Flutes
& Guitars
from the Metropolitan Museum of Art
A National Endowment for the Arts Solo Recitalist Fellowship led to
a project with The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Narrative by Jan Boland:
In
1994 John Dowdall and I spent a week in New York at The Metropolitan
Museum of Art rehearsing and then performing a concert featuring rare
instruments from The Metropolitan Museum's collection. At that time,
the curator-in-charge, Laurence Libin, suggested that we make a compact
disc recording of these instruments.
After
a few years of planning and negotiation, the project became a reality.
From January - June 1998, four rare flutes and three rare guitars were
delivered to the Heartland (Cedar Rapids, Iowa, to be exact). They were
housed in the security of the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, and there
I practiced in the galleries over a 6-month period. In June, 1998 we
played a formal concert and followed it with a recording session. The
resulting compact disc recording, titled Crystal
to Gold appeared in March, 1999, on the Fleur De Son Classics
record label.
The Program:
| TAMBOURIN |
François Joseph Gossec
(1784-1829) |
INTRODUCTION & VARIATIONS ON A
THEME BY G. ROSSINI OP. 55 |
Jean Louis Tulou
(1786-1865)
arr. Dowdall & Boland
|
MUSIC FOR FLUTE CLOCK
March, Andante & Allegro
(for two crystal flutes & guitar) |
Franz Joseph Haydn
(1732-1809)
arr. Boland
|
THREE SONGS
Little Ella
Old Memories
Maggie by My Side |
Stephen Collins Foster
(1826-1864)
arr. Boland & Dowdall |
ETUDE OP. 60, NO. 6
ETUDE OP. 60, NO. 7 [LÄNDLER]
RONDEAU OP. 48, NO. 6 |
Fernando Sor
(1778-1839)
|
| GIACOMO MEYERBEER'S LE PROPHÉTE, OP. 321 |
Josef Küffner
(1776-1856)
|
| SÉRÉNADE NO. 4 IN G MAJOR
|
Pierre-Joseph Plouvier
(d. 1826)
|
| ORIGINAL TÄNZE
|
Franz Schubert
(1797-1828)
|
The next paragraphs describe
the flutes, my response to them, and the literature we chose for this
project. (The text is taken from the liner notes from the compact disc
recording.)
Liner
notes from
Crystal To Gold: Guitars & Flutes from The Metropolitan Museum of Art
compact disc recording. Fleur De Son Classics, 1999
The "stars" of this recording are seven rare and beautiful nineteenth-century
flutes and guitars from the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Our association with these instruments was stimulated by National Endowment
for the Arts Solo Recitalist Fellowships we each received in 1992 to promote
our careers as a Duo specializing in early 19th-century salon music performance
on period instruments. We arranged with Laurence Libin, curator-in-charge
of the Department of Musical Instruments at The Metropolitan Museum, to
spend a week at the museum in 1993 selecting instruments for use in performance
at the museum. We selected instruments based on the reputation of the
maker, playability, physical beauty, and above all on their sound quality
and beauty of tone. Prior to our performance for patrons of the museum
in May of 1994 we again spent a week at the museum acclimating ourselves
to the unique demands of each instrument.
Following our 1994 performance
Laurence Libin suggested that a recording on the instruments would make
a wonderful project. The opportunity to capture the sound of each of these
rare instruments so that future generations of museum goers could appreciate
their true voices, in addition to their visual beauty, was extremely appealing
to us. In 1996 we initiated a collaboration between The Metropolitan Museum
of Art and the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art to bring the instruments to
Cedar Rapids, Iowa between January and June of 1998 to allow sufficient
time with the instruments to prepare this disc. Staff members at both
museums put in tremendous effort to repair, transport, and care for the
instruments so that we could make our visits to the Cedar Rapids Museum
of Art to practice, perform and ultimately record this disc. We hope that
with careful listening you will become familiar with and appreciative
of the sound quality of each individual flute and guitar as we did in
the magical six months we spent with these precious art objects.
Photo
by Gordon Photography
Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
EARLY
FLUTES
- Boxwood flute
by Firth Hall & Pond. New York, 19th century. A-440. One square brass
key. Gift of Robert Alonzo Lehman, 1991. Accession number 1991.349.7.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
- Crystal flute by Claude Laurent, Paris, 1813. Stamped
Laurent á Paris/1813. Circa A-420. Four fluted glass sections, blue
glass cap, brass rings, 4 keys. The Crosby Brown Collection of Musical
Instruments, 1889. Accession number 89.4.924. The Metropolitan Museum
of Art, New York.
