bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Analysis of a Two-Way Table
Authors: Selvin Steve
Published: November 2023

To describe the relationship between marital status and the incidence of cancer of the rectum among white and African-American males. DATA Incident cases of rectal cancer were abstracted from the Third National Cancer Survey data and classified by gender, age, and marital status for whites and African-Americans for ages ranging from 35 to 64 years. The Third National Cancer Survey consists of data collected from nine selected areas (21 million population) over a three year period (1969-71). Cancer incidence rates were calculated using population counts derived from 1970 U.S. Cen­ sus Bureau enumerations. A total of 2,905,825 white and 294,940 black males yielded 569 and 60 cancer cases, respectively. The data were classified into three 10-year age groups (35-44, 45-54, and 55-64 years). Grouping disease or mortality data generally reduces the heterogeneity of risk of disease and is particularly important for cancer incidence data, where considerable het­ erogeneity is typically found associated with age. Furthermore, rectal cancer in individuals under the age of 35 is extremely rare. Five marital status groups were used: single, married, separated, divorced, and widowed.
Poisson Regression
Authors: Selvin Steve
Published: November 2023

Counts of brain cancer incidence cases and deaths were recorded as part of the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) program of the Bio­ metry Branch of the National Cancer Institute. The SEER program acquired these incidence data from a number of surveyed areas in the United States (for example, the state of Connecticut, the city of Detroit, the state of New Mexico, and the San Francisco Bay Area). The brain cancer incidence cases and deaths were extracted from the SEER public use data for the 10 years 1985-1994 for all participating regions. Using these data, white incidence cases were selected and tabulated by gender and age (age intervals: 20 to 24 years, 25 to 29 years, 30 to 34 years, ... , 80 to 84 years, more than 84 years). Additionally, the corresponding populations at risk were abstracted from the
Log-Linear Model (Poisson Model Applied to Tabular Data)
Authors: Selvin Steve
Published: November 2023

The collected data are from 386 women who delivered infants or fetuses with neural tube defects (primarily anencephaly and spina bifida) ascertained by reviewing medical records from hospitals in a large number of California counties (June 1989-May 1991). Controls were randomly selected from the same areas, producing 384 singleton infants born alive without a reportable congenital anomaly. In-person interviews were conducted in English (74%) and Spanish (26%) within four or five months after delivery. Women who spoke only other languages were not included in the study. Information on race and vitamin use was obtained as part of these personal interviews. A woman was considered a vitamin user if she took single or multiple vitamin supplements in the period three months before conception and continued to take them during pregnancy (present users). Women who took vitamins only during pregnancy were classified as new users, and the remaining women
Multivariate Comparison of Two Groups
Authors: Selvin Steve
Published: November 2023

Maternal weights recorded over a period including two pregnancies were abstracted from a birth records database maintained by the University of Cal­ ifornia Moffit Hospital (1980-1990). Data were collected from healthy adult white (non-Hispanic) women (age> 18) who gave birth to two consecutive single, live-born infants free of congenital anomalies. Each woman’s weight was recorded prior to pregnancy (two self-reported measurements). In addi­ tion, each woman’s weight was measured at or near delivery and then at about six weeks postpartum for each of the two consecutive live births (four mea­ surements), for a total of six weight measurements on each sampled mother. Because the postpartum weights were measured at about six-weeks, six-week weight measurements were created by statistically adjusting each mother’s recorded weight to estimate her weight at exactly six weeks. Maternal weight gained during pregnancy is net weight, that is, the mother’s weight gain after the infant’s birth weight was subtracted from the total recorded weight
Smoothing Sequential Data
Authors: Selvin Steve
Published: November 2023

A fundamental indication of the risk of disease within a population is an incidence rate (rate of new cases). A mortality rate is related to an incidence rate, and comparison reflects the survival of individuals with the disease. Using both the number of new cases of Hodgkin’s disease and the number of deaths collected from 1973 to 1990 allow the calculation of annual age­ adjusted incidence and mortality rates over this eight year period. The cal­ culated rates refer to the U.S. male and female populations of African­ Americans, and age adjustment was based on the U.S. 1970 age distribution. These data were collected as part of an extensive National Cancer Institute program entitled Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER). Inci­ dence rates were calculated from all cases reported in the SEER areas where population-based cancer reporting systems are maintained with almost 100% completeness. The mortality data obtained from local and state vital records systems were classified by the underlying cause of death. The corresponding yearly populations at risk came from intercensus estimates based primarily
Non parametric Regression Analysis
Authors: Selvin Steve
Published: November 2023

The Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Health at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) maintains a comprehensive database containing data on mothers and their newborn infants. To begin to understand the problems associated with mothers who fail to gain normal amounts of weight during pregnancy, a specific cohort of mothers and new­ born infants was abstracted from this database. These women were healthy white women who gained less than 13 kilograms (25th percentile) during a term pregnancy and delivered a live-born single infant with no major con­ genital abnormalities. The infant’s birth weight at delivery was also obtained from the UCSF database. The abstracted maternal variables, prepregnancy weight, height, smoking history, and age were self-reported during the first prenatal visit. A total 184 mother-infant pairs make up the study cohort.
Appoggiatura
Authors: Debost Michel
Published: November 2023

Of two slurred notes, the second is almost always less intense than the first, because in general the first one is an appoggiatura (from the Italian appoggiare). The word means “to lean upon,” either because the note is outside the harmony (1) or part of a dissonant chord (2), creating tension, or because it is leading to (3) or longing for resolution and release (4). From the point of view of instrumental playing, it must be kept in mind that a lifting finger (A2 to B 2, or E2 to F2) will resolve naturally. But falling fingers (B 2 to A2, or F2 to E2) have an organic tendency to reinforce the resolution. This is one more reason to avoid slam-and-squeeze. The fingers must also take part in phrasing. Sonority is vital, but try to play without the hands. An appoggiatura may be indicated as a grace note (1) or written out (2). Identify it in your discovery of the piece. The release of an appoggiatura can be very long and diluted, sometimes comically, in rococo or flute romantic repertoire such as Boehm or Doppler. Still, the harmonic tension (1) must live through it, until the release point is found (2). None of the ornamental notes (3) should have more energy than the appoggiatura and no less than the release note (4).
Appoggio
Authors: Debost Michel
Published: November 2023

Appoggio is an air-management technique used by singers of the Italian school. The English “breath support” is not an adequate translation. Appoggio is a system of combining and isometrically balancing the abdominal and chest muscles’ action in the inhaling procedure as well as in the exhaling and tone-producing phenomenon. “To sustain a given note, the air should be expelled slowly; to attain this end, the respiratory (inspiratory) muscles, by continuing their action, strive to retain the air in the lungs, and oppose their action to that of the expiratory muscles, which is called lotta vocale or vocal struggle.” Upon blowing, the technique of appoggio,meaning the act of leaning in Italian, is the process that would come closest to what is mistakenly meant by diaphragmatic support. If the intercostalmuscles did not isometrically balance it, the support of the abdominal muscles, without opposition, would lead to a rapid deflation of the lungs. Appoggio prevents the collapse of the chest. Schematically, the singer or flutist’s effort is to not blow but to realize this inner balance. “After breathing in as far as possible, we must use considerable inspiratory force to keep the air from going out with a sigh. You have to brake your exhaling, using inspiratory muscles to hold back, to keep the chest volume from decreasing too rapidly because of its own elasticity.”
Breathing3: Where Not To Breathe
Authors: Debost Michel
Published: November 2023

My basic philosophy about breathing is simple: if you don’t need a big breath, don’t take one. When you say: “Cool!” you only need a sip of air. But when you tell someone, “I just did not have time to open my flute case since my last lesson,” you need a lot of air, and a lot of nerve. Breathe more than you need in practice. In actual performance, it will be easy to stretch your air if you feel good. But if you stretch it too thin, you might be forced to make catastrophic breaks. I learned long ago from my own experience that stage fright affects the breath first. Something technical is often easier.
Breathing4: Where To Breathe
Authors: Debost Michel
Published: November 2023

