French Baroque Flute Music: How French Pronunciation Shapes the Way We Play

I just completed an intensive language course to brush up on my French....Speaking and looking at the language closely, it reinforced my understanding of how the characteristics of the language applies to its music. 

For example, the distinct forward lilt in the French language is a direct parallel to "tu-ru", where the "ru" is stressed through length. In addition, the last syllable is very often ambiguous and open-ended, without a consonant to give the word a definitive closure. Compare "colors" with "couleurs". (no "s" sound in French!)

​Two situations come to mind in music - anticipations at cadences and the characteristic 16th-followed by-dotted-8th-note rhythm in the opening of an Allemande - these all involve playing the same note in direct succession, and there really is no better articulation to use other than "tu-ru", because we need to have a balance between clarity but still maintaining the relationship between the two. They are two syllables of one word. The first syllable glides into the second. The second syllable receives the softer articulation but actually has more presence than the first one.

So the next time you play Hotteterre's Allemande "Le Cascade de St. Cloud", listen carefully to whether you're inadvertently accenting the very first note of the piece, which easily happens because we're starting on a high note. Listen for that light and elegant lilt, and don't get bogged down by the rhythmic notation. One technique that can also help is to start the air a little earlier before actually playing, that way the initial "explosion" of the first note tends to be softened.

Again taking a linguistic analogy, it's the difference whether you say "cafÉ" or "CAfé". I definitely enjoy sitting at my local "cafÉ".🥰☕️