Mozart and the Flute

Author(s): Jane Bowers

Reviewed work(s):
Source: Early Music, Vol. 20, No. 1, Performing Mozart's Music II (Feb., 1992), pp. 31-42
Published by: Oxford University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3127667 .
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Jane Bowers
Mozart

and

the

flute

1 One-key flute with two upper middle joints by JacobDenner (1681-1735)(GermanischesNationalmuseum,Nuremberg)

In The Art of Playing the German Flute (London, 1793),
John Gunn pointed to a controversy about the ideal
sound of the flute that had arisen during the course of
the 18th century:
Two opinions seem chieflyto prevailon the method in which
this instrumentought to be played.The first is, that an equal
fullness of tone ought to be aimed at throughout;and this,
when required, is thought to be the greatest excellence of
which the instrumentis capable.The favourersof this opinion
have on their side the example and practiceof almost every
public performer.The other opinion is in directopposition to
this, those. . . say,that this kind of tone is contraryto the very
natureof a Flute;the characterof which, from its affinityto the
femalevoice, is softness,graceand tenderexpression,and can
by no means be the bold and warlikeexpressionof those full
and loud tones, which seem to emulatethe notes of the trumpet. . . I haveoften smiled at the conflictof thesejarringopinions . . . and have given little satisfactionto either party,by
declaring... that it was like askinga painterwhetherit were
better for a pictureto be all light or all shadow.'
This conflict had emerged much earlier in the century.
In 1702, when Franqois Raguenet described renowned
French flautists as knowing how to make the flute moan
in such a touching manner and sigh so amorously,2 he
was describing the aesthetic ideals of the early 18thcentury French flute school. After French composers of
flute music adopted the Italian sonata style, however, a
conflict arose between those who favoured the older
style and those who cultivated the new. In 1752 Pierre
Louis d'Aquin wrote:
It [the flute] todayhas renownedplayerswho havebroughtit,
if you wish, wholly to perfection;that is to say, they play the
most difficultand leastsingingthingson an instrumentthat is,
however,only made to touch the soul and to move us. I maybe

mistaken, but I believe that beautiful melody, rather than

speed and passagework,is more the essence of the flute.3
That the debate between expressive and virtuoso playing was also carried on in Germany is illustrated by
Christian Friedrich Daniel Schubart's discussion of the
playing of the eminent flautist Johann Baptist Wendling.
Schubart wrote:
His playingis clearand beautiful,and his tone in both low and
high registersequally full and penetrating.He takes greater
pridein bringingforththe beautifuland the touching,than the
difficult,rapidand surprising.Thus, he callsthe loversof difficulty only leapersand jugglers;and in this he is only half right,
for the successfulmasteryof greatdifficultieshas alwaysbeen
an importantfeaturein the characterof true artists.The continual searchingand strainingfor languishingtones cripples
the hand.4
Another frequently discussed aspect of flute playing
was intonation. In 1752Johann Joachim Quantz advised:
Pieces set in very difficult keys must be played only before
listenerswho understandthe instrument,and areableto grasp
the difficultyof thesekeyson it;they must not be playedbefore
everyone. You cannot produce brilliant and pleasing things
with good intonationin everykey,as most amateursdemand.
Nearly 50 years later Johann Georg Tromlitz wrote:
I do not believe that there exists an instrumenton which it is
more difficultto playin tune than the flute. Manyfactorscontributeto this: first,the naturalunevennessof the tone of this
instrument;blowing too hardor too softly;incorrectembouchure; a badly trained ear; an improperly tuned flute, etc.
Experiencegives enough proof of this.6
Good intonation was a problem for the flautist principally because the one-keyed flute in use through much
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of the 18th century did not have separate, perfectly

spaced tone-holes for all notes of the chromatic scale.
Notes outside the flute'sbasicscaleof D majorhad to be
produced through cross-fingerings,which were often
too sharp or too flat. Throughoutthe century,method
books instructedflautistsin how to adjustthose pitches
that were likely to be too sharpor flat. But becausethis
was a trickybusiness,particularlyin keyswhich required
many cross-fingerings,the flute gained a reputationfor
being out of tune. When a fine player achieved good
intonation it was worthy of special comment. Characteristichere is a comment AbertreportsMozart'smaking to the brotherof the eminent flautistWendling:
Well,you know,it's differentwithyourbrother.In the first
place,he is notsucha doodler,andthenyoudon'talwayshave
to be afraidwithhimwhenyouknowa noteis aboutto come
thatit is goingto be muchtoo lowor too high-see here,it's
alwaysright.Hisheartis in therightplaceandso arehis ears
andthetipof his tongue,andhe doesnot believethatyouare
donewithjustblowingandfingering,andthenhe alsoknows
whatAdagiomeans.7
Mozart,of course,was not a flautist,and perhapsdisputes aboutthe idealsound of the flutewereof little concernto him. Nevertheless,it is reasonableto assumethat
he was concernedwith expressiveplayingand with good
intonation, even if the passageabove is spurious. Perhaps Mozart'swidely quoted expressionof abhorrence
of the flute (see below) had more to do with the defective
intonation and lack of expressiveplayingon the part of
some of the flautistshe heard,especiallyamateurs,than
with the tone qualityof the instrumentitself.
Howeverthatmaybe, Mozartwas exposedto the flute
from an earlyage. At the court of the Archbishopricof
Salzburgwhere his fatherLeopoldwas employed,there
were four flautistsin the yearafterWolfgang'sbirth,and
one was saidto playconcertoson the flute and oboe very
well.s Leopold, in fact, had written five flute concertos
beforeWolfgang'sbirth,and perhapsWolfgangas a child
had a chanceto hearone or more of them playedby one
of the court flautists.9Then, when he was seven and a
half years old, the family stopped at Schwetzingen,the
summerresidenceof the ElectorPalatineCarlTheodor,
and at a concert arrangedspecially for the Mozarts,
heardWendling,whom Leopolddescribedas 'an admirable flautist.'10
Mozarthimselfbeganto write for the flute at an early
age. Although the sonatas for harpsichord with the
accompanimentof a violin or flute (KlO-15) he wrote at
the age of eight in Londonwere clearlynot conceivedof
for the flute-they show no considerationof the limi32

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tations of its range,for one thing-he followedthem up

with some flute solos writtenfor the Duke of Wirtenberg
(K33a)in Lausannein 1766when he was ten;these works
have been lost. He soon began to include the flute in
larger ensembles. As early as 1767he scored for flutes
(with horns and strings) in one aria in Die Schuldigkeit
deserstenGebots,a Lentenoratorioof whichhe set PartI;
a symphony (K43) in which two flutes replacethe oboes
in the Andante;and in six divertimentifor flute, horn,
trumpet,trombone,violin, viola and cello (K67), which
have been lost. In 1768 he included flutes in one aria in
Bastienund Bastienne,as well as in a sopranoariain Benedictussit Deus (K117/66a), in which they appearwith
horns, strings and organ. The pairing of flutes with
horns in a number of Mozart'searly works seems odd
until one realizes that in other movements in these
works oboes are frequentlypaired with horns, and the
oboe playerswould simply have put down their oboes
and picked up their flutes for the movements in which
flutes appear. For this reason too, Mozart wrote for
flutesin whateverkeyshornswerepitched,in spiteof the
fact that one of the most frequenthorn keys, F major,
was problematicfor the flute.
As for symphonies,Neal Zaslawstates that 'Mozart's
practicein his orchestralserenadesand earliersymphonies was to use either oboes or flutes, not both. . . The
few earlysymphoniesrequiringpairsof flutesand oboes
played simultaneouslyoriginated as overtures to theWhen oboes are used in the earliersymatricalworks.'11
phonies, flutes often replace them in the slow
movement. This worksin reversein the Symphonyin A
major,K114, in which flutes play in all but the Andante.
In 1775Mozartheard the fine flautistJohannBaptist
Becke,a memberof the courtorchestraat Munich,when
Beckecame to Salzburgto takepartin a performanceof
a serenataby Domenico Pischiettias well as Mozart'sIl
repastore,on the occasionof the visit of ArchdukeMaxiIn Il repastorethe soloistic natureof the
milian Franz.12
flute
first
part and its role in duetting with the tenor
soloist in one of the arias,'Se vincendo' shows Mozart's
sensitivity to the flute's fleet-footedness in its upper
register.
Another flautistMozart encounteredbefore his long
sojournin Mannheimwhichwasto haveimportantconsequencesfor his flute compositionwas JohannThomas
Cassel,a doublebassplayerin the Salzburgcourt chapel.
Casselplayedthe solo partin a flute concertoby Mozart
at a rehearsalon 25 July1777; the identity of the work is
uncertain.The performancepresumablytook place the
next day at the Mozarthome for the name day of Nan-