The gasps reinforce the tension build-up or release of the syncopations. You can almost breathe on each syncopation. It helps you and the music too. In other words, the rhythmic character of a piece lends itself to many little breaths. Rampal gave magnificent examples of this in many of his recordings (the Bolling suite and post-baroque concertos by Stamitz and Benda, among others). It is said that Gaubert was also a master at stealing gasps here and there without being heard. The problem is compounded when the passage is slurred or fast. If it must be interrupted for a biological reason, here are a few ideas: Chose a place where the music is not offended too much and match the tone on either side of the breath, for instance in the Sarabande of Bach’s Partita in A Minor, BWV 1013, or in the opening bars of the second movement of the Martinu Sonata. Breathe with your ears. If you must interrupt the line, your ears should tell you how to deal with the sound and the phrase just before and just after the breath, especially if is not a musically obvious place. Do not systematically taper off on the release before the breath. Think of matching the dynamics in the very recent past and in the very near future. Do not to hit the following note just because you filled up and are no longer threatened by immediate asphyxiation.
Center of Gravity
Authors: Debost Michel
Published: November 2023

A flute player’s center of gravity is neither the diaphragm nor the plexus, but a point below the navel that you feel when you sneeze or cough. When we sneeze or cough, a considerable amount of energy is concentrated at this point in a short time, since we are trying to expel something. This energy is similar to what we call support, except for the fact that it must be sustained to conduct tone. When you shift slightly Circular Blowingthis center of gravity, even by imperceptibly moving your balance from one foot to another or feeling your weight on the floor, the air speed becomes faster or slower and provides the basic means of tone production in all ranges. Only then should the lips intervene to guide the air brush. Air support can be compared to the sensation we have in our abdominal muscles while moving a heavy object: the tummy juts forward (and not backward, as is sometimes prescribed.) We have the impression that very strong muscles are producing the essential force, as in tone production. The center of gravity is ever lower. There is no energy in the upper body, and the shoulders must be low. Air support has its origin at this center of gravity, which is also the cough or sneeze point. Consciousness of its localization is vital. The famous diaphragm that everyone talks about, rightly or wrongly, is much higher, and no one has control over it. “The center of gravity must be found as close as possible to the ground, i.e. in the lower abdomen.”1
Concentration, Relaxation
Authors: Debost Michel
Published: November 2023

Flute players have so many times been told that they must relax that they forgo all stability of the instrument-holding posture and end up doing lip acrobatics, straining the weak facial muscles. These muscles are not meant for that. Playing with a loose flute and slapping fingers and not calling into action the strong leg muscles, the abdominals, and the arm muscles (biceps) is not logical and efficient instrumental playing. These have been called the energy muscles; they enable standing, walking, running, pushing, and lifting. They are well within their power when we play the flute and for this reason do not generate tension and the problems of overuse. One of the goals of practice is to achieve the greatest relaxation with total concentration. Ask an unsuspecting person to relax: the shoulders fall, the hands hang by the side, the body goes into a slouch, the eyes lose their spark, sleep is close at hand. The personality is all but snuffed out. Now tell another one to concentrate: every muscle tightens, the forehead wrinkles, the neck stiffens, the eyes glow, the body stands at attention. The person is awake and ready for action, but nervous tension threatens to hinder performance. The ideal would be a combination of both: a sharp mind in a calm body. We cannot relax everything at once. If we did, instrumental playing would fall apart; the flute would float out of control.
Études
Authors: Debost Michel
Published: November 2023

