Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

This is an English translation of Tutor for Playing the Flute (1791) by Johann George Tromlitz. The most explicit of the eighteenth-century tutors for flute-playing, it now serves as a record of instrumental practice as well as a useful guide to the performance of German classical music. The Tutor covers all aspects of flute playing, including intonation, articulation, flute maintenance, posture and breathing, dynamics, ornaments, musical style, cadenzas, and the construction of the flute. This edition will be an indispensable manual for players of baroque and modern flutes, and the information it contains will be invaluable for all musicians, students, and specialists interested in the historically informed performance of German classical music. The text is annotated with critical notes and all of the original music examples are newly printed in modern notation. The volume also contains a fingering chart and a historical introduction.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Translator+s note
• Introduction
• Foreword
• 1 The flute and its character
• 2 Holding the flute, and the embouchure
• 3 Fingering
• 4 The notes and rests, their values and denominations, and the other musical signs
• 5 Time-signatures, and how the notes are divided and counted in them; the beat itself, or counting time according to an appointed tempo
• 6 Tone and pure intonation
• 7 Modern key-signatures
• 8 The articulation proper to this instrument, or the means of governing the wind suitably, as well in slow as in moderately quick movements; also called the single tongue
• 9 The technique for executing fast and very fast passages clearly and roundly; also, though improperly, called the double-tongue
• 10 The ornaments
• 11 The trill
• 12 Fermatas and cadenzas
• 13 The taking of breath in flute-playing
• 14 The discretionary ornaments; or how to vary a simple melody according to the rules of harmony, and to use these variations in a good and; suitable way appropriate to the material
• 15 Summary of the whole, together with a few remarks for pupils and masters

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

As the expectation that players of modern as well as baroque flutes will play with stylistic and historical sophistication has increased, treatises such as those of Quantz (tr. as On Playing the Flute, 2nd ed., 1985; 1st ed., CH, Jul'67) and Tromlitz have become required reading, at least insofar as the statements about playing musically according to the precepts of the period apply to all instruments. Aspects of techniques will, of course, be pertinent only to those performing on historical flutes. Although a reprint of the 1791 edition of this treatise has been available in German (Amsterdam, 1973), Tromlitz has received less attention than Quantz, perhaps because he is more oriented toward technique and the "whole musician" approach of Quantz has also attracted non-flutists who move to him after absorbing Leopold Mozart and C.P.E. Bach. This translation is clear and comprehensible; a real plus is Eileen Hadidian's historical introduction which points out correctly that little study has been done of the period between Quantz and Boehm. As the classic flute becomes more popular and visible, this volume will take its place on the shelf beside its predecessors. J. P. Ambrose; University of Vermont