transatlantic pedagogy, final
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TRANSATLANTIC PEDAGOGY
THE STYLE AND PRACTICE OF FLUTE FROM PARIS TO AMERICA
by
Caleb Mitchum
Oklahoma City University
Music Research and Writing S01
November 2014
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The flute, like its fellow instruments in the orchestra, has evolved over centuries.
The concept of the flute has its humble beginnings in prehistory, originally manifesting as
various ocarinas and recorders the world over. The modern Western concert flute is the
culmination of one of many lines of evolution, though certainly not a terminal point. In
the same way that instruments themselves evolve over time so must their technique of
playing and thus the pedagogical practices associated with them. The rich history of a
particular musical instrument includes both the actual physical traits of the instrument
and, perhaps more importantly, the legacy of the great players, composers, teachers, and
literature of that instrument. Because of the interdependency of these factors it is
advantageous, even necessary, for us as performers (particularly in the field of art music
that is generally fixated on older music) to understand not only the current context of our
instrument, but also where it came from. This contextual awareness equips us with the
tools necessary to properly understand and interpret music originating in all relevant time
periods.
The physical form of the modern flute has remained relatively unchanged since
the German metalsmith and flutist Theobald Boehm refined his attempts at recreating the
flute in 1847. One might then assume the flute has its roots in Germany, but a more1
thorough historical inspection reveals that at the time of its invention there were many
competing designs of flute vying for supremacy in a booming marketplace. The final
arbiters of which model would succeed were not the manufacturers or even performers,
as many great flute makers devised a plethora of ingenious devices to improve the
Ardal Powell, The Flute,(New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002): 182.1
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instrument, and many great players were successful on most of these competing designs.
It was rather the teachers who influenced the bevy of students that passed through their
tutelage that had the greatest influence on the uptake of these new instruments. Because
of this phenomenon the modern concert flute is essentially the same physical instrument
globally and is also played in a similar style all over the world. The universality of this
particular instrument and style can be traced back to one of the first centralized schools of
music, the Paris Conservatoire, which was founded in 1795 during the French
Revolution. The Paris Conservatoire has for much of the history of the modern flute2
been the center of flute pedagogy and repertoire for the instrument. The unmistakeable
influence of the traditions and practices employed by the teachers of this school can be
seen throughout the history of the instrument and around the globe, and particular
influences on American flute style can be traced through very specific pedagogical lines.
In this paper I will reveal the direct lines tying the teachers, instrument technology, and
literature of the Paris Conservatoire to those of the modern American School.
The term school is here used to refer to a set of parameters that loosely define a
particular method of performing and teaching of a specific artistic literature. In his
definitive history of the flute Ardal Powell provides readers with a succinct working
definition of the French School,
The notion of the French Flute School usually refers to a style ofteaching and playing the instrument that originated with Claude-
Paul Taffanel and his pupils at the Paris Conservatoire around the
Patricia Joan Ahmad, The Flute Professors of the Paris Conservatoire from Devienne to2
Taffanel, 1795-1908, Order No. 1315649, University of North Texas. In PROQUESTMS ProQuestDissertations & Theses Global, https://ezproxy.okcu.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/194144275?accountid=12942: 1.
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turn of the twentieth century In [a] looser sense, we can easily
list the styles main attributes: the use of the French-style silver
flute, a preoccupation with tone, a standard repertoire, and a set of
teaching materials in which the Taffanel-Gaubert method and the
tone development exercises of Marcel Moyse hold a central place.3
To understand the connection between the modern American School and late 19th
century Paris one must look to the foundations of the Conservatoire. This venerated
institution has its origins in the training of instrumentalists for military bands and
vocalists for the Opra. The centralized nature of this school meant that all students (who4
were admitted based on audition and at no cost) received a consistent education. It was
typical for all classes to be taught in a seminar or masterclass fashion, meaning that large
numbers of students would receive the same instruction simultaneously rather than
private lessons.5
A brief inspection of the techniques and reputations of the instructors of flute
from the beginnings of the Conservatoire reveal a strikingly consistent model of teaching.