At every stage of our development, whether amateur or professional, we want, or we are requested, to play studies (or études). The range is wide: from Berbiguier to Jeanjean, by way of the Boehm caprices, all the Andersen études (ten books!), de Lorenzo, the Bach studies, the Donjon études de Salon, the Fürstenau Bouquet des tons, the Paganini violin caprices transcribed for flute, and the Karg-Elert caprices. All different, they all have something in common: they are supposed to make us play better, but they are not designed to be performed in public. Études are different from basic exercises such as scales or tone work. Daily instrumental work hones our playing skills, day in and day out, regardless of our level. Études are temporary fodder, changing every week or at every lesson. Kincaid always requested Berbiguier’s Dix-huit exercices; Moyse used Andersen’s op. 15. Tom Nyfenger insisted adamantly on “perfection.” This is something that I confess having never accomplished: perfection in an étude (or in anything, for that matter). This strategy applies when tackling an étude. It is amazing to see how many people start practicing even before looking. For an étude, this preliminary survey must be refined, pencil in hand. Indicate the chromatic passages: you won’t even have to read them. When a line is in two voices, see which one is melodic and which is accompaniment: usually you have to read only one of the two. Indicate facilitating fingerings, on and off, such as thumb B . Breaths should be thought out, even if you change them later. Be wise in this respect; there is no reward for breaking breath records in an étude. Write in a few accidentals, the most annoying ones. Finally, double-check the key of each passage; you will avoid many wrong notes. Do a run-through when you start that day’s practice. Decide: “I won’t stop, repeat, I won’t stop.” Read ahead. The old sailing ships had a saying: “One hand for the ship, one for the sailor.” For musicians, it would be: “One eye for the reading, one for the playing.”
Flutes
Authors: Debost Michel
Published: November 2023

You never hear it said that a great flutist plays a bad flute. It seems that a well played flute improves with age. I know that when I lend one of mine, it returns with some of the defects (rarely the good qualities) of the borrower. Physicists and acousticians will object that this is black magic. They say that only the shape and measurements of the flute, as well as the resonant medium matter. The effect of the tube’s material would be negligible, according to them. But we flute players know there is a world of difference between metals and woods, and it is not only a matter of cost. Antique violins improve with time. Wood is a living material and it evolves even after centuries; no doubt, the generous sound of great violinists contributes to this miracle. What about flutes?
Freedom
Authors: Debost Michel
Published: November 2023

It has been said that the worst enemy of liberty is not despotism, but anarchy. In music, an interpretation that has the appearance of freedom is sometimes chaotic because of lack of structure in the big picture and imprecision in the details of execution. I remember a few instances of Marcel Moyse’s wrath, one at my expense, when a student wanted his or her personal ideas about Syrinx to take preeminence over the letter of Debussy’s text, especially concerning the rhythm. When you dominate your instrumental playing in every aspect of tone, vibrato, intonation, breath control, articulation, dynamics, color, finger speed, and control, you become a freer musician, instead of remaining a slave to your instrumental shortcomings
Grace Notes
Authors: Debost Michel
Published: November 2023

In different cultures using a common tongue, such as English, some identical things are called by different names; the British use lorry for truck, lift for elevator, bonnet for trunk, hire for rent, and so on. They practise and labour when we practice and labor; it is their honour and our honor. Musical notation is like all languages: the same sign does not always mean the same thing. Such is the case of grace notes, about which many treatises have been written, a real sunken treasure for doctoral divers. Lawyers make their living by the interpretation of the Law. The interpretation of music starts with understanding the signs. It is not my purpose to write the definitive treatise on grace notes, assuming it were possible, but to try to share what I know in a practical and musically applicable way. In the contemporary idiom, grace notes, in various numbers, “must be executed, preferably, as fast as possible.”1 This implies that they must be played at the extreme end of the allotted space, but before the next note. The first part of the twentieth century followed the previous one’s desire to make musical notation clearer and more universal so that regional and national peculiarities would not prevent publishers from selling internationally. Thus, single, double, or triple grace notes were to be played fast as an enhancement of the main note, comparable to a sigh or a surge of expression. All other passing notes are rhythmically written, implying that the composer wishes them played in time. The romantics, especially the flute romantics, had an addiction to cadenzas, embellishments, chirpings and warblings, but the grace notes were always short. Cadenzas were written in grace notes of different values, indicating that they were to be played freely, with a vague reference to duration, but not systematically fast— for example, Doppler’s
Images
Authors: Debost Michel
Published: November 2023

