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 should Include four flutesthe number found in the Berlin Hof-Kapelle in 1742but he probably intended that the parts should be doubled. Thus Berlioz uses four flutes playing only two parts in octaves in the march in his Te Deum (op. 22). In the "Agnus Dei" of his Great Mass for the Dead the four flutes play some chords of four notes, accompanied only by the trombones: here the fourth flute was not in the score as first written. I cannot recall any other orchestral example of four flutes playing four distinct notes. In the "Tibi omnes" the flutes have some wonderful arpeggios. In Berlioz's Funeral Symphony five flutes and four piccolos are directed to be used (the piccolos were originally in D♭ and the third flutes in E♭), but they all play in unison or octaves.

Berlioz was the only great composer (save Tschaïkowsky) who was himself a practical flautist. When a youth, his father bribed him to pursue his medical studies by the promise of a new flute with all the latest keys. Whilst quite a boy he was able to play Drouet's most difficult solos. In early life he composed two quintetts for flute and four strings, which he subsequently destroyed; but he afterwards used one of the themes in his Frane Juges. As a youthful student in Paris Berlioz gave lessons both on the flute and the guitar. In one of his letters he gives an amusing description of the usual style of prize compositions at the Conservatoire: