automatic translation,
may not be accurate
may not be accurate
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An 18th-Century Laboratory for Today's Traverso Practice
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by Francesco Belfiore and Anna Reichhold
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What are Quantz’s Solfeggi?
At first glance, Quantz’s Solfeggi may look like a collection of exercises for the traverso. They are much more than that. They preserve material closely associated with Quantz’s teaching tradition and offer a rare glimpse into eighteenth-century flute pedagogy — a world in which technique and musical expression were closely connected.
The collection has traditionally been linked with Quantz’s teaching of Frederick the Great, while more recent research suggests that the surviving manuscript was compiled later, probably in the circle of Quantz’s pupil Augustin Neuff. The Copenhagen manuscript itself probably dates from around 1775–1782, although much of the musical material it contains comes from earlier works of the 1740s and 1750s.
The Solfeggi are neither a method book nor a conventional set of études. They are better understood as a practical training laboratory, where technical patterns, articulation, dance rhythms, repertoire fragments and performance instructions are woven together. Bach, Telemann, Graun, Tartini, Quantz and others appear throughout, rooting practice in real musical language rather than abstract exercises.
The collection has traditionally been linked with Quantz’s teaching of Frederick the Great, while more recent research suggests that the surviving manuscript was compiled later, probably in the circle of Quantz’s pupil Augustin Neuff. The Copenhagen manuscript itself probably dates from around 1775–1782, although much of the musical material it contains comes from earlier works of the 1740s and 1750s.
The Solfeggi are neither a method book nor a conventional set of études. They are better understood as a practical training laboratory, where technical patterns, articulation, dance rhythms, repertoire fragments and performance instructions are woven together. Bach, Telemann, Graun, Tartini, Quantz and others appear throughout, rooting practice in real musical language rather than abstract exercises.
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For today’s traverso players, this makes the collection remarkably useful. Articulation, ornamentation, phrasing, breath, transposition and stylistic awareness can all be explored within short musical examples. Even Quantz’s articulation syllables — ti, di, ri, dl — belong to a broader language through which the flute learns to speak and sing.
This Practice Pill is designed to make that wealth of material easier to explore: choose a practice focus or find a specific subject, and find relevant passages in the Solfeggi, using them to create your own path through the collection. Page references throughout follow the printed numbering of the Amadeus edition (1978). |
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A fresh look at the Solfeggi
This Practice Pill also grows out of a new project by Anna Reichhold, who is exploring the Solfeggi from a complementary perspective, combining performance with scholarly research into the manuscript, now held at the Royal Danish Library in Copenhagen, its possible scribes and composers, and its historical context.
Anna’s aim is to record the complete collection in a freely accessible video series, bringing the music off the page while investigating one of the source’s most fascinating features — its many handwritten annotations in historical German. These often highly specialized notes touch on articulation, tempo, affect, ornamentation and other aspects of performance, offering unusually detailed evidence of contemporary ideas about how these passages were to be played.
Anna’s aim is to record the complete collection in a freely accessible video series, bringing the music off the page while investigating one of the source’s most fascinating features — its many handwritten annotations in historical German. These often highly specialized notes touch on articulation, tempo, affect, ornamentation and other aspects of performance, offering unusually detailed evidence of contemporary ideas about how these passages were to be played.
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As part of our collaboration, Anna has contributed recorded examples from selected pages of the Solfeggi. You will find them directly inside the Map, alongside the corresponding exercises. They are not intended as definitive interpretations, but as another way into the material: an opportunity to hear how these short studies can become music, and to connect the written instructions with actual sound.
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Together, the Map and Anna’s project offer two complementary ways of rediscovering the Solfeggi: by mapping what they teach, and by listening to what they can become in performance.
How to explore the Solfeggi
Find a way in
Use the Map to explore by practice focus, or the
Subject Finder to look for a specific topic or term.
Choose a page
Follow a tag or subject to one of the suggested pages, then pick a short
fragment — even just a few notes.
Experiment with it
Repeat it several times, changing one thing at a time: articulation,
tempo, weight, breath, fingering, phrasing, or another feature suggested
by the page.
Listen and follow
Notice what changes. Stay with the fragment, move to another related
page, follow a different subject, or choose a new focus.
Historical notes draw on annotations in the
Solfeggi and on modern scholarship, highlighting evidence about
articulation, rhythm, phrasing, character and performance practice
relevant to each page.
The aim is not to complete the Solfeggi, but to use the Map and
Subject Finder to build your own practice paths through them.
Solfeggi Map
Pick a technique or musical focus, or leave the selection on “All”.
Focus
All — Show all pages in the Map.
All · 94 pages
Looking for something specific?
Browse the Subject Finder, based on the Subject Index of the Amadeus edition, for another way into the Solfeggi.
Browse the Subject Finder, based on the Subject Index of the Amadeus edition, for another way into the Solfeggi.
Subject Finder
What you’ll find in the Solfeggi
Articulation shapes the music
Markings such as marqué (marked), stark (strong) and schwach (weak), together with detailed articulation instructions, give notes weight and direction and shape how a phrase speaks.
Technique grows from patterns
Repeated figures and chains of notes become flexible practice material: slow them down, change the articulation, reverse them, or move them to another key.
Style is already there
Bach, Telemann, Graun, Hasse and many others appear alongside dances, ensemble extracts and contrasting national styles. Practice is therefore never far removed from repertoire: technical work happens inside actual eighteenth-century musical language.
Markings such as marqué (marked), stark (strong) and schwach (weak), together with detailed articulation instructions, give notes weight and direction and shape how a phrase speaks.
Technique grows from patterns
Repeated figures and chains of notes become flexible practice material: slow them down, change the articulation, reverse them, or move them to another key.
Style is already there
Bach, Telemann, Graun, Hasse and many others appear alongside dances, ensemble extracts and contrasting national styles. Practice is therefore never far removed from repertoire: technical work happens inside actual eighteenth-century musical language.
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Tried the Map? Tell us how it went.
Even a tiny observation — or a moment of confusion — can be useful.
Your experience can help us improve the Map and understand how the
Solfeggi work in real practice.
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