at his own joke. Tomorrow, I will wear a blue tie. Prof. N. has a very romantic approach to this music and is That night to the Maali Theatre to see Prokofiev’s ballet, one of the few who really understand the sentiment of the late
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19th century. The girl reminded me very much of records of Coming out of the palace, in the dusk, a group of women Edith Penville in the 30’s. She was in her second year. garden labourers were returning from work carrying over their Next to play was a boy in his third year. Dutilleux this time. shoulders long, crude gardening tools and with their red noses The only general observation so far is that there is little in the and coarse features looking like creations of Breugel. way of a low register, most of the players struggle with the Walking around Leningrad, the visitor from England bottom end, but all sound bright, if a little unfocussed in the would be struck by the absence of graffiti and the almost third octave. It sounds rather like the leaky flute syndrome. complete absence too, of litter. There just isn’t any. There are Anyway, here was another open G sharp player; perhaps no police around to enforce it. The people just don’t. everyone plays them? In the evening Sian Edwards invited me to the Students On the wall was a large framed group of portraits of past Hostel where I met a Cuban teacher of the piano, a Brazilian professors. However, there was a blank space; Prof N. told me Composer and two flute students! We had a jolly evening with it was for himself. wine and flute talk. The Hostel was really grotty. The flute students in the class seem to be wearing their best The students have to do four preliminary years at a special clothes; all look neat, the boys wearing suits and ties. school and five years at the Conservatory. Mostly they play After a coffee and an over-sweet pastry, we returned to the Uebel flutes from the G.D.R. but hanker after any western Studio and heard a Mexican student play Handel’s G minor flute. The black market is rife. There are wheelings and Sonata. She was in her first year. Lovely tone, round and big, dealings going on in every strata of musical life. One can only but not much idea of the style and little idea of the technique survive by joining in the black market. Enough said. of varying the dynamic range vis-a-vis the pitch. Shopping means queuing at the cash desk to pay for what Prof. N. concentrated on long phrases and in getting her to you need, then queuing at the counter to obtain what you use cadential trills. He told me earlier that he has an assistant need, and, heaven help you if its overweight because then you whose job it is to teach technique, scales and all the basics. have to return to the cash desk to pay the excess. It can take He just does interpretation in his class and oversees their two hours. There are queues everywhere. Shopping is a full period of study. In his class, he comments on what they lack, time activity. but makes no attempt to offer advice for its correction. An Tuesday morning and off to the Conservatory again, this unfortunate woman, the assistant, to spend her time mending time to hear two fifteen year old students who were having a people. lesson as part of their pre-conservatory course, with Professor The Soviet Union is made up of many nations. An Nikitin. Again, open G sharp. incredible cosmopolitan atmosphere. The faces are all so The first had quite a different sound than the players on different in the Conservatoire from oriental looking to the previous day; larger, more guts and a greater range of distinctly western; and many shades of skin and all speaking dynamics. A student told me yesterday that even though there Russian with a wide variety of accents. We in the west think of is an assistant teacher, many basics are not well taught such as one country, but it is a vast union of countries. breathing, articulation and general embouchure control. After each student’s lesson, they carefully marked their I tried a Uebel (G.D.R.) flute and found it mechanically parts with the comments of the Professor. heavy. The sound was hard to find and although I only gave it Towards the end, the Assistant Professoress came in to a quick testing for some idea of a scale, it was apparent that the listen to the class. I noticed that all the music, save Bach, was low C was sharp, low C sharp was flat and the upper C sharp printed in Russian. was sharp. Igor had to sit through the class occasionally interpreting a It is the ambition of most students to get a western or a comment or joke from the Prof. Japanese flute if possible. It seems this can only be done on the Next was a fourth year student from Kazakhstan, an black market. oriental looking chap. He played the Martinu Sonata with life All the players I heard, without exception, suffered from but carelessly. Prof. N. worked with him for a time and then in sharp C sharps. But that’s quite common in the west, too, but exasperation, slammed the music shut and indicated that the not at a conservatory, perhaps. Interesting, too, that when Prof class was prematurely terminated. ‘We go out’, he said. N. said take care with your intonation the performer would He then took me to the Pushkin Palace, formerly Tsarskoe lose the focus of the sound in attempting to sort it out. Selo, a one-time palace of the Tzars. During World War II the Contemporary music; well, some Soviet composer’s Germans, on retreating, blew up most of it and for twenty music is performed but not the wide range heard in the west. years, the Russians have been restoring it back to its former Multiphonics are occasionally met with; circular breathing is beauty. And what a place, though only partly restored. They not taught. have taken enormous effort and cash in the restoration Like the new vicar doing his village rounds, I left a few especially so in the gilded carved wood decorations. tracts in the form of my Practice Books in the German
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Edition. Take twice daily after meals. I asked the Prof, were crossing themselves and asking for alms. Nearby I afterwards if he found it difficult to teach someone who is indulged in my favourite pastime, and visited the graves of not musical. He said “I have to teach everyone whom the Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky, Glinka, Rimsky-Korsakov and Conservatory accepts. There is nothing I can do”. Borodin. Another young player playing music by Tzybin, the piece Later, to the Kirov Theatre to see the ballet Giselle. I heard yesterday. He and the one who was to play later, The top price for this theatre - and we had front row stall both had Otto Monig flutes from G.D.R. The first young seats - is £2.80. In the gods you need only pay 50 pence. The player - maybe he was about fifteen years old - was very loud theatre is beautiful and richly ornamented. Gold leafed carving and the first one I had seen who had a dose of knees-bend and chandeliers in profusion and near the ceiling, where the choreography. Romanov Coat of Arms once hung, was the replacement; a Nearly all the G.D.R. flutes I’ve seen so far have reverse gold leafed hammer and sickle surrounded by putti blowing thumb keys, that is, the B natural and B flat keys are the other trumpets. way round than we are used to. It does make more sense to The ballet was entirely excellent; the corps de ballet have B natural above B flat and it was how Boehm would have especially so. The conductor carved without a score and the it. orchestra was very fine. The flute players were quite different The Professor took his music away and told him to play than those I had heard previously, a fine orchestral section from memory, which he did and started making mistakes and using the minimum of vibrato and very well in tune. The stopped and said “I could play it at home in my kitchen”. Prof piccolo player also deserves special mention for his rapier- N. said “The kitchen here is better. Get on with it!” He comes like sparkling playing. The brass section was aware of every from Chelyakinsk, a city in the Ural Mountains. conductorial gesture and the tuning was excellent. A fine band Lastly, a young boy who played a concerto by Wilhelm indeed. Popp of whose music one writer in the 19th century said was The Kirov theatre also known as the Marily Theatre had much ado about nothing. Right, but good practise material for seen the World Premiere of Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Beauty and this boy. A lovely sound and showing much promise. He could Nutcracker ballets, Borodin’s Prince Igor and Prokofiev’s Romeo have been having a lesson anywhere in England with his white and Juliet. Amongst the famous dancers who made their shirt, blue tie, and navy blue school trousers. I noticed he kept debuts here were Nijinsky, Ulanova and Pavlova. his little finger on the G sharp key throughout most of the Wednesday and my final day in Leningrad to be spent at arpeggios. Naughty, naughty. the Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory where the great composer Prof. Nikitin uses 19th century concertos as study material had taught for 37 years. On ascending the main staircase one because they contain all the basic elements of rhythm and is confronted with a marble bust of Lenin straddled by red romantic style. flags. Outside the flute studio is a notice board with a large red The young lad was used to demonstrate how soviet flute poster depicting Lenin. students practice tone exercises which consisted of long notes, I began the day by asking about the course for flute with a warm expressive sound; just a chromatic scale. students. Professor Nikitin sits on a Commission which Then followed a scale session; low C to top B then down to examines each candidate but the student can only reach this low G only. Various articulations and all with strict adherence far if he passes many educational exams. If he is talented but to rhythmic accuracy. The lad went on to play the first of obtains poor results in his exams, he will not be admitted. the Taffanel/Gaubert Studies from his Methode, strictly for The course lasts for five years; students study many subjects of technique and evenness of tone. the usual kind but including Political Economy, the History Then it was time for tea. of the U.S.S.R. and of the Communist Party. This is a normal We went to the Cathedral of the Trinity where there is a part of all Higher Education. Students are given two lessons monastery and a Priest’s Training College. It was curious to per week on their principal study and are expected to be go into a Church which wasn’t a museum. Twilight was upon properly prepared for them. They are required to prepare us when we entered and the only illumination in this vast and pieces from memory. Studies consist of the usual repertoire beautiful Cathedral were two electric light bulbs and hundreds including Taffanel and Gaubert. An orchestral player in a of tiny oil lamps and votive candles. principal position can expect to receive about £430/£480 per In front of a picture of Alexander Nevsky stood a beautiful month though this must be seen against the low cost of living; girl with blond hair, lighting a candle. The soft light of the an apartment - if you can get one - would cost about £10 per candle lit her face so that it glowed. She was unaware I was month. watching her. Reverence and piety was reflected in her face as Auditions for competitions are held behind a curtain to she tried to keep the candle upright. It was a magical moment, ensure fairness. Most of the principal positions in orchestras the more so, because we were in the U.S.S.R. Outside, beggars are, however, occupied by men.
