Digitally Ubiquitous - Jen's profile in Flutist Quarterly

Dear Flutists,

My flutey life in print! Eeek!
But I have to show you the cover too!
The cover term: Digitally Ubiquitous, ha hahahahaa!
Whooooo! That just cracks me right up! :>D





You can click on the pictures to enlarge them. Just use the backbutton to return here.

And where did this Cluffy profile come from?
Well, my good pen-pal-friend and fellow flutist, Jerry Pritchard published a profile on "moi" for The Flutist Quarterly Magazine. What a lovely article and what a lovely writer. Thanks so much Jerry!



If any flutey reader has any follow-up questions, fire away!
Yes, I do live on less than $5000 a year. Yes, I do indeed practice along with recordings of great symphonic literature, by changing the sound files to A-440. Yes, I do have strange things glued on my flute. (a la Moyse's and Baxtresser's flutes). And yes, we do commute by small boat to get home each evening. Yes, yes, yes it is crazily alternative, but hey.... This is your life! ha ha!

The profile is in the Fall 2010 issue. I'm hugely grateful that this particular issue is so full of brilliant articles. It's a real KEEPER!!! Huge thanks to the writers, editors, and hardworking staff at Flutist Quarterly. Made my year to be included in an issue like this! So amazingly high quality!
Best, and huge hugs all around,
Jen

Flute Auditions youtube orchestra

Dear Flutists,

Because the voting is now open for the youtube orchestra, you can actually listen to the auditions, just as one day YOU might be listened to in an audition.
Go to: http://www.youtube.com/symphony

Instructions for navigating youtube orchestra channel*:
click VOTE - then click orchestral audition - select "flute" or "piccolo" from the seating plan graphic - select one of twelve videos of finalists.

Jen says: Wow! Isn't it amazing to be listening rather than being the flutist for a change? Sit back and really observe, eh?

What a great learning opportunity!
Finally we can see from the judge's point of view.

Haven't you always wanted to know what an orchestral committee see and hear when a flutist auditions?

For these youtube orchestra auditions there are a total of twelve flutists you can listen to and vote for at the youtube orchestra channel: I felt these two had very strong visual and audio presentation.
Interesting to learn from sitting in the judge's seat.
For example: Listen to the two players below and conduct along or tap the table, listening to the orchestral part in your mind. Which player feels metronomically alert?





Note of interest:
Rather than film her audition in several takes, this participant above played all the excerpts back to back; now that's raising the bar!!

And of interest also is the "lyrical improvisatory" section of the contest.
Check out this film:


Love the veritasse background of kitchen!

Enjoy and join me in learning what makes a great audition for a flutist.
Comments welcome.

And thanks to *Nina P. for the instructions on how to navigate the website.:>)

Instructions for navigating youtube orchestra channel*:
click VOTE - then click orchestral audition - select "flute" or "piccolo" from the seating plan graphic - select one of twelve videos of finalists.

Best,
Jen

Does piccolo fourth octave exist?

Dear Jen,
Through my research, I didn´t find what i was looking for, so i decided to ask a professional: Is it possible to achieve the fourth octave on the piccolo????, There are some web pages that say yes, but other says no, and so, i got in a mess!!!!!, and there isn´t a clear explanation of this subject. Thankyou. G.

Dear G,
Here are two decent piccolo fingering charts online:

Piccolo fingering chart - Christie Beard

Piccolo fingering alternates - John Krell

As you can see, no fingerings are given above a C#4, and for good reason, I suspect.

I suppose that it is theoretically possible to squeak out a deadly high peep on D4 with much force and horrific tone quality, in a Sousa March, but, ha, ha.... no one really wants to.
When it's done well, (and only one piccoloist in twenty can play C4 on the piccolo well, and only after much practice, and often changing piccolos a few times until they find one that does it more easily) it's still horrible to listen to, and considered a "trick" for blast-fests.

The note C4 appears most prominently in the Shostakovich Waltz Suite No. 1 - Polka, for orchestra, doubled at the octave with the flute, and it's seldom in tune in recordings, and takes much practice to play it in tune. Here is a good recording, thought it's hard to say whether the flute drops out for the C4 octave unison: go to minute 1:08 and listen for the top note of the phrase:



One or two C#4s exist in the piccolo literature, but not enough to worry too much about.
There is an interesting article about the problems with C#4 on piccolo, and how to solve them by using a D-flat piccolo, here.
But for the modern piccoloist, the typical range is to C4 only (see orchestral instrument ranges and transpositions here.)

On the other hand, contemporary concert band composers not infrequently forget to transpose the piccolo parts, and write them "as if" they piccolo must go into the fourth octave. However this is a misprint.

The piccoloist should assume that the arranger/composer has made a mistake, and play one octave lower.

I advise to always play one octave lower above a high B3 unless you have three months of daily piccolo practice, (in addition to your regular flute practice) to work up the fingering, tuning and embouchure.
Be safe, be happy, and drop an octave.
If wanting to live dangerously, you still should always wear ear-plugs when practicing above D3.

