Solo Woodwind Repertoire: Flute

Debussy - Syrinx (1912)

I have definitely listened to this piece before; I was sure I looked at it briefly in the course Music 1: From the Present to the Past, but a search of my blog has revealed nothing. At least this allowed me to revisit this piece with fresh ears. It is a short, lovely melody with a really off-kilter sound that really appeals to the side of me that appreciates the slightly odd and unusual. In this piece Debussy deliberately avoids the major/minor system of tonality, instead using a variety of other scale types. These include the two possible types of whole-tone scale, the chromatic scale and the pentatonic scale. What I particularly enjoyed in this piece is the way Debussy elaborates on these scales, interspersing them with notes of melodic decoration:

Debussy - Syrinx, Bar 1

The example above shows some elaborated notes of the whole tone scale, with the scale notes circled in red. In bar four there is a similar idea, this time with an ascending chromatic scale:

Debussy - Syrinx, Bar 4

In bar 11, Debussy's scale of choice changes again, this time to the major pentatonic, with only an extra F note which could be construed as an auxiliary note:

Debussy - Syrinx, Bar 11

In the final two bars of the piece, Debussy uses the second type of whole-tone scale, which is complementary to the first type (both scales combined would form a full chromatic scale):

Debussy - Syrinx, Final Bars

I find Debussy's frequent changes of scale type in this piece extremely effective, and something to aspire to in my own writing. They are seamless transitions, it is not clear to the listener when the scale is being changed, and due to the nature of the scales used there is certainly no impression of being in a 'key'. This, combined with the free flowing rhythm in Syrinx, affected by the use of pauses and changes of time signatures and tempo directions, gives for a disorientating sound world, where the melody seemingly could go on indefinitely. There is a structure to the work however which prevents me as the listener from floundering. There is a clear theme at the beginning that makes several modified appearances, including a type of 'recapitulation' in bar 26.

The following pdf file was very helpful in helping me understand Debussy's Syrinx: http://www.sfcmhistory.com/Laurance/MHL_204_EL/notes/Syrinxnote.pdf

Paul Hindemith - Eight Pieces for Solo Flute (1927)

Unfortunately I was unable to find an analysis of these pieces, but I do have the score so I can detail some of my own observations. The first thing that struck me, and something that is a common theme in these pieces, is the extraordinarily large leaps that occasionally occur, sometimes more than two octaves apart(!) such as in bar eight of the second piece:

Hindemith - Eight Pieces, Piece Two, Bar 8

 When considering my own melodies so far, I have been concerned with moving in step, or at least by very small intervals. I imagine the flute is more dexterous than the human voice, so there is more scope for large leaps. The sheer agility of the flute is also demonstrated at many points in this collection of pieces. Starting from bar 20 in the fifth piece there is an impressive run of quavers over six bars which twist and turn at a speed which is difficult to keep track of when following the score!

Piece No.5 also includes an example of notes pitched near the summit of the instrument's range:

Hindemith - Eight Pieces, Piece Five, Bar 33

This is just one such example of the penultimate tone in the flute's expansive range, but Hindemith skirts near this boundary on many occasions in this collection.

Key signatures are used for none of the eight pieces, but accidentals are abundant. I don't currently have sufficient knowledge to analyse these modern works harmonically, but suffice to say that there is no traditional sense of tonality to my ear. Some of the pieces begin and end on the same note (but perhaps at a different octaves), but others don't, with the sixth piece in particular ending on a somewhat inconclusive tone.

There is much use of articulation in these pieces; staccato, slurs and accents are particularly abundant. There are often sharp contrasts of tone, and it is not unusual in this collection to find pianissimo and fortissimo dynamics within the same piece, sometimes even on adjoining tones (grace notes not withstanding):

Hindemith - Eight Pieces, Piece Three, Bar 1

When Hindemith uses time signatures in the pieces, they are standard choices, however in several of the works he omits them altogether. Bar lines are still used however, and on closer inspection the music appears to resemble variable metre rather than free rhythm, although the beats per bar at any given moment in time is not specified (but can be worked out). Sometimes Hindemith uses a time signature, then changes it at some point during the work. Piece No.4 for example is in 2/4, but moves to 5/8 in bar 12 before resuming the previous time signature again until the end. Keeping to the subject of rhythm, I found there were some effective use of rest/pause combinations, for example near the end of eighth piece which gives the effect to me the listener of a false ending:

Hindemith - Eight Pieces, Piece Three, Bars 62-63

This collection of pieces has really given me an insight into what the flute is capable of; it's a very versatile instrument with an enviable tonal and dynamic range.