This is a large manuscript of music for solo flute by the major French composers of the mid-19th Century. There are 115 numbered pieces in the collection and some of them are quite extensive. This is a very important collection for a number of reasons. It is a quite a large quantity of solo flute music and quite a bit of it is not found in other sources. It provides us with a glimpse of the solo music a fine French player might have wanted to have at hand. This is not an amateur collection as the majority of the works are at the top technical level of flute music from the period. A really complete examination of what versions might match with existing printed editions has not yet been undertaken. Anyone need a good Masters thesis???
The manuscript cover has the initials A.B. - any ideas of French flutists active 1850-70 with those initials???
To date I have included sample pages of four of the works but plan to eventually provide a full catalog. I am not making all the music public as I would like to someday publish editions of these pieces or a full facsimile. To date I have published most of the Fantaisie sur le Choeur des Baigneuses (from the Huguenots of Meyerbeer as arranged by Charles de Cottignies. It can be found in the April 2017 edition of Flute Talk.
I have recorded a few audio examples from the manuscript of pieces by Cottignies using flutes from my collection, including:
Cottignies - Bolero (played on a 1-key Proser, London c.1780)
Cottignies - L’Orgie (played on a 5-key Raver, Lyon c. 1835)
Cottignies - Finale from Norma (played on a Buffet/Coche conical Boehm, Paris c. 1838
Cottignies - Ma Normandie (played on a 4-key D. Buffet, Paris, c.1810)
Composers in the manuscript include:
Berbigieur
Camus
Cottignies
Curtier?
Donard
Drouet
Gebauer
Kocken
Kuhlau
Le Plus
Remusat
Tulou (at least 20 pieces)
Walckiers
Music based on operatic material where the flute arranger is not named, includes works of:
Meyerbeer
Rossini
Gounod
Bellini
Weber
Verdi
Pacini
Donizetti
and probably a few others
Some works do not have composer names attached. In some cases they are probably by the same composer as the preceding piece.
Many of these works do also have piano parts but this volume was obviously complied to present solo flute music. Accompanying parts were often optional. For instance, the big works of Tulou in this collection do contain piano parts. I have not yet done any detailed examination to discover if the flute parts have been altered to become solo works, however, the works with piano very often contain little interludes where the flute doesn’t play. We do not find many instances of multiple measures rest in these flute parts. A number of the works are definitely created specifically to be solo pieces as solo flute music was extremely popular in France.
In addition to solo repertoire the manuscript contains some duets and also some pieces with voice parts notated. It is clear that several different hands are represented in the manuscript and we find in some places that short little pieces have been added, usually in a different hand than the surrounding material. I’m guessing there are probably two main contributors and two or more additional hands involved with the collection.
Use the pop-up menu or these links to see the sample pages:
Tulou 2e Grand Solo
