On May 15, 2007, at 9:22 AM, Kim Patrick Clow wrote:
I have a recording on Hyperion that features flute music from the Middle Ages to the baroque period, with quite a few pieces featuring the bass flute (on period instruments). My question is: why didn't the bass flute become a part of the standard music ensemble, given the popular nature of oboes (along with their variant sizes including the bassoon).
First of all, there's some terminological confusion here. The term "bass flute" up to the 1970s was widely used to mean the alto flute. This was especially true in England, and seems to be the case with the Baroque recordings you mention. There was no such thing as a real bass flute until about 1910. Bach wrote for alto flute in a couple of his cantatas, but notably he just called it "flute" and left it to the player to use an appropriate size for the range notated.
The reason no bass flute was developed any earlier was because a flute of that size, built straight, exceeds the player's reach. Makers began experimenting with various bent forms in the early twentieth c., but it was only with the development of today's type (with recurved head joint) that the instrument became really practical.
Because the bass flute in practical form has only existed for about 40 years, it simply hasn't had time to be generally adopted, though more and more players now own them. Compare the clarinet, which was around for 90 years before it became a standard orchestral instrument.
In the meantime, today's classical composers (not just avant-gardists) feel perfectly free to write for the instrument whenever they feel like it, with confidence that one will be available whenever needed. I have written for it myself, several times--you can hear it, for example, in my _Procrustean Concerto for the B Flat Clarinet_ on MMC 2105.
Andrew Stiller Kallisti Music Press http://www.kallistimusic.com/ _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
