Rating: 
Summary: Should be Mandatory Handbook for All Flutists
Review: This is an excellent resource. It has whole chapters on breathing (including exercises and circular breathing), tone, vibrato, articulation, technique, style, and performance (including repertoire catalogue information). The recording section lists catalogues, play along tips, and how to make you own recordings. There are four chapters covering music of the Baroque, Classic, Romantic, and Modern Eras. The book is worth every penny, if only for the appendices, which include listings of flute manufacturers, repair shops, periodicals, music and book source information, and flute clubs and related oganizations, all with addresses, phone numbers, and a few E-mail or web page addresses. The 153 page repertoire catalogue is excellent, and lists publishers, so you can find just about any classical flute work easily. The extensive selected bibliography is also of interest, especially historically, and is divided by topic, such as performance and technique, the instrument, biographies, or eras. The section on the instument and its care includes drawings and photographs. The amount of research that must have gone into this work is amazing. The bibliography runs ten pages. The index is excellent and thorough. With regards to the sections on performance, breathing, etc., it would have been nice if a CD with examples and more drawings were included. Maybe this could be developed later to go along with the book. Hopefully, the author will also write a book about popular flute music, with such a handy repertoire catalogue and web page addresses and flute links, including Amazon.com. This book is so great, I just ordered a second copy as a gift.
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