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Do all the students find work? There is no unemployment items do come into the shops but Ivan Ivanovitch has to be in the U.S.S.R., I was told. Some go into orchestras and some quick to obtain them. That means queuing. There are queues teach in schools. everywhere. Students are selected for the Conservatory Orchestra Music and flutes aside, there isn’t much enthusiasm for by invitation and usually are taken from the 4th or 5th year contact with the west; that may bring all the west’s current students, though if a 2nd year student shows promise, they problems such as mugging, violence and graffiti and the are given an opportunity to play. They are expected to practise dreadful battering we receive from advertising. for five hours each day and can be expelled if they don’t work. The students, of course, were very eager for information in They have annual exams consisting of scales, studies and three every area of flute playing, just like students everywhere. Sian pieces, one classical, one romantic and one modern. Edwards was a great help in translating all the flute language Off to the recording studio where I heard a Sonatine that was flying around. As I left, the students presented me by Vladimir Citovich (pronounced Sitoivich). During the with a record of my favourite Soviet flute player Valentin recording playback the composer came in to be introduced. It Zwerev which they all signed. is a fine piece and should be heard in the west. I also heard a I promised to ask the BFS Council to arrange for copies of sonata by Nagovitsin who also visited the studio and gave me PAN to be made available to the students. signed copy of his work. Finally a sonata by Banchikov written And so to the station for the Red Arrow Express overnight in memory of his teacher Shostakovich, a very profound and to Moscow to begin the second week - with more Jolly Ladies. moving work. That too, should be given an airing in the west Moscow though I only began to like it on a second hearing. In all the Back in Moscow, I was installed in the Hotel Budapesht performances, the pianist was the composer. The composers about 10 minutes walk from the Kremlin and Red Square. are all of the Leningrad School, I was told, and all were, or are, The first evening was spent walking around the Square which Professors at the Conservatory. All the pieces are published. is traffic free. The cobblestones had already been marked out Soviet published music looks rather unattractive to with painted signs for the guidance of tanks and troops for the Western eyes used to glossy covers and pretty pictures. big parade on 7 November. On leaving the Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory, I took The next morning, Friday, I was met by the Director of out my camera to take a picture of Lenin’s bust on the the Music Museum (Glinka) and told that unfortunately the stairway “That’s not advisable..”, Igor told me, “..as it may be Museum was in the process of setting out the displays and the misunderstood in the West. People may think a Conservatory curator of the wind instruments section was on holiday at the is all politics. He is there because he is the Father of the Soviet moment and so nothing could be seen. He did promise to send Union”. I suggested that perhaps Igor would prefer a blank me a catalogue of the collection. space in Pan with a caption indicating that the picture couldn’t I was then shown the keyboard section and the appear by order of the authorities? He then agreed I should instruments were demonstrated by the Assistant Curator who take the photograph. was most helpful. She set in motion some of the automata On leaving, I was asked to write a few paragraphs about which were in working order and then showed me many relics my visit to the Conservatory to appear in the Leningrad and manuscripts of Glinka, the Father of Russian music. In the press which I happily agreed to do. What I’d written was read evening, to the Bolshoi Opera to see Ivan Susanin by Glinka, to Professor Nikitin in Russian; it praised the way in which most elaborately staged. The orchestra was excellent and again classes were conducted, but criticised the standard of the I noticed the solo flute player whose gentle sound captivated. instruments. Asked about the flutes, I told them that I would The horns were good too and used the bare minimum of use such a flute to poke the fire. They thanked me for my vibrato. Walking back, many streets leading to Red Square honesty. I wrote that without better flutes the standards are were blocked off to allow a tank rehearsal, the rumbling of handicapped. which could be heard throughout the city, all part of the great That evening, dinner with the Prof, with Igor translating. Parade on November 7th. I went to bed and listened to some Afterwards, Sian Edwards, who had been a great help during of the Couperin’s harpsichord music as an antidote for the my stay, arranged for all the flute students to meet me at the noise. Hotel where we exchanged views, asked questions and drank Late that night, I went out to watch the changing of the beer and vodka. They were a very lively lot and we parted the guard on Lenin’s Mausoleum in Red Square. best of friends. This was the second time I had arranged a Yesterday I was taken to the first pizza parlour in Moscow party; the first time, they didn’t come because ‘professors never where I was told the chefs had been taught how to make pizzas socialize with students’ by visiting Italian chefs. Pizzas are new to the USSR. The pizza Much has been written about life for the Soviet citizen. I case was covered with raw tomatoes, cooked, cold mushrooms, can only write what I observed during my short stay. There hard boiled eggs and a kind of cold cream cheese. Odd. Eating were often queues for food, not that it is in short supply, but out is beset by problems of one sort or another. One restaurant
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we tried had a notice, ‘Closed for lunch’. Igor explained was played exactly as on the copy; no trills and with the that the cooks and waiters were entitled to have lunch like absent appoggiaturas we in the West are accustomed to hear, everyone else. remaining absent. Prof. Yagudin then asked me to play and I Sunday was spent in bed recovering from having eaten had the same experience as before; peering and commenting something unpleasant the night before. Maybe the pizza. except this time Yagudin kept feeling my ribs and commenting Monday. On the television this morning was a programme approvingly to the students. It was hard to keep a straight face, of patriotic Soviet music played by a military band. All the as all this was going on as I was playing. Prof. Yagudin gave flutes had open G sharps and the entire programme was me a brief run down of the basic principles of his teaching played from memory. The band contained the usual mix of which are breathing, proper hand positions, posture, fingering instruments plus two string basses and a harp. correctly, especially E flat - and good tone. He also teaches We were late the next day. Igor walked into the road, his students to tongue between the lips, shades of Moyse, I showed his card to a passing taxi who immediately stopped. suppose. All the occupants got out. We got in and went to the He told me the flute had no fixed scale like the piano (!) Tchaikovsky Conservatoire, a most elegant building, to hear and that it was up to the player to make the pitch right. the classes of Alexandre Karneyev and Professor Yagudin. He said he was very surprised when Rampal visited Moscow to I heard four students, the first of which played a sonata by note that he actually played from the music! Taktakishvili, another tuneful piece which I hadn’t heard The students use the Method of Platanov - a former before, and full of minor key, sad Russian melodies. Then a student of Tzybin - and Studies by Tzybin himself. fifth year student played the D minor CPE Bach Concerto Prof. Yagudin is 78 years old, and still full of energy. He rather well. The CPE Bach edition was printed in Hungary gave his final recital 3 years ago in the Conservatoire. He has and not without errors which were passed unnoticed. All a wealth of stories to tell of conductors and soloists, 50 years appoggiaturas were tongued, as were their resolutions. There with the Moscow State Orchestra and the Bolshoi Ballet. followed a Liadov Prelude, very attractive, and the same Somebody ought to find out about Tzybin; his name came up student, an Algerian, then played the Poulenc Sonata. He had with great reverence everywhere. I expect I shall. rhythm problems. Again, as in Leningrad there was ample What works would