Page:The story of the flute (IA storyofflute1914fitz).djvu/124



Early ComposersLoeilletMercyBlavetQuantzClassical ComposersFlautist ComposersKuhlauHis SuccessorsGood flute musicTaste of the publicAirs with variationsDopplerTerschakModern School of Flute ComposersFlute and Harp or GuitarFlute and Voice.

flute has a more extensive repertoire than any other wind instrument; it is the best adapted for the drawing-room, being the least powerful and pronounced in tone.

One of the first to write regular solos for the flute was Jean Baptiste Loeillet (1653-1728), a native of Ghent, who is said to have been the first virtuoso to play the transverse flute in England (1705). He lived in Hart Street, Covent Garden, where he held a weekly concert, at which Corelli's concertos were heard for the first time in England. He was the first flute in the orchestra of the Haymarket Theatre, and taught both the flute and the harpsichord. He died worth £16,000. Loeillet wrote numerous sonatas for one or two flutes, or flute and oboe, with bass, and for two flutes alone. Many of these compositions are preserved in the British Museum,