This month’s warmup focuses on tone. I have found that the best way to improve one’s tone is to play beautiful melodies. Standard tunes from the Great American Songbook (works by Jerome Kern, George Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers, Duke Ellington, etc.) and solos from the orchestral repertoire offer an abundance of wonderful melodic solos to choose from. The two excerpts that I have chosen are famous orchestral solos that emphasize different registers of the flute.
Ravel’s Bolero (1928) is a famous work that all orchestras tend to program frequently and features all sections of the standard orchestra. The opening flute solo presented below is entirely in the low register and requires extreme sensitivity and subtlety in the phrasing, dynamics, and tone color alterations possible. It also tests one’s breath control. This is played over a repetitive snare drum rhythm so it needs to be performed in strict time.
Georges Bizet’s Carmen (1875) is one of the most performed operas worldwide. One of the reasons for that is its resplendent melodies. The one offered here is from the Entr’acte-Prelude to Act III and features the solo flute accompanied by the harp. It emphasizes the middle and upper registers of the instrument and requires superb control and expressive playing throughout. I would practice this excerpt along with the Bolero solo at the very end of the warmup session after the muscles of the embouchure have had a chance to be exercised properly.
For both solos, I recommend listening to renditions offered by the principal flutists of major orchestras and opera companies worldwide to gain more insight into these compositions. All solos used as tone studies should be memorized.
*Other well-known solos from the classical repertoire that I use for tone improvement include the J.S.Bach Sonata in B-, 2nd mvt; J.S.Bach Partita for solo flute, Sarabande; Ravel Daphnis et Chloé, rehearsal 176-179; and Debussy Afternoon of a Faun, opening.