nerl Mozart.13
On 23 September 1777 Wolfgang and his mother set

ment whichI cannotbear.Henceas a diversionI compose

somethingelse,suchasduetsforclavierandviolin,orI workat
my mass.17
On the one hand, Mozart's remark was doubtless
colouredby the factthat he was smartingfrom Leopold's
chastisementof him for not having finished the music
for Dejean,at a time when Leopoldwas beset with worries about the financial situation of Wolfgangand his
mother.18Furthermore,his lack of enthusiasm for the
flute at this time may havehad somethingto do with the
fact that he was writing for an amateurflautist.On the
otherhand, Mozartseems neverto havebeen inspiredto
write solo flute worksfor a professionalplayer,with the
exceptionof the symphonieconcertantehe composedjust
a little later for Wendling on flute, Ramm on oboe,
Punto on horn and Ritter on bassoon for those
musiciansto play in Paris.
In fact, Mozartwas neverto complete the flute works
for Dejean,althoughin the letter quoted abovehe states
that he had finished two concertos and three quartets.
These have traditionallybeen presumedto be the flute
concerto in G major,K313/285c;
the flute concerto in D
major,K314/285d(which is probablyan arrangementof

out on a long journey, stopping first at Munich and

Augsburg,and reaching Mannheim on 30 October. In
Augsburg Mozart was taken to visit the flautist,
composer and KapellmeisterFriedrichHartmannGraf,
for whose performanceof a concerto for two flutes in
Graf'shome Mozarthad to playthe firstviolin part.In a
letter to his father, Mozart heavily criticized the concerto, although not the playing.14
In Mannheim,wherehe and his mother remainedfor
more than four months, Mozart spent a great deal of
time with the court flautistWendling,who arrangedfor
an importantcommission for Mozart.The commission
came from a certain 'Indian' or 'Dutchman' named
Dejeanfor 'threeshort,simple concertosand a couple of
There
quartetsfor the flute'in exchangefor 200 gulden."5
has long been an air of mysterysurroundingthe identity
of the amateurflautistwho commissioned these works
from Mozart. However,in an articlepublished in 1981,
the problem of his identity seems to have been successfully solved by Frank Lequin.16According to Lequin's
painstaking detective work, the person who commissioned Mozart's chief works for flute was Ferdinand the oboe concerto in C major Mozart wrote in 1777);19
Dejean (1731-97), a physician who practised for a time in the quartet in D major, K285; the quartet in G major,
Indonesia, settled in Amsterdamand took a degree in K285a;and the quartet in C major, K Anh.171/285b. Howmedicine at Leiden University,and became an inter- ever,there are problemsin transmissionthat cast severe
nationallyknown scholarof medicine.Afterthe deathof doubtsupon the authenticityof the G and C majorquarhis wife in 1773Dejean travelled extensively through tets, and stylistic studies further suggest that the latter
work is almost certainlynot by Mozart.2' Anotherwork
Europe and met Mozart in Mannheim.
In any case, Mozart had trouble fulfilling Dejean's Mozartpresumablywrotefor Dejeanis the Andantein C
commission, and in a letterto his fatherdefendinghim- major for flute and orchestra, K315/285e.Since this work
self for not havingcompletedthe commissionedworks, survivesin an autographcopy there is no question of its
expressedhis utter lack of sympathyfor the flute. This authenticity,and the handwriting,the Mannheimpaper
comment has unfortunately been widely quoted as on which it is written, and the assumptionthat Mozart
representingMozart'slifelong attitudetowardthe flute. would not have writtenfor the flute without a commisHere is the remarkin context:
sion, all point to its connection with Dejean.NevertheM. De Jeanis alsoleavingfor Paristomorrowand,becauseI less, Einstein's suggestion that this movement was
haveonlyfinishedtwo concertosandthreequartetsfor him, written as an alternate middle movement for the G
has sent me 96 gulden(thatis, 4 guldentoo little,evidently major flute concerto, since the originalslow movement
supposingthatthiswasthehalfof 200); buthemustpaymein was 'so personal, one might say even so fantastic, so
withtheWendlings,
andI can
full,forthatwasmyagreement
completely individual in character,that the man who
sendhimtheotherpieceslater.It is not surprising
thatI have had commissioned the work
evidently did not know
not beenableto finishthem,for I neverhavea singlequiet
what to do with
hour here. I can only compose at night, so that I can't get up
earlyas well;besides,one is not alwaysin the mood for working. I could, to be sure, scribbleoff things the whole day long,
but a composition of this kind goes out into the world, and
naturallyI do not want to have cause to be ashamed of my
name on the title-page. Moreover,you know that I become
quite powerlesswheneverI am obliged to write for an instru-

it,21 or that the movement may have

been too difficult for Dejean,2 has been all too readily
accepted.
From Mannheim, Mozart moved on to Paris. Here he
wrote the symphonie concertante for flute, oboe, horn
and bassoon (K Anh.9/297b), which was intended to be
played at the Concert Spirituel, but, perhaps due to
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intrigues on the part of Cambini, was not performed

there;the work subsequentlydisappeared.23
In ParisMozartalso receiveda commission from the
Duc de Guines,an amateurflautist,whose daughterwas
a harpist.Mozartwrote to his father:

of all the instruments,but it reallywas;when it was proverbial

tet, K298,has been now firmlyestablishedas havingbeen

written in Vienna not before 1786,perhapsfor a family
that delighted in home music-making with whom
Mozart was on friendly terms.25 Finally,Mozart composed the Adagioand Rondo, K617, for glassharmonica,
flute, oboe, viola and cello in 1791for the glassharmonica virtuosaMariannevon Kirchgessner.
While Mozart'sflute writingin his earlierworksis by
and largerelativelysimple, if not alwaysidiomatic (see,
however,the idiomaticflutewritingin the Divertimento
in D major for flute, oboe, bassoon, four horns and
strings, K131), in his works for Dejean Mozart showed
himself an astutejudge of what workedwell on a good
instrumentwith a good player.In the two securelyestablished works composed for Dejean, the G major concerto and the D major quartet (both extremely good
keys for the flute), one is remindedof John Gunn's'two
opinions [which] . . . prevail on the method in which
this instrumentought to be played'.There are passages
which requirebold expressionof full and loud notes and
exploit the brillianceand clarityof the flute in its upper
register(for example,wherethe flute ascendsto high g"'
severaltimes in succession in the recapitulationof the
first movement of the concerto),6 as well as passages
which requiresoftness, graceand tender expression.
Finally,in his lateroperas,symphoniesand concertos,
Mozart often pushed the flute to extremes,utilizing its
third octave extensively(usually stopping with g'" but
occasionallygoing as high as a"'6and a"'), assigningit
chromaticpassagesand requiringit to play in difficult
keys,and unquestionablytreatingit as an equalmember
of the ensemble.In an essaypublishedin the Allgemeine
musikalischeZeitungin Leipzig in November 1798,an
anonymous author (whom BernardSchultzeidentifies
as A. Andre from Offenbach) particularlyassociates
Mozartwith high flute writing:
Therewasa timewhentheflutewasnot onlycalledthesoftest

tone?17

andtheidealwithwhicheverything
soft-tonedwascompared.

