The introduction of the one-keyed transverse flute in France and its use in the French baroque cantata.

Abstract

During the second half of the seventeenth century, the transverse flute was transformed from a cylindrical, one-pieced, six-holed instrument into a conically bored instrument in three or four pieces with seven tone holes and one key. These changes enabled flutists to adapt to a new repertoire that demanded improved intonation and increased tonal control. A genre which exploited these improvements was the French cantata, in which, the flute, along with the violin, was more and more favored as an obbligato instrument. Political and internal upheavals during the last years of Louis XIV's reign changed the atmosphere at Versailles from one of gay spectacle, in the mid-century, to one of pious restraint by the late 1680s. Consequently, during the preremiste era (1687-1733) the center of musical activity shifted from Versailles to the Paris salon and concern hall where Philippe, Duc dOrleans, was a key figure. Fortuitously, the cantata and the one-keyed flute found favor at precisely the same time and in the same aristocratic circles in Paris. I believe it was this confluence of historical, social and technical factors that encouraged the development, in France, of one of the earliest ensemble repertories for the flute.