# Why the Romantic composers didn't write for the flute.



## Tockley

Being a flutist, this topic is particularly interesting to me. As any flutist knows, there is a poverty of repertoire available from the early Romantic period for the flute. Whereas one can easily find things to play from both the baroque and classical eras, for some reason composers seemed to lose interest in the flute upon the dawn of Romanticism. 

Some possible reasons that I think are reasonable to attribute to this phenomenon might include, the rising prominence of the Piano/forte, or the incongruence of the flute with the Germanic musical aesthetic. 

I'd love to here what some of you think about this topic though.


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## Aramis

I was interested in hearing romantic flute concertos, but althought I found out about some of such works (like four concertos by Saverio Mercadante) I never found any recording of those. Too bad, I belive that flute could make great usage in romantic music.


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## Tockley

I think it's interesting that many of the same composers who wrote for the guitar also wrote for the flute. This inclines me to think that the flute was perhaps associated with more of an Italian or French musical aesthetic. Since many of the prominent Romantic composers were German, this might offer something of an explanation.

The one significant Romantic contribution to the flute, Schubert's _Variations on Trockne Blumen _, lends further credence to this argument, since Schubert happens to be the only composer of the first Viennese school to write for the guitar as well. Furthermore, Schubert is known for his incorporation of song form into his instrumental music.


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## Mirror Image

Tockley said:


> I think it's interesting that many of the same composers who wrote for the guitar also wrote for the flute. This inclines me to think that the flute was perhaps associated with more of an Italian or French musical aesthetic. Since many of the prominent Romantic composers were German, this might offer something of an explanation.
> 
> The one significant Romantic contribution to the flute, Schubert's _Variations on Trockne Blumen _, lends further credence to this argument, since Schubert happens to be the only composer of the first Viennese school to write for the guitar as well. Furthermore, Schubert is known for his incorporation of song form into his instrumental music.


Don't forget Carl Nielsen's contribution to the flute repertoire with his "Flute Concerto."


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## Tockley

Mirror Image said:


> Don't forget Carl Nielsen's contribution to the flute repertoire with his "Flute Concerto."


Actually I need to check that piece out; I am admittedly not familiar with it other than by name, although I know it is an important work in the literature.

I should have specified early Romanticism though. In the later years of the Romantic era a number of composers, particularly French, wrote a good deal for the flute (Fauré, Debussy, Prokofiev, Molique etc.


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## Taneyev

And if you can, there's also transcriptions to solo flute of Paganini's 24.


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## bdelykleon

The greatest flue piece of the Romantic period is Reinecke's Undine. It is a good piece.


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## Bach

To be honest - no wind instrument has a great wealth of repertoire from the romantic period. The violin and the piano wer dah in teng.


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## bdelykleon

What about the clarinet: Weber, Brahms, Schumann, Rossini...


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## Aramis

Mendelssohn was very "windy" composer too.


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## JAKE WYB

I think Bax can be regarded as a romanric or post-romantic composer and his output including flute is beautiful- the elegiac trio, the flute sonata etc are worth a try as they are very pleasnt and well written for the instrumant -and particularly striking aftre being generally staurated with stringy sounds for the preceding century


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## Sid James

Aramis said:


> Mendelssohn was very "windy" composer too.


I used to have a tape of Mendelssohn's _Violin Concerto_ (the famous one) transcribed for flute, played by Andras Adorjan. I forget who did the transcription...


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## Guest

Actually early romantic composers loved the flute, but didn't always write solo pieces for it. However, they included it liberally in their orchestral scores, particularly in operas... there are many flute solos in the operas of Donizetti, Bellini and Rossini, for example.

Another popular genre from the early C19th was "flute solo variations on famous opera melodies" arranged for flute & piano. Hundreds of these were published, mainly for home music-making. However, they have mostly fallen out-of-print these days, and have to be looked for in libraries, or junk-shops.

You should look out the flute concertos of Mercadante, there are several of them (for flute & string orchestra) - the E-minor concerto is considered the most attractive of the set, and they present the player with some considerable technical challenges


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## LuvRavel

Hey, oboe is worse man. There is pretty much NO MUSIC AT ALL written for oboe in the romantic period.


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## Bach

and yet it's the most wonderfully romantic instrument.. far more so than any other winds..


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## LuvRavel

Bach said:


> and yet it's the most wonderfully romantic instrument.. far more so than any other winds..