you put into a list of the top 6 or 8 criticism of all three, but no solutions offered. Soviet compositions for the flute which we may not know in I was then asked to play the Godard Suite which I did the West? I asked. Tzybin, of course, they unanimously agreed. to much peering and loud comments in Russian about my (Him again). Particularly the Second of his Three Concert embouchure and flute. I had brought with me my “holiday Allegros for flute and piano. Prof. Yagudin promised to send it flute”, a student instrument from Taiwan. They were very to me together with Tzybin’s Tarantella. surprised it cost 200 rubles (about £220). Most students had The top of the list were:— Uebel flutes from East Germany though one had an East • GLIERE Melody and Valse for flute and piano. German Hammig. • GORDELY Concerto. Flute and orchestra. The variety of vibrato is interesting; no one student • WEINBERG Concerto. Flute and orchestra (The last two sounded anything like another, but with players from all being recent works.) over the vast Soviet Union, who could wonder. The Union • DENISOV Concerto for flute and orchestra. comprises, let us remind ourselves, Uzbekistan, Tadgikistan, • DIMITRIEV Concerto for piccolo, flute, alto flute and Kirgizia, Turkomenia, Georgia, Armenia, Kazakhstan, orchestra. Azerbaidgan, Bylorusia, Ukraine, Latvia, Litva, Estonia, • ARATUNYAN Concerto for flute and orchestra. (An Moldavia and the Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, all of Armenian composer) which were once separate countries and still have their own • KRIVITSKY Concerto for flute and orchestra. dialects, customs, dress and, last but not least, vibrato. All are • BANCHIKOV Sonata for flute and piano. (I already heard now part of the Soviet Union. it in Leningrad and was given a copy). Alexandre Karneyev told me all students have to learn • SMOLSKY Sonata for flute and piano. (A com¬poser the solo repertoire from memory in all the Professors classes. from Minsk). Once again the flute tone was soft and gentle, perhaps more • KREIN Sonata for flute and piano. aptly described by so-called French school addicts as de Denisov was the only one previously known to me, besides timbre, but without as much roundness as can be heard by Gliere, of course. such players. Perhaps in the fullness of time, on my return, I will report The three professors studied with the now famous Tzybin further about these little known Soviet composers in Pan. about whom I had heard so much in Leningrad. The room was After the Conservatory, a visit to the All Union House bare save for a portrait of Tzybin. I then went to hear Yagudin’s of Composers where many famous (U.S.S.R.) Composers class. Just one player played the Bach B minor sonata. It had gathered to hear a concert of their own works. What
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a splendid idea. The building has rest rooms, a restaurant A visit to the Tretiakov Gallery, containing the finest (composers only) a bar and a medium size Concert hall collection of Russian Icons in the World. It was worth far more with Steinway grand, and a big platform all serving the need than the 3 hours I spent there. for composers to have their music performed. Alexandre It is Wednesday October 31st, very cold and snowing. Igor, Karneyev was one of the performers in a pleasant short sonata. bless his hammer and sickle, had tried very hard to find out All perform without fee. That the composers can get top rate how I could meet Valentin Zwerev the great Russian soloist players to play their works is very encouraging, the more so and today, I received an invitation to dinner with him. when the next item was a Suite for no fewer than twelve cellos. At lunchtime, we looked for a cafe to have a light lunch. The composer must have worked hard to get twelve excellent Having found one at last, we were told it was shut. For lunch. players together from the Moscow Symphony and Opera The mind boggles. orchestras for this first performance. Toilet facilities in public buildings are interesting. On The waiter who served lunch offered me the parts and entering, the solid stench of uric acid produces a sudden the score of two jazz pieces he’s written. Yes, the waiter. This disinclination, and a total drying up of the normal processes. was truly the House of Composers. Please try to get them This effect last for hours. performed for me, he said. The final evening was spent at Zwerev’s house in Moscow It wouldn’t have surprised me to see a cloakroom Jolly where we had a most merry time. Lady scribbling out the score of an opera between coats and First a duet or two, and then some of his records which hats. Has the B.F.S. got its own premises? I was asked. What a I thought were really excellent. One sonata which greatly thought. In the Soviet Union such a thing might be possible. impressed me was by Kornakov. I heard Zwerev’s record of it Enough of the awful Hotel Budapesht where I was staying: and the opening theme never left my head fully for five days. that evening to the Intourist plastic hotel to eat. Caviar It’s a great work. He presented me with a pile of records and again? No, I tried the other part of the fish, smoked sturgeon; music; music with tunes too! It was a jolly evening at which delicious. I was able to gather a lot of information about repertoire and The next morning was spent organising a mistake on my records from the Soviet Union’s premier flute player. visa. Endless beaurocracy and telephone calls, also a visit to The next day, my last, was spent at the Conservatory. We OVIR, the tourist police office, not recommended. were late. Igor stopped a taxi which had just moved away, full A concert of new music followed at the Tchaikovsky of customers, from the kerb. He said something to the driver Conservatory in the Great Hall, where the International and they all got out. We got in. As I said before, Igor has a Pass Piano Competitions are held. We heard the State Symphony that passeth all understanding, though I was beginning to Orchestra of the Ministry of Culture, one of the most understand that he was not all he seemed ... the taxi incident important orchestras in Moscow. was the second time he’d pulled that trick. A first performance of a Denisov work was surprisingly We arrive at the Conservatory to meet the Assistant gentle on the ear, the rest was pseudo classical or back Director who took us along to Professor Doljikov’s class. scratching in its horridness, relieved only by gentle flutes, At this Conservatory, there was a total of twenty one flute excellent horns (the vibrato is really enjoyable), and superb students, fourteen of whom are taught by Doljikov, the clarinet playing. “Senior” Professor, three by Karneyev, and four are taught by Across the Moskva river from Red Square, the churches Prof. Yagudin. I heard some more Tzybin played by a Spanish and Cathedral looked like a Disney film set in the setting sun, student before being asked to play a Devienne Concerto, and a truly wonderful sight. a tune or two, which I did. They were most interested in my A word about restaurants. Westerners are warned that way of blowing the flute. I demonstrated some Practice Book service is not what we, in the West, are normally accustomed exercises from the English version of Volume one - TONE. to. Too right. Most, and I mean at least three quarters, of I tried their flutes too, Otto Hammig of Leipzig; very heavy waiters and waitresses vary from grim surliness to downright mechanism and was not a responsive instrument. Low C rudeness. The big Intourist hotels are better, presumably as the would need a can of spinach a day to operate. staff have been trained. If the visitor eats as the Muscovites eat, The players had a variety of tone colours but the basic tone beware. To add insult to injury, a tip is unacknowledged and is was better than anything I had heard previously. He was tough indeed still expected. with them; no messing about - if it wasn’t good, they got the On Wednesday, arriving for breakfast ten minutes before raw edge of his tongue. There was no one to go off to cry to. breakfast officially closes, I was shouted at. A Jolly Lady began They just stood there and took it. to serve my breakfast to the accompaniment of watch tapping Doljikov is a good teacher but even then, I felt that the and aggressive, loud Russian. I am British, so I swept out. In standard of flute playing was light years behind the keyboard any case, I’d had enough of almost raw, warm boiled eggs and and strings and behind the Soviet clarinet standard of playing. stale rolls. My dignity was intact but my belly empty. In all the classes - there are no private lessons and they have a staff accompanist on a good piano.
