Creating a musical flow

Et misericordia a progenie in progenies timentibus eum.
(And his mercy is on them that fear him: throughout all generations.)
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Here's the "Et misericordia" from J.S. Bach's Magnficat. Amanda Markwick and I talked about how Bach used some similar compositional devices here which he also used for the opening of his Matthew Passion - the 12/8 time triplet figures with a pulsating bass give a flowing musical gesture, perhaps reflecting the concept of "the flow of mercy throughout all generations”. The suspensions over the bar lines don't resolve in an obvious way, which also support the sensation of continuity. We can use the slurs to direct our air in a way that highlights both the small shapes of the triplet figures as well as the overall structure. This will mean there's a slight release of sound in each slur, doing a very subtle diminuendo but at the same time being conscious about directing the line further until the appropriate cadence. It's just like the bw image, which shows the fine details that make up the entire sculpture. We need to be conscious of both the small and large elements.

This technique of subtly releasing the sound is one that's very crucial to baroque flute playing. It also simply works very well on the instrument and in this repertoire. We can use very little air to generate a sound on the traverso and the smaller instrumentation of earlier music makes these nuances noticeably audible. Try letting go of the air each time, it may feel like we're losing control at first, but that's ok. Adapting to this can take awhile but the more we do it, the more our body will internalize it and at the end, we'll be able to have a sound that's effortless and free-flowing!