Lisa-Maree Amos: Flute Blog

Last night we played a very special concert at the Melbourne ABC Studios. Our program was of new music written for Orchestra Victoria through an amazing program via Symphony Australia. It was so rewarding to bring to life the scores written by these young composers, all of whom showed beautiful use of orchestration. The perfprmance will be broadcast on ABC FM in the future - I will be sure to post up when.

I thought it would be interesting to write a little about orchestration and what it means to us as orchestral players.

The term 'blend' comes up a lot these days and perhaps each persons idea of what that really means is different. Understanding when it is important to bring your part to the front, or to melt into the sound of other instruments, shows a sophisticated and mature understanding of orchestration and orchestral playing.

Firstly, you need to be aware of what is going on around you. All too often there is a one dimensional view rather than taking in all that is happening in a work. This really matters. Perhaps your part is very difficult to play, and so you want to make sure that everyone can hear just how you have mastered your own part. No, that is not mature, sophisticated, aware, orchestral playing. When your solo comes up, you will have your time to shine. Meanwhile, what did the composer really intend by writing the flute doubling the first violins? What was the composers intention writing 3 flutes on the one part, why does are the 1st and 2nd flute parts in octaves, what does it mean to accompany another instrument?

For the most part, composers are very skilled at writing what they want. It is the individual players that usually decide that they need to be heard above all else, at the detriment of the original vision.

So for starters, go with what is written. Keep to the written dynamics. You may be playing a veritable flute concerto, but if it is written pp, then do that, as it is probably an effect that is to be heard as motion and fluidity in the score, nothing more. When paired up with another instrument, do not fight to be heard. To correctly balance out a pairing you may need to adjust your dynamic very slightly as the flute is very often an octave above the other duo partner. Acoustically when the flute is in the upper octave in such a duo, it will be heard easier, so just under the other instruments dynamic will give a beautiful mix of both instrumental colours.

That is really what it means to blend - it is the creation of a new instrument. Differences of attack, breath needs, bow needs, characteristics of the instrument - all of these can be melded into the characteristics of the flute to create something new. It is not a competition, and it is not about the individual. This is where the conductor will also want flexibility in the individual players to shade his/her interpretation of a work.

To begin with, you develop this art of playing via studying and performing chamber music, and graduating to orchestral playing. Having the score is essential and marking various small notations in your part will help as well. I like to write u for unison with 2nd flute and indications like cl, vln, vc, etc for other instruments. If I am taking over a phrase from another instrument, I will write a slur into my phrase, or out of the phrase if passing on to another. In time, you will understand orchestration concepts of particular composers. For example, Beethoven loves to pair flute 1 and horn 1 in chords, and Mahler loves to double or even triple unison flute lines.

This brings me to another important point. What does the composer want when they write the same unison part for 3 flutes? The answer is that they want a 'big' flute sound. It is not the sound of three individual flute players all playing at once. The goal is to enhance the dynamic of the 1st player, to create a larger version of that one player. Actually in that instance the 1st player should play slightly more than the others, and again the goal is to sound like one player, to support and enhance that quality of sound. It is not a competition but a joint, team effort that creates the correct effect.

Enough on that subject for now, I am sure I will have more to say in the future. Thanks for reading!