You are here : BFP-flute- misc. - 19th Century performance

While thinking about sensitive notes recently, Rick Wilson was motivated to try to write down some brief remarks on his understanding of some 19th century performance practices and aesthetics from the flute point of view. He oversimplifies many things, sticking his opinions in along the way. It is ridiculous, of course, to think that some brief remarks can describe what was done over a hundred year period in numerous different countries. 19th Century instruments: The old system conical bore flute with six open finger holes and with four, five, six, eight, nine, eleven, or as many as 15 keys or more. This is what German, Austrian, Russian, and Italian flutists used for essentially all of the 19th Century. In France, however, the silver Böhm flute was adopted by the Paris Conservatoire in 1860 and one can assume that the great French music after that date was intended for that instrument. England is complicated. Many (most?) major US players used Böhm instruments (wooden, in orchestras) by 1880. Tonal aesthetics: The idea of a soft and mellow flute tone gradually lost ground to the school advocating a strong, metallic, and even piercing tone. The term 'metallic' was used by by Tromlitz and others long before there were metal flutes; a metallic sound was desired on *wooden* flutes. There is a possibility, however, that different sounds and instruments were thought appropriate for orchestral use and chamber practice. To my ear, many 19th Century old system flutes produce a 'focused' tone, incorporating great sweetness and a bit of astringency, whatever that means. Especially in Germany, an emphasis was placed on blending with the other wind instruments (which is in part why the Böhm flute was resisted, according to German flutists and conductors). Evenness and uniformity in tone colour was desired more and more as the century progressed, although the variation in colour of the old system flute's scales was strongly defended by Tulou and Fürstenau as desirable at midcentury. Intonation, sensitive notes: The equal tempered scale was accepted in principle, though variation from it for artistic purposes was common. Leading notes were sharpened, often with special fingerings, even on the Böhm flute. In a passage like G-F#-G-F#-G, or G-F#-G-A-B-C#-D, the F# and C# would be played as 'sensitive notes', that is, raised so as to be only about 1/3 tone below the G and D. Alternate fingerings: Alternate fingerings were cultivated and exploited for colour and pitch variation. (They were not called *fake* fingerings in the 19th Century; they were *real* then.) The regular use of harmonic fingerings was not uncommon. Vibrato: Nope. It wasn't used. Well, there was a certain amount of finger vibrato used in England in the first half of the century, especially by certain performers, and a much smaller amount in Germany. Most 19th Century woodwind tutors don't mention vibrato at all--not one word. In exception are several bassoon tutors, which dismiss or ignore breath vibrato and allow finger vibrato in selected and few instances. (Finger vibrato has a different quality--one musically naive friend once told me "it sounds like the flute is doing it instead of you", whatever that means--and allows more control of speed and intensity, in my opinion.) Embellishment and ornamentation: Sure. In moderation. 19th Century sources caution the player not to change one note of Mozart or Beethoven, but encourage variations in lesser works. One little trick that I saw in a Drouet variation (c.1830) changed a half note E appoggiatura to a D into slurred eighth notes E-F-F#-G and then the D. I like that one and use it periodically on repeats. Appoggiaturas, accacciaturas, grace notes: On the beat. Even those little notes with a slash through them are on the beat, not before. For the entire 19th Century. Many 19th Century treatises will explain that the appoggiatura takes 1/2 the value of the main note while the grace note with the slash takes 1/4 of its value. Trills: Starting on the upper auxiliary was still more common than starting on the main note at least until circa 1830 or so. Some trills on 19th Century old system flutes are rather narrow and teasing, in contrast to the wide and lively trills used on baroque flutes. Turns, etc.: The fingerings given for turns and trills etc. show that smoothness and facility in ornaments was *essential*, and this was often emphasised more than intonation. The lower note in a turn, by the way, according to fingerings in Drouet, might be raised a semitone even though not notated, e.g. a turn on A might be played A-B-A-G#-A in some contexts (with a sensitive G#) even though no # appears under the turn sign. Glides, portamento: The glide (a continuous pitch change from one note to another) was popular in England and to a lesser extent in Germany in the first half of the century. But with all the portamento used by string players and singers, I suspect that some flute players used it in the second half too. Slurs, rhythmic alteration: Thomas Lindsay (1828) illustrates a type of 'inegalite' under slurs. He shows four written eighth notes under a slur being played as a dotted eighth, sixteenth, and two eighths, to emphasise the first note. Also, written slurred pairs of eighth notes are shown played as eighth, sixteenth, sixteenth rest. Sounds like baroque ideas to me, but he says "...much of what is called 'style' depends upon..." these principles. Tempo variation: It is *appropriate* to speed up in exciting passages and then slow down in subdued ones. This 19th Century practice is amply confirmed in many old recordings from the turn of the century. Articulation, phrasing: This is a very important topic but I won't say much. Instrumentalists were encouraged to emulate singers; the 18C concept of emulating speakers and orators waned. Yet Theobald Böhm advocates "declamation" and "transform[ing] tones, as it were, into words". He uses the words of Schubert songs to teach articulation and phrasing. His illustrations of how to perform these indicate many slurs but also show more detached notes than one might think. In particular, every pickup note in his examples is detached (shown with a dot over it), and he says "the slurring of a note to the following measure is always a fault".   --Rick Wilson (rmw@caltech.edu)