
The Keyed Flute by Johann George Tromlitz
Edited by Ardal Powell
Johann George Tromlitz(Author)
Clarendon Press
Published on 18. July 1996
Book
Hardback
288 pages
978-0-19-816462-3 (ISBN)
Description
The Keyed Flute is a translation and study of J.G. Tromlitz's tutor for the 8-keyed flute, first published in German in 1800 when the design of the flute was multifarious. It is the first serious 19th-century method book for the instrument, explaining in great detail how to play flutes of Tromlitz's own special design.
Powell's study of the late 18th-century flute places the Tromlitz flute in its context. He offers a new approach to the instrument's history, relating the design and manufacture of the flute, its tone and intonation, to contemporay evidence of playing technique, performance practice, composition style, developments in the flute market, and the flute's important place in society. Documentation of the history of the flute in this period is the most complete to date, revealing a clear picture of
Tromlitz's importance and of his contemporary influence. The edition contains information vital to the historically informed performance of classical and Romantic music.
Powell's study of the late 18th-century flute places the Tromlitz flute in its context. He offers a new approach to the instrument's history, relating the design and manufacture of the flute, its tone and intonation, to contemporay evidence of playing technique, performance practice, composition style, developments in the flute market, and the flute's important place in society. Documentation of the history of the flute in this period is the most complete to date, revealing a clear picture of
Tromlitz's importance and of his contemporary influence. The edition contains information vital to the historically informed performance of classical and Romantic music.
Reviews / Votes
If no other praise were due, the mere fact of his translating these books would have indebted the general, and specifically the English-speaking readers to Ardal Powell...More, and even higher praise is merited by the fact that Mr Powell placed this text in its historical context and perspective...The translation of Tromlitz's text makes fluent and comfortable reading. It does not feel as a translation. No mean feat!...Ardal Powell suceeds eminently in establishingTromlitz, with Johann Joachim Quantz before and Theobald Boehm after him as the pioneering maker, teacher and theoretician he undoubtedly was. providing the flute world with a book that puts the development of the flute from 1800 to this day in a better and more consequential perspective.
Bravo. * FOMRHI * Powell's exemplary and exhaustive scholarship provides a contextual historical introduction on 18th-century flute history and flute-playing....A must for music research libraries and wind instrument historians * Choice * Powell's translation of the treatise itself reads well. Rarely are technical texts in German so neatly yet comfortably rendered into enjoyable English ... Powell provides both practical and theoretical material of great use to historians, musicians, and organologists. Tromlitz's treatise becomes a vehicle for Powell to write about the flute in the eighteenth century, something that he does extremely well, even brilliantly ... his discussion of the treatise is, I
believe, even more important than his fine translation of the treatise itself. * Peter H. Bloom, Journal of the American Musical Instrument Society *
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Oxford
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Oxford University Press
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
halftones, line figures, tables, and music examples
Dimensions
Height: 254 mm
Width: 197 mm
Thickness: 19 mm
Weight
800 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-816462-3 (9780198164623)
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Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Partner, Folkers & Powell, Makers of Historical Flute, New York