If only Gustav Leonhardt had recorded the other movements of the Bach Partita! There's so much depth in this rendition, whether in terms of sound quality, understanding, and internalization of the music that I feel like you really get a glimpse of the universe.✨

While we can't play more notes than physically possible on the traverso, we can create some acoustical effects with the means that we DO have to expand our sound and expression. That means, understanding our instrument by experimenting with:

✅Slowing down the airspeed, reducing air pressure so that we get a pure tone with minimal noise around the sound.

✅Dropping the lower jaw and opening the nose to create more space and depth in the sound.

✅Training the lips to be flexible and knowing exactly how to move between registers. For example, the lips need to be a bit forward for the higher register, along with just a slightly higher air pressure. However, these are absolutely micro maneuvers which need to be internalized like a string player knowing exactly where to place the finger on the fingerboard. This feeling of security also requires great physical strength, which can only be built over time. Practicing with harmonics can be a good approach for this. Make sure you still create the best sound possible for the harmonic tones.
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✅At the end, it's like a singer who knows where each note is coming from in their body. You can test this by going over the piece of music inside you without your instrument, perhaps also fingering along. Can you recreate that sensation of playing, can you feel how the air would move inside you, how the embouchure would feel, how and where each note would resonate in your body?

I thought to use Bart Kuijken's recording of the Mozart C Major Flute Quartet as an example. Start from around 7:42 and listen especially to these phrases that involve only a few "simple" notes (the simpler the more difficult!). You'll hear that Bart's sound is completely calm, "straight" without the modern concept of vibrato, yet supple and flexible. It embodies musical tension which draws one's attention and leads you along note after note, phrase after phrase. Especially from the middle to higher register on the flute, we actually need an incredible amount of physical strength and support (strength in the embouchure and strength to manage the breath) so that it sounds elegant and deeply meaningful.  It is the way for us to bring out the essence of the expression AND to experience maximum joy and connection with this music. This is the way to create what I like to call a 3-dimensional sound.

As they say in German, "Strength lies in tranquility" (In der Ruhe liegt die Kraft)!

There are a couple of other things that one can unpack in this cadence! (see my previous post about notation) I'd like to mention another thing in relation to not getting bogged down by notation, and that's the little ornament indicated here known as the tour de chant. The ornament comes from vocal practice and circles around the upcoming note in stepwise motion. Together with the cadential trill, it's an effective way of propelling the melody forward to the cadence. You'll see this in different ways - sometimes notated with actual notes, sometimes as a sign, sometimes there's a little rest right before the ornament.

However it may be notated, keep in mind that the note value used is not representative of how you should actually play it. So for example, the above is not meant to be played like a triplet, and often times these kinds of ornaments are not notated with "correct" note values. The turn comes from the first main note (B) and connects elegantly to the second main note (A), it should sound a bit like something under the breath so be sure to lighten up your air on it. The first note is gently dotted so that the turn is played after the beat right before the second note. How much the first note is dotted and how quick the turn is played (so how long you wait before you "squeeze" it right before the second main note) will depend on the type of affect desired - sharp and quick for brilliancy, mild and slower for more tenderness (although this ornament mostly appears in tender movements). It's impossible and unnecessary to notate it exactly - subtlety and flexibility are what make baroque ornamentation ornamental yet highly expressive at the same time. 

We see one legato slur from the beginning of the B then going into the trill. Under this slur, we'll have to work our breath differently to create the necessary shapes under this one slur. Imagine that the slur indicates one big shape but there are smaller shapes that make up that one big shape. As mentioned earlier, lighten up, retract your air for the turn, and then you'll need to lean on the appoggiatura of the trill, nudge with your air to start, only to let go again, so that the anticipation and cadence happen within that whole diminuendo part of the trill. Create sub-shapes within one big shape. 

This is enjoying the magic behind the print! Discovering and having fun with the flexibility, the fluidity, and the expressiveness behind what's visible. In your sound, in your being. 

Meter, phrasing, and harmony are some of the possible factors that determine a note's length. Remember that notation is really a very limited way of suggesting how the music should actually sound. Beyond any rules or historical knowledge, I feel the best piece of advice I can give is to always think about what kind of AFFECT, what expression do you want to achieve with a piece of music. And then everything you do is to serve that expression.

So for example, in the above Andersen etude I wanted to show something joyful, light, moving, something bouncing between the ground and the sky. So my point was to utilize different types of short articulation to create those effects and affects. You won't get this idea by simply looking at the sheet music and it would be almost impossible to notate every nuance. And since articulation is always in connection with how you manage your air, both the tongue and the breath give each note a definitive shape, length, and timbre. So always listen and observe carefully whether the tongue and the breath are really coordinating together to achieve one goal, one expression, or whether they're a little out of sync with each other. 

Coming back to notation, if we accept that notation is only a rough way of suggesting how a piece of music should basically go, then it's not far from understanding inégalité. The subject is complex but I want to mention one instance in regard to this topic. You see above a typical cadence (from Boismortier's Op. 35, E minor suite). After the cadential trill, the first G we play is known as an anticipation. As the name suggests, it anticipates the final note and thus should go towards it. Don't be influenced by the notation in thinking that you must play a proper 8th note, or think because baroque music has such an emphasis on articulation that we have to make that separation of the two G's distinctly. Also, even if you claim to not speak French, you probably know a bit more than you actually think you do. Think of words like "amour", "café", "merci" - or look them up in YouTube or any pronunciation site. Notice how in these words the first syllable also slides smoothly towards the second syllable. That's how we should play such a cadential pattern. This is also why using the tonguing pattern "TU-RU" is extremely helpful and, ultimately, natural. Compare by playing it with two equal tongue strokes and you'll notice the difference. Compare also if you would try to "soften" the 8th note but still playing with two equal tongue strokes, you may even find your tongue nevertheless naturally wanting to retract to create an alternation in the tonguing. 

And one last thing but crucial in this formula, be sure to diminuendo, lighten up the breath as you play the "TU-RU" into the cadence. Notice in the French words mentioned above, they all sound somewhat open-ended. We don't have a definitive "stop" to the sound. Many French words act this way, even if there are letters at the end. (think of the composer's name "Blavet", "croissant", "toujours"...). The diminuendo we do is in response to creating and imitating that subtlety.

Try this out and let me know what you find!