Indeed, up to the present day every instructor of flute at the Conservatoire has been a
graduate of the school and winner of thepremiere prix (a prize awarded at annual
examinations to musicians of the highest caliber), meaning that every instructor has
received the highest approval from their instructor, ad infinitum.6
The first and foremost instructor of flute at the Conservatoire upon its founding
was Franois Devienne. Devienne showed a propensity for music at a very young age and
Powell, 208.3
Edward Blakeman. Taffanel: Genius of the Flute(New York: Oxford University Press, 2005): 16.4
Ahmad, 1-2.5
Ibid., 121.6
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by his early twenties he was employed as a flutist and bassoonist in many different
concert settings as well as military bands and so was an obvious choice for the position.7
His tenure at the Conservatoire is important for two main reasons. First, his promotion of
new types of instruments set a precedent. He himself played on a simple, single-keyed
instrument, which was fast becoming obsolete. Regardless he encouraged his students to
use the new designs that included as many as five or six keys, which played better in tune
and made the increasingly chromatic music of the day easier to execute. This8
willingness to embrace the new and novel was continued throughout the coming century,
placing the Conservatoire on the cutting edge of instrumental innovation. Secondly,
Devienne also contributed to the written literature for the instrument, both through his
many compositions and his method book,Nouvelle Mthode Theorique et Pratique pour
la Flute. This comprehensive method book contains long sections of prose describing
Deviennes technique, but also contains musical examples as well as many duets and
teaching pieces. Many future teachers borrowed from this foundational text, and even
though it was written with a single keyed flute in mind many of its exercises still exist
today. This was the beginning of a tradition of creating comprehensive resources for use9
in classes by almost all of the following flute instructors at the Conservatoire; resources
that drew on the teachings of those who came before and altered them to suit the
changing demands of new instruments and new music. The importance of the physical
Ahmad, 8.7
Mary Catherine Jett Byrne, Tooters and Tutors: Flute Performance Practice Derived from8
Pedagogical Treatises of the Paris Conservatoire, 1838-1927, Order No. NN84290, University of Victoria(Canada). In PROQUESTMS ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global, https://ezproxy.okcu.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/230664489?accountid=12942: 61, note 96.
Ibid., 121.9
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form of the instrument as well as the texts associated with its playing are quite significant
in tracing the origins of the modern flute, and both play a central role in bridging the
Atlantic gap.
Many of Deviennes contemporaries and fellow instructors of flute at the early
Conservatoire helped to lay the foundation of French flute technique, and more
importantly the method by which it was taught. These methods emphasized two main
aspects of playing. Antoine Hugot, a colleague of Devienne, who was known for his
correct intonation, fine tone, and brilliant execution illustrated clearly the French10
occupation with tone by saying that the flutes tone should be essentially sweet and must
be nothing but that, but there is a brilliance, a strength, a fullness, a softness, relative to
the possibility of the instrument... these are indispensable qualities that constitute the
beautiful tone. This preoccupation with a sweet tone is a hallmark of the French11
School and is somewhat peculiar to it in comparison to the practices of German and
British flutists. One particular difference lies in the fact that most French flutists spoke12
out, sometimes vehemently, against vibrato. This, however, may be a purely semantic
issue, which will be discussed further later.
The other primary concern of the French school was an almost obsessive use of
repetitive patterned exercises in order to develop fluency in all figurations and keys.
Almost all Conservatoire instructors of flute have contributed to the corpus of pages
blackened with notation exploring every esoteric finger and embouchure movement.
Ahmad, 23.10
Ibid., 31.11
Ibid., 37-38.12
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Large portions of DeviennesMthode were devoted to this kind of exercise, and most all
literature that follows in the French school embraces the same emphasis on the
importance of attaining fluency.