There is a technique of interpretation. Interpretation is not something that comes to your instincts and hormones out of a clear blue sky. It takes study and thought, but it should feel natural to you and to your listeners. Interpretation should sound simple, because like culture, “It is what’s left when you have forgotten everything.” But too often culture (and knowledge of interpretation) is like jam: the less one has, the more one spreads it around. Music is sometimes descriptive. Titles are bestowed upon masterpieces after they have been composed. The “Moonlight” Sonata made Liberace very rich, but it can be listened to in broad daylight. The “New World” Symphony flatters America’s idea of itself, but it is, first of all, a beautiful symphony. Debussy himself titled La mer, but it goes beyond the imitation of wind and seagulls. A work of art should not represent anything but itself. The greatness of a painting is not in the likeness it gives of a landscape or of a face. Any good photograph can do that. Rather, it is a vision of the world through the mind, the heart and the hands of the artist. It is better than a faithful representation.
Interpretation
Authors: Debost Michel
Published: November 2023

Music is the mirror of our soul, itself the reflecting pool of our emotions that are fired up by music, and vice versa, ad infinitum. The more we are able to dwell on our emotions, the deeper will be our comprehension of music and of ourselves. Total grasp of music’s secrets is an infinitely inaccessible goal, just like— as in Alice in Wonderland— the image on the other side of the mirror. The question we have to ask ourselves is: What does this passage mean to me? Music is made of many moods. Is it peaceful, violent, mystic, tormented, happy, lazy, sad, passionate, patient, mysterious, urgent, inquisitive, positive? Does it speak of morning, of night, of fate, of hope? Does it smell like a spring rain or like the subway? Does it have the colors of autumn or the grays of dusk? Do I love it, like it, or loathe it, and what can I do to communicate my emotions? In a way, our interpretation is similar to the painter’s art: the subject is the same, Rembrandt’s self-portraits or Monet’s water lilies and cathedrals, but every picture is different. We must not be afraid of a certain spontaneity, as long as the basic musical grammar is understood. I am constantly telling myself and my students to work at instrumental skills in scales and exercises, and to look every day at our reflection in the mirror of instrumental playing. Is that contradictory to imagination and emotion? Certainly not. There is music in the simplest of exercising patterns.
Isometrics
Authors: Debost Michel
Published: November 2023

Flute playing involves a great deal of “muscle action developing tension while the muscle is prevented from contracting.” This is simpler than it seems: equilibrium is achieved when forces involved in a system are evenly distributed and balance each other. Weightlessness, for instance, is an isometric state in which the centrifugal force generated by the speed of a space object is exactly equal to gravitation. How does this affect flute playing? Comfortable posture is a case in point. When we wait for the bus or read a bulletin board, we are not conscious of any effort. The leg and foot muscles instinctively correct any imbalance. Yet if we were to lean one way or another, an instinctive reflex would come into play, as isometrics would be affected. While playing, there is no reason why we should produce any effort just to stand or sit.
Jawboning
Authors: Debost Michel
Published: November 2023

There has always been more than one school of tone production, in any instrument. However great the difference in the level of noise, we have more affinity with brass than with reed instruments. For one, neither a horn nor a flute can blame their problems on the reed. I remember an illuminating discussion with my schoolmate Maurice André, one of the rare trumpeters of our generation to have had a dazzling solo career. He told me that he used very little lip or chin movement. He relied almost exclusively on the abdominal belt and a low center of gravity. Must flutists believe facial gymnastics and systematic jawboning help constitute a productive and reliable way of playing? By jawboning, I mean constant change in the angle of the airflow into the embouchure. Playing intervals of more than a third (for example, changing from the lower to the middle range), they seem to need a different thrust of the chin and/or an alteration of the shape of the lip aperture. My contention is that this practice is neither logical nor totally reliable. If we slur a slow chromatic scale down from, say, middle F (the exact middle point of the flute’s entire range) to low FS, there is no perceptible lip or chin movement.
Little Devils
Authors: Debost Michel
Published: November 2023

