Flutists usually discover the delights and challenges of J.S. Bach’s writing for their instrument through his sonatas and solo obbligato parts, and receive little warning of the abundant demands of his orchestral music. Besides technical exercises and study of the actual excerpts, there’s little material to help flutists develop the particular skills required for these uniquely thorny flute parts. These studies were created by Alison Melville to provide material to help players prepare for Bach’s orchestral writing, and to add to the relatively small amount of étude material available for Baroque flute.

Exploring elements of the flute parts from the St. John and St. Matthew Passions, the Magnificat, the B Minor Mass, Christmas Oratorio and the Mass in A, these studies offer players of historical and/or modern flutes a useful tool for the development of technical facility, good intonation and aspects of Baroque playing practice. Many of the studies are also playable on alto recorder.

“…an excellent preparation for our “favourite” Bach orchestral bits…but also independently from that context, they are very good practicing pieces.” (Barthold Kuijken)

“Alison Melville’s book offers an original and engaging treatment of a very specific subset of the repertoire…All of these exercises would certainly be beneficial to players of modern flute as well, and a few are charming enough to perform as unaccompanied caprices.” (Linda Pereksta, Traverso)

“…a fabulous addition to the pedagogy repertoire.” (Amy Hamilton, Professor of Flute, Wilfrid Laurier University)

Price $18 plus HST (in Canada) and shipping.

PIP 7-14

ISMN 979-0-9001474-0-0

Published in 2014