Now thingsaredifferent.The most moderncomposersusually

write for this instrument so that it has to shriek or rather
whistle piercinglyin the high register;and Virtuososlove this
sharp,cutting tone so much that they play everythingin itI thinkI told you in my lastletter,thatthe Duc de Guines, even their Solos and Adagios. Is this good? I am quite aware
whosedaughteris my pupilin composition,playsthe flute that a single flute piping in the high register,which as far as I
know Mozartfirstintroduced,or at least used most frequently,
extremelywell,andthatsheplaysthe harpmagnifique.24
has an excellent effect in certain circumstances-as for
For them Mozart composed the double concerto for
example in the Overtureto his Don Giovanni-but why do
flute and harp in C major,K299/297c.
Gentlemen now write everythingin this way?Why do VirTo complete the picture of the solo and chamber tuosos now teach their pupils no other tone than this acute
worksMozartwrotefor the flute,the A majorflutequar- one?Why do Virtuososnow delivereverythingin this piercing

34

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Certainly,in Mozart'slater orchestralworks, one can

discernno trace of abhorrenceor mistrustof the flute.
What sorts of flutes would the musicians who played
Mozart'sworks have used? And would Mozart'slater
workshave demandedflutes of a differentsort from his
earlier ones? Without a doubt, the flautists playing
Mozart'searlyworkswould have used the type of fourpiece one-key flute that emerged during the third and
fourthdecadesof the 18thcentury.'8Likethe JacobDenner flute seen in illus.1,this sort of flute had a headjoint
with an embouchure hole into which the playerblew;
two middle joints, each of which had three tone holes;
and a foot joint with a seventh tone-hole coveredby a
closed key that could be opened to produce the lowest
semitone (e' /d' #) on the instrument,as well as certain
other pitches. Though the Denner flute illustratedhere
cannot be preciselydated,it was made before1735,when
Denner died, and it may be considered a typical late
Baroqueflute.
One of the reasonsfor dividingthe flute'sformerlong
middlejoint into two pieceswas to makeit easierto alter
the overallpitch of the flute in order to accommodate
the various pitch standardsin use in different places.
The lowest note producedby the flute when all the holes
were closed was d', but the absolute pitch of this d'
variedaccordingto the length of the column of vibrating
air when all holes were closed. Notice that the Denner
flute has an exchangepiece which could be substituted
for the uppermiddlejoint if the playerwished to playat
a different pitch level. The shorter the upper middle
joint, the higher the pitch. In this flute the d' produced
by the two joints varies by a semitone.29
Somewhat later in the century a different means for
changing the overall pitch of the flute was devised. This
was the division of the head joint into two parts, the

One-keyflutewithscrewcork,tuningslide,andregisterby RichardPotter(1726-1806)(HornimanMuseum,London)

iK;
...

'e

gu

one-keyflutemadeby an importantEnglishflutemaker,
RichardPotter,whose work extends from around 1745
perhaps right up until the time of his death in 18o6,
exhibitssuch a tuning slide. In 1785Potterwas granteda
patent for variousimprovementsin the flute, including
a metal tuning slide within an outer tube of wood that
could be pulledout to lowerthe pitch of the instrument.
Potter also included in his patent a screw cork in the
head joint and a slide or 'register'at the extremeend of
the foot joint, both of which could be adjustedto extend
the lengthof the vibratingcolumn of air.Allthreetuning
devices were numbered, and when the three sets of
numbers were made to correspond, the flute could
theoreticallybe tuned correctlyat differentpitch levels?.
The flute in illus.2 has all these features.
Illus.3and 4 illustrateflutes madeby two membersof
the famous Grenser family of Dresden. Carl August
Grenserwas born in 1720,began an apprenticeshipin
Leipzigin 1733,and in 1739moved to Dresden,wherehe
establishedhis own workshopin 1744and was appointed
instrumentmakerto the Saxon court in 1753.His flutes
earned him fame throughout Europe. His nephew
Johann Heinrich Grenser,born in 1764, was August
Grenser's apprentice from 1779 to 1786, and in 1796 the

elder Grenser made over his business to Heinrich.

August'speriodof activityas an instrumentmakerprobably ceased in 1797,although he did not die until 1807.
His last two known flutes are dated 1796;both are onekey instruments made of boxwood with ivory trim.31
HeinrichGrenserwas a worthysuccessorto his uncle;he
increasedthe fame of the workshop,was also appointed
instrumentmakerto the Saxoncourt, and continued to
3 One-keyflutewithsevenuppermiddlejointsandregister make instrumentsup until the time of his death in late
by CarlAugustGrenser(1720-1807) (GermanischesNational-

museum,Nuremberg)
lowerof which could be pulled out to lengthenthe head
joint and thus flattenthe pitch of the instrument.After
the introductionof a thin metal slide inside the wooden
tube, some makersbeganto extendthe inner metaltube
to form a lining to the entire head joint.3"In illus.2, a

1813.33

The instrumentin illus.3,a one-key flute with seven

uppermiddlejoints,was madeby AugustGrenser,and it
has been dated around 1775 by the Germanisches
Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg.34 The instrument in
illus.4, also a one-key flute with seven upper middle
joints, was made by Heinrich Grenser;it dates from
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seemsto be one of yet anotherGrenser,HeinrichOttohas a tuning barrel.3"

Accordingto Phillip Young,these
two flutesarevirtuallyidentical,althoughthey mayhave
been made some 20 to 40 yearsapart.36
One basicpoint these picturesmakeis that the design
of the one-key flute did not change essentiallybetween
the mid-1730sand the end of the 18thcentury.However,
such aspectsof the flute as the diameterof its bore, the
size and shape of its embouchure hole, the degree of
undercuttingof its embouchure and finger holes, etc.,
did vary,but apparentlymore by the makerthan by the
period. Until detailed studies have been made of the
work of individual makers, clear profiles provided of
their instrument designs and how they evolved over
time, and systematic comparisons then made of the
work of differentmakers,it will be virtuallyimpossible
to describewith any degreeof precisionthe flute in the
Classicalera.37Currentmakersof flutes based on 18thcenturyinstrumentswho have studied and measureda
numberof old instrumentshavesuggestedto me that at
present it is not possible to describeany definitivepattern in the overalldevelopmentof the fluteat thattime.38
The size of finger holes appears to have remained
about the same as earlierin the century.Embouchure
holes, on the other hand, became quite diverse in size
and shape. Rod Cameronhas suggestedthat in general
embouchure holes became slightly larger and more
ellipticalin Mozart'stime, and Friedrichvon Huenethat
they became much more oval. However,some makers
retained small and more or less round embouchure
holes late in the century.As for the flute's bore, Ardal
Powell states that, while in the last quarterof the 18th
centurythe number of flutes with very largebores was
considerablysmaller than earlier in the century,there
was no unanimous progressionfrom largerto smaller
bores. Accordingto Rod Cameron,while in the earlier
part of the centurythe diameterof the head joint bore
was 19 mm or more, in Mozart'stime it rarelyexceeded
18.6 mm. However,Friedrichvon Huene stated that in
flutewithsevenuppermiddle
4 One-key
jointsandregister England the head joint bore remained large (around

