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My dissertation is the first work to integrate study of the surviving instruments by Johann Joachim Quantz (1697-1773) with an examination of his music, his repertory, and his performing technique as explained in his famous Essay on Playing the Flute (Versuch einer Anweisung die flöte traversiere zu spielen). Today Quantz is among the most cited authors in the study of eighteenth-century music and performance. His Versuch, published at Berlin in 1752, won him an authoritative position among theorists of the period. He also made important contributions to the design of the transverse flute and its repertory. Yet current impressions of Quantz's flutes and his compositional style are based on unchallenged late-eighteenth-century anecdotal evidence, preventing a richer understanding of Quantz's contributions and influence as a composer and flute maker.
The dissertation is in two parts. For a detailed list of contents, click here. To order a copy, click here.
Part 1 is a study of Quantz's flutes, performance practices, and repertory. It includes detailed information about the design of Quantz's instruments, their proper assembly, embouchure, pitch, and playing technique, and the music that Quantz is likely to have heard and performed at Dresden and Berlin, including works by Johann Sebastian and Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach. Numerous musical examples, tables, and illustrations provide a wealth of information, including extracts from unpublished compositions by Quantz and his contemporaries and archival documents from the electoral court of Saxony.
Part 2 includes new critical editions, commentary, and a recording of works by Quantz and Telemann, performed on close copies of Quantz's instruments.