- Crystal flute by Claude Laurent, Paris, 1815. Stamped Laurent á Paris/1815/Brèvete.
Circa A-420. Four fluted glass sections, blue glass cap, silver rings.
4 keys. Gift of Mrs. John Manuel Agramonte, in memory of her husband,
1916. Accession number 16.130. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
- Wood & gold flute by Jean-Louis Tulou, Paris, c. 1852. A-440. 8 keys.
Lent by Stuart Pivar, 1992, and courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum
of Art. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
The simple boxwood flute by Firth Hall & Pond of New York
dates from the mid nineteenth century. It has a "big" sound by comparison
to the French instruments discussed below, and particularly favors the
low range. As a player, I found it advisable to stay in keys using 1-3
sharps, as some notes (especially f-natural) are remarkably out of tune.
This one-keyed flute was well-suited to lighter tuneful music. The Stephen
Foster songs seemed a good choice. The flute is stamped Firth Hall & Pond
/ Franklin Sq. / N. York; this workshop was active from 1833-1847.
The Laurent crystal flutes generated a great deal of public
curiosity during this project. Concert-goers wanted to see how the flutes
looked and sounded. These flutes settled in best at circa A-420. The flutes
are a bit heavy to hold and play for a long time. Additionally, the player
must manipulate the embouchure and air-stream a great deal to tune the
intervals. The sound is much bolder than I expected and the flutes project
a distinctive, colorful tone. They are also remarkably flexible. This
recording marks the first time that two crystal flutes have appear together
on a compact disc recording. The Haydn Flute Clock pieces suited the crystal
flutes well.
Both flutes are by the French maker, Claude Laurent (d.
1848), who began making crystal glass flutes in 1805, and won a silver
medal at the Paris Exhibition in 1806. He exhibited at additional festivals
including the 1834 festival where it was said he was working at making
his flute less heavy. Laurent's flutes were very expensive and highly
prized; France presented one as a gift-of-state to President James Madison
during Lafayette's visit to the United States. The Laurent flutes on this
recording are four-keyed instruments dated 1813 and 1815 (Laurent also
made flutes with eight and nine keys). The lowest note is d-natural. Each
flute features four fluted glass sections, five rings, and a blue glass
cap. The 1815 flute has rings and keys of silver; the 1813 flute, of brass.
The Tulou flute on this recording is an exquisite instrument
to view, to play, and to hear. The key-work is artful and fits the hands
beautifully, allowing for fluid playing of quick slurred passages over
the full range of the flute. Of the flutes on this recording, the Tulou
flute is my flute of choice. The flute's intonation allows the player
to explore many keys. The tone is somewhat small, but voice-like and expressive.
For the repertoire on this compact disc recording, I incorporated a number
of notes sensibles- resulting in "expressive intonation" with leading
tones which are often as much as a quarter-step high in pitch. The Tulou
flute in this recording is of grenadilla wood with four sections. The
key work is of gold. The lowest note is d-natural. It has been dated c.1852.
It seemed happy to play at A-440. This flute sports Tulou's new f-sharp
key, designed to bring the pitch of the f-sharp in all octaves up a bit.
Jean Louis Tulou began manufacturing flutes
in Paris in 1828. In 1831 he formed partnership with Jacques Nonon that
lasted 22 years, until 1853. In the late 1830s his flutes featured only
5 keys, but at some point in the early 1840s he was making his flüte perfectionnée.
Tulou wrote a method book, Méthode de Flûte (c.1835), that describes
this "perfected" flute and the performance style appropriate for the music
of this period. [The Méthode is available in English translation
from Indiana University Press].
Jan Boland
EARLY
GUITAR
Comments
from John Dowdall.
It was 1982 and Jan Boland and I were in search of flutes and guitars
appropriate for the flute & guitar duets we collected from the Library
of Congress (see Jan's story above). I read about the characteristics
of early nineteenth-century guitars—bracing, relative size, etc-looked
up, and saw that I had one hanging on the wall of my studio. I had purchased
this particular guitar 6 years earlier at an auction house in Vienna.
The fine-crafted little instrument had been covered with dust and its
label read "Hasslwanter, Innsbruch". The starting price was US$15—I
bid someone up to US$40 and became its new owner. This guitar has served
my needs as my nineteenth-century instrument-of-choice for the past 18
years.