Insti- 19 mm).39
Heinrich
Grenser
(Smithsonian
(1764-1813)
byJohann
tution,Washington,
DC)
I have presented a rathergeneralizedpicture about
before18o6since it is stampedwith Grenser'susual
the crossedswordsof Saxony,ratherthan
trademark,
withtheSaxoncrownwithwhichhe replacedit afterthis
date.Bothfluteshavea registerin thefootjoint.Thereis
no tuningbarrelin theheadjointasin theRichardPottheexchangepiecesadjustthepitchlevel
terflute;rather,
of the instrument.Only one Grenserflute-and that
36

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the one-key flute in Mozart'stime becausewe know virtually nothing about the specific instruments used by
musicians who played his music. Then as now, some
flautistsundoubtedlyplayed instrumentslocally made,
while others ordered them from a distance or picked
them up on their travels.In Salzburgno flute makers
from Mozart'stime have been discovered.40In nearby
Berchtesgaden,however,membersof the Walchfamily

may havebeen makingflutes duringMozart'stime, and

a one-keyflutewith threeuppermiddlejoints signed'G.
Walch'in the MuseumCarolinoAugusteumin Salzburg
(no.6/4 [Geir.259]) maywell date from that period.4'At
least one instrument maker in Mannheim-Michael
Eisenmenger (1723-88)-should have been making
flutes at the time of Mozart'svisit there, and two of his
extant flutes have been described in print: a one-key
flute in the Bachhaus in Eisenach (no.114),42 and the
other owned by a Dr Senn in Innsbruck.MichaelEisenmenger is known to have made instruments for the
Mannheimcourt, and Wendlingtestifiedto the quality
of his work in 1781.43
Yetwe do not know what make of flute the flautists
most closely associated with Mozart at Salzburgand
Mannheim played. Wendling, for one, must have
encounteredmanydifferentkindsof flutesin the course
It seems
of his travels,and Dejeanalso travelledwidely.44
likely,however,that some of the musicianswho played
Mozart'smusic would have owned flutes made by the
Grensers,especiallyAugust Grenser,since their flutes
were widely admired. Still, when Leopold Mozart
orderedtwo oboes and two english horns from August
Grenserin 1772 for the court at Salzburg,he mentioned
in a letter to J. G. I. Breitkopfthat he only knew Grenser'sname from having seen it on one or another flute
and oboe. And since the GrenserinstrumentsLeopold
ordereddid not arrivefor six years (to Leopold'senormous frustration),and when they did the englishhorns
playedverypoorly,it seemsunlikelythat Grenser'sreputation gained much ground in Salzburg.41
Another question that must be addressedconcerns
the number of keys on the flutes used by musiciansto
play Mozart'smusic. Wellbefore Mozart'stime experiments had been made to lengthen the foot joint of the
flute so that it could play down to c'# or c'. Additional
holes for these notes werebored into a longerfoot joint,
and thesewerefittedwith open-standingkeysthat could
be closed to produce the lower notes. A few early18thcenturyflutes were made with two keys:one for e' /d'#
and one for c'.46 The Heinrich Grenserflute illustrated
in illus.5has two alternatefoot joints. One is of standard
lengthand has only one key.The other,longerfoot joint,
which appearssecond from the right in the illustration,
has threekeys-one for e' /d' #, one for c'#/d' , and one
for c'. Thisflute also has otheradditionalkeysto which I
shall now turn.
It was apparentlyduring Mozart'syouth that a few
makersbegan supplying the two middle joints of the
flutewith additionalkeys.The definitivehistoryof these

5 Five-or seven-keyflutewithtwouppermiddlejointsand
two foot joints by Johann HeinrichGrenser(formerly
ownedby theWichitaBandInstrumentCompany,Wichita,
Kansas)
keys has yet to be written,but their introductionseems
to havearisenfrom attemptsboth to improvethe intonation of and to strengthenthe sound of certain crossfingered chromatic notes. New holes for these notes
were made in the instrument,and these were usuallyfitted with closed keys that the playeropened to produce
one of these notes. A few flutes simplyaddedone or two
new keys;but the usual number added was three-one
for a'#/b'6, one for g'#/a'6 and one forf'. (Thesepitches
were duplicatedin the second octave of the instrument
by means of overblowing.)These keys were primarily
useful for playinglong notes and trills, since they were
rathercumbersomefor fast passagework.
The earliestdatedflute with all the new keys is a flute
madeby CalebGedney,an instrumentmakerin London
who had apprenticedwith StanesbyJunior;the flute is
stamped 'CALEB/GEDNEY/1769' and is now in the Col-

lection of MusicalInstrumentsin the Museum of Fine

Arts, Boston.47Since the Gedneyflute also has a C-foot
with keysfor c' and c' it is a six-keyflute.Illus.6showsa
six-keyflute now in the BateCollectionat the University
of Oxford(no.o1028)
made in 1782 by RichardPotter(the
foot joint is stamped 'POTTER/LONDON/1782').
The b'6
and g'# keys are on the upper middle joint and are
designedto be activatedby the thumb and little fingerof
the righthand;the f' key is locatedon the lower middle
EARLY MUSIC

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37

..........

n
A..
-vo

YVNP,X
jW?q
ov

Kv

On
?,r.
%11V

pv

IN

Ms

..

A4
x
Lip.

6 Six-keyflutedated1782by RichardPotter(BateCollection,Universityof Oxford)

joint and is designedto be activatedby the thirdfingerof

the righthand;and the e'6, c' and c' keysareon the foot
joint and areall designedto be activatedby the little finger of the righthand. RichardPotter'searliestdatedsixkey flute is an instrumentstamped1776in the Chicago
HistoricalSociety.48Potterwas a veryproductivemaker,
and besidesone- and six-keyflutes,he made flutes with
four, five, seven and eight keys. Perhapsmore than any
other maker he was responsible for popularizingthe
keyed flute. His 1785patent included metal plug keys of
conical shapewhich sank into tone-holes lined with silver tubes when the valvesclosed. Since these two flutes
pre-datethe patent, however,they may not have metal
plug keys.
Almostcertainlythe Duc de Guinesfor whom Mozart
wrote the flute and harp concerto had a six-key English
flute similar to these Potter and Gedney instruments.
The duke had been ambassadorto London until 1776,
wherehe would havehad the opportunityto learnabout
the instrumentand to acquireone.49This is confirmed
by several passages in the concerto in which Mozart
included not only low d'6 and c' but also a long a'6
marked with a crescendo to forte, which would have
been impossibleto makeon the weakcross-fingereda'6
of the one-keyflute."Sincethe second movementof the
concerto is in F major,it containsa numberof passages
which would benefit from the use of the f and b' keys
on long notes, although these passagesare playableon
the one-key flute.
In Dresden, while August Grenser primarily continued to turn out fluteswith one key,HeinrichGrenser
made manyfluteswith additionalkeys.His extantflutes
have anywherefrom one to eight keys, although more
have one or four keysthan any other number.In illus.5,
on the flute'slower middlejoint (shown attachedto the
short foot joint in the centreof the illustration),one can
see g key (which,unlikePotter,Grenserplacedon the
ag
lower ratherthan on the upper middle joint) and an f'