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After a hurried lunch with two students from England - Many are the lessons I have seen in the West where the and Igor - I returned to hear a Concerto by Romberg. Then student is given ample freedom to choose what to do, usually the Ministry of Culture car came to collect me and my luggage because the teacher himself doesn’t know. - and Igor of course - for the trip to the airport. There in front Democracy - precious democracy - and art, don’t mix of me, was Kenny Ball’s Jazz Band, emptying their luggage and in my view. Students need to know precisely what they bags completely and undergoing thorough searching by Jolly should do; how to play it; what articulation to use. Wishy- Ladies. Igor muttered something to the Jolly Customs Lady washy colleges and universities in the West, where freedom and discreetly waved his card. I was ushered straight through. to do your own thing and ‘express yourself rather than the ‘How the hell did you manage that’, Kenny Ball wanted to composer’s intentions (and who is more important?) produces know. ‘Igor has a pass that passeth all queues . . .’, I replied. The lousy results. A student needs to know what he is about. He air was blue with naughty words. needs to be told. Later, he can choose. When are you going to join the KGB? I asked Igor at the Teachers here are strong, more so in piano and strings. airport. He looked startled and embarrassed. I had wondered Right or wrong they are sure of what they teach. ‘I don’t know about Igor. Then, I knew. whether I’m right, but you are wrong’, seems to be the maxim. Later, in the British Airways plane, the pilot announced Privately, the students may disagree with an interpretation, ‘For those of you who are interested, we have just left Soviet or an embouchure change, or whatever, but at the lesson, the Air Space’. A great cheer went up and I ordered a half bottle of message is clear; do it now; disagree later in private. champagne. It is interesting to note that the shakuhachi, the Japanese My observations flute, and the North Indian bansuri are broadly taught in These are my general impressions and observations about this way. If you wish to find truly great musicians, look to the the flute playing in the Soviet Union. piano and strings; not many are found in the ranks of flute Baroque music: the Soviets haven’t the access to players. Some, though are found amongst shakuhachi and information on the same scale as we have in the West. For bansuri players. example, the excellent British Early Music magazine, which Printed music is precious to a Soviet student and is hard sets trends and leads thinking, and is not afraid to castigate to come by. Photocopy machines are not easily available and itself from time to time, is unheard of here. Not that importing fraught with difficulty, not to mention quality. In many ways, it, and translating it would have any effect; there doesn’t seem we in the west, have too much and don’t know how to use it. to be an interest in 18th century style. Their style is based The students were fascinated by PAN, the British Flute Society on what their teachers have taught them plus a few dribbles journal. That so much is available four times a year is beyond of information from the West from visiting tooters - myself their experience. amongst them - whom they may or may not feel inclined to The choice of instruments here is a major problem. No,... listen to. correction!; It’s a minor problem; there aren’t any! They have a strong sense of direction on the flute without Russian Style: in a word, old fashioned to western ears, all the distractions of the affluent West such as Associated particularly to those who have listened extensively to 78rpm Board Exams, Regional Competitions, masterclasses, books gramophone records. Lack of communication with the West and magazines. has contributed a great deal to this freezing of the style. Not They have none of it. that it is in any way bad to be performing in a style of the 30’s But which is better? To be able to choose without knowing? but it presents problems if the Soviets were to try to market Or only to have but one choice without ever knowing that you their solo records to the West. To give some idea, only one didn’t know? student in each Conservatory has heard of James Galway, They use a wide variety of music from the 19th century, and they were students who had been to Paris at one time some for performance but mostly for study purposes. They or another. Several had heard of Doriot Anthony Dwyer, the play it very warmly - as they play music from all periods. distinguished American player because she has visited both The heart is dominant; to hell with the upper or lower note Leningrad and Moscow. Several, too, had heard of Rampal. appoggiaturas! I visited record shops but there were no Western - at Though they may appear to lack a lot seen through our least solo flute - records available. There were some of eyes, they don’t lack direction from above. contemporary Soviet players such as Korneyev and Valentin On most mornings the basement of the Conservatory Zwerev; I had heard records of Zwerev in Amsterdam. Zwerev opens as 7am. There are students queuing at 6am. in order has obviously been influenced by French style and his records to secure the best pianos in the practise studios. At exam or are highly captivating to western ears. competition time, particularly the Tchaikowsky Competition, Finally:— they are queuing at 5.30am. Firstly my grateful thanks to the British Council for making it possible and secondly to the Ministry of Culture,
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USSR, for making the arrangements. Lastly, and with affection, never heard from Igor, though I heard he joined the KGB. to Igor Tamaseyev who followed me everywhere, tried his Professor Gleb Nikitin invited me to Leningrad (now St hardest to smooth the way, and had to suffer endless flute Petersburg) a few years ago to take a few days of classes, but classes and flute music. He confessed that he was beginning to died while the negotiations were under way. like the flute. Igor and I started off being mutually suspicious In Leningrad, the official who interviewed me thanked me of each other but we parted as mutually suspicious friends. I for my honesty about their flutes and said he would try to get felt sure that we would meet again one day; probably in the better instruments for the students. He never did. UK. The more contact we have with the Soviet Union, the less The music the students had was badly edited: a Bach sonata chance of conflict. Music is a universal language; it is also the had no graces or embellishments and the Russian students most peaceful one. played them like that. The B minor sounded quite odd. On Afterword my return, I arranged for a collection of good editions of About the flutes: They were usually made in East common flute repertoire to be sent to the students, three heavy Germany; open G sharp was normal and with the thumb keys parcels of music to be given away at the Rimsky-Korsakov reversed. The mechanism was very bad. On one flute, I tried to Conservatory in Leningrad. All three were sent but never overcome the pressure of the saxophone springs (!) in order to arrived. I sent some CDs later too. They too never arrived. play low C and managed it after a struggle. The owner shook Valentin Zwerev and I met again a few years later on the hands with me as I left and nearly crippled my right hand. Munich International Competition Jury. We had a good time On my return, I arranged for a collection to pay for a talking of old times and of the situation in Moscow. Sadly, just Japanese flute to be available in the UK for her. I bought air before he arrived in Munich his flute was stolen: he parked his tickets for her to collect it and for her to stay at my house for car to play a concert; a man knocked on the passenger side a week. When she applied for a visa to leave the Soviet Union, window to shout that he had a flat tyre; he got out to look and the conditions were: she had to be paid a weekly salary; she another man opened the rear door driver’s side, grabbed his had to be paid a daily living allowance; the air fare had to be flute and ran. In 1984, he was the only Russian to own a gold purchased via the Soviet Embassy in London so that she could flute. The Munich Jury made a collection to enable him to buy travel by Aeroflot and the ticket would cost exactly three times a decent flute while he was in Munich. the British Airways ticket; finally, she would be given only The student I tried to help, Svetlana Kiktevich, is now in an 24 hours notice of permission to travel. I had to abandon the orchestra, writes warmly to me every year, sends photos of her family and children, and still has the same flute. scheme. PUB PAN 1/2012:PUB PAN 16-02-2012 0:32 Pagina 1 Professor Yagudin has been dead for some years. Sian Trevor Wye (revised 2008) Edwards followed a successful career as a conductor. I have
Sigfrid Karg-Elert 30 Caprices op.107 for solo flute (edited by Rien de Reede) Sigfrid Karg-Elert Sonata Appassionata op.140 for solo flute (edited by Rien de Reede) Carl Frühling Fantasie op.55 for flute and piano (edited by Emily Beynon)
Nardini Dôthel Giordani Mancinelli NEW 4 duetti italiani for two flutes (edited by Rien de Reede) Viotti Gianella Mercadante 3 duetti italiani for two flutes Gaetano Donizetti (edited by Rien de Reede) Sonata for flute and piano Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy Songs without words (edited by Rien de Reede) (arranged by Benoît Fromanger)
www.riverberisonori.it tel/fax + 39 06 44 70 32 90 52 bfs.org.uk
PAN March 2017.indd 52 11/04/2017 17:54 PAN March 2017.indd 53 11/04/2017 17:54 Luna’s Magic Flute
Luna’s Magic Flute: A recipe for fun, creativity and pushing the boundaries of conventional flute performance by Sarah Finch
hen Blaz Pucihar’s beautifully illustrated fairytale horses through shadow puppets. In ‘Jazz for the Sea Turtle’ Luna’s Magic Flute appeared on the exam syllabus we had just flute playing but ‘The Dolphin’ saw a dance which I was curious about the publication. After the grade 1-5 group choreographed and performed. ‘The Wpurchasing a copy I found not only was the story accessible for Hummingbird’ was narrated from behind a colourful mask young flute players but also the music was of a varied standard covered in feathers and played by all the children together. The with fast paced, exciting pieces and slow, heartfelt melodies. ‘Sad Siberian Tiger’ was a challenge for the advanced group, Pieces such as ‘Luna’s Song’ are simple enough for players with a lot of parts interweaving and a gentle tone needing around grade 1 standard, whilst ‘The Power of True Friends’ to be sustained. This was followed by ‘The Dragon’, a lively proves more of a challenge for those moving onto grade 6 after mastering ‘The Playful Pony’ which is set for grade 5, and many others in between. It is so nice to have a publication you can use again and again as students progress. Then, in April 2016 whilst attending the Adams Flute Festival in Ittervoort, Holland, I was lucky enough to meet the composer himself and discover he had just published an arrangement of the whole suite for flute choir. I snapped it up and headed back to the UK to see what my young flute choir, Funky Flute Club, would make of it. Take one suite of well thought-out arrangements, a group of enthusiastic flute players and a teacher who spends a lot of time in the pit of a theatre and hey presto! The Luna’s Magic Flute Project was born. I worked with a group of children from grade 1 up to grade 8 and produced a performance of the fairytale with narration, dance and puppetry, not to mention some excellent flute playing. Many of the pieces are suitable for players of all abilities (‘Farewell Luna’, ‘The Dragon’ - a favourite and ‘The Hummingbird’) while others are suited to more advanced players. Therefore I split the group into smaller groups relating to their ability and while one group played the other performed. We had one narrator for each section of the story and the children made their own sea creature puppets and shadow puppets of horses and a train. It was a really fun process which enabled the children to offer their own ideas which were incorporated into the final performance. The story begins with Luna boarding a train for a journey with her magic flute. ‘Cling Clang on the Train’ is suitable for a grade 1-5 standard flute choir and while this group played the advanced children performed a train journey on stage, complete with ticket collector and the comical late commuter running on at the last minute. Then came ‘Farewell Luna’ which all the children played together. In the ‘Playful Pony’ the advanced group (grade 5 and up) played while the other group showed the story of Luna getting off the train, meeting Above: The Funky Flute Luna mascot made by a parent; the pony, riding on his back and running with the bigger opposite, top: on of the narrators; below: on the train
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number that has become a favourite with the ensemble, and they all enjoy playing it. The rhythms really click together and the soaring melody evokes a fierce, powerful dragon. The sadness and poignancy of ‘Luna’s Song’ was captured by the grade 1-5 group whilst two more experienced dancers performed with ribbons. ‘The Power of True Friends’ is a medley of all the characters which I performed, accompanied by piano, giving the children the opportunity to recap the story so far with pony shadow puppets, sea character puppets, tiger masks and more dancing, finished off with a dragon kite. The final movement ‘Return Home’ was played by all the children together. We performed the whole fairytale in aid of Naomi House Children’s Hospice and had a mixed audience of young children, disabled children, parents and grandparents, who all enjoyed it immensely. If you are looking for something new to do with your flute choir I highly recommend this work and suggest you let your imagination run wild - where you run out of ideas the children will have loads. I thoroughly enjoyed working on this project and hope to run some more day workshops in Hampshire in the future. For more details about Sarah and the Funky Flute Club visit www.sarahfinch.pro.
