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The Bach Flute 1985 PDF
The Bach Flute 1985 PDF
The Bach Flute 1985 PDF
CHRISTOPHER ADDINGTON
264
to
o
as
which presents "Preludes" for wind instruments in many different keys, the author provides transposing instructions of a.
this sort at the end of each key-based section. In some keys, such as the present one, G major, he leaves an option between a
the major and the minor third transpositions. Bach was familiar with these rules, since he wrote sonatas both in E and Eb,
for a G-major flute part. Telemann uses the same pair of keys in his compositions scored for Flute Pastourelle/Flauto
Pastorale.
Bach Flute 265
the keyboard. From about 1730, it became more usual to play the haut
dessus or concert flute, which was tuned to le ton d'ut, or concert pitch
(at that time, roughly between a':392 and a':415); however, there were
still partisans of the low French pitch in Quantz's time.
With the exception of the trio in The Musical Offering, it is generally
agreed that Bach's flute sonatas were first written between about 1720 and
1730 when flute playing and composition were dominated by the French. If
he took an active interest in this instrument, then Bach must have familiar-
ized himself with the theories and techniques used in France. The leading
authority was Jacques Hotteterre le Romain whose textbook L'Art de
Table I: G-clef transpositions for flute, oboe and recorder (from Hottetene, L'Art de
Prituder, Ch. ID).
Major Third
D: Maj./Min. Third
G: Maj./Min. Third
C: Minor Third
F: Minor Third
C Minor
de Pre'luder. This has the flute part in D major, with instructions on how to
transpose the continuo part to Bb major. This same combination of key signa-
tures occurs several times in his Airs et brunettes pour les flutes traversieres
—more frequently, in fact, than any other combination. Bach also uses it
more often than any other, since it occurs in three of his sonatas (if we in-
clude the Siciliano of the Eb sonata). Hotteterre notates this transposition in
the normal French manner, by overwriting the two clefs: gj> \&h But
Bach did not have this device at his disposal, since the "Qef franchise," with
the G on the bottom line, was not usually used by German flutists. Hence he
found it necessary to write two separate scores for the flute and keyboard
Ex. 2. J. S. Bach: A-major sonata for flute and obbligato harpsichord (BWV 1032)
(harpsichord part).
and the trio from The Musical Offering, show what appears to be a perverse
disregard for the technique of the instrument, as they are in the keys of E
and Eb major, G minor, and C minor, respectively.
However, an experienced flutist of the time would have realized at a
glance that these scores were meant to be transposed. By about 1730, the
Germans had established a convention in scoring for the transposing flute,
which worked on the opposite principle to that of the French system. Up to
that date all French composers, except Couperin, had written the flute part
in the Gl clef, as they expected it to be played in the upper voice, leaving
the task of transposing to the accompanist. The Germans rarely used this clef
(Karlsruhe BLB 307): "Concerto Flauto Trav: d'Amore" and orch. in Bb Maj. (+ G Min.) D Maj./B Min.
Christoph Graupner
1. (Darmstadt, BRD DS Mus. MS 411/7) "Concerto Flaut: d'Amore" and orch. in A (+ E) C/G
2. (Darmstadt, BRDDSMus. MS 464/34) "Ouverture a Flaut. d'Amour" and orch. in E G
3. (Darmstadt, BRD DS Mus. MS 411/13) "Concerto a Flaut. d'Amore, Oboe d'Amore,
Viola d'Amore" and orch. in G (+ E Min.) Bb/G Min.
4. (Darmstadt, BRDDSMus.MS464/40) "Ouverture aFlaut./Oboe/Viola d'Amore"
and orch. in A C
5. (Darmstadt, BRD DS Mus. MS 464/56) "Ouverture a Flaut. d'Amour Hautb.
d'Amour" and orch. inG Bb
Bach Flut*
There is an interesting comparison between these pieces and the system used in France twenty years previously (see Table I). In
Telemann's triple concerto for "d'amore" instruments, only the oboe is designated as such. However, the scoring of the "viola"
part shows that the "d'amore" qualification is meant to apply to all of the instruments. Telemann's "Flauto Pastorale" appears again
in "Der Getreue Musik-Meister"; here the tonality is E Major, not Eb as in the Ouverture. ->
272 The Musical Quarterly
Table III
Bach: Chamber Music for the Flute: a Reconstruction of the Original Tonalities
BWV No. Flute part Keyboard part
1013: A Minor Unaccompanied
1033: C Major Originally unaccompanied,
(continuo later added by C. P. E. Bach)
1032 C _, M ~^^=r from Bach's autograph
1030 B Minor
1020 B Minor G Minor
1031 G E b (alternatively E)
1035 G E (alternatively Eb)
1079 (The Musical E Minor C Minor
Offering trio)
Doubtful cases
1034 E Minor E Minor (possibly C Minor)
1038 (trio-sonata) G C, D, EborE
it seems very probable that even in Germany the alto flute was almost as popular as the high-pitched
type.