One teacher who contributed greatly to this tradition was Jean-Louis Tulou. Tulou
was a son of one of the first bassoon teachers at the Conservatoire and at a very young
age began studying with Johann Georg Wnderlich, a colleague of Deviennes. He was
an uncontested prodigy and virtuoso, winning thepremier prixat the age of 15, though
according to one of the teachers he deserved to win a year earlier, but the prize was
withheld because he was so young. He won several high profile positions in orchestras13
around Paris and was a sought after recitalist, known for giving flamboyant
performances. Tulou soon joined the ranks of the great 19th century touring virtuosi in a
small way, and the French sound began to be heard throughout Europe.
In 1828 Tulou became the professor of flute at the Conservatoire, teaching for a
total of 31 years and exerting great influence upon the future of the institution. One of the
primary ways that he made his mark was through his compositions. His catalog consists
of more than 100 published works including flute solos, concerti, and duets. Thepremiere
prix (or first prize) mentioned previously was an award given to students who played at a
most satisfactory level at an annual examination known as the Concours. One of the
aspects of this examination was a performance of a specified piece. For every iteration of
the annual Concoursbetween 1832 and 1860 Tulou composed a new piece that all
students played as part of the examination, and these pieces continued to be used by his
Ahmad, 47.13
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successors for years to come. Many of these pieces are still played today, but their14
primary influence was on the students of the time who began to reach new technical
heights, pushing the envelope of what the instrument was capable of doing. The difficulty
of these pieces is made all the more impressive by the fact that Tulou himself played on
an older five-keyed flute. In the tradition of the school, however, he encouraged his
students to instead use the more capable (though more complicated) twelve-key
instruments of the day. His contribution to the literature and furtherance of technical15
progress of the instrument make him stand out as a significant name in the early
Conservatoire. In the words of Mary Byrne,
Through composition, many of the flute professors have shaped
our heritage, pushing for an instrument with greater powers of
intonation and technical flexibility, shaping a generation of
virtuosic flutists with their Concourspieces written for the
students annual examinations.16
The next teacher of flute at the Conservatoire, Vincent-Joseph Dorus, made one of
the most important contributions to the modern flute and its continually improving
dexterity and tone. Dorus was as admired a performer as those instructors who came
before him, continuing the pattern of great performers as teachers at the Conservatoire.
He was noted for his perfection of execution and purity of style, typical comments for
the French style. Doruss revered playing was not only due to his great skill, however.17
Kathleen Roberta Cook, The Paris Conservatory and the Solos De Concours for Flute,14
1900-1955, Order No. 9209214, The University of Wisconsin - Madison, 1991. In PROQUESTMSProQuest Dissertations & Theses Full Text; ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global, https://ezproxy.okcu.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/303941850?accountid=12942: 145-46.
