Page:The story of the flute (IA storyofflute1914fitz).djvu/128

 friend of Schubert, played this work in Vienna in 1862 with great success.

Amongst composers of the second rank, Rameau, Hoffmeister, Hummel, Kucken, Kalliwoda, and Molique have all written solos for the flute.

This practically exhausts the repertoire of the flute by elder composers whose names, at any rate, are familiar to the general musical public. No doubt the reason why it is so limited is to be found in the defective nature of the instrument till comparatively recent times.

A German enthusiast some years ago compiled a list of flute music of all kinds then existing, in which some 7,500 items are specified. The bulk of these are the work of flautists, many of whose names even(such as Devienne, an indefatigable composer who wrote a work for ten wind instruments at the age of ten: he died in a lunatic asylum)are quite unknown outside the flute-playing world, and whose compositions no longer exist. The earliest flautist-composer, whose works may still be said to live, is Antoine Tranquille Berbiguier, a most prolific but somewhat unequal writer; his compositions number over 200. Many abound in delicious melody and display vigour of imagination and very considerable depth of feeling. As an old writer says, "He captivates every description of players; and to him may be applied, with slight alteration, the emphatic words which Rousseau used in speaking of Gluck, "Que le chant lui sortait par les pores." Though many of his solos