38

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key with two touchpieces-one to be activatedby the

fourth fingerof the right hand and the other to be activated by the little fingerof the left hand for passagesin
which the use of the fourth fingerof the right hand was
not feasible.On the two alternateupper middle joints
(shown second from the left and on the far right in the
illustration)one can see a b' key which appearsto have
been designedto be activatedby the thumb of the right
hand ratherthe thumb of the left hand,which was much
more common. In spite of HeinrichGrenser'sfrequent
use of additionalkeys,in defendinghis work againstthe
attacksof another instrument designer,Johann Georg
Tromlitz,he wrote:
Toadda keyin orderto improvethisor thatnote,however,is
neitherdifficultnor clever.The keysthemselvesarenothing
newatall,forevenasa boyI usedthemto strengthen
theweak
notes,andit waseasyfor me to assignthemthe rightplaces
becauseI wascarefullyinstructed
by myfatherin my earliest
the
about
appropriate
placefor eachnote.Since,howyears
ever,the greatestartconsistsin buildingfluteson whichone
neceswithoutkeys,it is therefore
mayaccomplish
everything
in suchflutesina
thedeficiencies
stillprevalent
saryto alleviate
mannerwhichworksjustas wellas a key?.
Both Potter and Grenser set standards other flute
makers attempted to follow. For example, in 1794
Johann FriedrichBoie of G6ttingen advertisedflutes
made in the style of both Grenserand Potter."Under
flutes in the latest English style, he described instruments madeout of eitherblackebony or boxwoodwith a
screw cork, metal tuning slides in the head and foot
joints, and silver d'#, f', g'~ and b' keys of the metal
plug variety. Under flutes in the German style, he
describedinstrumentsmadeout of blackebonyand garnishedwith ivorywith a screwcork,threemiddlejoints,
and from one to four silverkeys (d'#; d'# and g' ; d'#,
g'# and b'P;or d'#,.f,f g' and b'V);as well as one- and
two-key instruments made out of boxwood and garnished with ivory.With German-styleflutes, metal plug

keys had to be specially requested and a supplement

paid.
English-styleflutes, then, were associatedwith metal
plug keys as well as metal-lined head joints. The keys
would have facilitatedthe achievementof a more or less
equal fullness of tone throughout the compass of the
instrument,while the metal-linedheadjoint would have
permittedthe productionof a bright,open and perhaps
somewhatshrillsound. (Not all Englishflutes,of course,
actually produced this kind of sound. Those with
smaller embouchure holes and without metal-lined
head joints would have produced a considerablymore
modest sound.) German-styleflutes, on the other hand,
were associatedwith exchangepieces and leather-padded keys, if they had additional keys. Even flutes with
additionalkeys might have been designedso as to place
less emphasis on the use of the keys to achieve good
intonation and fullness of sound. Instruments in the
Grenserstylewould havebeen capableof playingloud in
both low and high registers,but would have produceda
rather more covered sound than English flutes with
metal-lined head joints.53 (Of course, not all German
flutes resembledGrenserflutes.)
Some flautistswho playedMozart'smusic might have
sought out English-styleflutes; others might have preferredGerman-styleinstruments.But what about flutes
made in Vienna, where Mozartspent the last decade of
his life? We know virtuallynothing about the kinds of
flutesbeing made and playedthereuntil only a few years
beforeMozart'sdeath.4On 12November1791the instrument maker Friedrich Hammig announced in the
WienerZeitungthat he made all kinds of wind instruments, includingoboes, bassoons,clarinets,flutes in the
English and German style, and a new kind of basset
horn."What Hammigmeantby the Englishstyleis clarifiedby anothernewspaperannouncementof 26 January
1799,in which he cited the advantagesof the Potter-style
flutes he made: first, by pulling out the head joint one
could play at all possible pitches with only one middle
joint; second, its metal keys were far superior to keys
covered with leather.6 This accords with Boie's conception of Englishflutes cited above.
In the WienerZeitungof 26 May 1802FranzHarrach
announcedthat he had been one of the firstin Viennato
make the keyed flute, and that he had been workingfor
14years-thus since 1788,the date of Mozart'slast three
symphonies-to bring it to the greatest possible perfection:Harrachofferedfor sale fluteswith one, four,six
and eightkeys,which he claimedhad good intonation,a
strong low register,and a high registerin which it was

Thatkeyedfluteswerebeing playedas well

easyto play."7
as made in Vienna in the 1790s is attested to by an
announcement in the WienerZeitungof 20 March1793
that the flautistFranzThurnerwould be givinga concert
in the Hoftheater,in which he would playconcertosand
variationson a nine-keyflute he had designedand made
with his own hands.8 These keys might have included
the usual e', f', g'?, b'P,c'# and c' keys, as well as a key
for c" and a second touchpiece for f'; the ninth key
might havebeen one of severalpossibilities.Stillanother
Viennese maker,StefanKoch (b 1772), worked particularly to enlarge the flute's range. Koch'sextant instruments include flutes with joints that extend from c' all
the waydown to a;they also havefrom sevento 15keys.59
However, most of Koch'sflutes would be too late for
Mozart'smusic.
One has the sensethat by the 1790smany makerswere
jumping on the bandwagonand producing flutes with
additionalkeys (althoughapparentlynot yet in France).
Such new-fangledflutes made in the 179osas well as the
earlyyearsof the 19thcenturyarethus quite suitablefor
playing music of the late Classicalera, if not, strictly
speaking, for Mozart'smusic. In Mozart'sorbit, there
seems not to have been an abundance of keyed flutes
before 1791. At least, one cannot point to specific
examples,except for that of the Duc de Guines,of flautists playingMozart'sworks on multi-key instruments,
as CatherineSmithhas suggestedmayhavebeen the case
for Haydn'slate worksin London.60 Moreover,even well
afterMozart'sdeath some playersmust have continued
to use well seasonedinstrumentsof an older design,and
it would be wrong to assume that in modern performance we must alwaysmatch up a musicalwork with the
newest instrumentmade in the year of the work'scomposition. Most works of the Classical era require no
more than a one-key flute. Nevertheless,some, especiallyorchestralworksin remote and difficultkeys,would
certainlybenefit from the more equal fullness of tone
made possible through the additionalkeys.
lane Bowersteachesmusichistoryat the Universityof Wisconsin, Milwaukee.Her main areas of researchare the
historyof theflute and the subjectof womenand music.

Discussion

BRUCE
HAYNES
I'm surprisedat the notion that it's difficult to date flutes;can'tyou drawa line of development
and situate survivingmodels within that development?
Isolated makersdated their instruments,
JANEBOWERS
but there just aren'tany clear-cutlines of development
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39

