Paul Taffanel

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Lore & Background

Taffanel's impact on the early music revival in France cannot be overestimated. Beginning in 1894, as Professor of Flute at the Conservatoire, he replaced much of the 19th-century music his student Louis Fleury called "idle twittering" with works by Johann Sebastian Bach and other 18th-century composers. Until then, French musicians had ignored the Bach revival that had swept England, Germany and Austria. Alfredo Casella noted that none of his classmates at the Conservatoire knew Bach's music. Taffanel had toured widely in Europe, including playing Mozart concertos at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, a singular honour for a French performer. Fleury wrote: "Bach's sonatas, those wonders, long buried in the dust of libraries, awakened to find a real interpreter [in Taffanel]. He was the first, at any rate in France, to find out the meaning of these works, which his colleagues thought dull and badly written for the instrument." Taffanel also became head of the orchestra class at the Conservatoire in 1897. As a conductor, he served from 1890 to 1906 as chief conductor at both the Paris Opéra and the Société des Concerts du Conservatoire, the first flautist to hold these positions. He directed French premieres of various Wagner operas and Verdi's Otello, championed Camille Saint-Saëns and other contemporary French composers, and gave the world premiere of Verdi's Quattro pezzi sacri. In 1879 he founded the Société de musique de chambre pour instruments à vent, reviving wind ensemble music of Mozart and Beethoven while encouraging new works like Charles Gounod's Petite symphonie. During the 1880s he participated in "historic" concerts, playing his Boehm flute alongside viola da gamba and harpsichord in performances of baroque music.

Reader's Guide

Taffanel's playing style marked a crucial moment in flute history, after Theobald Boehm had completely remodeled the instrument. He proved the flute fully capable of elegance and extreme expressiveness. His low register was often described as "powerful and brassy", "ample" or "full" — partly because Parisian audiences expected the flute to play with assertiveness. When Hans von Bülow conducted the Berlin Philharmonic in Paris, critics criticized the wind tone as too small. Georges Barrère recalled in 1921 that quality and quantity of tone as well as fine technique were not all that set Taffanel's playing apart. Fleury added: "Elegance, flexibility, and sensitivity were the hallmarks of Taffanel's artistry, and his phenomenal virtuosity was made as inconspicuous as possible. He hated affectation, believing that the text of the music should be respected absolutely, and beneath the supple fluency of his playing there was a rigorous adherence to accuracy of pulse and rhythm." Taffanel employed "a light, almost imperceptible vibrato", according to Fleury, while the Taffanel-Gaubert Méthode discouraged vibrato, especially in early music. Pupil Adolphe Hennebains recalled: "When he spoke to us of notes with vibrato or expression, he told us with a mysterious air that these notes, forte or piano, seemed to come from within himself." As a composer, Taffanel wrote several pieces considered standard flute repertoire today, including Andante Pastoral et Scherzettino, Grande Fantaisie sur Mignon, Fantaisie sur thèmes du Freischütz, and a Quintet in G minor for woodwind quintet (1876). He began writing a method book, 17 Grands exercices journaliers de mécanisme, finished after his death by students Louis Fleury and Philippe Gaubert, which remains a standard study book.

Did You Know?

• Taffanel was the first flautist to serve as chief conductor at both the Paris Opéra and the Société des Concerts du Conservatoire, positions previously awarded to string players.
• He gave the world premiere of Verdi's Quattro pezzi sacri.
• Taffanel's student Louis Fleury wrote that down to 1895, Bach sonatas were not taught in the flute class at the Conservatoire under Taffanel's predecessor Altes.
• He founded the Société de musique de chambre pour instruments à vent in 1879, reviving wind ensemble music by Mozart and Beethoven.
• Taffanel's method book, 17 Grands exercices journaliers de mécanisme, was finished after his death by his students Louis Fleury and Philippe Gaubert and remains a standard study book.