The lips should not produce any effort. They act as guide and control. Without any stress, and with very little movement, one can play the whole range of the flute chromatically without moving the lips. Why should it be different in arpeggios and intervals? Since we cannot move the lips on every note during fast passages, there is no reason to do so in slow phrases. This is our octave key. It comes into play to connect middle D and E to practically all the notes from G inside the staff to D in the ledger lines. It is also the center of balance of the flute, almost exactly halfway down the tube. Closed and unobtrusive in most of the lower range, it starts acting up for middle D and E : how many flute students have had trouble with closed E , especially in descending scales? Flutists and teachers must nip this little devil in the bud, for it is very hard to get rid of this habit later.
Memory
Authors: Debost Michel
Published: November 2023

Even as computers become more and more sophisticated and their capabilities more far-reaching, the human brain is still the most amazing of all. There is no limit to its possibilities. Its memory is boundless. The more you learn, the more you can learn. Our brain does not fill up. When you speak a language or two, the next one is easier to learn, and so on. In the realm of music, memory affects not only the acquisition of the text, but also the playing skills. The latter is the subject of an article in Science.1 Researchers used scientific sensors that measure blood flow to different parts of the brain and electric impulses to and from muscles. The term “motor task” corresponds to actual movements, whereas “internal model” (IM) refers to the acquired cerebral pattern that drives the performance of the skill. How does all this affect flute playing? Gaston Crunelle taught me during my days at the Paris Conservatoire to prepare difficult passages very slowly, breaking them into very brief rhythms. This is a well-known process, but the important part, said Crunelle, was to avoid trying them immediately up to tempo, or worse yet, to increase the metronome beat progressively, which would destroy the previous patient work. This has worked very well for me over the years, and I advise my students to do the same. I am not always sure they are convinced at first, or if they do it. If they don’t need this procedure and succeed, I leave them alone. But I don’t know of any difficulty that resists such a thorough approach. Intuitively, Crunelle’s advice corresponds precisely to the scientific research published in Science. “We’ve shown that time itself is a very powerful component of learning,” says Henry H. Holcomb. “It is not enough to simply practice something. You have to allow time for the brain to encode the new skill.
Muscles, Strong and Weak
Authors: Debost Michel
Published: November 2023

A weak motor has no flexibility; under constant stress, it tires quickly. To pull a load, it must always work at maximum output. It will soon end up in the repair shop. There is an analogy with every facet of flute playing: if there exists a choice between weak and strong muscles, the latter must in general be called into action; they are more flexible because they do not operate at full power and therefore tire less. Let us take a few examples. The strong abdominal muscles provide the most important action by releasing the belt and creating a vacuum in the chest cavity. The pectoral and intercostal muscles also come into play. They are weaker, but most of all, their action is in a flat direction and for that reason slower. They must heave the chest and shoulders, which is necessary for a full apnea but inefficient and tiresome for normal breathing, as well as constricting for the throat. This too calls the abdominal muscles into action to push air out. If the pectoral and intercostal muscles were generating pressure at this time, it would be very strenuous and inefficient. Instead, they counteract the energy generated in the abdomen through isometrics. In apnea, they actually prevent the collapse of the shoulders and chest that would empty the lungs under the pressure of abdominal support. It is a sort of passive resistance that they provide (appoggio), much more suited to their nature and essential for air management.
Posture
Authors: Debost Michel
Published: November 2023

Even before the end of the first phrase, the spectator notices outright a flutist’s awkward posture. I do not condone standing at attention— high chin or high elbows. High shoulders, especially, strangle the throat and the tone. Stand naturally and just bring the flute to your lips. Shoulders should stay aligned with elbows and vice versa. The head will be turned thirty degrees to the left, but this is better than pulling the right elbow out of alignment with the right shoulder. I advise the use of the legs to activate support. When we lift a large weight, we feel strongly the action of the leg muscles. Less evident is the contraction of the abdominal muscles that we use for support. In actual playing posture, it is good to stand or sit with feet firmly in contact with the ground, to feel our own weight and to have the impression that we are pushing the ground away, as it were. A bit of hip swinging and graceful footwork can highlight a performance and ease some nervous tension. We must, however, try to be always conscious of gravity, even in animated passages.
Programs
Authors: Debost Michel
Published: November 2023

