Wagner has a fine part for the flute throughout the Meistersinger; it is important in the Largo of Dvořák’s New World Symphony, where it plays with the oboe; Liszt made it conspicuous in his Hungarian Rhapsodie, No. 2; and it sings in the Morning of Grieg’s Peer Gynt Suite.
Berlioz and Tschaikowsky both played the flute themselves and, naturally, their works are full of beautiful melodies for this instrument. Berlioz calls for two flutes and harp for the Cris des Ismaëlits in L’Enfance du Christ. Tschaikowsky’s symphonies are a delight to the flute-player. An exceptionally striking use of the flute is in the Danse des Mirlitons and Danse Chinoise in the Nut-cracker Suite.
Richard Strauss, who always goes a little farther than anybody else, has in the “Windmill” number of the Don Quixote Variations called for the “flutter tongue,” a new way of rolling the tongue. The name describes it.
Last, but not least, we must recall Gluck. What could be more beautiful than his use of the flute in Armide, unless it is to be found in the music of Orfeo? All through that beautiful opera the plaintive, tender voice of the flute is conspicuous. Not only does it play melodies for the enchanting ballets and minuets, but its wailing notes tell us of the grief of Orpheus for his adored Eurydice; and when we arrive in the Elysian Fields with Orpheus its pure and ethereal voice, heard in a solo of ravishing beauty, lifts us out of the everyday world we live in and transports us into a realm of blissful peace and enchanting beauty.
FREDERICK THE GREAT PLAYING THE FLUTE
With his Orchestra at Sans Souci
In early days the flute was played by holding it straight in front and not horizontally as shown in the picture facing page [74]. The German, Quantz, did much to bring the horizontal flute into fashion. One of his most enthusiastic pupils was Frederick the Great, King of Prussia, who is shown in the picture facing this page playing a flute concerto with his orchestra at Sans Souci, taken from an engraving by Chodowieki. The King’s favorite greyhounds are the only listeners. Franz Benda is the first violin and Christian Friedrich Fasch, who succeeded Philipp Emanuel Bach (son of J. S. Bach), is playing the harpsichord.
Modern compositions usually call for two flutes and a piccolo.