Classical Music | Music for Flute

Recorded on 08/26/2008, uploaded on 12/30/2009

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

When Paul Taffanel accepted the position of Professor of Flute at the prestigious Paris Conservatoire in 1893, he set out to reshape the institution’s repertoire and teaching methods, and in doing so greatly influenced flute performance for the next half century. He became the founder of what became known as the French Flute School and was an inspiring teacher. He was also instrumental in reviving the works of older composers—in particular, J. S. Bach, which brought the now four-score year old Bach Revival to France. It is no surprise, then, that when Gabriel Fauré became the Professor of Composition in 1896, Taffanel commissioned two works from his friend: the Fantaisie, op. 79 and Morceau de Concours. The commissions came from Taffanel in 1898 and the works were to be used as part of the examinations that summer. The first was a virtuosic piece to be accompanied by the piano or an orchestra, and Fauré feverishly pushed aside the orchestration of his incidental music for Maeterlinck’s Pelléas et Mélisande to set to work on it in June of that year. The latter piece, on the other hand, is a simple, but charming, sight-reading piece. A mere thirty-three measures in length, it consists of a flowing and serene melodic line, allotted solely to the flute, obediently wrought from the scales, arpeggios, and figurations one expects to find in such a piece, and supported by simple chords in the piano. Yet, Fauré quite effectively masks these technical obligations and creates, to a certain degree, a charming miniature.     Joseph DuBose

_____________________________________________

Morceau du concours                         Gabriel Fauré

Gabriel Fauré's Morceau du concours (1898) is a little gem written as a test piece for the flute while the composer was director at the Paris Conservatoire. It formed part of a subtle campaign on his part to move the conservatoire away from placing what he viewed as too much emphasis on pure virtuosity. His wish was for an appreciation that included aspects such as style, rhythm and phrasing; in other words, musical expression. His love of melody is clearly on display here as the Morceau arabesques its way beautifully through its two-minute duration. The manuscript is dated 14 July 1898 so perhaps Fauré was taking advantage of his day off on Bastille Day.

Courtesy of International Music Foundation.