I believe one could argue that the Devienne treatise “Méthode Complète Pour La Flute” was the most influential flute treatise published during the 19th century. It appeared on an extremely large number of editions, in a variety of languages. Especially interesting is the fact the while being written for the 1-key flute it continued to be used, mostly without serious modification, for the 4, 5, 6, and 8-key flutes, as well as the conical and cylindrical Boehm flute. We find that various sets of etudes and other pieces by different composers are often attached. It is not unusual for many flute treatises to copy from a single, more important source, but the popularity of Devienne is difficult to compare with any other similar work.
I have four different copies of the work, two of which are shown below. Neither of these are first editions although the first one shown is quite early. Note that is has been expanded by Rialpo while the next copy contains materials by Camus.
François Devienne (1759 - 1803), was the first flute professor, along with Hugot, of the critically important Paris Conservatore, founded in 1795. Devienne’s treatise was first published in 1794 while the treatise of Hugot/Wunderlich was published in 1804. Although the Devienne treatise has proven the most historically important of the two, the Hugot was adopted as the official flute treatise for the Conservatoire. The reason for this is, I believe, fairly clear in that Devienne was “old school” playing only the 1-key flute himself. Although the same age, Hugot represented the new wave of flutists interested specifically in the 4-key just raising to importance in France around the time of the book’s printing. Eventually the Hugot treatise was replaced at the conservatoire, but not until c.1840 with the Tulou “Methodé de Flûte.”
