Here Comes Treble: The Flute!
"It is certainly hard physical work, reaching and maintaining a high standard of playing. As I grow a little older each day, I find the physical requirements of playing the instrument cause pain and discomfort in my neck, shoulder-blades and back, and my hands tend to ache somewhat with rheumatic pain after a particularly long session of playing,'' admits flautist Isabel Bradley in this splendid tribute to the instrument which has brought great joy to her life.
The flute has its origins way back in pre-historic times. Among the most significant musical finds in recent archaeological explorations of cave-dwellings was that of a 35,000 year old flute made from a bird’s femur.
In Genesis 4:21, mention is made of a flautist: “His brother's name was Jubal; he was the father of all who play the harp and flute.”
Fairly early in written history, Aristotle wrote that, “… the flute is not an instrument which is expressive of moral character; it is too exciting. The proper time for using it is when the performance aims not at instruction, but at the relief of the passions… the flute is ... exciting and emotional. Poetry proves this, for Bacchic frenzy and all similar emotions are most suitably expressed by the flute."
Some people feel that the flute is entirely a bad influence: Puritan Stephen Cossman wrote, "The way leads from playing the flute to pleasure, from pleasure to laziness, from laziness to sleep, from sleep to sin, from sin to death, from death to the devil and hell."
Certainly most flute-players would agree that playing the flute is a pleasure, though as yet I have yet to discover how it can lead from there along that evil pathway to hell.
It is certainly hard physical work, reaching and maintaining a high standard of playing. As I grow a little older each day, I find the physical requirements of playing the instrument cause pain and discomfort in my neck, shoulder-blades and back, and my hands tend to ache somewhat with rheumatic pain after a particularly long session of playing.
"The flute is the show-off of the wind section, the big shot… Well, that's fine. Everybody knows it's the hardest, blowing across a tiny hole with your head tilted all your life.” So said Garrison Keillor, in The Young Lutheran's Guide to the Orchestra.
Such discomfort is a small price to pay in return for the enjoyment, the sheer delight of breathing one’s soul into the flute and receiving the life-blood of music in return. Playing the flute is as essential to my well-being as breathing and sleeping, it is a part of me, at the heart of me.
American actor, Eddie Cahill said, "Playing a flute is like writing a book. You're telling what's in your heart...”, while Judith Redman Robins, in her book, Coyote Woman, wrote, "Flute music is love music from the heart. It must not stop, lest the pulsing of the heart be broken."
I am delighted that most music-lovers seem to find listening to the flute either soothing or exciting, or both:
Raymond Meylon, in his book The Flute, says, "Every music lover is familiar with the sound of the flute, which seems to possess a magic power that emanates from its innermost being. It speaks, it moves, it entrances, almost as if it had been revealed to us on the glorious day of creation. And yet it is genuine human expression, an element of language, the image of a dream continually repeated." Later, he says, "The flute calms the spirit and penetrates the ear with such sweet sound that it brings peace and an abeyance of motion unto the soul.”
Over the centuries, several European kings played the flute, including King Henry VIII, Nicholas II, Czar of Russia and Frederick the Great, King of Prussia. Frederick the Great’s father apparently disapproved so heartily of his son’s pursuing his musical talents that he had the young man’s best friend executed in front of him as a discouragement. The son was not deterred, he continued to play the flute and became one of Prussia’s greatest kings.
Flautists famous for other activities than playing the flute are, surprisingly, Leonardo da Vinci and George Washington.
On the website, I found even more wonderful quotations about the flute:
“Play from the heart; the flute is a heart song...” Mato Wambli
An unnamed employee of Flute-makers Muramatsu, posted the following poem on the Muramatsu website:
"It is only a tool.
A tool forged from
The metals of the
earth. From silver.
from gold. Fashioned
by history. Crafted
by masters. It is a tool
that shapes mood and
culture. It enraptures.
Sometimes distracts.
Exhilarates and soothes.
Sings and weeps. Now
take up the tool
and sculpt music
from the air."
“Sculpting music from the air” is one of the great joys of my life.
Players of other instruments sometimes look at flautists with envy: "Of all the wind instruments, the flute can do the most things the most easily. A fine performer on a flute can dash up a scale and down again so quickly that our ears cannot separate the notes. A flutist can skip and jump from note to note so lightly that the music reminds us of the quickness of a rabbit or of a gazelle. He can swoop and turn and trill the notes until we think that we are hearing a bird. Musicians say that a flute can do anything!" So says Jean Craig, in The Woodwinds. Minneapolis: Lerner Publications, 1963.
And when all is said and done, flute players have another advantage. Just as cats have a back-up plan of ‘when in doubt, groom yourself,’ flautists have their own back-up plan: well-known composer of marches, John Philip Sousa, recommended, “When in doubt, trill!”
My grateful thanks to Sean O’Malley’s and his website, Flute Quotes at http://woodenflutes.com/quotes/ for listing all the quotations used in this article – research has never been this much fun.
Thanks, too, to Kim J. Teal of the website: http://kjt.glis.net/tealflutestudio/FluteFacts&Fun.html for information on flautists famous for doing other important things.
Until next time… ‘here comes Treble!’
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By Isabel Bradley
