Tag Archives: baroque flute

Day 56 – November 25th – Something old and something new

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Rechiert exercises continue to be a pain, but I am slowly improving with both memory and speed. I can get through the whole cycle of Reichert No. 2 without looking at the book, though often loose confidence the first time through in a key. However the second (or third for harder keys) time through I can play it quite quickly, so I think part of it is now developing confidence in my memory rather than getting the notes in.

Today was a bit of a juxtaposition of musical styles. I started off the day with another good stint of traverso practice in preparation for playing in class tomorrow. The allegro movement of Telemann’s Fantasia No. 6 in D minor isn’t perfect, but it’s definitely sounding a lot better than a week ago. Some passages might almost come across as fluent. I think I unknowingly picked quite a tricky fantasia to learn; D minor has F naturals, B flats and quite often C naturals as well! Then there’s the odd G sharp thrown in for good measure whenever the music heads for the dominant! I’m looking at it as a good thing though – picking a piece in D or G major would have meant that I avoided most cross-fingerings. It shows how much I’ve learned that I could actually sightread the C major fantasia quite well this morning!

Later in the day, I Skyped a friend in Australia to put the finishing touches to an application for the New Music Miniseries (run by the New Music Network) next year. We’ve put together a concert of flute and bass trombone music, along with some potential new commissions to expand the currently rather slim repertoire. Who knows whether we’ll get the New Music Network’s support, but either way I really hope we can make the concert happen.

I then finished off the afternoon back in the Baroque, learning the minuets from J.S. Bach’s Sonata in C major BWV 1033 for class tomorrow. Trevor has assigned everyone different movements of the C and E major sonatas, with the aim to discuss Baroque style in general and get a good idea of how to play Bach. I’m quite happy to have fewer notes than usual to learn – more time on technique and studies!

I suppose my little gem of wisdom from today is that diversity is wonderful, and that it must be relished. I have the opportunity to engage with, play and dream about beautiful music from so many different eras, as well as (hopefully) to help in the creation of more. Vlve la différence, vive la musique!

Day 40 – November 9th – Traverso

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After yesterday’s lull in motivation, I ended up having a really productive day today. Partly, I think this was spurred on by the feeling of how much I need to prepare for class this week, but I also had a lovely Skype chat with some friends in Australia this morning and ran four miles (my legs will hurt tomorrow), so was generally in a much better mindset.

After Trevor’s comments on both Monday and Thursday last week about not playing either very loudly or with a full tone, I have been really focusing on this in my practice. I’ve generally tried to up the dynamic level of everything I play, but am also trying to be conscious of dynamics from the very start in everything I play. Andersen No. 4b and 5, which I’ve prepared for tomorrow, are both good examples, though employ dynamics in very different ways. In 4b, the challenge of the study is certainly the articulation and leaps, but I need to remember also the larger dynamic plan of the music – most lines crescendo to mf/f and then decrescendo back down to p. Conversely, no 5 have very few marked dynamic changes other than an f and con alterezza (with pride) at the start. Though there are a few crescendos and decrescendos to make a feature of, the main focus is instead (I think) maintaining the dynamic throughout and still being expressive within the realm of forte. 

Another thing that I’ve been preparing for tomorrow’s class is the traverso (Baroque flute). For the moment, I just need to play a scale, but will be working up to the required slow and fast movement of a sonata by the end of the month. To be honest, I’m not finding the fingering too bad so far, maybe because I’ve played the recorder a lot, though I’ve only attempted scales and tunes in D, G and C major so far. Since the natural scale of the flute is D major, this key requires so awkward cross-fingerings, though some notes on this particular instrument are incredibly out of tune. Once I start the foray into flat keys, though, I’ll need to get my head round all the awkward fingerings.

Day 11 – October 11th – All the extra bits

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Another full day of practice, and my lips and fingers are slowly getting used to playing for 5+ hours a day. Interestingly, I felt the effects of yesterday’s 5 1/2 hours this morning, when my lips were not at all keen on playing tunes with long notes in them. By the second hour of practice, though, I was feeling great.

Memorising the Reichert exercises is still a work in progress, but the more scalic ones from Complete Daily Exercises are fine. Here are some of the things I’m trying in order to get the Reicherts in:

No. 2 from Seven Daily Exercises:

– Playing only the first two bars in every key, really trying to get the pattern clear

– Thinking of the scale degrees within the pattern

– I’m also considering writing a couple of the more difficult keys out!

No. 4 from Seven Daily Exercises:

– Gradually building up the pattern, so starting off with the basic arpeggio, then adding the second semiquaver in each group of eight, then the third etc.

– The thing that I find difficult to remember with this exercise is by how much the third semiquaver of each group leaps. So I’ve been focusing on the scale degree of this note in the pattern – 6th, 2nd, 4th and 6th again.

– Each set of eight goes towards the arpoggiatura on the fourth semiquaver, so have been isolating the re-do-ti-do figure of this arpoggiatura as well.

I’ve also found that my melodic minor scales across the flute’s full range (low B to top D) are rather pitiful compared with the majors. I haven’t done enough work on them in recent months, and am consistently falling apart at the top turn around, especially when the 6th and 7th scale degrees are around B, C and D. And that’s only at crotchet = 66! My goal for the coming week is to get them up to the same speed as the majors; comfortable at crotchet = 88.

In addition to playing the flute, we have a number of other tasks on Trevor’s course:

– Two 30-page projects on the history of the flute, with the first (due before Christmas) covering ethnic flutes and the development of the flute up to 1700, and the second (due mid-March) covering flute development 1700-present day.

– Listen to three CDs from Trevor’s collection each week and write a short amount on our thoughts. As well as recordings of great players and key works, there are also recordings of ethnic flutes and world music.

– Perform a slow and fast movement of a baroque sonata on treble recorder with appropriate ornamentation.

– Perform a slow and fast movement of a baroque sonata on baroque flute with appropriate ornamentation.

– Borrow out a variety of ethnic flutes from Trevor’s collection and try them, ideally in line with listening to relevant CDs.

– Browse Trevor’s collection of flute literature, books, magazines and paraphernalia to get a ‘good idea of all important developments in the flute world’!

Based on that list, I should probably stop procrastinating and get down to some work!

 

View from the front door this morning, and the reason that I didn't go for a run.

View from the front door this morning, and the reason that I didn’t go for a run!