Flute Technique
- Highly recommended
Pan - Journal of the British Flute Society
Paul Meisen was a German flute player, born in Hamburg in 1933. He won the ARD prize in 1960 and during his career he taught in Detmold, Munich and at the Tokyo National University of Music and Fine Arts. He was principal flute in Karlsruhe, Munich National Theatre Orchestra and the State Philharmonic Orchestra in Hamburg. He was a jury member of the Kobe international Flute Competition. He died in 2020 at the age of 86.
Throughout his teaching career, he recognised the importance of technical exercises, and the pivotal role of Taffanel's scale exercises in particular. He felt that Taffanel's treatment of minor scales, moving between harmonic and melodic forms of the scale, encouraged flute players to listen rather than just mechanically playing the notes.
This book contains Meisen's own variations on Taffanel's exercises, extending them to low B and making use of triplet patterns and scales in thirds. Major keys are grouped with the relative minor, and each of the three main exercises is provided in every key.
Meisen's approach gives a welcome variety to the all-too-familiar scale patterns, dividing the material into manageable sections to help with concentration. This edition is beautifully presented by Japanese edition Ongaku no Tomo. Recommended.
Carla Rees
From the Publisher
Within the wide range of dexterity manuals available for the flute, the scale exercises by Paul Taffanel play a vital role. They have become an invaluable part of the standard repertoire of exercises aimed at training basics techniques on the flute, What is special about Taffanel's exercises is that they are not dependent on individual harmonic or melodic minor scales but move imaginatively between them. This mixture of minor keys forces flautists to listen to themselves whilst practicing and prevents the exercise session from turning into a purely mechanical process.
Based on this mixture of keys I have modified Taffanel's scales and updated them to the B foot increasingly preferred today. Furthermore I have added scales in thirds and triplets. As a result I believe that the most important basic dexterity exercises will be at the student's disposal.
Item Details
Instrumentation
- Part 1: Flute
Publisher: Ongaku No Tomo Edition
Our Stock Code: 1645255
(55 pages [score])