sciencesla littiratureet lesbeaux-artssousle regnede LouisXV (Amsterdam, 1752), p.147. For furtherinformationabout concepts regarding
the characterof the flute, see J. Bowers, TheFrenchFluteSchoolfrom
17ooto 176o(Ann Arbor,1977),pp.4o3-6.
4Ideen zu einerAsthetikder Tonkunst(Vienna,18o6;R/Hildesheim,
BRUCEHAYNESWhat I found with oboes was that the 1969), pp-143-4.Although this work was not published before 18o6,
Dresden makerswho date their instrumentswere then Schubartdictatedit in 1784-5while in prison. The complete entryon
Wendlingreads: 'Wendeling,ein vorzuglicherFl6tenspieler,der echte
copied by other makers, and then there were second- Grundsitzemit fertigerAusfihfirungzu verbindenweiss. Sein Vortrag
generation copies. You could begin to make a dating ist deutlichund sch6n, und die Tonein der Tiefe und H6he gleichvoll
und einschneidend.Er ist stolzer darauf,das Sch6ne und Ruhrende
system that way.
hervorzubringen,als das Schwere,Schnelle,Ueberraschende.Erpflegt
NEALZASLAW
On the question of enharmonictunings, diesefallsdie Freundeder Schwierigkeitnur Luftspringerund Gaukler
zu nennen;und hierinhat er nur halb Recht:denn die glticklicheBesiethe 1780s and 1790sseem to be the periodwhen thereis a gung grosserSchwierigkeitenist immer ein Hauptzug
im Charakter
changein the matterof whetherfor exampleG# is lower echter Kraftminnergewesen. Das bestandige Suchen und Haschen
than Ab or higher,A# is lowerthan Bb. Do the fingering nach schmelzendenTonen lahmt die Faust.
Seine Compositionen sind ungemein grindlich, und passen der
chartsshow when this change happened?
Naturseines Instrumentesgenauan. Zwaralternseine Melodienwie er
selbst; dem ungeachtetmissen seine Sticke von jedem InstrumentI believethere'sa connectionbetweenthe isten mit Sorgfalt
BRUCEHAYNES
studiertwerden.'
addition of keys to the flutes and their tuning systems.
5JohannJoachimQuantz, On Playing the Flute,trans. E. R. Reilly
Because the note f' was too fuzzy and the distance (New York,1966), chap. 16, para.21, p.200
6TheVirtuosoFlute-PlayerbyJohannGeorgeTromlitz,trans.and ed.
between f and f' was too small they added a key, at A. Powell (Cambridge,1991), pp.114-15
which point the and f' could be in tune.
7'Jawissens das ist was andersbeim Herrn Bruder.Der ist erstens
kein so Dudler,und dann brauchtman bei ihm nicht jedesmalAngst
In Hotteterre'streatiseof 1707the assump- zu haben,wenn man weiss,jetzt soll der eine Tonkommen, ist er wohl
JANEBOWERS
tion is that tuning is mean-tone, but there's alreadya so viel zu tief oder zu hoch-schauens, da ists immer recht, er hat's
Herz und die Ohrenund das Zungenspitzlam rechtenOrt und glaubt
perceptionthat there'sa problemwith the tuning of the nicht, dass mit dem blossen Blasenund Gabelmachenschon was ausflute; it's just a technicalthing.
gerichtetsei, und dann weiss er auch, was Adagioheisst.'Quoted in H.
Abert, W A. Mozart:Neubearbeiteteund erweiterteAusgabevon Otto
DON SMITHERSWhat was the relationship in pitch JahnsMozart,2 vols. (Leipzig,7/1955-6),i, p.473.AbertcitesWolzogen,
Rezensionen1865,no.6, p.82, as the source of the quotation.
between, say,Parisand Vienna?
8'Nachrichtvon dem gegenwartigenZustandeder MusikSr.HochGnadendes Erzbischoffszu Salzburgim Jahr1757,'in Friedftirstlichen
two
or
there
were
is
that
BRUCEHAYNES
My impression
rich WilhelmMarpurg,Historisch-kritische
BeytrigezurAufnahmeder
three Parisianpitches at that time, but that the Concert Musik,iii (Berlin,1757;R/Hildesheim,1970),
pp.186,189. Under vioSpirituel,which is where Mozartand a lot of foreigners linists, the 'Nachricht'lists JosephHtilber,who also playedthe transverse flute. Under oboists and flautists, it lists
Burg and
played, had the highest pitch around. If you compare Franzde PaulaDeibl, both of whom also playedChristoph
the violin, as well as
other factors-like that Frenchplayersplayedthere and Johann Michael Obkirchner.The leading playerseems to have been
in the opera but maybe transposed-then perhapsthe ChristophBurgfrom Mannheim;he is the one said to play concertos
on the flute and oboe very well.
pitch was already near a'=44o. Viennese pitch was
9LeopoldMozartgavethe incipits of five flute concertosin a letter
regardedas high, so maybethe two weresimilar.Butvery of 24 November1755to JohannJakobLotter;the concertos have not
survived. Mozart: Briefe und Aufzeichnungen,Gesamtausgabe,ed.
little has been publishedyet on these matters.
W. A. Bauerand O. E. Deutsch, i (Kassel,1962), pp.22-3.
"Letterof Leopold Mozartto LorenzHagenauer,19 July1763,The
'JohnGunn, TheArt of Playingthe GermanFluteon New Principles
Calculated to Increase Its Powers and Give to It Greater Variety, Lettersof Mozartand his Family,trans.E. Anderson(London, 2/1966),
i, p.25
Expression and Effect. . . (London, [1793]), pp.1-2. Quoted in M. Nas"N. Zaslaw, Mozart'sSymphonies:Context, PerformancePractice,
tasi, 'JohnGunn's"TheArt of Playingthe GermanFluteon New PrinLondon 1793' in Concerningthe Flute, ed. R. de Reede Reception(Oxford, 1989),p.250
ciples",
12The Mozartsappearto haveknown Beckefor some time, and per(Amsterdam, 1984), p.81
2'D'ailleurs,. . . nous avonsencore ... les flites que tant d'illustres haps they got to know him well when Leopoldand Wolfgangwere in
sgaventfaireg6mird'une manire si touchantedans nos airsplaintifs, Munichduringthe winterof 1774-5for the performanceof Wolfgang's
& soupirirsi amoureusementdans nos airs tendres.'Paraleledes ital- Lafinta giardiniera.Otto ErichDeutsch suggeststhat the engagement
iens et des frangoisen ce qui regardela musiqueet les opdra(Paris, of both Becke and the soprano castratoTommaso Consoli from the
Munichcourt for the musicaleventssurroundingthe visit of the young
[1702]), pp.18-19
3'Ellea aujourd'huises Illustres,qui l'ont mise, si vous voulez, dans archduketo Salzburgmaywell havebeen arrangedby LeopoldMozart.
toute sa perfection;c'est-a-dire,qu'on executeles choses les plus diffi- Informationabout their engagementis provided by the diary of the
ciles & les moin chantantes,sur un instrumentqui n'est fait pourtant Court Councillorat Salzburg,JohannBaptistJosephJoachimFerdinin
que pour toucher l'ame & pour nous attendrir.Je peux me tromper, and von Schiedenhofen,relevantcitations from which are quoted
mais je croisqu'un beau chant, & moins de vitesse& de batteries,sont variousplaces,includingDeutsch,Mozart:A DocumentaryBiography,
plus de l'essence de la Fhite.'Lettressur les hommescelebresdans les trans.E. Blom, P.Branscombeand J. Noble (London,1965),pp.150-52.

which would enableus to date instruments,until someone works out some guidelines for this. It would be
guesswork.

40

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'3Deutsch,DocumentaryBiography,p.161. On Cassel,see also O. E.