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you play the flute at the beginning of the session to establish a reference point for any changes that may occur during the lesson. Rhetorical questions abound, focusing the participant’s CDs sensory awareness on how the body makes contact with the floor. Niall’s gently encouraging voice describes the small Bttere Tone & Jaw Comfort for Flutists Vol 1 movements which are required to coordinate and synchronize Niall O’Riordan the body into new patterns of movement. Audio learning programme available at https://gumroad.com/l/ Lesson Two on the relationship between the jaw, neck EAIEn and shoulders, introduces the idea of self-use and the concept that we can make better choices through Feldenkrais experimentation. So often we can feel stuck in the way we do things and not realise that we have placed some limitation on our range of movement for instance. Change is possible through this process; a fact which makes this an educational activity engaged in by a student, rather than a therapy undergone by a patient. Sessions three and four focus on the very specific areas of the lips and tongue. We are asked to do things which we may never have done or even thought of doing before. Gently uncurling the lips with ones’ fingers, or moving the tongue around the mouth, can lead to greater understanding, both on a conscious and sub-conscious level, of how these small but hugely significant areas of the body affect our playing. ‘’The Feldenkrais Method® approach combines movement, Session five expands the focus somewhat, bringing back in breathing and body alignment in a context of mindfulness. the jaw and the neck and linking the movements up with the It offers a unique and practical way to realise physical and eyes. These exercises work on a very deep neurological level mental potential more fully. It is an educational method, and one may feel quite tired after a session but also experience focusing on movement and breathing, which can bring about a sense of relaxation. So much so on one occasion that I found improved ease, body alignment and enhanced functioning.’’ I had drifted off to sleep before completing the session. This (www.feldenkrais.co.uk) calming effect can make the exercises very beneficial for those Niall O’Riordan is a highly-accomplished flute player and who suffer from performance anxiety. teacher who has also undergone Feldenkrais training and is Session six addresses the whole body and works on the now a registered practitioner of this most interesting form of coordination between the pelvis and the head. Some of the bodywork. As such he is uniquely placed to help flute players exercises are complex and it seems self-evident that if one who are interested in developing a more holistic approach to had the time it would be most advantageous to be able to go their playing. back and repeat the lessons several times. At either end of This audio series is divided into six sessions of about forty this session we were encouraged to notice our posture and any minutes each. Although Feldenkrais is sometimes described tensions inherent in the standing position. It did indeed seem as an exercise therapy you will need no special equipment or to me that I was more relaxed, energised and upright at the clothing to take part in these lessons and you may find your end of this final session. brain is exercised more than your body. You will however need Playing any musical instrument needs to be approached curiosity and a peaceful environment in which to concentrate mindfully in order both to avoid discomfort and injury, and for the duration of the lesson. to maximise the desired qualities in one’s performance. The Lesson One begins with the jaw and the idea that we may flute with it’s one sidedness can create difficulties for players. be holding unnecessary tension in this area which in turn It seems to me therefore that as flute players we would be feeds through to other areas of the body, affecting breathing well-advised to include in our practice a discipline which and posture. In common with the Alexander Technique, encourages bodily awareness and good self-use. Feldenkrais highlights the principle of ‘not doing’ and urges us Alexander teachers are well spread through the country it to remove unnecessary effort from our activities. Reflecting on seems, but Feldenkrais practitioners and classes are less easy to this simple concept can be a game-changer for musicians who find especially in rural areas. This fact makes Niall O’Riordan’s have lavished decades of effort and discipline on their practice. audio course all the more welcome as a resource. The lessons take place lying down and it is suggested that The audio format is a highly satisfactory way of following a course of expert lessons in one’s own home when it may be
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impossible and much more expensive to meet face to face with of heroism, adventure, mystery and love. That is what I have a teacher. The lack of the visual is not a problem and allows attempted to create with this CD; a story without words that I the concentration to be on the student’s sensory perceptions. can share with you, the most important element of any music In very few cases did I have trouble understanding what making, the listener.” Thank you Anne, in a world that needs was required and when I did, further comments soon made more beauty than ever you have contributed something very things obvious. I wholeheartedly recommend this course special. The Romantic Flute can be purchased as CDs and as to students, teachers and performers at any level. It will downloads on Amazon, iTunes, Birnam CDs and Spotify or undoubtedly help to, as Moshe Feldenkrais wrote, “Make the visit www.anne-allen.com. impossible, possible; the possible, easy; and the easy, elegant”. NIALL O’RIORDAN RACHEL MISSON Piccoloworks The Romantic Flute Natalie Schwaabe (piccolo), Jan Philip Schulze (piano) Anne Allen Metier msv 28562
Why is it that we can The piccolo is rapidly put all our effort into our gaining more and more concert programme and it credibility as a solo recital is the encore that charms instrument, thanks to the the audience and makes efforts of players such as the biggest impression? Jean-Louis Beaumadier, It happens to me all the Peter Verhoyen, Nicola time. A simple melody Mazzanti and others, who played beautifully is are actively commissioning nourishing and soothing. new works and presenting That is exactly how I felt them to audiences with listening to this beautiful charisma, enthusiasm and CD by Anne Allen and Charles Matthews. Anne has selected energy. Although perhaps the most exquisite short pieces and encore favourites and less known to British audiences, Natalie Schwaabe is equally programmed them in a way that flows very naturally from worthy of attention, and this, her debut solo CD, serves as track to track, a skill in itself. It includes music by Bach, a fascinating snapshot of what the piccolo can offer, both in Andrew Lloyd Webber, Nicholas Brodzsky, Charles Matthews, terms of repertoire and expressivity. Gluck, Schumann, Heath, Debussy, Elgar, Saint- Saëns and Schwaabe has an international background and an many more. From the twenty tracks I often found myself impressive musical CV; she was born in Toyko, grew up picking up the CD sleeve to remind myself of the name of in Hong Kong and studied at the Purcell School before a piece and then making a mental note to programme it continuing her studies in Munich under Paul Meisen. She has sometime myself. been a member of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra’s It is clear to me that this CD is recorded with the listener in flute section since 1996 and was a prizewinner in the 1998 mind. It is no wonder why it is receiving 5 star reviews already Nielsen competition. on Amazon. This CD reminded me of something important. The CD includes 7 works. The oldest is Nidi by Donatoni, As flautists all too often we focus on a very small demographic two pieces written in 1979 and dedicated to two giants of of people when we record CDs or programme concerts. A the twentieth century flute, Pierre-Yves Artaud and Roberto lot of the time we have only have other flute players in mind. Fabbriciani. Nidi is full of contrasts, with energy building Experience tells me that popular classics are popular for a through fragments of melodic ideas juxtaposed against each reason, and I am so happy Anne has produced this CD which other. The musical material is based on three notes – D, F and will bring her sensitive playing beyond our community, and G, which link the two movements through their use. Extended without doubt beyond the classical music world also. This CD timbres such as multiphonics, trills and singing and playing has a wide appeal; good music making has no boundaries. give further depth in the second movement, as the delicate Anne plays with a warm expressive tone which always fragments are interweaved. Nidi combines textural details has a sense of space and freedom. My favourite track was a with piccolo-like playfulness, always changing and gaining sensitive performance of Saint-Saëns’s Softly Awakes My Heart. momentum. This is a classic work of the repertoire, which Describing her creative process Anne writes “Every story has serves as a good starting point for the newer pieces presented an imaginative and emotional appeal that contains aspects here.