I know!! I find oboe's timbre is more suited for long, lyrical passages than any other instruments in the orchestra. Surely all the romantic composers would have realised that in writing symphonies and concerto, but I just can't understand why none of them would be inclined to write any sonatas or concerto for oboe as a solo instrument.


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## Bach

Well, there are a few lovely oboe and cor anglais solos throughout the romantic era, in Wagner and Brahms especially. Tristan und Isolde features a three minute solo for Cor Anglais where it plays in total isolation - Brahms' violin concerto has an extended melody for oboe..


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## Rasa

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the late-romantic French composers (the impressionists) have written a vast flute repertoire.


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## joen_cph

True, the overall picture is that the flute was rarely used for a concertante role, and that the composers who championed it in general haven´t reached much fame. A few more mainly 19th century flute compositions, almost all recorded, could be mentioned here; supposedly, some of them are quite well-known among flute students:

- Peter Benoit made a quite attractive flute concerto;
- the Danish/German Daniel Friedrich Kuhlau wrote a lot of fine chamber works with flute;
his Flute Quintets, for instance, are delicious;
- Weber wrote a characteristic _Trio op.63 _that is not so bad either;
- Reinecke and Romberg concertos as well;
- another productive Dane was Joachim Andersen, whose works I however don´t know; 
- S-Saens a concertante _Odelette_;
- Kalkbrenner and Czerny some works, though hardly of much merit;
- Busoni some pieces as well;
- Reger a _Serenade_ for flute trio;
- J.P.E.Hartmann, a Dane, a _Sonata op.1_

Mercadante and Devienne were after all considered virtuosi in their own time, and their concerti
have also been recorded.


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## Argus

Tchaikovsky was too busy playing the meat flute.


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## HarpsichordConcerto

Argus said:


> Tchaikovsky was too busy playing the meat flute.


You meant _blowing_ the meat flute!


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## JSK

The Chaminade Flute Concertino is allright, but not quite on the level of the "great" piano, violin, cello concertos of the Romantic era.


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## Huilunsoittaja

Argus said:


> Tchaikovsky was too busy playing the


Tchaikovsky DID play the flute, did you know that? He made a few little works for Flute and Orchestra, but it's all too obscure to find.

I love to play French Romantic Flute solos. However, they were more late Romantic, sometimes with more Modern style.

It's very sad that there is very little otherwise for Romantic flute. I've found some, such as Romance in D flat by Saint-Saens, or the Petit Suite by Godard. The only other place to find good stuff is the Orchestral music.


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## javivr

Huilunsoittaja said:


> Tchaikovsky DID play the flute, did you know that? He made a few little works for Flute and Orchestra, but it's all too obscure to find.
> 
> I love to play French Romantic Flute solos. However, they were more late Romantic, sometimes with more Modern style.
> 
> It's very sad that there is very little otherwise for Romantic flute. I've found some, such as Romance in D flat by Saint-Saens, or the Petit Suite by Godard. The only other place to find good stuff is the Orchestral music.


At least in the UK, the flute was a very famous instrument in the early Romantic period. According to Robert Bigio, "it was estimated in 1829 that one man in ten in London played the flute" (http://www.bigio.com/readings.htm). Perhaps the misunderstanding comes from the fact that it was exactly at the end of this period when the flute experienced the most dramatic transformation of its history. Multi-keyed wooden simple system flutes, and their incredible diversity all over Europe, were replaced by the new invention at the time, the Boehm flute. This tremendous change in the evolution and history of the flute possibly led to abandoning the repertoire specifically composed and arranged for the older style flute. Therefore, composers such as John Reid (https://imslp.org/wiki/Category:Reid,_John), James Oswald (http://imslp.org/wiki/Category:Oswald,_James/Collections) or, the considered at the time a music star, the famous Charles Nicholson (https://www.academia.edu/6447630/Charles_Nicholson_and_the_Making_of_a_British_Flute_Sound) were eventualy ignored.


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## Larkenfield

...............


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## Larkenfield

I believe the French maintained more of an interest in the flute during the Romantic era, Debussy, Ravel, later Poulenc in the Modern era. Elsewhere, James Galway did some fine recordings of the Romantic flute literature, including works by Mercadante, Dvorak and Franck:

https://www.allmusic.com/album/60-years-60-flute-masterpieces-vol-5-the-romantic-era-mw0001849610


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