Oh, and in hunting around, I also found an invention, the double-octave piccolo, whose time may have come. Have a read of this article:
Super-Octave Piccolo Written by Nancy Nourse

Quote:Buried in one of the many drawers of the enormous Dayton C. Miller Collection in the Library of Congress lies an anonymous nineteenth century oddity, no. 610, a tiny transverse flute. Built to sound a full octave higher than the modern piccolo (or a full two octaves above the standard, concert flute) its actual length is more than twice as long as its sounding length. Since playing such a tiny instrument as a super-octave piccolo obviously poses a fingering challenge for anyone without the most miniature hands, this anonymous maker has employed the same concept of remotely controlling mechanisms for the opening and closing of keys that is used to manipulate distant hole covers on baritone saxophones, bassoons, contrabass flutes or even simply the D# key on the eighteenth century traverso. Instead in this instance, the keys are used for facilitating a miniature layout rather than spanning unreachable distances.



Now there's an instrument that would be useful!!

Hope this helps.
Save your ears.I'm not kiddink! :>)
Jen

More on Moyse

Dear Flutists,
A teacher on one of the flute discussion groups was looking for definitive recordings of Marcel Moyse's "24 Little Melodic Studies" also known as 24 Petites études mélodique (Variations on short melodies) written by Marcel Moyse in 1928.

I thought it would be handy to answer that question as well as put some other Moyse links here, in case anyone else is looking for definitive pedagogical material from the scion of 19th century French flute playing.

Here's everything useful I have found on the net thus far:

Downloadable mp3s of Moyse performances of standard repertoire

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The French School at Home - CD by Moyse Moyse plays Moyse-Andersen-etc. Etudes: to purchase go to recordings tab at:
http://www.moysesociety.org/

CD includes restored and remastered recordings of Moyse performing 22 etudes:

Moyse: 24 Small Melodic Studies (Nos. 1-4, 7-10, 15, 22)
Moyse: 25 Melodic Studies (No. 10)
Moyse: 25 Small Melodic Studies (No. 9)
Sousemann: 24 Daily Studies (No. 15, 22)
Furstenau: Bouquet of Tones (No. 9)
Andersen: Opus 15 (Nos. 3, 4a, 8, 15, 16, 18)


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DVDs of Moyse teaching in 1975 in Vermont.

Also see Videos tab at http://www.moysesociety.org/ for:

DVDs of Marcel Moyse teaching flute students during a 1975 seminar.
Tapes feature various students playing diverse music, and are strictly
educational in content.

Contents of Moyse teaching films:
#1: Interview of Marcel Moyse by Blanche Moyse Interview of Marcel Moyse by Blanche Moyse, transcript included, 55 min.
#2: Mozart Concerto #1 in G Major Flutist Carol Wincenc, Lesson #1, 55 min.
#3: Mozart Concerto #1 in G Major Flutist Carol Wincenc, Lesson #2, 48 min.
#4: Reichert's Fantaisie Melancolique, Opus 1 Flutist Julia Bogorad, Lesson #1 52 min.
#5: Reichert's Fantaisie Melancolique, Opus 1 Flutist Julia Bogorad, Lesson #2, 43 min.
#6: Marcel Moyse's 24 Small Melodic Studies Flutist Chris Potter, 49 min.
#7: Marcel Moyse's 24 Small Melodic Studies & Debussy's Syrinx Marcel Moyse's 24 Small Melodic Studies, flutist Sara Tutland; Debussy's Syrinx, flutist Marie Herseth, 43 min.
#8: Tulou's Trio, Opus 65 & T. Boehm's Air Varie de la Molinara, Opus 4 Tulou's Trio, Opus 65, flutists: Julia Bogorad, Alex Ogle, Max Schoenfeld; T. Boehm's Air Varie de la Molinara, Opus 4, flutist Susan Hyman, 45 min.

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Previous Jen Cluff Blog Moyse topics:

Moyse's Tone advice for beginners

Moyse's Embouchure instructions

Moyse's Advice to advanced flute students in masterclass: Pearls from the Master
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

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Moyse Books - flute method publications by Moyse:

Publications in bold I consider indispensable:

Études et éxercises technique (1921)
Exercises Journaliers (1922)
24 Études de virtuosité d'après Czerny (1927)
Mécanisme-chromatisme pour flûte (1927); Éditions Alphonse Leduc
École de l'articulation (1927); Éditions Alphonse Leduc
25 Études mélodique (Var) (1928)
12 Études de grande virtuosité d'après Chopin (1928); Éditions Alphonse Leduc
20 Études d'après Kreutzer (1928)
100 Études faciles et progressives d'après Cramer (1928); 2 volumes
24 Petites études mélodique (Var) (1928)
De la Sonorité (1934)
25 études Journalier (Op-53) Soussman
Gammes et Arpèges (Scales and Arpeggios); Éditions Alphonse Leduc
Le Débutant flûtiste (1935)
24 Caprices-études : Boehm Op. 26 (1938)
Tone Development Through Interpretation
20 Exercises et études sur les Grandes Liaisons
How I stayed in Shape by Marcel Moyse

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Moyse's re-modeled flute with key extensions: Photo



Moyse's entire flute: Note, plated brass in photo


Best, and do comment and add more links if you have them,
Jen Cluff