Flute Music: A Brief Survey

Extract

It happened that two sessions ago I was suddenly called upon to supply a Paper for this Association in lieu of one promised, which by accident the writer was unable to give. I thought that some remarks dealing with the evolution of an important member of the modern orchestra—the flute, might be of interest. In this Paper I endeavoured to trace the beginnings of the soft-breathing flute, to show the stages it had passed through, with its variants, until we arrived at the splendid instruments of to-day. Thanks to the ever ready skill of Mr. John Finn, who does not hesitate to put to his lips rude instruments thousands of years old, and who can produce mellifluous sounds from them, I was enabled to let you hear music of many ages. Since the date of that lecture, it has been suggested that it would be well if some further examples of the development of music for the flute could be presented, so that the historical steps could be made more apparent, and the gradual advancement of its music perceived. It is in response to that desire that I stand before you to-day, and shall endeavour to give you some brief account of what, after research, I find has been put forth by composers as component links in the long past chain of special music for the flute.