One Hundred Daily Exercises (Das Flotenbuch)

King Frederick the Great’s Flute Book–100 Daily Exercises by Frederick the Great of Prussia and Johann Joachim Quantz

Edited by Erwin Schwarz-Reiflingen

Reporting from Potsdam in 1773, the English musical amateur Charles Burney wrote the following about the Flute Book of  Frederick The Great: “On the table…a book of manuscript Solfeggi, as his majesty calls them…His majesty has books of this kind, for the use of the flute, in the music room of every one of his palaces.”

Though mentioned repeatedly in secondary literature since then, the music book only became available once again in 1934, when Erwin Schwarz-Reiflingen compiled the present selection.  It comprises 100 short practice pieces arranged according to keys.  While a small number of pieces can be attributed to Johann Joachim Quantz, the majority were written by the King himself.  Since Quantz’s famous instructional work Versuch einer Anweisung die Flote traversire zu spielen contains almost no practice pieces, the Flute Book of Frederick The Great offers an ideal performance-practical access to the flute music of Quantz and his circle.