This research project is about the search of the lost musical language of the simple system flute.
With the spread of the Boehm flute in the second half of the 19th century, the simple system flute and its playing tradition disappeared. Today early 19th century repertoire is played for the most part on instruments that did not exist at the time. This has lead to completely different sound aesthetics and interpretations of the works.
The goal of this doctorate was to reconstruct the lost knowledge about the mastery of the simple system flute and the interpretation of the music with the help of original instruments and written sources such as flute methods, concert reviews or other writings on the flute and flutists.
Anne Pustlauk has studied and analysed approximately 160 flute methods, 400 original instruments and 830 chamber music works. On the playing level the most important aspects were: research on tone, application of fingerings, articulation, musical accent, tempo rubato, ornaments etc. The study of period instruments delivered valuable information about the correlation of development of the instrument, changing musical taste, the playing style as well as sound aesthetics. Since very few chamber music works of the early 19th century are presently known and played in concert, she has studied as many works as possible and evaluated their quality in order to enlarge the flute repertoire.
In this research Anne Pustlauk investigated every aspect of the simple system flute that is needed for a professional mastery of the instrument and the interpretation of the works from a historical point of view. In the theoretical part of this doctorate she has created a website (www.anne- pustlauk.de) that contains the most important information gained from flute methods. The website contains moreover two databases that are regularly updated: a comprehensive list of all chamber music works that she has studied, a list of all fingerings presented in flute methods as well as a list of all flute methods.