Page:The story of the flute (IA storyofflute1914fitz).djvu/223

 may well be termed "the Paganini of the flute." He possessed the most wonderfully rapid staccato execution, but his intonation was defective and his style lacked expression. His tone, though brilliant, was deficient in breadth and volume. He totally neglected the full, rich, mellow lower notes of the instrument. "It appears," said a critic, "that to produce the tone at which he aims, nothing more is requisite than to take a piccolo and play an octave below." He could not play an adagio properly, and his whole performance was monotonous. Hence in a contest held in Paris between him and Tulou, the latter gained a decisive victory by his performance of Lebrun's Le Rossignol. He had a wonderful facility in holding notes for an incredible length of timesons filés, as they were termed; this was partly due to the small bore of his flute and partly to the smallness of his embouchure. His rapid and clear articulation closely resembled double-tongueing, and when he first came to London it set all the amateur flute-players wondering as to how it was produced, and acres of paper were covered with discussions on the subject. It is said to have been really the result of some unusual formation of the mouth, throat, and tongue peculiar to himself. Drouet was a very tall and thin red-haired man, and when playing stood in a very rigid attitude, like a rectangular sign-post. Even his very position gave rise to a controversy. He left behind him over four hundred compositions, mostly rubbish, and is reported to have assisted Queen Hortense in the