Byrne, 61, note 96.15
Ibid., 18.16
Ahmad, 69.17
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Almost 30 years before his tenure at the Conservatoire Dorus discovered and began
practicing in secret on a new design of flute by Theobald Boehm.18
In 1832 Boehm began to attempt to engineer a flute that was capable of all of the
chromatic gymnastics that music of the day called for and which also had a more
voluminous tone. This new instrument could compete with the other instruments of the
orchestra and project in the increasingly larger recital settings that musicians had to deal
with. He was inspired to do this upon hearing the great English flutist Charles Nicholson,
who had modified a normal simple system flute to have much larger tone holes which
allowed for greater volume and more expansive tone capabilities, though it made the
playing of the instrument difficult for those with smaller hands. Over the next decades19
Boehm devised increasingly efficient systems of keys, eventually creating a patented
model in 1847 that is, save a few key innovations in the time since, mechanically
identical to the modern system we use today. One of the innovations that was integrated20
into the 1847 patent model was an invention of Dorus, an adopter of the earlier Boehm
systems. Dorus changed the configuration of the G# key to make it closed in its resting
position which made the fingering system for the 1847 flute much more manageable and
similar to the older flutes that came before, but he did so in such a way that it was
acoustically similar to Boehms previous system that included a G# key that was open in
its resting position. This, in addition to Doruss fantastic reputation as a performer on21
Ahmad, 69.18
Ibid., 63.19
Powell, 182.20
Nancy Toff, The Development of the Modern Flute(New York: Taplinger Pub. Co, 1979): 64.21
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the Boehm system, made the 1847 flute quite popular. After Dorus took over as flute
instructor at the Conservatoire he instituted the Boehm flute as the standard for his
students in 1838, though his contemporary Tulou continued using the older system in his
own performances. This meant that the majority of the many skilled performers who22
came from the Conservatoire and travelled around Europe took the Boehm flute with
them and thus began establishing its dominance. By the mid-nineteenth century the
Boehm flute had received numerous accolades at various trade fairs and was dominant in
France and popular in England, though ironically German flutists tended to continue
using simple system flutes and largely ignored the new system.23
One of Doruss pupils, Claude-Paul Taffanel, would go on to become the rock
upon which the modern conception of the French School was based. Though the concept
of a French School is a necessarily fluid distinction it is a commonly held opinion that the
roots of what modern flutist mean when they refer to that vague moniker is the tradition
that Taffanel refined and employed with great success. Taffanel entered the Conservatoire
in January of 1860 at the age of 15 and received thepremiere prixin July of that same
year. By 1865 he had supplanted principal players in the most illustrious theater and24
concert orchestras in Paris. His eminent career as a performer was supplemented by his25
fame as a highly respected teacher, his position as the director of the Paris Opra where
he conducted significant premieres as well as classics, and his directorship of the Socit
Nancy Toff, The Flute Book: A Complete Guide for Students and Performers(New York:22
Oxford University Press, 1996): 54.
Ibid.,57.23
Blakeman, 17.24
Ahmad, 81.25
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des Concerts du Conservatoire where he led regular concerts and developed a close
working relationship with Camille Saint-Sans. Taffanel was a versatile and ambitious
individual, and would most certainly have been a familiar face to patrons of the fin de
sicle Paris music scene.
Figure 1: Paul Taffanel demonstrating his embouchure and body position.26
Taffanel launched a career as a solo artist to supplement his teaching and his
regular playing positions, a rare opportunity as concertizing flutists were still few and far
between. He took the French fascination with tone to fetishistic new heights and drew
from his experiences at the Opra to imitate the human voice as an ideal. His total
Powell, 217.26
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fixation on tone (though he certainly did not lack technical facility) drew praise from all
who heard. Because Taffanel belonged to the first generation that fairly universally
adopted the Boehm flute he was presented with the opportunity to dictate the proper
method of playing it. The older wooden instruments had a different character of tone
simply because of physical construction. The new metal instruments fundamentally
different tone had yet to be fully understood, and it seems Taffanel was one of the first to
explore the full palette of its possible colors. Many critics of the day praised his playing,
but Guy de Charnac provides probably the most succinct but complete distillation of the
general perception of Taffanels accomplishments,
I have a theory that certain artists draw from their instruments a
particular quality of tone, so that they cannot be mistaken for
anyone else. There could be a flutist of comparable virtuosity to
Taffanel, but never one who sounded like him. I dont mean just in
terms of the style of playing, but in the essence of the sound itself.27
Taffanel perfected the traditional French tone, but he is remembered by most
flutists today for his monumental contribution to the literature. Though it was not finished
until after his death (by one of his students, Phillipe Gaubert), TaffanelsMethode
Complte de Flte is probably the most venerated tome of flute knowledge,
encompassing everything from the routine to the arcane. Affectionally referred to as
Taffanel and Gaubert by most flutists today, it is used as a source for tone and
technique exercises, containing material from previous methods as well as new
formulations. It is multilingual and methodical in its layout, providing a clear and logical
Blakeman, 35.27
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pathway for improvement. Though the method is primarily focused on tone development
there is significant technical demand, as many pages are completely coated with florid
explorations of every remote key, as was common in method books from the
Conservatoire. In addition to this monumental method book Taffanel is also responsible
for bringing pieces such as the Bach sonatas into the standardrepertoire for the
instrument, pieces which are today requested on every audition list.
