Page:The story of the flute (IA storyofflute1914fitz).djvu/139

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CHAPTER XI.

THE FLUTE IN THE ORCHESTRA.[1]

Introduction of the flute into the orchestra—The flute and piccolo as used by the great composers—Bach—His obligatos—Handel—His flauto-piccolo—Flute and organ—Gluck—Haydn—The Creation—Symphonies—Mozart—Disliked the flute—Symphonies—Serenades—Operas—Concertos—Beethoven—His famous flute passages—Weber—Meyerbeer—Piccolo passages—Italian operatic composers—William Tell overture—Mendelssohn—Midsummer Night's Dream—Symphonies—Oratorios—Schubert—Schumann—Use by modern composers—Berlioz—Flute and Harp—Brahms—Dvǒrák—The Spectre's Bride—Cadenzas—Grieg—Bizet's Carmen—Sullivan—The Golden Legend—Coleridge-Taylor—Wagner—Tschaikowsky—R. Strauss—Passages of extreme difficulty.

The flute is the leader of the wood-wind, and if judiciously used is one of the most telling instruments, and is capable of producing a great varietyEarly
Instances
of its Use
of effects. The earliest representations of an orchestra rarely include a flute or any kind, but one in a Breviary of the fifteenth century, now in the Brussels Library, contains two flutes-à-bec. Fifes and a flute were included in a band which played instrumental intermezzi at a performance of Ariosto's Suppositi before Pope Leo at the Vatican

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  1. In some instances the musical examples have been abbreviated.