TOOTERS AND TUTORS: Flute Performance Practice Derived from Pedagogical Treatises of the Paris Conservatoire 1838-1927 by Mary Catherine Jett Byrne B.M., University of Michigan, 1985 M.M., University of Michigan, 1986 A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of ACCEPTED DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY F A C U L T Y OF GRADUATE STUDIES in the Department of Music DEAN We accept this thesis as conforming to the required standard Dr. E.P. Schwandt, Supervisor (Department of Music) Dr. H.M. Krebs, Departmental Member (Department of Music) G. Lazare'^çh,are-^ch, Dep<Departmental Member (Department of Music) _______________________________________ /Dr. ■^Go^h, "utside Member (Department of English) Dr. B?A. Hanl^, Outside Member (Department of Education) Dr. II. Terey-/smith, External Examiner 0 MARY CATHERINE JETT BYRNE, 1993 University of Victoria All Rights reserved. Dissertation may not be reproduced in whole or in part, by photocopying or other means, without the permission of the author. 11 Supervisor; Dr. Erich Schwandt ABSTRACT Throughout the two hundred years of the Paris Conservatoire, the Professors of Flute have carefully documented their philosophies in numerous large-scale, comprehensive treatises. Building on the biographical and historical studies by earlier scholars, this dissertation will study three major treatises by Professors of Flute at the Paris Conservatoire to shed light on the performance practice of the flutists performing or trained in Paris: the Méthode pour servir à 1 * enseignement de la nouvelle flûte [1838] by Victor Coche, the Méthode pour flûte système Boehm [c. 1880] by Joseph Henri Altès, and L'Art de la flûte collected by Claude Paul Taffanel, completed in two parts by Philippe Gaubert [Méthode complète, 1923] and Louis Fleury ["La Flûte," 1927]. Chapters l through 4 provide an historical context for the dissertation, including: a history of the Paris Conservatoire with particular emphasis on prevailing pedagogical trends at that institution, the evolution of the flute culminating in the innovations of Theobald Boehm, factors bearing on the professional flutist in Paris, and historical information on the flute treatises examined. In chapters 5 through 7, each of the three method treatises by Coche, Altès, and Taffanel with Gaubert and Fleury are m evaluated for implications of performance practice based on the type of instruction and exercises devoted to the various component parts of each of six proposed elements of music - pitch, rhythm, timbre, dynamic, form and musical style - as well as areas of interest receiving special emphasis by each treatise composer. The concluding chapter collates the data of the earlier chapters and offers illumination on flute performance practice in France during the period 1838 to 1927. Examiners: Dr. E.P. Schwandt, Supervisor (Department of Music) Dr. H.M. Krebs, Departmental Member (Department of Music) G. Lazarevich, Departmental Member (Department of Music) 'î'njü^ide Member (Department of English) Dr. B.M Hanle^ Outside Member (Department of Education) _____________________________ Dr. M. Terfey-Smith,/External Examiner (Univ. of West. Washington) IV Table of Contents Abstract li Table of Contents iv Acknowledgements vi Introduction 1 Chapter 1 ~ History of the Paris Conservatoire 11 The Establishment ofthe Paris Conservatoire 14 Methods and Treatises 2^ The Succursales 21 Directors of the Paris Conservatoire 28 Course of Study 36 Chapter 2 - The Development of the Flute 5(J The Flute before Boehm 53 Boehm's Work 63 Chapter 3 - Musical Life in Paris 86 The Music Profession in Paris 86 French Tendencies in Composition 94 Standard Repertoire 98 Chapter 4 - Introduction to the Treatises 110 Chapter 5 - Méthode à l'enseignement by Victor Coche 123 Contents of the Treatise 125 Six Elements of Music 138 Pitch 139 Rhythm 14 5 Timbre 149 Dynamic 153 Form 155 Musical style 157 Areas of Special Emphasis 161 Chapter 6 - Méthode pour flûte by Henri Altès 190 Format and Contents 192 The Six Musical Elements 2 03 Pitch 2 03 Rhythm 208 Timbre 211 Dynamic 214 Form 217 Musical Style 218 Topics of Special Attention 223 Chapter 7 - "L'Art de la flûte" by Paul Taffanel 255 Format of the Méthode complète 258 Contents of "La Flûte" 267 The Six Elements of Music 272 Pitch 272 Rhythm 277 Timbre 280 Dynamics 286 Form 287 Musical style 287 Areas of Special Interest 294 Chapter 8 - Conclusions 317 Bibliography 341 Appendix I - Teachers atthe Paris Conservatoire 363 The French Influence in North America 366 Appendix II - Concours Winners for Flute 367 Appendix III - Dated Method Books Published in France 1795-1927 374 VI Acknowledgements Any person who writes a dissertation and who claims that it was done without the help of others is probably not being truthful to herself or himself. While the research and thoughts, as well as the words on the page which convey them will be original to the author, the