Figure 2: Page 112 ofMethode Complte de Flte, showing repetitive patterns. 28
If Taffanel is the culmination of a French tradition, then he serves as a point of
elision between the French and American styles. It is through direct students of his that
the style is carried across the Atlantic. There are two students cum teachers in particular
who are important in this transitional period: Georges Barrre and Marcel Moyse. Both
Claude Paul Taffanel and Philippe Gaubert,Mthode Complte De Flte (Paris: A. Leduc, 1923): 112.28
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studied with Taffanel (and others) at the Conservatoire, and both eventually made their
way to America.
Marcel Moyse took advantage of his pedigree and continued some traditions,
while also starting some of his own. He published many instructional compositions and
collections. HisDe la Sonorit is commonly paired with Taffanel and Gauberts work,
and most flutist have some familiarity with it. His other contribution to history was
extensive recording work, which Moyse did mainly to pay the bills. He, and others, came
to America at least partially because it was much easier to make a living in America
versus Europe during trying economic times. These recordings brought standard flute29
repertoire into the living rooms of many people who would have otherwise never heard
such music, blazing a path that was followed by many others coming after him. Moyse
taught extensively and was known to be somewhat authoritarian, one of his students
noting He didnt like it if you didnt play his interpretation. Moyses contributions30
continue to influence players around the world, primarily by way of his published works
and the draconian influence he exerted on his many American students.
Georges Barrre was arguably the most important link between the French
tradition and what would come to blossom in America. Barrre left an already successful
career (he played the flute solo in the premiere of DebussysPrlude l'aprs-midi d'un
faune, a truly enviable position) in France in 1905 to come play in the struggling New
York Symphony. He was no prodigy, taking several attempts to achieve a premiere prix,
Powell, 239.29
Ibid., 223.30
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but by the time he came to America he was very well respected. Not surprisingly he was
regarded for his mastery of tone, which was probably unrivaled in color and variety.31
One aspect of his playing that was not so typically French was his application of
vibrato. As mentioned before, the French School generally panned the use of vibrato in
their texts. In the recording age, however, we can hear several French flutists employ
vibrato, including Barrre. Barrre is one of the first who verbally addressed vibrato in32
a meaningful way and acknowledged his use of it, unlike Moyse, who simultaneously
disparaged it and employed it, using confusing language. Barrre considered vibrato a
necessary evil brought about by the tastes of the audience, as he remarked to his students
for three hundred years flutists tried to play in tune. Then they gave up and invented
vibrato. Contrary to that statement, vibrato is hardly a modern invention. In fact, many33
French flutists who unambiguously spoke out against its usage in one place promoted the
use of a natural vibrato in another. According to John Wummer, Taffanel, Gaubert,
Maquarre, and Barrre have all concurred in the idea that the vibrato is not produced but
is the resulting phenomenon of the naturally breathed tone. This perceived34
mysterious natural property of vibrato makes it difficult to know exactly how vibrato was
employed before recording technology was available. Nancy Toff dedicates a chapter to a
discussion of vibrato, its roots in Baroque ornamentation, and how it came to be applied
Ahmad, 111.31
Christopher Steward, Early Flute Recordings, Robert Bigio Flute Pages, accessed September32
15, 2014, http://robertbigio.com/recordings.htm
Ahmad, 111.33
Toff, The Flute Book, 107.34
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the way it is today. This is beyond the scope of this paper, but suffice to say that Barrre35
and his teaching influenced the uptake of a specific type of vibrato in America; a
consciously applied vibrato, somewhat slower in frequency, and somewhat wider in
amplitude, and which was used as an expressive tool.