1957,p.23.
Deutsch, 'AusSchiedenhofensTagebuch',Mozart-Jahrbuch
HereDeutschsuggeststhat the concertoCasselplayedwasthe D major
this seems to be the likeliesthypothesis.
concerto, K314/285d;
14Letterof Mozartto his father,14 October1777,Letters,i, pp.316-17
15Letterof Mozartto his father,lo December 1777,Letters,i, p.414
16F. Lequin, 'Mozarts ".. . rarer Mann",' Mitteilungender InternationalenStiftungMozarteum,xix (1981), pp.3-19. For a brief summary of Dejean'sbiographysee F. Giegling, Foreword,NMA V/14/3:
Konzertefir Flite, fir Oboeundfir Fagott,p.viii, n.2.
17Letterof Mozartto his father,14 February1778,Letters,i, pp.481-2
18Leopold had writtenWolfgangin a letter of [11]-12 February1778,
'Assoon as you receivethis letter,I want you to write and tell me how
muchmoneyyouhavein hand.I trustthatyou can count for certainon
those 200 gulden. I was amazed to read your remarkthat you would
now finish that music for M. De Jeanat your leisure.It seems then that
you have not yet delivered it. Yet you were thinking of leaving on
February15th?-You even went on a trip to Kirchheim-even taking
Mlle [Weber]with you, with the resultthat of courseyou receivedless
money, as the Princess had two people to reward,a present which
otherwise you might have had for yourself. However,that does not
matter.But, Good God! SupposeHerr [Wendling]were now to playa
trickon you and M. De Jean [to breakhis word,] for the arrangement
was that you were to wait and travelwith them. Do send me news by
the next post, so that I may know how things are.'Letters,i, p.479.
9Inhis edition of Mozart'sOboe Concerto (London, 1948), Bernhard Paumgartnersuggeststhat Dejeanmay not have acceptedthe D
majorConcertobecauseit was not an originalcomposition (p.1).This
may explainwhy Mozartmentioned only one flute concertoin a letter
to his fatherof 3 October1778:'I am not bringingyou manynew compositions, for I haven'tcomposed very much. I have not got the three
quartetsand the flute concerto for M. De Jean,for, when he went to
Paris,he packedthem into the wrong trunk and so they remainedin
Mannheim. But he has promised to send them to me as soon as he
returnsto Mannheim,and I shallask Wendlingto forwardthem.'Letters,ii, p.622. For furtherinformationabout the relationshipbetween
the oboe and flute concertos,see B. Paumgartner,'Zu MozartsOboenConcertC-Dur KV314(285d)',Mozart-Jahrbuch
1950, pp.24-40, and F.
Giegling, Foreword,NMA V/14/3,pp.viii-x.
20SeeespeciallyJ.Pohanka,Foreword,NMAVIII/20/2:Quartettemit
einem Blasinstrument,pp.vii-x; W. Plath, Foreword, NMA X/29/1:
WerkeZweifelhafterEchtheit,p.x; R. Leavis,'Mozart'sFluteQuartetin
C, KApp.171',
ML,xliii (1962), pp.48-52;W.-D.Seiffert,'SchriebMozart
drei Fl6tenquartette foir Dejean? Neuere Quellendatierung und
Bemerkungenzur Familienkorrespondez',
Mozart-]ahrbuch1987-88,
JRMA
pp.267-75;and R. Lustig,'On the FluteQuartet,K285b/Anh.171',
(forthcoming). Seiffertmakes much of discrepanciesin Mozart'sletters regardingthe number of works he said he was commissioned to
write and claimsto havecompleted,questionshis veracitywith regard
to these works in his letters to his father,and concludes that Mozart
was really commissioned to write four quartetsfor Dejean but completedno more than two. The only extantautographmaterialfrom the
C majorquartet,a sketchoften barsfrom the firstmovement,appears
to date from severalyears afterMozart'ssojourn in Mannheim (1781,
accordingto Seiffertin the KritischerBerichtof the NMA VIII/20/2,
p.17),and for reasons too lengthy to recount here, the quartetin the
form in which it is known today is very likely not by Mozart.The G
major quartetalso raises some questions. All editions before the old
Mozart Gesamtausgabe
combined the first movement of the D major
quartetwith the two movementsof the G majorquartet,thus creating
a three-movementworkthat began in D majorand ended in G major.
As earlyas 1792Artariapublishedthe partsin this form;see especially
A. Einstein,Preface,W A. Mozart:Quartetfor Flute(or Violin),Violin,
Viola and Violoncello,K no.285a(London, 1937).U. Toeplitz, in Die
Holzblaserin der Musik Mozarts und ihr Verhiltniszur Tonartwahl
(Baden-Baden,

1978), p.96, suggests that the G major quartet is

utterlygalantin characterand farfrom the manneredMannheimtaste;

it may have had an earlierorigin. The C major quartetwas first published by Bosslerin Speyerin 1788.The A majorquartet,K298, which
belongs to a later period of Mozart'scomposition, did not appearin
print before 1808,when it was publishedby JohannTraegin Vienna.
However,since Traegannounced in the WienerZeitungof 17October
1787that a quartetby Mozart could be had from him, this may well
have been the A major quartet;see Deutsch, DocumentaryBiography,
pp.300oo-301o.
2A. Einstein,Mozart:His Character,His Work,trans.A. Mendeland
N. Broder(London, 1945),p.283
VerzeichnissamtlicherTonwerkeWolf"Chronologisch-thematisches
gangAmadeMozartsvon Dr. LudwigRittervon Kdchel,8th edn, ed. F.
Giegling,A. Weinmannand G. Sievers(Wiesbaden,1983),p.296
23Onthe Cambiniconnection, see especiallyB. S. Brook,'The SymphonieconcertanteAn InterimReport',MQ,xlvii (1961), pp.5o1-2. For
a thorough discussionof the symphonieconcertantefor oboe, clarinet,
horn and bassoonwhichwaspublishedand performedunderMozart's
name and until recentlywas regardedas a transcriptionof the lost Paris
work, see R. D. Levin, WhoWrotetheMozartFour-WindConcertante?
(Stuyvesant,NY, 1988). Levin has also reconstructedthe symphonie
concertantefor flute, oboe, horn, bassoon and orchestra(Kassel,1983).
24Letterof 14 May 1778,Letters,ii, p.538
25Onthe A major quartet,see Pohanka,Foreword,NMA VIII/2o/2,
p.viii, and F. O. Souper, 'Mozart'sA Major Flute Quartet',Monthly
MusicalRecord,lxx (November1940), pp.197-2o3.
26Compare the D major flute concerto, in which the flute does not
play above e", presumablybecause the solo part is basicallya transposition of that in the C major oboe concerto.
27Quoted in B. Schultze, Querfliten der Renaissanceund des Barock, i: Eine historisierende,literarischeAnthologie(Munich, 2/1984),
p.450, and translated by Ardal Powell in an as yet unpublished
manuscript.
28For a discussion of the development of this type of instrument
from the earlierthree-pieceone-key flute,see J.Bowers,'New Lighton
the Development of the TransverseFlute between about 1650 and
about 1770', Journalof the AmericanMusical InstrumentSociety,iii
(1977),pp.5-56.
NationalmuseumNiirnberg:Weg29J.H. van der Meer,Germanisches
weiserdurchdieSammlunghistorischer
Musikinstrumente
(Nuremberg,
n.d.), p.35
30Thisis describedin partby RichardShepherdRockstro,A Treatise
on the Constructionthe History and the Practice of the Flute
...
(London, 2/1928; R/1967),pp.151-2.
31For Potter's patent, see Rockstro, Treatise,pp.253-4. Rockstro
points out that there was nothing original in the patent, unless the
coveringand the numberingof the tuning slide can be consideredso.
32Theseinstrumentsarein the Musikinstrumenten-Museum
at Karl
MarxUniversityin Leipzigand the GemeenteMuseumin The Hague.
SeeP.T.Young,Twenty-five
HundredHistoricalWoodwindInstruments:
An Inventoryof the Major Collections(New York, 1982), p.43, and
Young,'Inventoryof Instruments:J. H. Eichentopf,Poerschman,Sattler,A. and H. Grenser,Grundmann'GS],xxxi (1978),p.116.
33Onthe Grensers, see 'Grenser',AllgemeinedeutscheBiographie
(Leipzig, 1892), which is reproducedin Schultze, Querfldten,p.490;
F. A. Drechsel, 'Zur Geschichtedes Instrumentenbauesin Dresden',
P. Rubardt,
Zeitschriftfar Instrumentenbau,il (1928), pp.995-100ooo;
'Grenser',MGG;and the two Youngsourcescited in the previousnote.
34van der Meer, Germanisches Nationalmuseum, pp.57, 61

35Young,Twenty-fiveHundredInstruments,p.55
36P.T.Young,TheLookofMusic:RareMusicalInstruments,15oo-19oo
(Vancouver, 1980), pp.141-2. In a personal communication, David
Shorey has suggested,however,that Heinrich Grenser'sinstruments
demonstratea new approachto flute making.His firstknown instrument turned in the new style is one in a privatecollection in Bremen
which appearsto date from 1789 (the box is dated 1789). Accordingto
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5Reviewof Tromlitz'sbook, Oberdie Flhtenmit mehrernKlappen,in

