Attempting an instruction to traverse the flute

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The textbook An attempt to play an instruction to traverse the flute was written by Johann Joachim Quantz for Frederick the Great and was published in 1752 by the Berlin publisher Johann Friedrich Voss under the full title

Johann Joachim Quantzens, Royal. Prussian chamber musician, attempting an instruction to play the flute traversate; Accompanied with various notes useful for promoting good taste in practical music, and explained with examples. Along with XXIV. Copper plates.

It is an important resource for studying historical performance practice and the musical aesthetics of the time. It can be valuable reading for every practical musician and music teacher , as it includes a detailed flute tutorial as well as general instructions for playing together in an ensemble , for accompaniment and about stylistics.

structure

The 18 chapters (called "main part") have the following headings (here in the original spelling and grammar):

  • preface
  • Introduction: Of the qualities required of one who wants to devote himself to music.
  1. Brief history and description of the flute traversiere.
  2. On the position of the flute, and the positioning of the fingers.
  3. From the finger order or application, and the scale or scale of the flute.
  4. From the approach (embouchure).
  5. About the notes, their validity, the measure, the rests, and the other musical symbols.
  6. On the use of the tongue when blowing the flute
    1. with the syllable: ti or di .
    2. with the word: tiri .
    3. with the word: did'll , or the so-called double tongue .
    4. Appendix: Some notes on the use of the hoboe and the basson.
  7. From taking a breath while practicing the flute.
  8. From the suggestions and the small essential manners that go with them.
  9. From the trills.
  10. What a beginner has to observe in his particular practice.
  11. About good presentations in singing and playing in general.
  12. The way of playing the Allegro.
  13. From the arbitrary changes to the simple intervals.
  14. The way of playing the adagio.
  15. From the cadenzas.
  16. What a flutist observes when he plays in public music.
  17. Of the duties of those who accompany or perform the accompanying or ripening voices assigned to a concerted voice.
    1. On the qualities of a leader in music.
    2. From the ripien violinists in particular.
    3. From the violist in particular.
    4. From the cellist in particular.
    5. From the contraviolonist in particular.
    6. From the piano player in particular.
    7. Of the duties that all accompanying instrumentists have to pay attention to.
  18. How a musician and a music are to be judged.
Register of the most distinguished things.

expenditure

Wikisource: full text and facsimile
  • Attempting an instruction to traverse the flute . Johann Friedrich Voss, Berlin 1752.
    1. Edition, 1752, 14 + 334 + 20 + 24 p. ( Archive.org )
    2. Edition, Breslau 1780, by Johann Friedrich Korn dem Eltern, 14 + 334 + 20 + 24 p. [New edition on the same page with changed book decorations (vignettes etc.)]
    3. Edition, Breslau 1789, by Johann Friedrich Korn the Elder, 14 + 334 + 20 + 24 pp.
  • Critically revised reprint, edited by Arnold Schering. Kahnt, Leipzig 1926, 14 + 10 + 277 + 6 p. [New sentence in modernized orthography, with strong abbreviations]
  • Reprint of the edition from 1752. Bärenreiter, Kassel 1997, ISBN 3-7618-1390-2

See also