As part of the deal bartered to lure him to America Barrre was given not just the
principal chair in the New York Symphony but also a teaching position at the new
Institute of Musical Arts, the school that would eventually become known as Juilliard. It
was through this teaching position that he was able to distribute the style and techniques
he learned entirely in France to a generation of young American players. These students
were the first generation of purely American flutists who were heavily influenced by the
French tradition, a pedagogical approach to which they had previously not been
introduced. Barrres greatest contribution to the future of the flute was through his
teaching at this school, and through the influence he had over one student in particular.
William Morris Kincaid was a student of Barrre, receiving his diploma from
Juilliard in 1914. Even as a student he was a well respected performer and joined the36
New York Symphony alongside his teacher shortly after graduating. In 1921 Leopold
Stokowski (then the director of the Philadelphia Orchestra) was dissatisfied with his
principal flutist and Barrre recommended Kincaid as a replacement. He was
immediately offered the position. He took the job and spent the next four decades with
Toff, The Flute Book,109.35
Demetra Baferos Fair, Flutists Family Tree: In Search of the American Flute School, Order36
No. 3093645, The Ohio State University. In PROQUESTMS ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Full Text;ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global, https://ezproxy.okcu.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/305318023?accountid=12942: 51.
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the ensemble, being featured as a soloist in no less than 215 performances during that
time. In 1924 Kincaid became the instructor of flute at the Curtis Institute of Music.37
During his tenure many great students passed through his studio, and those students went
on to inhabit positions in the many orchestras that were then being formed all over
America. In this way Kincaids teaching was reliably spread by students who followed
the typical career model of performing and teaching.
Kincaid was trained by Barrre in a typical French way, preoccupied with tone
and articulation, but also very technically capable. He had his own personal touches that
set him apart from the typical French sound in a few ways, however. Almost every source
that describes Kincaids sound (and either by extension or direct statement, the
American flute sound) uses words like vigorous or even virile, while most typical
French flutists were more like to be described as sweet or sensitive. What they are
describing can be fairly clearly heard in recordings.
Christopher Stewards collection of early flute recordings, available online, are a
wonderful resource for comparing and contrasting the sounds of Old World flutists with
those of Kincaids generation. Of course the quality of these recordings make it difficult
to make concrete statements about the differences, but some obvious things can be heard
even on the heavily cut recordings from the early 20th century. Recordings of players
such as Gaubert, Barrre, Moyse, and other Parisian flutists are available, and all display
similar characteristics. Even in these old recordings one can hear the sweet, refined tone,
the careful articulation, and the natural fast vibrato that the French School typically
Fair, 52.37
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employed at the time. The slightly later recordings of William Kincaid and his student
Julius Baker, for example, share some of these characteristics. The articulation is still
quite crisp, and there are moments when the typical sweet French sound is heard, but
other times a more aggressive kind of playing is quite obvious. Both Kincaid and Baker
seem to have a fuller tone, though how much of this is due to recording technology and
how much is real can be argued. The main difference is in the use of vibrato. In Kincaids
recording it is obvious that the vibrato is being actively applied to the tone. In Bakers it
is even more obvious and one can hear the way he uses vibrato to compliment, even
enhance phrasing. In both cases the vibrato is slower, more controlled, and less constant
than the earlier purely French examples.38
Two of Kincaids most successful students were the aforementioned Julius Baker
and Joseph Mariano. Mariano was the less intrepid of the two, remaining in one place for
the majority of his career. In 1935, at the age of 24, he was offered the principal chair
with the Rochester Philharmonic and the professorship at the Eastman School of Music,
and he remained at these posts until 1968 and 1974 respectively. Marianos students39
were numerous and talented. Included among them was the current instructor of flute at
Eastman, Bonita Boyd, who was handed the post directly from Mariano and who has
herself produced many of the great flutists of today. He was also Walfrid Kujalas
primary teacher, making it possible for me to trace my own lineage (and that of all recent
All recordings referenced in this paragraph were accessed through Stewards Early Flute38
Recordings, http://robertbigio.com/recordings.htm
Fair, 69.39
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OCU flute students and alumni) back directly through my teacher to Kujala, and thus to
Mariano and Kincaid.