Shorey,Heinrich'smost common sort of flute is made of ebony and
has a ratheroval mouth hole.
zurAllgemeinenmusikalischeZeitung,ii, no.11(March
Intelligenz-Blatt
37Oneusefulmodel for the detaileddescriptionof flutesis presented 18oo00).Quoted from an unpublishedtranslationby ArdalPowell.
der Karl-Marx-Universitat 52'Hr.J. E Boye in Gdttingen(auf der Allee wohnhaft) bietet verin H. Heyde, Musikinstrumenten-Museum
Leipzig,Katalog,i: Fl6ten (Leipzig,1978).From his detailed descrip- besserte Fl6ten, die er nach den MeisterstockenGrenser'sin Dresden
tions of individualflutes, Heyde is able to generalizeabout the differ- und Pottersin London verfertigt,an . . .' Reproducedfrom the Berences in bore size (of both headand middlejoints), size and placement linischemusikalische
Zeitung:Historischenund kritischenInhalts,ed. C.
of tone-holes, volume and type of sound between flutes of different Spazier(Berlin,1794)in Schultze, Querflaten,p.446.
makersand schools (Grenser,Koch, Kirstschool, south Germantra53InMusikinstrumenten-Museum,
p.24, Heyde characterizesGrenser
dition etc.), when theirinstrumentsarein the Leipzigcollection.How- flutes as havinga veryloud volume and coveredsound, althoughwith
ever, his generalizationsare confined to German flutes for the 18th later instrumentsalso a fuller and more open sound.
54Oneflute by Theodor Lotz, who worked in Pressburgand then
century(pp.23-5).
38Thesemakers include Ardal Powell, Friedrichvon Huene, Rod Viennabefore his death in 1792, is in the NationalMuseum in Prague
Cameronand CatherineFolkers.I wish to thankall of them for sharing (no.1362E).No informationappearsto be availableabout the natureof
the results of their study so generouslyin personal communications this instrument,however.On Lotz see Haupt, 'WienerInstrumentenwith me. SinceI am generalizinghere about mattersaboutwhich each bauer',p.158,and L. G. Langwill,An IndexofMusicalWind-Instrument
contributeda somewhatdifferentperspective,I apologize if I have in Makers(Edinburgh,64/1980),p.110. The flute is listed in Museumof
any way misrepresentedtheir statements.I also wish to thankThomas Musical Instruments:Catalogue of the Permanent Exhibition ...
Boehm, Thomas Prescott, David Shorey and John Solum for gener- (Prague,1973),P.37.
55H.Haupt, 'WienerInstrumentenbauum 18oo00'
(Ph.D. diss., U. of
ously sharingtheir valuableobservationsabout old instrumentswith
me.
Vienna,1952),app., p.7o. See also Haupt, 'WienerInstrumentenbauer
xxiv (1960), p.142
communicationsfrom Cameron,von Huene and Powell von 1791bis 1815'Studienzur Musikwissenschaft,
39Personal
makerM. Schwaigerof Salzburgby whom there is a one-key
40aThe
56Haupt,'WienerInstrumentenbauum 18oo',app., p.71.The only
flute in the Museum Carolino Augusteum in Salzburg (no.6/3 extantflute of Hammig'sdescribedin printseems to be a one-keyflhte
des Oberbster[Geir.257])lived in the mid-19thratherthan the 18thcentury,accord- d'amourin Linz. See Die Musikinstrumentensammlung
ed. O. Wessely(Linz, n.d.), p.45.
MuseumCaro- reichischenLandesmuseums,
im Salzburger
ing to K. Birsak,Die Holzblasinstrumente
app.,p.64, and Haupt,
lino Augusteum: Verzeichnis und entwicklungsgeschichtliche 57Haupt,'WienerInstrumentenbauum 18oo00',
'WienerInstrumentenbauer',
pp.142-3.Wesseley,in Musikinstrumen(Salzburg,1973),pp.29, 62.
Untersuchungen
4'Birsak,Holzblasinstrumente,
tensammlung,p.44, lists two flutes in Linz marked 'HARRACH/WIEN',
pp.29, 63, 82. The flute is depicted in
one with five keys and one with six; however,Langwill,in Index of
table III.
im Bach- Wind-InstrumentMakers,
42See especiallyH. Heyde, HistorischeMusikinstrumente
p.73,ascribesthem to MelchiorHarrach,the
haus Eisenach(Eisenach,1976),pp.2o3-5.Accordingto Friedrichvon son of Franz.
58Haupt, 'WienerInstrumentenbau',app., p.94
Heune, the head joint of this flute has a largebore.
59Young,Twenty-fiveHundredInstruments,pp.72-3. On Koch see
43G.Hart,'Die Holzblasinstrumentenmacher
Eisenmenger:Ein Beip.152.
trag zur Geschichte des Mannheimer Musikinstrumentenbaues', Haupt, 'WienerInstrumentenbauer',
6oSmith takes up the case of AndrewAshe-to whom John SainsMannheimerHefte1961,ii, p.42
44Aninventorymade afterDejean'sdeceaselisted a flutebut gaveno bury accordeda lengthybiographyin A Dictionaryof Musiciansfrom
the EarliestTimes (London, 1825; R/New York, 1966), pp.43-6-in
details.
45ThelettersdescribingLeopold'stransactionwith Grenseraredated order to demonstratethat Ashe, who played a six-key flute, replaced
7 February1772(where Leopold mentions two oboes and two bas- Graeff,the principalflautistengagedby Salomon in 1791,who played
soons, but all laterlettersconfirmthat it was oboes and Englishhorns 'upon a Flutenot of the new construction',as Salomon'spreferredflauthat were ordered),16August1776,13December1776,11April 1777,13 tist at concerts in London during the course of the early 1790s.She
March1778,6 July1778,4 October 1778,29 April 1779,lo August 1781 states, 'Because Ashe displaced Graeff as Salomon's preferredperand 29 April1782.They arereproducedin Mozart:BriefeundAufzeich- former,this series of clippingsseems to document the move, in one
i-iii.
orchestra,from the use of the one-keyed flute to the flute with more
nungen,Gesamtausgabe,
46Forexample, a Jacob Denner flute with two foot joints, one of keys.'C. Smith,'ChangingUse of the Fluteand its ChangingConstrucstandardlengthwith one key,and a longerfoot joint that extendedthe tion, 1774-1795'AmericanRecorder,xx, no.1 (May1977),p.6. Forwhatrangeof the instrumentdownwardsby a whole tone and was supplied everit is worth, Sainsbury'sbiographyof Ashe statesthat he took a few
bei der lessons from Wendlingaround 1775,who 'on his second visit. . . told
with two keys. See C. Sachs,SammlungalterMusikinstrumente
StaatlicheHochschulefar Musikzu Berlin:Beschreibender
Katalog(Ber- him his new flutewas a bad one, that the long keyson the bottom joint
spoiledthe instrument,and that the smallkeyswereof no use, particulin, 1922), p.255.
communicationfrom Darcy Kuronenat the Museumof larlyin quick passages.
47Personal
Fine Arts, Boston
48I wish to thank various staff members at the Chicago Historical
Societyfor providingme with informationabout this flute. The head
joint is marked'PotterSenior'while the foot joint is stampedwith both
this name and the date1776.Likethe Potterflutepicturedin illus.6,this
instrumenthas b'Land g'i keys locatedon the uppermiddlejoint, an
f' key on the lower middle joint, and e' , c'd and c' keys on the foot
joint. The flute is made of darkwood with ivorybands.
49Onthe duke'sambassadorshipto London,see Abert,W A. Mozart,
i, p.578,and M. Flothuisand E Vester,Linernotes, WolfgangAmadeus
Mozart:CompleteFlute Concertoson OriginalInstruments,Pro Arte
2PAL-2oo4 (1980).

bars151-2and 157-8in the firstmovement,bar98 in the second

5?See
bar 369 in the third.
and
42

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