LINDSAY ON FLUTE-PLAYING.*
THE use of wind instruments (with the single exception of the tri impet) has undergone a great change within the last forty years. The ir com- pass, their tone, their character, is different from what it was. Com- posers have invented new difficulties, and performers have o vercome them. We apprehend that their powers are now fully unders'tood and established, and that all good practical musicians know how, where, and when they can best be employed. No advance has been greater than that of the flute. Its compass, at the time we have nientioned, scarcely exceeded two octaves, and its employment was chiefly confined to one. In the early Overtures and Sinfonias of HAYDN, the use of the flute is scarcely more frequent or more difficult than in those of ABEL or VANHALL ; and it was reserved for this great master sub- sequently to develop and extend its powers, as well as those of wind instruments in general. To the Italian composers we owe nothing in this respect ; to the German everything. Even so late as the period * The Elements of Flute-playing, according to the most approved principles of modern Angering, and the present advanced state of the art. By T, Lindsay. when the Overture to Anacreon was produced in this country, we re- member that Asirs Used to regard the flute part as one of astounding difficulty. To NicHo'sox we are indebted for an advance in flute-playing, in • pohit-of tone, compass' and execution, which leaves all his predecessors at 'a remote distance. Like all the other principal English wind instru- ment players of the present day, his chief superiority is in tone. Some foreign players have as much execution; but NicuoLsoiv, and with him WILLMAN, MACKINTOSH, DENMAN, and HARPER, have no Conti- nental rivals in the firmness and fulness, and consequently in the variety of their tone. 'this advance has necessarily superseded all the old "Flute In- structors." They are now useless,—Mr. WRAGG'S celebrated work included. They will no more teach the flute than the bassoon. NI- cuoLsoN's "Preceptive Lessons," useful as they are, profess not to begin at the beginning • and in fact, with the exception of the work before us, we do not know any which will lead the learner from the moment he first takes the flute into his hand, to the gradual acquire- ment of the difficulties of the instrument. The first part contains some useful hints on the choice and management of instruments. This is followed by GuNtq's well-known "Essay on the Formation and Pro- *dies of Musical Sound, as they respect the German Flute." The next part of the work might have been compressed without disad- vantage; with the exception of the chapter on the formation of tone, which should be read with attention by every learner. Mr. LINDSAY has appended to the elementary portion of his book fifty-two Duettinos and seventy Exercises, chiefly selected from BiantautER, GEBAUR, DROUET, and other of the best writers for the flute.
We have no hesitation in recommending this as a valuable elementary work. It is written, as such works ought to be, so that learners may understand it. It goes on step by step, giving every necessary expla- nation fully, clearly, and distinctly ; and may safely challenge a com- parison with the elaborate Continental works on the same subject.
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