This strong link of most modern American flutists to Kincaid is furthered by the
dominance of Julius Baker. Baker taught at both Juilliard and the Curtis Institute (and
was later associated with Carnegie Mellon), with many of the most revered flutists of
today passing through his studio at some point. Luminaries such as Jeanne Baxtresser,
Robert Dick, Marina Piccinini, and Ransom Wilson flourished under his tutelage, among
hundreds of others. Just the few students of Baker mentioned above have heavily
influenced the modern American flute world. For example, Baxtresser literally wrote the
book on orchestral excerpts for flute, as any flutist worth their salt will own her
publication of standard excerpts and directions for performance gained from her
experience in the New York Philharmonic. Baker, an active recitalist all around the world,
also set about recording a bevy of classics, standards, and musical bonbons that have
remained standards in flutists discographies through today.
So it is in these men and their students that we see the true American tradition
come to maturity and begin to dominate the landscape. In fact, 91% of over 8000 flutists
in the United States surveyed by Demetra Fair can trace their lineage back to Barrre,
87% of these through his American born student, Kincaid. These somewhat astounding40
numbers show a remarkably strong connection between most American flutists today, and
more importantly illustrates a strong connection, through Barrre, to the Paris
Conservatoire and the French School. We can identify several characteristics that this
Fair, ii.40
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American School shares with the French, but we can also point out differences. American
flutists almost exclusively use metal Boehm flutes just as in Paris, though since the
beginning they have had a stronger preference for more exotic metals than silver (Barrre
and Kincaid both played on platinum instruments) and have more readily embraced
differing manufacture methods and various additions to Boehms basic system. Both were
centered around institutions of musical education, though the Paris Conservatoire was
quite centralized while the American schools were more geographically and
institutionally diverse, leading to a more diverse community and practices in general. The
French tended to teach in a masterclass format while most Americans work in private
lessons. The American School shows a similar preoccupation with tone, but with the
caveat of applied, intentional vibrato being a particularly prominent difference. The
sweet tone of the French was supplanted in America by the more virile tone of
players like Kincaid. Flutists in France relied on very specific playing and teaching posts
to make careers, while American flutists were more creative in their pursuit of
compensation, fueled by a timely American interest in orchestral music and music
education as well as a marketplace less constrained by tradition.
The previous discourse is a sparse timeline leading from the foundation of the
Paris Conservatoire to modern American flute pedagogues and style. Though certain
details and personages have been left out for the sake of brevity it is still relatively easy
to trace the remarkably straight route of flute pedagogy that led to the modern condition.
Of course there are subtleties not addressed here. There are entirely separate schools of
flute playing that exist and compete with the predominant styles. There are mavericks in
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every field, and this one is not an exception, with characters such as Greg Patillo and his
flute beatboxing not falling neatly into the timeline presented here. Applying names like
the French School or American School to any particular set of characteristics is difficult,
and their definitions are necessarily broad. The usefulness and relevance of these titles is
in their application as linear and geographic markers on a seamless progression of time
and place in which we can trace the passing of ideas from one individual to the next. The
French School, as defined earlier, is associated with particular teachers, instruments, and
texts. The American School shares many of these identifiers, with some fairly significant
differences. The individuals within each of these categories are infinitely more complex
and nuanced than these titles can accurately describe, but an awareness of the connection
between these individuals leads to a holistic knowledge of flute history, an awareness of
ones context in a broad net of artists working in the same medium, and tools necessary
for historically focused musicians to make informed artistic decisions as well as a
perspective that leads to a more informed and likely more successful career in the future.
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