dissertation is nevertheless a product of the silent collaboration between the author and her or his support group. In attempting to thank those who made this dissertation possible, I will no doubt leave out many members of my own group...I hope they will forgive me! Most of all I must thank my husband Michael for patiently allowing me the time, freedom, and resources over the last five years to see this project through to its completion. I know he will be as glad as I when this paper finally rolls off the press in its completed and approved form. This is the stuff that good marriages are made of! To my family and family-in-law I offer great thanks for help offered (and I must say accepted). Thanks go especially to my Mom who actually claimed to enjoy standing at the card catalogues of the Library of Congress checking to see if the library held page after page of bibliographic entries in their collection. Thanks also to my father-in-law who spent the better part of a year trying to track down a computer programme to transfer my first files from our old computer to the new. He succeeded! From V I 1 my dad and mother-in-law I received perhaps the most invaluable help...those regular phone check-ups to see just how it was going and how much I had written this week. Thanks are always in order fc • my advisory committee, especially my supervisor Dr. L'ich Schwandt. As a whole, this committee seemed to inst. '-ively know just when to leave me alone to do my own thing and then how to save me from myself. Each member has truly come to bat Cor me in her or his own way. Thanks go too to the U-Vic grad students who have bucked-me-up all along. Most of all I want to thank my dear friend and colleague Sylvia Imeson for all the things she may not have realized that she did for me, but which nevertheless kept my heart and mind in the writing of this paper. Past teachers cannot go uncredited. I offer great thanks to Keith Bryan and Lois Wynn, both of whom instilled their love of the French repertoire in me throughout my flute studies, and also to Carol Knieousch Noe v/ho taught me to appreciate and respect the value of the teachings of the Paris Conservatoire flute professors. There are, of course, many, many others...my friends and associates at the Victoria Conservatory and at Metropolitan United Church to name a few. To all those who did deeds great and small I offer my undying thanks! Introduction Young students, you who must grieve the waste of even one precious moment of your studies, it is upon you to promote by your abilities the artists who have lavished their attention on you: Devote yourselves entirely to the art which you embrace, so that the hope of deservedly celebrating the heroic acts, which are fashioned every day by republican pageantry, arouses and governs your emulation! You do honour to your country! The fame of the French school will be the recompense of your masters.^ The Paris Conservatoire flute school has enjoyed a continuous development over the past two hundred years with many flute alumni assuming the position of Professor of Flute at that institution, thus carrying on the philosophies of their teachers. Such an unbroken chain of instruction ^ [François] Gossec, "Discours— Prononcé par le citoyen GossEC, doyen d'âge des inspecteurs de l'enseignement du Conservatoire de Musique" reprinted in Organisation du Conservatoire de musique [1795], published under the auspices of Paris Conservatoire nationale de musique et de déclamation (Paris: Imprimerie de la Republique, an V), 57: "Jeunes élèves, vous qui avez dû gémir de la perte d'un temps précieux à vos études, c'est à vous de seconder, par votre aptitude, les artistes qui vont vous prodiguer leurs soins: livrez-vous en entier à l'art que vous avec embrassé; que l'espoir de célébrer dignement les actes héroïques dont, chaque jour, les fastes républicains sont formés, anime et dirige votre émulation! Vous illustrez votre pays; la gloire de l'école française sera la récompense de vos maîtres." bearing the names of so many flute virtuosi has not existed at any other time or place. The system and philosophy ot flute instruction and flute performance at the Paris Conservatoire have been extensively recorded by the Professors of Flute in the form of comprehensive method treatises. The Paris Conservatoire has been at the forefront of flute performance practice and pedagogy throughout its two hundred year history. However, during the nearly ninety years from 1838 to 1927, the Professors of Flute at the Paris Conservatoire gave birth to and nurtured two important historical events: the large-scale adoption of the silver Boehm-model flute, our modern flute, as the official instrument of the Paris Conservatoire and thus of ail France, and the exportation of several prominent Paris Conservatoire-trained flutists to the new orchestras of North America, planting the seeds for what has become in the twentieth century the North American Flute School.