Tooters and tutors: flute performance practice derived from pedagogical treatises of the Paris Conservatoire, 1838-1927

• Main Author: Byrne, Mary Catherine Jett
• Other Authors: Schwandt, Erich
• Format: Others
• Language: English; en
• Published: 2018
• Subjects: Flute; Instruction and study; History; Music; France; History and criticism
• Online Access: https://dspace.library.uvic.ca//handle/1828/9611

Throughout the two hundred years of the Paris Conservatoire, the Professors of Flute have carefully documented their philosophies in numerous large-scale, comprehensive treatises. Building on the biographical and historical studies by earlier scholars, this dissertation will study three major treatises by Professors of Flute at the Paris Conservatoire to shed light on the performance practice of the flutists performing or trained in Paris: the Méthode pour servir a l'enseignement de la nouvelle flûte (1838) by Victor Coche, the Méthode pour flûte système Boehm (c. 1880) by Joseph Henri Altès, and L'Art de la flûte collected by Claude Paul Taffanel, completed in two parts by Philippe Gaubert (Méthode complète, 1923) and Louis Fleury ("La Flûte," 1927). Chapters 1 through 4 provide an historical context for the dissertation, including: a history of the Paris Conservatoire with particular emphasis on prevailing pedagogical trends at that institution, the evolution of the flute culminating in the innovations of Theobald Boehm, factors bearing on the professional flutist in Paris, and historical information on the flute treatises examined. In chapters 5 through 7, each of the three method treatises by Coche, Altès, and Taffanel with Gaubert and Fleury are evaluated for implications of performance practice based on the type of instruction and exercises devoted to the various component parts of each of six proposed elements of music--pitch, rhythm, timbre, dynamic, form and musical style--as well as areas of interest receiving special emphasis by each treatise composer. The concluding chapter collates the data of the earlier chapters and offers illumination on flute performance practice in France during the period 1838 to 1927. === Graduate