The Cheney Flute Sonatas Manuscript: An Early Collection for the Traverso, Containing Music by Pepusch and Others

This article describes and evaluates a manuscript album of English provenance from the early eighteenth century containing 24 anonymous solo sonatas for the transverse flute (traverso) and continuo. These are especially interesting in that they date from a period when this still rather novel instrument had, in England, very little purpose-written repertory within that genre. A study of concordances and contextual factors reveals that a large number of them, plus some movements in pasticcio sonatas, are by J. C. Pepusch, whose musical style in solo sonatas is examined in detail. The article includes an inventory with musical incipits of the individual compositions.

History and Construction of the Nohkan

This chapter examines the development and construction techniques of the nohkan and includes interviews with the nohkan makers. It explains nohkan, also known as fue (flute), as a transverse flute made from a type of bamboo known as Pleioblastus simonii. The chapter discusses how the nohkan is traditionally played in the Noh theater, Kabuki, and some shrine festivals, and is recently seen on concert stages as part of both traditional and non-traditional ensembles. It also describes the nohkan as a unique instrument in both construction and sound that uses a nodo, a thin bamboo tube that disrupts the instrument's natural acoustics. The chapter highlights the performance techniques of the nohkan, which include the creation of shakuhachi-like white noise. It looks at several theories that surround the history and construction of the nohkan in Japan.

The Renaissance Flute

The last four decades have seen a revival of interest in the renaissance transverse flute. The few collections of surviving original flutes from the sixteenth century have increasingly attracted musicologists, instrument makers, and players to examine, measure (and copy), perform, and record on them. Renaissance flute workshops and summer courses attract students and amateur players in several corners of Europe every year. At the same time, renaissance manuscripts and early prints have increasingly become available on the internet, providing an ever-expanding supply of materials for flutists wanting to experience renaissance music for themselves. This handbook for renaissance flute players offers all the information needed to buy, maintain, and learn to play the renaissance flute, whether alone or in consort. It explains how to read and interpret renaissance music whether from original notation or in modern editions, how to make your own transcriptions, and how to write your own diminutions. It also introduces readers to the basics of renaissance music theory, in clear and simple language. At a time when the gap between the professional “classical” music world and its public seems to have grown irrevocably, this book aims to demystify the business of making beautiful music together. It is a key to the elegant, cylindrical flute that was played all over Europe in the age of polyphony and to the gentle art of consort playing.

The eighteenth century fife from the shipwreck of General Carleton of Whitby

In the course of the fatal voyage, General Carleton was transporting a cargo of tar and iron. This cargo facilitated the preservation of artefacts: the spilled tar formed a shell, which protected the artefacts from seawater. Therefore, the wood was not damaged nor deformed. These conditions allowed the divers to find another musical instrument, which happened to be a wooden fife. It was lying in the south-eastern part of the wreck, behind the mainmast step, where most personal belongings of the crew members were discovered. The state of preservation of the flute is good. The X-ray photo confirmed the cylindrical cross section of the instrument. It’s dimensions indicate the C# or C tuning (transposed to B or Bb). Notwithstanding its atypical two-part construction, it should be classified, according to the Anglo-Saxon nomenclature as a fife, that is „a small cylindrical transverse Flute, but with a narrower bore and hence a louder, shriller sound than the flute proper”. The maker’s marks are visible on the surface, under the embouchure hole and between the 3rd and the 4th finger hole. The name indicates that the fife was made by John Just Schuchart or Charles Schuchart. The dating suggests Charles (1720–65) as the maker. He had a shop on Chandois-street, Covent-garden, London, called “Two Flutes and Hautboy”. Based on the signature type it can be said that the fife was produced in years 1759–65. The collections around the world include 8 recorders, 26 transverse flutes, 3 oboes, a clarinet and a bassoon from the workshops of father and son. It might be possible that there are no preserved analogies for the described instrument, which enriches the known collection of Schucharts’ instruments by one fife.

Characterization of the sonority associated to woodwinds instruments through spectral analysis

The sonority is one of the definitions widely used by musicians when trying to define the color or timbral balances associated with individual or groups of instruments , such as for ensembles or orchestras. This definition obeys to subjective musical parameters associated with "color balance", "sound amplitude", among others. In the field of musical acoustics, it is well known that the sounds coming from musical instruments depend on several acoustic physical parameters such as Intensity, Frequency, and the number of harmonics, as well as other aspects including, association with its manufacturing process, such as geometry and materials used for construction. This work presents, from a spectral analysis of the timbre with the use of Fast Fourier Transform (FFT), Spectral Power Density (DPE) and Spectrograms, the characterization of the subjective concept of "sonority", for some instruments of the Woodwind family: Piccolo flute, transverse flute, clarinet and oboe. It is concluded that the stage of sound evolution as the attack and sustenance, allow the establishment of harmonics whose powers are fundamental to define the timbric "color" associated with each instrument, as well as the number of harmonics allowed to establish parameters of "sound identity", useful for the generation of a coefficient extracted from the obtained spectral analysis, which allows to advance in the characterization of the Sonority. The generalization of the method is suggested for all families of musical instruments.

Orchestra in concerts of Johann Joachim Quantz in the light of the doctrines of instrumental performance of the Baroque period

The article examines the groundbreaking work of the German flutist, oboist, educator, composer and conductor Johann Joachim Quantz (in particular, The Experience of Instructions for Playing the Transverse Flute, Berlin, 1752), which provides a theoretical understanding of important aspects of the instrumental culture of the Baroque era. J.J. Quantz's arguments about the orchestra, formulated in the treatise, not only allow to form ideas about the types of performing groups of the Baroque period, but also reflect the aesthetics of ideas about the optimum of orchestral writing, acoustic, timbre and dramaturgical patterns of orchestral groups and textured layers. Even taking into account the personal creative priorities of the composer-performer, on the examples of concerts for solo woodwinds (two flutes and flute and oboe) from his own creative work you can get an idea of the use of small orchestral composition in the contemporary compositional and performing tradition. musician baroque instruments. It is obvious that the orchestra is interpreted as a means of accompaniment to soloists, taking on leading functions only in short episodes of introductions to individual thematic constructions, orchestral connections in caesuras of solo parts or final cadence constructions of individual parts. The main functions of the orchestra's voices are clearly divided, depending on the drama of the deployment and the ratio of the soloists' parts, accompanying them or duplicating them in the function of ripieno. The accompaniment can be interpreted as basso continuo, as a complementary chord complex of middle voices or as an interval duplication of close instruments in terms of tenure and timbre.