Flute

With the growth of interest in recent years in the use of period instruments in recordings and professional and amateur performances, the early flute has experienced a remarkable revival. This is the first book in modern times to deal exclusively with the transverse flute in the Renaissance, Baroque, and Classical eras, following it from 1500 until the early nineteenth century. Advice is given on acquiring instruments and their care and maintenance. Additional chapters guide the reader to relevant sources about techniques and style, recommend repertoire, and give general advice to the modern player. The text is enhanced by numerous illustrations of important historic flutes.

Teachers and flutists at all levels have praised Nancy Toff'sThe Flute Book, a unique one-stop guide to the flute and its music. Organized into four main parts--The Instrument, Performance, The Music, and Repertoire Catalog--the book begins with a description of the instrument and its making, offers information on choosing and caring for a flute, sketches a history of the flute, and discusses differences between members of the flute family. In the Performance section, readers learn about breathing, tone, vibrato, articulation, technique, style, performing, and recording. In the extensive analysis of flute literature that follows, Toff places individual pieces in historical context. The book ends with a comprehensive catalog of solo and chamber repertoire, and includes appendices with fingering charts as well as lists of current flute manufacturers, repair shops, sources for flute music and books, and flute clubs and related organizations worldwide. In this Third Edition, Toff has updated the book to reflect technology's advancements--like new digital recording technology and recordings' more prevalent online availability--over the last decade. She has also accounted for new scholarship on baroque literature; recent developments such as the contrabass flute, quarter-tone flute, and various manufacturing refinements and experiments; consumers' purchase prices for flutes; and a thoroughly updated repertoire catalog and appendices.