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One piece on this disc that is beginning to get international mood beautifully, creating an intimate world into which the recognition as a strong new addition to the piccolo’s repertoire listener is drawn. is Levente Gyöngyösi’s Sonata. Born in 1975, Gyöngyösi Franz Kanefzky’s interpretation of The Pied Piper of began his life in Transylvania and moved to Budapest where Hamelin is a through-composed 12 minute work with he studied at the Bartók Conservatory and then the Liszt narration by the performer. Here, Schwaabe reveals her Academy. Commissioned by Zart Dombourian-Eby in 2007 ability not just as a highly convincing flute player, but also as a and premiered at the NFA convention in 2009, this sonata speaker. The German text is heard in between melodic phrases has energy and expression in equal measure; it showcases on both flute and piccolo, and the balance between each of the the piccolo’s charm and strength, without shying away from elements works well. The melodic material is full of character, using the instrument’s full range. The contrast, for example, clearly giving a sense of the narrative even if one is unable to achieved between the dramatic and rhythmically punchy end understand the German language. The composer is a horn of the first movement with the soulful expression of the low player in the Munich Radio Orchestra, and wrote this piece for register melody that opens the second, is breathtaking. This Schwaabe in 2008. kind of writing also showcases the player, and it is clear that Huit ilium by Norwegian composer Jan Erik Mikalsen was Schwaabe’s control of the instrument, and musical expression inspired by Kurt Vonnegut’s anti-war novel, Slaughterhouse is second to none. The bird-like tweetings of the second Five, or The Children’s Crusade. The harrowing aspects of movement are equally convincing, and I found myself a little war are represented through a bold compositional language, mesmerized by the soundscapes created. The third movement making use of the piccolo’s high register for powerful opens dramatically, and the energy returns with renewed effect. There is a starkness to this piece, which combines vigour. This is a powerful and thoroughly engaging work, with a weight of emotion to challenge both the listener and performed at the highest level. the performers; this is a challenge, however which can be Perhaps the best known of the 21st century pieces enormously rewarding, carrying with it an expressive power for piccolo and piano is Mike Mower’s Sonata, written in that is compelling. The piece also demonstrates the strength of 2002. Written with the intention of treating the piccolo as Schwaabe and Schulze as a duo; the combination of these two a serious instrument with a broad musical potential, this instruments and performers create some real magic here, and charming three movement piece offers both challenges and Schwaabe’s impressive control in the extreme high register is entertainment to the player. Uncompromising, it makes use of spine-tingling. the husky low register to present the piccolo as an expressive In a well thought out and convincing juxtaposition, jazz voice, while also allowing the clarity of the upper register Lachrymose by Derek Charke follows to conclude the disc. to provide a dazzling contrast. The movements’ titles, Lively, Charke’s musical language is disarmingly sparse after the Gently and Fiery are well demonstrated here, and the music is Mikalsen, and all the more poignant for its positioning here. presented with precision and strongly communicated ideas. A seven minute work for unaccompanied piccolo, this piece There are some new pieces on the CD too. Two and a is influenced by the unfinished Lacrymosa from Mozart’s half piece by Gert Wilden Jr is an eight and a half minute Requiem, featuring repeated note patterns over which the exploration of the piccolo, written for Natalie Schwaabe in lacrimosa is sung. 2013. The piccolo enters alone at the opening, immediately This is a striking CD, which is utterly compelling from setting an atmospheric scene. The music develops gradually, start to finish. The quality of musicianship from Natalie with undulating repeated patterns in the piano developing Schwaabe and Jan Philip Schulze allows each of the pieces to under eerie pitch bends in the piccolo. This poignant lament be presented with a clear communication of expression and eventually gives way to a scherzo, via a cadenza-like piccolo emotion, and their technical mastery of the material means passage, accompanied by plucked piano strings. The scherzo that the listener is able to concentrate purely on the musical has strong jazz influences and a compelling rhythmic groove. without technical concerns ever getting in the way. One has Melodic patterns are repeated and circled with skill, giving the sense that both performers are completely committed the mental impression of a spinning dance in the sunshine to this repertoire, and this is the best possible way for on a hot day. This music is at times energetic, and at other listeners to be introduced to new works. The compositions times languid, but never loses its sense of movement and themselves have much to offer, and all deserve a place in shape. The opening lament returns at the close of the piece, the repertoire. In this well-programmed disc, Schwaabe has giving the feeling that the scherzo was perhaps a reverie that demonstrated, without any doubt, that the piccolo is an ideal allowed the protagonist to escape momentarily from a somber recital instrument, and I for one will be looking out for her mood; this is a composition which demonstrates both skill performances. and imagination, and it felt much shorter than one would have CARLA REES expected from its duration. Schwaabe and Schulze capture the
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Telileah Ga n moons and repeated chords. The stereo movement of the bass flute Robert Dick (flutes), Ursel Schlicht (piano) sound (including voices, key clicks and fluttertonguing) is NEMU 017 particularly effective. Together, these four pieces create an otherworldly sound which is far from the traditional flute This hour long CD and piano duo; there is clear evidence here of a timbral is the latest offering imagination which creates a new kind of musical expression from the partnership and beauty. of contemporary music Dark Matter takes text from spam email to create a heavyweights Robert counterpoint between flute, piano and voice. Jazz influences Dick and Ursel Schlicht. are once again present, and Dick’s percussive flute sounds Recorded between 2009 create a rhythmic dialogue with the piano. Changes of density and 2013, the disk features keep the music alive, and the spam text, reduced to nonsense music for a range of in its abstract presentation gives the music a surrealistic feel. flutes with piano, part Schlicht’s piano playing here has some wonderfully expressive composed and part fragments, which were among the highlights of this track for improvised by both of me, alongside the richness of Dick’s contrabass flute sound. the performers. With Tendrils we are immediately immersed The final track, Life Concert is a two movement work into a futuristic world, full of imagination and textural for flute and piano. The jazz influences return, particularly changes. Dick’s glissando headjoint features strongly in this rhythmically, in the opening movement, which is full of track, with beautifully expressive multiphonic trills making busyness and energy and conjured up a picture of life in a way for spellbinding extended techniques on the piano, European city. The Multani, Baby is based on an Indian Raga. which transform the traditional classical instrument into Pizzicato piano bass notes combine with air sounds in an a resonant and compelling voice of microtonal pitches and explosive opening, before a sensuous flute line conjures up eerie glissandi. This is a strongly evocative piece, which the sound of the Indian flute. Indian influences are combined immediately reveals the creative force of this duo. Sic Bisquitus with a Western language in an innovative way; tonal centres Disintegrat has a jazz-influenced feel, opening with a unison are moved around in sometimes unexpected ways giving a melody on the piano and the bass flute in F combined with freedom of exploration that takes us away from a traditional singing. Improvisations follow, beginning with an enjoyably Indian language. dark and heavy exploration of the low range of the piano Overall this recording demonstrates the powerful in combination with the bass flute. A piano solo follows, versatility of these two musicians. Their collaboration allows demonstrating the instrument’s strength and potential for each of them to go further than they would alone, and, like power. Despite this, Schlicht retains an impressive agility all true collaborations, one has a sense that this partnership in her playing, bringing in moments of lightness to create has its own individual voice which is more than the sum of contrast. Dick’s multiphonic trills combine with key clicks and its parts. Both performers approach their own instruments in singing, demonstrating that the solo flute’s expressivity is not individual and innovative ways; in combination, they inspire confined to a single line. Circular breathing is a feature here each other to go further and to seek new sonic possibilities. too, and the voice is incorporated to create complex and dense CARLA REES textures. The title of this piece is a latin translation of ‘That’s the way the cookie crumbles’ FRENCH RECITAL More gentle in mood is A Lingering Scent of Eden, which Aldo Baerten (flute), Stefan De Schepper (piano) has the feeling of a jazz ballad. The lightness of the opening Airophonic 541149980132 conjures up, as the sleeve notes describe, ‘images of open Sponsored by Adams, deSingel and Belfius space, birds’. A sudden interruption brings to mind a storm, as darkness quickly descends in a dramatic way. The title This highly enjoyable track of the disk, The Galilean Moons, is inspired by Jupiter’s CD of well matched four moons, Io, Europa, Calisto and Ganymede. Here, Dick French pieces is dedicated and Schlicht take us on an exploration of sound, including by Aldo Baerten ‘to my percussive energy and bass flute tongue rams in Io, the teacher, Peter Lukas-Graf, combination of piccolo air sounds with eerie internal piano with admiration…’ . The resonances in Europa and static resonant piano chords in quality of performance and Calisto. The longest of the four is Ganymede, which has recording is superb and the feel of a slowly moving atmosphere, in which vocal would make a very nice elements and air sounds evolve over sparse piano textures addition to any collection.