What
follows are my comments about three rare guitars from the collection of
The Metropolitan Museum of Art that I had the privilege of playing for
a six-month period in 1998.
From
liner notes from
Crystal To Gold: Guitars & Flutes from The Metropolitan Museum of Art
compact disc recording. Fleur De Son Classics, 1999
Photo by Gordon Photography
Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Guitars
- Guitar by Mauchant freres,
France c.1830. Total length: 93.2cm. Body length: 45.5cm. String length:
64cm. Body depth at tail: 8cm. Purchase, Gift of Louis C. and Craig
P. Baker, Clara Mertens Bequest, in memory of André Mertens, Rogers
Fund and the Crosby Brown Collection of Musical Instruments, by exchange,
1990. Accession number 1990.218.1.
- Guitar by Christian Frederick Martin, Nazareth, PA, c.1867. Total
length: 94cm. Body length: 46.6cm. String length: 62.5cm. Body depth
at tail: 9.5cm. Gift of Louise Ransom, 1983. . Accession number 1983.348.
- Guitar by Rene Lacote, Paris, ca. 1825. Total length: 93cm. Body length:
43.5cm. String length: 63cm. Body depth at tail: 8.6cm. Purchase, Clara
Mertens Bequest, in memory of André Mertens, 1992. Accession number
1992.1.1.
- Anonymous, German, c.1850-1860. Total length: 94cm. Body length: 45cm.
String length: 62cm. Body depth at tail: 8cm. Private collection of
John Dowdall.
The most delicate of the instruments both in terms of its condition and
its construction was the Mauchant. Mauchant, a Parisian builder who is
little remembered today, used birds-eye maple on the back and sides of
this instrument and a spruce top which like the Lacote has an extension
notched into the fingerboard. Typical of many nineteenth-century French
instruments, the back is laminated with spruce on the inside. With the
Lacote and the Martin, I was able to put considerable energy into the
strings without distorting the tone, but the Mauchant required a lighter
touch and was the quietest of the three instruments. This guitar's most
curious feature is mother-of-pearl arrows inlaid on the top pointing downward
away from the frets. I have no idea what the significance of these markings
is. Mauchant has engraved his name on the rib at the tail of the instrument
on each side of the strap button. The Mauchant and Lacote also share the
typical French "mustache bridge." Although delicate, I found the tone
to be clear and attractive, and the balance of bass and treble was good.
Christian Frederick Martin (1796-1873) learned guitar building in Markneukirchen,
Germany and worked in Vienna with Johann Georg Stauffer before emigrating
to America in 1833. The Martin guitar company is still one the most respected
producers of American guitars, although they now deal almost exclusively
with steel-stringed instruments. This instrument is based on the Spanish
design with rosewood back and sides and spruce top. It is the largest
of the three Metropolitan Museum instruments, particularly in regard to
body depth, and it has a rich contralto quality to the sound. This guitar
has a fuller sound and projected better than the two French instruments.
Its body depth, fret board extending over the soundboard, and full tone
all place it as the latest of the three instruments, most likely having
been built in the second half of the nineteenth century. Its noteworthy
features include a slightly convex fretboard (typical of certain steel-string
instruments, but rare on classical guitars) and fretboard inlay markers
which are placed right next to the frets.
René-François Lacote (c.1785-1855) was a Parisian builder who earned
the respect of Fernando Sor for his guitar making skills and his openness
to listening to Sor's suggestions on guitar construction. His instruments
are superbly crafted and many survive in excellent condition today. The
Metropolitan Museum's Lacote is a beautiful example of his "top of the
line" instrument which includes the elegant méchanique fermée design where
the gears of the machine heads are enclosed in the head and the tuning
pegs are not visible from the front as they extend to the rear. Lacote
á Paris is engraved on the head and F. Sor is still visible on the label
inside the guitar. According to Sor scholar Brian Jeffery, numerous Lacote
instruments "signed" by Sor exist, however the signature does not appear
to be authentic. This instrument was a delight to play and has a wonderful
singing treble and an excellent balance between treble and bass. The back
and sides are of dark rosewood and the spruce top has a notched extension
into the fretboard which is flush with the soundboard. The instrument's
sole weakness was that it was impossible to get all the octaves in tune
at the same time, so I was always forced to compromise when tuning.
John Dowdall
