The Flute Book: A Complete Guide for Students and Performers

Teachers and flutists at all levels will welcome the return of Nancy Toff's unique one-stop guide to the flute and its music. Organized into four main parts--The Instrument, Performance, The Music, and Repertoire Catalog--the book begins with a description of the instrument and its making, offers information on choosing and caring for a flute, sketches a history of the flute, and discusses differences between members of the flute family. In the Performance section, readers learn about breathing, tone, vibrato, articulation, technique, style, performing, and recording. In the extensive analysis of flute literature that follows, Toff places individual pieces in historical context. The book ends with a comprehensive catalog of solo and chamber repertoire, and includes appendices with fingering charts as well as lists of current flute manufacturers, repair shops, sources for flute music and books, and flute clubs and related organizations worldwide.

Nancy Toff is the author of The Development of the Modern Flute and Georges Barrère and the Flute in America. Highly respected as a writer, researcher, and lecturer, she has been a consultant to the Dayton C. Miller Flute Collection in the Library of Congress and the Department of Musical Instruments of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. A former president of the New York Flute Club, she studied flute with Arthur Lora and James Pappoutsakis.