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The CD opens with a faultless and sympathetic the appropriation of the chosen items, and I thought that the interpretation of Joueurs de flûte by Albert Roussel. The four Sonate by Poulenc [originally for oboe] worked especially well pieces that comprise this work are each a character study of for the new medium. Another particularly enjoyable track is a flute player friend of Roussel: Pan [god of nature, always the Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso by Saint-Saens. The depicted with ‘pan pipes’] is dedicated to the legendary Marcel items chosen for this CD are generally lyrical in character, and Moyse. Tityre [Virgil’s ‘good shepherd’ who plays on a slender the other works are Tzigane by Ravel with a long introduction pipe] is dedicated to the Conservatoire’s flute teacher Gaston for solo piccolo, Three Romances by Schumann, Humoresque Blanquart. Krishna [Hindu god who plays a transverse flute] is by Dvorak, Scherzo by Auric, Exercise Musical by Milhaud, dedicated to Louis Fleury who also gave the first performance and Villanelle by Poulenc. The final item on the CD is a of this work. M. de la Péjaudie [an amazing flute player in a particularly poignant performance of the famous Vocalise by novel by H. Regnier] is dedicated to Philippe Gaubert. Baerten Rachmaninov. All the pieces are delivered with convincing and De Schepper, achieve a performance that has a perfect aplomb together with beautiful tone, dynamics and sonorities. blend of quirkiness together with French lyricism, bringing Throughout Stefan de Schepper is a masterly and sympathetic out the individual quality of each piece. Similar praise also accompanist, whilst Peter Verhoyen demonstrates that in for their performance of Lenski’s arrangement of Prélude à good hands, the piccolo is an expressive instrument capable of l’après-midi d’un faune by Debussy. A very good balance is almost human voice-like qualities. achieved between the two instruments in which the flute does Highly recommended. not dominate too much, and here special mention should go ROZ TRUBGER to the pianist Stefan De Schepper for his fine accompanying which draws out rich orchestral sonorities from the piano. The NEDERLANDSE FLUITISTEN UIT HET VERLEDEN third item on the CD is Sonatine by Pierre Sancan, in which (Dutch Flautists from Yesteryear) the influence of Debussy is immediately apparent. The work Lino Productions opens with an impressionistic Modere and has a cadenza This CD is an interesting historical document of flute reminiscent of that composer’s Syrinx before concluding in an music performed between 1905 and 1952 by Dutch flautists. animated finale. The last item on the CD is a performance of Originally recorded onto 78s, the quality of sound on this CD the Sonate by Joseph Jongen. It is a lengthy work of more than is pretty good, and superior to any of the same recordings 26 minutes, but Baerten’s performance amply demonstrates currently available on Youtube. The accompanying booklet that this piece (written in 1924) deserves to be better known. has notes and a short biography of each flautist by Rien de There are four movements of which the second is especially Reede written in Dutch but with a translation available in delightful. The fourth movement is a highly enjoyable tour de English. De Reede states that the CD aims to spotlight Dutch force that draws great individual and ensemble playing from flautists from the dawn of the Second Golden Age, who played the performers. a prominent role in Dutch musical life. In fact of the eleven Highly recommended. performers featured, only five of them spent their working ROZ TRUBGER lives in the Netherlands. The other six were born Dutch but left their native land at the age of circa 20 years to work LA GAZZA LADRA elsewhere in the world, so their recordings demonstrate also Peter Verhoyen (piccolo), Stefan de Schepper (piano) the influences of countries such as England, Germany and Etcetera KTC 1570 the USA. In his notes, de Reede draws a distinction between sponsored by Adams and Braun the musical taste demonstrated by the earlier recordings that The thieving magpie feature ‘musical entertainment’ and ‘musical acrobatics’ with of the title refers not to the later recordings that reveal a repertoire of more musical any individual piece in the substance, citing the work of Toussaint Demont [sadly not programme or any work featured on this CD] and Johan Feltkamp from whom we hear by Rossini, but rather to all three movements of the Trio sonata in F by J. G. Graun. the general idea of stealing Rien de Reede also draws attention to what he perceives as works originally written for changes in musical performance style, in particular to the lack other instruments. In the of dynamic range. But he does not go into any depth on the sleeve notes, Tom Janssens subject and does not reflect on how the limitations imposed by says ‘The piccolo, however, early recording techniques also may effect what we hear. I also is no petty thief, but rather wished that some information had been available regarding a master burglar: someone the make of flute played in each recording. Overall I found the who steals from the rich to enrich his instrument’s repertoire CD to be enjoyable and of interest. still further’. The ever reliable Peter Verhoyen and Stefan de ROZ TRUBGER Schepper achieve performances that make a solid case for
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PAN March 2017.indd 60 11/04/2017 17:54 explanations at each unit, exercises, scales, and a fingering chart. At the end of the book are three pages of elementary music theory plus manuscript paper and a useful practice MUSIC chart. Book 2: is likewise in its fourth edition and takes up TROIS MINIATURES where Book 1 left off. Intended for players of First Grade Alexander Glazunov transcribed by Mark Tanner to Second Grade ability, it is a larger, spiral-bound volume Spartan Press SP1343 that follows the same overall layout as Book 1. The choice of Glazunov’s name may conjure up images of Russian pieces is rooted in classical and traditional music, progressing Nationalism, but the flavour of these three pieces is essentially from Schumann’s Humming Song and the English folksong, cosmopolitan, owing more to the influence of Tchaikovsky The Ash Grove, to more substantial pieces such as Gavotte by than to Balakirev. They are enchanting works, originally Gossec and an Allegro by Vivaldi. Techniques like staccato composed for solo piano, and intelligently transcribed for flute and dynamics are introduced and there are a good selection of and piano in this edition by Mark Tanner. Musical Puzzles. The first of the three pieces is Pastorale which wends Book 3: is the Teacher’s Book containing duet or piano its way happily along in 6/8 time with charming lyricism accompaniments to the pieces in the student’s books. It is well and, although containing a substantial passage in the third laid out, and teachers will appreciate the handy index of titles. octave with a number of top A’s, could in fact be tackled by Book 4: first published in 2015, this is a relatively new a player of at least grade 4 ability. People familiar with the addition to the set. Containing simple duets and trios, it has editions of Spartan Press will be familiar with the style of the nifty idea of printing each part in a different colour, (blue the layout, which features a bold clear print quality. There is part 1, red part 2, green part 3) to help young players follow what I take to be an error in the flute part at bar 59 where the their own part with ease. The pieces are short and include rhythmic values of two notes are incorrectly attributed in a The British Grenadiers, Harp of Tara, We Wish you a Merry crotchet quaver sequence, differing from the same passage Christmas and several rounds. in the original piano edition. The second piece, Polka, would Book 5: was also first published in 2015 and is a follow suit a more advanced player as it features swiftly moving on to Book 4, with duets and trios suitable for intermediate semiquavers and, with a with a metronome mark of crotchet standard players. All the parts are printed on one page, but equals 100 - 108, is both contrasting in style to the first piece the print quality is good enough for 3 players to share a stand. and considerably more difficult to play. It requires a deft Colour identification of the parts is used again, but this time tongue and neat finger work to achieve the necessary sparkling only for the clef and key signature. Pieces include Beethoven’s effect. There is also a passage of 20 bars with a key signature of Song of Joy, Purcell’s Rigaudon, plus traditional pieces such as five flats that some students might find daunting. Country Gardens and The Harp of Tara. The more gentle, lyrical mood returns for the third piece, Useful books for teachers and students. entitled Valse. As the name implies, it is a fast moving waltz ROZ TRUBGER in which the flute generally takes the melody with a light style that captures the spirit of the ballroom and could make a nice Flute Playing and the Art of Doing Less ending to a recital. The back cover of the edition contains Timothy Lane a short biography about the composer. Definitely worth Paper Route Press 979-0-692-64880-3 considering as a purchase. These attractively titled books are well presented and ROZ TRUBGER clearly laid out with useful illustrations, taking the player step by step through every aspect of sound production and promoting the notion that ‘the less your physical work load, THE YOUNG FLUTE PLAYER (SERIES OF 5 BOOKS) the more effective your work will be on the flute’ or put more Karen North simply ‘Doing Less enables you to do more.’ For the player Allegro Publishing, Australia who wishes to better understand how to produce their notes Book 1: First published in 1988, this tutor is suitable for or for the teacher who would like a useful tool for teaching, Beginners to Preliminary standard, and is now in its fourth these reasonably priced books would make a very worth while edition [2013]. With large, clear printing and entertaining investment. The two volumes can be used alone or in tandem. cartoons, it is all that you would expect in a tutor: standard Volume 1: Air, Lip, and Tongue focuses largely on the lips, beginner repertoire (Frère Jacques, Old MacDonald, Bach’s looking at the fundamental mechanical actions related to Minuet in G, the theme from Eine Kleine Nachtmusik) is tone production and explaining the movements of each lip presented in 23 progressive units, beginning with notes B and separately. There is also a detailed discussion of breathing and A, plus a few pages of festive music. There also are helpful tongue work. At every fresh point, the author gives step by
