(Leipzig, 1725-1805) Ebony original in St Petersburg
with keys for C (left thumb), Bb (left thumb), G#,
long and short F, D# and Eb (1785 system). Add a second
Bb key for the right index finger (1796 system) to
get the instrument for which Tromlitz's 1800 tutor The
Keyed Flute was written. a=430, 435, 440. C-foot (ebony
original in a private collection in Germany).
The Instrument
Tromlitz, the author of a 1791 flute method
The Virtuoso Flute-player, was first flute of the
Grosses Konzert, a prececessor of the Gewandhaus orchestra,
which still plays today in Leipzig and around the world. His
tutor The
Keyed Flute of 1800 was written specifically to explain
how to play this instrument, which Tromlitz invented and made
during the 1780s and 90s. Our Tromlitz flute is scrupulously
faithful to the one surviving example of this type of instrument
and to Tromlitz's detailed description and instructions, which
Ardal has published in English
editions. Nobody who is serious about playing 18th- and
early 19th-century flute music should make do with less than
a Tromlitz flute: the instrument fully justifies its inventor's
claims for its fine tone and excellent intonation.
The Music
The earliest well-known piece it is feasible
to play on a Tromlitz flute is C.P.E. Bach's Hamburger
sonata, composed in the year after Tromlitz announced the
all-but-final form of his flute. The extremes of range, dynamic,
and expression this piece calls for can truly be realised
on a Tromlitz flute. Tromlitz's ideas about intonation parallel
those of Mozart (as well as those of most educated musicians
of the time), whose quartets and concertos are a perfect match
with the instrument. The Tromlitz flute gives access to the
music of Czerny, Beethoven, Danzi, Weber, Spohr, Drouet, Kuhlau,
and the like.