Bach Flute 273
Ex. 3. Bach's two sonatas in G major (for the flute part) (BWV 1035 and 1031)
BWV 1035
BWV 1031
Alkpo
Transposed according to Hotteterre's rules (see Ex. 1). Bach did not use the above nota-
tion because the "clef franchise" (Gl clef) was not used in Germany for that flute. Hence
he probably wrote separate scores for flute and keyboard; only the keyboard-based
versions have survived. The manuscripts of both sonatas contain "transposing errors" of a
third, which show that G-major versions must also have existed.
The G-minor sonata (BWV 1020) has fared less well at the hands of
scholars than any other flute composition by Bach. Few of them have
accepted it as a genuine Bach composition—even Marshall will not admit
it into the canon; and most of them cast doubts, for the reasons stated
above, on the possibility that it was intended for the flute. Yet the most
striking thing about this piece is its kinship with the Eb-major sonata. The
two compositions are closely related not only in their form, themes, and
style, but also in their keys and tessitura. They are almost certainly com-
panion pieces. What makes this particularly evident is the perfect symmetry
low c'. This note is not usually within the compass of the Baroque flute,
and the existing sources have a d' in its place. However, we know that
in Germany, in Bach's time, there was a flute which had an extended foot
joint, to play the bottom c'. 13 Bach may have written this virtuoso composi-
tion in order to put such an instrument through its paces.
It is most unlikely, on the other hand, that the trio sonata in G major
was intended for the concert flute. It seems that the bas dessus was con-
sidered particularly suitable for music in which two flutes play together. 14
If Bach favored this type even for solo pieces, he would a fortiori have
" (1) Quantz (I, 16); (2) the tablature to Majer's Museum musicum (Leipzig, 1732); (3) above
all, the Denner flute in the Berlin KulturbesiU, which unfortunately disappeared during World War
II (Sachs Catalogue).
14
Flutes of the bas dessus I flit tc d'amour type were often made in pairs. Also, it is particularly
in compositions for two flutes that the continuo part is either treated as optional or omitted alto-
gether-a practice probably connected with the discrepancies in tuning between the flute and other
instruments.
11
In L'Apotheose de Lulli Couperin has one passage for two flutei transposing a fourth.
14
The five-keyed "Encyclopedia bass flute" has a range of three octaves. But I doubt if it
was invented long before 1750. The types of bass flute that would have been played in Bach's time
are represented by two very dissimilar instruments-the Anciuti in Vienna and the Gedney in Edin-
burgh. Both of these, for different technical reasons, have a very limited compass, as Hotteterre
implies.
" Higbee, in his letter to Early Music (November, 1984), object* that C. P. E. Bach's trio sonata
cannot have been written for the bass flute, as this instrument did not go down to low F. In fact,
the Anciuti flute, dated 1739, has an extended foot joint to low F and is ideal for this composition.
There are half a dozen surviving octave flutes in low D that were made during Ctrl Philipp Emanuel's
lifetime.
278 The Musical Quarterly
for the type of sonorities that Bach expected from the flute. Throughout
these pieces, certain notes or sequences associated with particular fingerings
or voicings on the flute are given the same expressive weight. For example,
in BWV 1030, where we know that the B-minor version represents the
flute part, Bach shows a fondness for the effect that is produced by con-
trasting the " F " and the "Ff" fingerings in the middle register. The well-
known American flutist John Solum has described the slur between these
two notes as the most expressive interval in the Baroque flute. When Hotte-
terre's transposing rules are applied, it turns out that the same interval
11
I have to far found about twelve of these instruments, all made before 1750. It is probably
this type to which Graupner and Moltei are referring, when they score for the flauto d'amore, but I
prefer to avoid this name, in order to distinguish them from the later, narrow-bored type.
Bach Flute 279
However, there is also a German or Dutch alto flute from the same
period. The Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg has a boxwood
alto flute by J. G. Eisenmenger (MIR 345), who worked in Mannheim
during Bach's lifetime, and died in 1741. Instruments of this type could
easily have found their way to Leipzig (or C5then). The three lower joints
of the Eisenmenger are in good condition; the head, however, has been
replaced by another ill-fitting piece which dates from the nineteenth
century. Fortunately, it is possible to get a very good idea of what the
original head was like. In the Gemeente Museum, The Hague, there is an
alto flute in ebony by one of the Van Heerde family (292-1933), probably
that he had a profound love and understanding for the flute. It is quite
possible that he could even play the instrument himself.19
" His elder brother, Johann Jakob, took flute lessons from Buffardin in 1707 in Constantinople.
Why not also Johann Sebastian? Buffardin became a friend of the composer some time after his
appointment to the Court of Dresden in 1717, and is generally believed to have been the inspiring
influence behind Bach's interest in the flute. It was quite normal for composers to acquire a working
knowledge of the most important instruments, and Bach's preoccupation with the flute occurred at a
time when he was experimenting with a variety of foreign musical forms.