Jean-Louis Tulou 1786 - 1865. This is the 2nd edition of the extremely important flute treatise of Jean Tulou. He was the most influential French flutists of his time, being both Professor at the Paris Conservatoire, and the principal at the Paris Opera. He composed many hundreds of works for flute, usually extremely demanding. He was a conservative in that he did not support the new Boehm flute and he successfully kept it out of the curriculum at the Conservatoire until he retired. He was also very important as a flute maker. His instruments were the approved flutes for studying at the Conservatoire and his invention of the Flûte Perfectionée was an important move to counter the increasing popularity of the Boehm flute in France.
The treatise is very usable and well organized. He is teaching the keyed flute and adds one key at a time through etudes, exercises, and short pieces. One very special aspect of his treatise is the important of the notes sensiblé, or what we might call, high leading tones. He gives fingerings for these and illustrates how they were used. He is also interested in various other types of alternate fingerings, mostly aimed at making certain fingering patterns easier.
My collection contains many flute pieces of Tulou and several of his instruments. In some ways, this is a testament to how popular they were as they as still quite plentiful on the market today. The vast majority of this music has never been published in modern editions.
