The Flute Concerto in B minor was composed by

musicologist Musicology (from Greek μουσική ''mousikē'' 'music' and -λογια ''-logia'', 'domain of study') is the scholarly analysis and research-based study of music. Musicology departments traditionally belong to the humanities, although some mu ...

and

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

François-Joseph Fétis François-Joseph Fétis (; 25 March 1784 – 26 March 1871) was a Belgian musicologist, composer, teacher, and one of the most influential music critics of the 19th century. His enormous compilation of biographical data in the ''Biographie univers ...

in 1869, when he was 85 years of age and two years before his death. The

concerto A concerto (; plural ''concertos'', or ''concerti'' from the Italian plural) is, from the late Baroque era, mostly understood as an instrumental composition, written for one or more soloists accompanied by an orchestra or other ensemble. The typi ...

was written specifically for the Böhm flute, analogous to the standard concert-styled flute found in contemporary Western orchestras. The work features a highly florid flute section, a rather uncommon phenomenon at the time as the flute was both a new instrument in France and seen as more so a background instrument in late-19th century

orchestration Orchestration is the study or practice of writing music for an orchestra (or, more loosely, for any musical ensemble, such as a concert band) or of adapting music composed for another medium for an orchestra. Also called "instrumentation", orc ...

. Thus, the fact that it plays a leading role makes this concerto a rarity and one of the early examples of the flute gaining a serious presence as a solo instrument. The concerto originally featured an extended

cadenza In music, a cadenza (from it, cadenza, link=no , meaning cadence; plural, ''cadenze'' ) is, generically, an improvisation, improvised or written-out ornament (music), ornamental passage (music), passage played or sung by a solo (music), sol ...

included with movement three, although no such documentation survives in the present.

Form

The concerto utilizes the typical structure for a

, consisting of three

movement Movement may refer to: Common uses * Movement (clockwork), the internal mechanism of a timepiece * Motion, commonly referred to as movement Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * "Movement" (short story), a short story by Nancy Fu ...

s which features a lively beginning, a slower middle section, before returning to the first movement's tempo.

References

External links

* , Karen Geisler (flute), CJD Orchestra, Christof Harr (conductor) Flute concertos 1869 compositions Compositions in B minor {{Concerto-stub