Featured Flutist

My hope for this section is to share knowledge from flutists of the past and present. We can learn so much from resources left behind, but we also have so much to learn from each other. I will be highlighting all flutists: old, young, deceased, students, teachers, performers, etc. I truly believe everyone has something to offer.

This month's featured flutist is George Barrère.

barrereGeorge Barrère was born on 31 October in 1876 in Bordeaux, France. The tin whistle was his first instrument, having been discarded by his brother who chose the violin instead, he actually taught lessons during recess to other students at the age of 10. When he was twelve he received military training and fife lessons from Bataillons Scholaires. His fife teacher introduced Barrère to Leon Richaud who had just won first prize at the Paris Conservatoire in 18861 and who performed with the Lamoureaux Orchestra. Richaud began teaching Barrère lessons on the Boehm flute. After auditioning for Henry Altès, Barrère was allowed to audit classes and eventually became a student at the Conservatoire. In 1893 Altès retired and Paul Taffanel was appointed as the new professor. Barrère was awarded the first prize on 29 July 1895 for his performance of Anderson’s Concerto No. 1 at the Paris Conservatoire. His colleagues while at the Conservatoire included Daniel Maquarre and Philippe Gaubert.2

With the help of his teacher Paul Taffanel, Barrère began his career in Paris by establishing the Societe moderne des instruments a vent woodwind quintet. He also performed with the Paris Opera, Colonne, and Geneva Exposition orchestras, and taught at Vincent D’Indy’s Schola Cantorum. Then, in 1905, Walter Damrosch, conductor of the New York Symphony Orchestra, invited Barrère to perform as solo flutist and to teach at the Institute of Musical Art (which later became the Juilliard School of Music) for an annual salary of $2,000. He remained there until the symphony merged with the New York Philharmonic in 1928, but did not perform. It is believed that he refused to play second flute or co-principal to anyone.3

In 1928 Barrère joined the Chautauqua Symphony as principal flutist and assistant conductor. In 1935 Barrère premiered Density 21.5 by Edgar Varèse on the very first platinum flute.4 Barrère had a large number of successful students, as he taught privately in New York, Woodstock, and Chautauqua. He loved to teach, as visible by Nancy Toff’s documentation:

“I enjoy teaching because the art of the flute has such tremendous possibilities and I should like to see it reach its Parnassus before long. I want to train excellent flute players for all the leading orchestras so that the composers listening will realize these possibilities and give the flute interesting things to do. There is something noble about the art of teaching, for it is an art in itself. To prepare something for the next generation is far more satisfying than the momentary thrill that accompanies a performance. Teaching should almost be a religion. That is my belief.” 5

Barrère’s most well-known students include William Kincaid, Frances Blaisdell (the first woman to be accepted to the school and to the New York Philharmonic woodwind section), Doriot Anthony Dwyer, Maurice Sharp, Bernard Goldberg and John Wummer. 6

            Barrère is one of the most influential flutists of the 19th-century because he is America’s direct link to the French School. His most famous student, William Kincaid, is considered the father of the American Flute School; thus, most of America is influenced by Barrère and the French School. In addition, Barrère had so many students that most flutists today can trace their teacher’s heritage back to Barrère. His teaching and playing was said to be closely related to how Henri Altès performed and taught. Barrère helped to bring that way of teaching and playing to America, essentially the wide vibrato that one can hear in recordings not only by Barrère, but Julius Baker as well as Kincaid.

            His important recordings include works by various contemporary composers such as Cowell, Rieger, Piston, and Salzedo for chamber groups, which helped to give these new composers some recognition and allow people to hear their music far and wide. In 1937 he recorded for the “RCA Victor on its prestigious Red Seal label, playing Rameau and Debussy transcriptions and three Bach sonatas with Yella Pess,” 7 who was a great harpsichordist. The Bach recordings may have been the very first recordings using harpsichord instead of piano.

 

References

1. Claude Dorgeuille, The French School 1860-1950,trans. Edward Blakeman (Suffolk: The Chaucer Press, 1986), 71.

2. Georges Barrère, “Autobiography,”Flute Talk, reprinted from The Flutist, April 2002, 19-20.

3. Demetra Baferos Fair, Flutists’ Family Tree: In Search of the American Flute School (Ph.D. Diss., Ohio State University, 2003), 40.

4. Demetra Baferos Fair, Flutists’ Family Tree: In Search of the American Flute School (Ph.D. Diss., Ohio State University, 2003), 41.

5. Nancy Toff, “Georges Barrère: Monarch of the Flute,” Flutist Quarterly (Fall 1994), 55.

6. Demetra Baferos Fair, Flutists’ Family Tree: In Search of the American Flute School (Ph.D. Diss., Ohio State University, 2003), 43-44.

7. Ardal Powell, The Flute (New York: Yale University Press, 2002), 232-233.