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step exercises and instructions. The player is asked to reflect level, and serves as an excellent introduction to Karg-Elert’s on useful questions such as ‘are you over-opening or over- works. moving the air angle when changing dynamics?’ or ‘Can you CARLA REES move your tongue without pinching the glottal muscle?’ Volume 2: Intonation, Resonance, and Color, covers the A Little Duo op. 156 (2014) issue of how tone production and finger actions relate to the Kapustin acoustic properties of the flute. It is similarly detailed in its Schott ED 22307 approach and the notion of ‘Mechanical Separation’ [i.e. not This is a short (5 and a half minute) duo for flute and cello. using muscles that are unnecessary to the action] is developed Russian composer Nikolai Kapustin was born in 1937, and further. The effect of energy levels and aperture on tone colour began composing at the age of 13. He is a self taught composer, is discussed, as are whistle tones and resonance, but the largest but studied piano at the Moscow Conservatory and often part of the book is given over to explanations and exercises performed as part of a jazz quintet and big band. His early for good intonation. I feel that Tim Lane, who amongst other career was dominated by work as a piano performer, including things teaches at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, with radio and cinema orchestras. He began composing full expresses the aim of his books very clearly when he writes: time in the 1980s, and his music reveals a strong influence of ‘No one can teach or give another person the inner ‘feeling-ness’ his jazz-playing background. Many of his compositions are that they will experience after learning a new set of actions. A for piano, but his chamber music for flute includes the flute description can point a person towards a particular action, but sonata written in 2004, a trio for flute, cello and piano that was a description will always and only be a description. Learning a composed in 1998 and a Divertissement for the same trio line- new skill means that you have gained the ability to feel what it is up with an additional flute, written in the same year. like to engage in that new action’. A Little Duo is fast paced, featuring syncopations and ROZ TRUBGER chromatic harmonies. An opening cello ostinato sets the mood with double stops and accented offbeats, and after two TRIO repetitions of this line, the idea is developed, extended and Karg-Elert (arr. Robert Rainford) fragmented under the flute’s opening melody. This gives, Forton Music from the outset, a driving counterpoint between the two This trio in four movements was originally written in instruments which is maintained for the duration of the piece. 1902 for oboe, clarinet and cor anglais. The original key was Aside from these rhythmic challenges, there are also some D minor, but it has been transposed into A minor to fit the technical demands. While Kapustin does not use extended range of flutes better. The piece demonstrates a strong baroque techniques and the music is based on a tonal language (with influence, both in the use of baroque forms and the harmonic a strong final cadence in A major), the extended use of language used. The opening introduction is a slow, chromatic accidentals and chromatic alterations, often at high speed, is prelude with melodic interest divided equally amongst likely to provide some practice room entertainment for most the parts. The double fugue which follows is a particularly players. The melodic interest is shared equally between the interesting movement, handling complex polyphony with a two players, making this an interesting work for an advanced sense of skill and invention. The Sarabande begins with an duo to explore. Kapustin’s compositional language creates an alto flute melody that is passed around the other instruments, unusual blend between contemporary classical and Jazz styles, featuring dotted rhythms and triplets. This movement is both and this is a welcome addition to the chamber repertoire for expressive and flowing, with organ-like textures sometimes these instruments. created from the rhythmic interplay between the parts. The CARLA REES final movement is a Rigaudon and Musette, a fast dance which contrasts bright, short quavers in the outer sections with a Partita for flute and violin more lyrical central musette with the traditional bagpipe Endre Szervansky (1911-1977) drones of a musette accompanying the moving lines. Galaxy Music Corp 2016 This is a good choice of piece for an arrangement for 2 This is a short, five movement Partita for flute and violin, flutes and alto flute, and Rainford has created a version which which was written in 1965 for Gabor and Zoltan Jeney and is well suited to its new instrumentation. Karg-Elert was a appears here in print for the first time. A charming piece of composer with considerable skill and an understanding of moderate difficulty, the Hungarian style is evident through technique which was partly derived from his experience as frequently changing time signatures, strong accents and the an organist. This trio is more harmonically simple than some frequent use of fourths, fifths and octaves in the harmony. of his highly chromatic flute works, and far less technically The material is evenly balanced between the two instruments, demanding than the Sonata apassionata; this arrangement and the flute is often quite low in its range to produce a good would be within the capabilities of players of around Grade 7 blend of tone. The faster movements have a folk-like dancing
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feel, while the more lyrical slow third movement feels heavier demands make them ideal for advanced school-age students to and more nostalgic. This work is a welcome, and well crafted explore and develop their own interpretational ideas. addition to the repertoire and deserves a place on the concert CARLA REES platform CARLA REES Romanian Folk Dances for Flute and Piano Bartók (arr. Hywel Davies) Three Capriccios for Flute Solo Boosey and Hawkes Jan Freidlin (b. 1944) I first came to Bartók’s Romanian Folk Dances via his Edition Dohr 13804 own transcriptions for orchestra of the 6 short piano pieces, Russian composer Jan Freidlin has spent much of his life composed in 1915 (“based on 7 traditional Romanian in Israel, where he settled in 1990, and his works have been melodies which would have been played on violin or flute, performed by the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra as well as at and represents 6 dance forms”, as the informative notes in international festivals. The three solo flute pieces presented this edition tell us). Other versions with flute have included here were written between 2004 and 2014, and are dedicated to arrangements for wind quintet and for flute and guitar, three different flute players, all of whom are based in Europe. but this edition by Hywel Davies is for flute with piano They can be played individually or as a set. accompaniment giving an accessible introduction to the folk- The Flute’s Adventures was written in 2004 for Patricia influenced music of Bartók. Nagle, an American flute player living in Paris. This five Each of the 6 very rhythmic movements is very short with minute piece begins with a quirky, syncopated theme which a total playing time for all the dances of under 5 minutes reappears in between the different sections of this piece, like and would add a vibrant interlude to a recital programme. a sort of idée fixe. After 25 bars, a waltz emerges, showing a Movements 1 to 5 could be enjoyed at Grade 5-6 standard with very different character to the flute with lyrical phrases and the 6th movement, Aprozo (Fast Dance) raising the level due a strong dance-like elegance. After a reappearance of the to the metronome suggestion of crotchet = 152 and the final opening material, a rubato slow section follows, which makes bars in the 3rd octave. particular use of the low register. The next section of new CATHERINE HANDLEY material comes in the form of faster material in 3, using key clicks and percussive effects for colour alterations (although Duos and Trios for Flute (with CD) the key clicks are often written in the upper registers so may Bartók (arr. Hywel Davies) need some use of conventional sound to maintain the desired Boosey and Hawkes pitches). After another brief interlude from the opening Hywel Davies has arranged a selection from Bartók’s solo material, a low register section builds on strong rhythms, piano works, mostly from the albums Mikrokosmos and For gaining energy and pitch height to build to the piece’s virtuosic Children (written between 1908—1939), in the form of flute climax; this is the most difficult section of the piece with a duos and trios. Bartók was committed to music education brief episode of high register sextuplets taking centre stage. in Hungary and the complete Bartók edition by Boosey and One can easily imagine a narrative which unfolds and develops Hawkes is intended to bring this composer’s repertoire to a through the piece, making this an ideal piece to capture the new generation. This selection of pieces demonstrate Bartók’s imagination of young learners. desire to introduce folk music and compose teaching material As the title might suggest, Siren’s Distant Voice is based for students. on an ethereal melody full of exotic harmonic twists and Bartók indicated that his piano pieces could be played on wide intervals. The way the melody is reused through the other instruments and Davies has preserved the authentic piece almost is imaginative and atmospheric; one can almost rhythms and character of the original works in this edition imagine the Siren’s song appearing from different directions so with interesting snippets of information at the foot of each that it is impossible to pinpoint exactly where she is. Rhythmic piece. The 23 varied pieces, with charming titles such as If invention also adds a sense of playfulness, too, in this 2011 There Were Cherries, Baking Song and Wooden Shoes, are all piece written for Italian flute player Morena Mestieri. very short and the parts are clearly indicated as to the level of The last piece in the set is much shorter than the others, at difficulty. Although the original compositions were perhaps around 2 minutes long. Entitled Buffoon and written in 2014 intended for the younger student I believe adult learners for Spanish flute player Vincento Cintero, this piece is full would also appreciate these arrangements. These pieces could of humour with alternating fast and slow sections, repeated be used as teaching methods for practising sight-reading, motivic ideas and syncopations. learning new rhythms, playing in shifting time signatures and These three pieces all provide plenty of room for freedom in group lessons for Grade 2 – 5 level. of expression, rubato and a sense of imagination, and (apart CATHERINE HANDLEY from a couple of tricky bars) the relatively moderate technical
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PAN March 2017.indd 63 11/04/2017 17:54 The Association of Flute Traders
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