Choosing a program for our recitals is often agonizing. To this day, it is a problem for me. The following ideas need not be always followed (I am sure they won’t be), but they are the fruit of my experience as a player, as a professor, and as a listener. A “professional” program of an hour and a half, including intermission, often stretches to two hours. A senior recital (normally one hour) goes to an hour and a half, or more. A junior recital that should be a half-hour concert drags on to an hour. This is due to the five-minute late start, moving on and off stage between pieces, and the huge round of applause that will no doubt salute our performances. A good idea is to time ourselves to 10 percent short of the allotted time. When we start thinking about a concert, we have, first of all, to set our priorities. The last thing we want is to have the audience yearn to leave. They should be thinking that we did not play enough. If our program is too short, they will rarely blame us for laziness. But if they are bored. . . . We want to be liked, loved, and adored, and not sound academic or snobbish. We want to please more than convince. We want to show our qualities, not our political correctness. We want to be beautiful but not at the expense of comfort. We want to be compatible with our musical partners.
Repertoire
Authors: Debost Michel
Published: November 2023

“Why practice the basics (scales and daily exercises) when pieces contain patterns that can serve as practice? Since flute repertoire and orchestral works are the only things people will listen to us play, why bother with anything but that, aside from some perfunctory warm-ups?” There is quite a lot to say about this often-heard opinion. But let us look at repertoire as a practice issue. The flute repertoire has an important list of works, but we must acknowledge the fact that only about twenty possess a high status through the fame of their composers. To avoid hurting anybody’s taste or feelings, we will stop the roll call at Mozart, Bach, Schubert and Debussy. Does that mean that we should only play these and a few others, and disregard everything else? Quite to the contrary. There are some wonderful works by lesser-known composers that are excellent material and do not dwarf the student. No piece resists being played over and over again. The danger, though, is burnout. Constant repetition only aggravates and solidifies defects that are difficult to shed. I remember struggling through Handel’s Sonata in G; it was fifty odd years ago, but to this day I cannot play the second movement without stuttering the staccato.
Rituals
Authors: Debost Michel
Published: November 2023

“The worst deafness is refusing to hear.”8 When a habit is well ingrained, it is like a neurosis. The first step toward a cure is accepting the fact that there is a problem, a dependency, on alcohol, on tobacco, on pills, or on flute mannerisms. I am not addicted to most of them, but concerning the latter, I am not so sure. After playing the flute for more than fifty years, I should not be enjoying it so much anymore, but the urge still tickles me. That’s my neurosis and I love it. Let us look at a few flutisms, just for fun. We all have our rituals. This one blows hard through the tube as if to flush the cobwebs that have accumulated since the last time she practiced. The other aims from the head joint down as through the sight of a shotgun. This other wipes the lip plate three times with a cloth. This powerful fellow takes the stance of a Japanese wrestler. That one cannot start a piece without a sweep of the flute even if he is alone, and so on. Once under way, the gyrations start. Passion pervades the most innocent line. Even a held note deserves wiggling and tossing. We genuflect or rise on our toes. One foot affirms character with a stomp, the other beats time.
Scale Game
Authors: Debost Michel
Published: November 2023

