Classical Music | Music for Flute

Recorded on 10/15/2006, uploaded on 12/02/2009

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

Note: this composition is actually a transcription of the Flute Quartet No. 1 in D major, K. 285 by W.A. Mozart

During a trip to Mannheim in 1777-78, the wealthy Dutch merchant and amateur flautist, Ferdinand De Jean, approached Mozart and commissioned from him three easy, short concertos and four quartets featuring the instrument. In keeping with De Jean's requests, the Flute Quartet No. 1 in D major is in no way overly complex and certainly was not conceived with profundity in mind. Nevertheless, it is still a work of charming beauty.

Scored for flute, violin, viola and cello, the flute is, essentially, treated as a replacement for the first violin that would appear in a string quartet. Much of the melodic material of the works falls to the flute, less for the reason that it is a solo instrument, but rather because it inherits the role of the first violin in a typical Classical string quartet. The first movement opens with a lyrical first theme in the flute, though it is the following melody given by the strings that becomes the focal point of the later development section. The second thematic section, in the dominant key, is likewise twofold. The recapitulation abbreviates the restatements of both themes and a brief coda concludes the movement.

The middle Adagio movement presents a long, continuous melody in the flute over a delicate accompaniment of arpeggios in the strings. Nearly the entire movement passes by in a hushed tone, all the parts marked sempre piano from the outset. Only in the last four bars is a different dynamic (forte) reached. In B minor, the movement halts unexpectedly with a seventh on the leading note of D major. After a grand pause, the music precedes in the Rondo finale. Returning to the tonic key of D major, the finale is lighthearted and jovial from beginning to end.       Joseph DuBose