The Scale Game has been devised out of exercise no. 4 in Dix-sept grands exercices journaliers de mécanisme de flûte by Paul Taffanel and Philippe Gaubert. Paul Taffanel taught them at the Conservatoire National de Paris at the turn of the twentieth century. They were formalized by Gaubert and published in 1923.2 Scales are the essential part of daily instrumental practice, as much as or more than tone exercises, because tone is always present in them. For greatest profit, they should be considered as music, which, in truth, they are. The transition that concludes each scale and introduces the new one through modulation serves as relaxation, as reassessment of the sound, as an ever more refined intonation and flavor of the various keys’ color. Therefore, regardless of the tempo of the previous articulation, or of the next, this beautiful transition should always be played slowly and freely, slurred, phrased with the fingers as much as with the tone, with no precise reference to tempo. Structural breaths are mandatory and are placed after each low and high tonic. The tempo can then be suspended to perform noiselessly a good inhalation with the “hhaah” sound. This is the time to open your tone and reposition your instrumental playing. The tonic of the new key should be repeated. Emergency breaths are optional and caused by necessity. They can be taken at any time, provided that they are quick (without suspension of the tempo) and barely audible, and that the sound is balanced with the same dynamic on either side of the interruption. I prefer to place these “911 breaths” after the first note of a group of four, or after a strong beat instead of before.
Stepping-Stones
Authors: Debost Michel
Published: November 2023

Creators of Japanese gardens put a great amount of beauty into a small space. Their use of space and understatement is a model for musical interpretation. I love their stepping-stones: flat rocks symbolizing various stages of our existence or an imaginary river made of fine white gravel. Whatever they stand for, they are poetic images of suspended time. There are helpful stepping-stones in interpretation also: pacing a dynamic progression and tracking a change in tempo. (See Stepping Stones ex. 1, page 225.) The initial bar is p throughout. In the second bar, the primary notes are highlighted while the secondary patterns remain p. In the last bar, all the elements come forward. The figured-bass harmonic progression follows the same ascending dynamic progression. In the following example, since no harmonic progression exists in the accompaniment, the performer has two possibilities:
Tempo
Authors: Debost Michel
Published: November 2023

Are you sometimes uncomfortable listening or playing, without being able to define why? Often it is because the pulse of the music, the tempo, does not feel right. Tempo, like politics, has its ideologues and its terrorists. Verdicts and victims fall upon the altars of Truth and Beauty as decreed by a few. In ensemble playing, some (conductors as well as musicians) are inflexible. The wisest are those who know how to convince, or how to bend, or both. “If you can’t lick ‘em, join ‘em!” An imposed tempo may work, but what pleasure, what swing when it is lived with together! A good conductor or group leader feels the general response, the instrumental mass, and the acoustics. He should deal with the tempo accordingly, without putting a number on it once and for all. When one is a participant in a group, one must strive to accommodate the general pulse even if it does not feel right. In the last resort, “the boss is always right.” I do not think there is only one valid tempo marking. The tempo corresponds to a number of parameters, of which adrenalin and a fast heartbeat are not the least. Don’t hide behind the umbrella of a metronome marking. Take it for what it is: an indication, an idea. I have worked enough with great composers (Poulenc, Rivier, Ibert, Messiaen, Jolivet, and Boulez, among others) to know that they never conduct or play their works at the fixed tempi they wrote themselves. And these are alive or were until recently. So don’t let yourselves be imposed upon for the tempi of the past masters! Don’t take editions for granted. They are respectable as a good player’s opinion, but not as the gospel. Use your own judgment. Use your head. Use your heart and your heartbeat.
Trills
Authors: Debost Michel
Published: November 2023

Even when a trill is performed with one finger, there are still three problems: how to make it smooth, how to start it, and how to terminate it. One clue for smoothing the trill itself is to focus one’s energy not on the shaking finger, but on the stability of the flute. If force is used in the trilling finger, that is, if it comes down hard on the instrument, it is all the more difficult to lift it. This slows the trill and makes it bumpy. How can this be helped? Since the trill is performed by one hand, it is the nontrilling hand that should provide stability: If you are playing a trill with a finger of the right hand, the left can anchor the stability without risk through some energy applied by the first joint of the left index against the embouchure plate and all of the left fingers resting on the flute. When the left hand is the triller, it might seem more difficult to stabilize with the right, which is mostly off the flute. One solution is to use one right finger in a “silent” position, that is, on a non–tone producing key. The B lever helps to stabilize for G–A, G –A, or D–E trills. Using the right ring finger as a “silent” balance for A–B or B–C trills helps release the tension in the trilling finger.
Tuning
Authors: Debost Michel
Published: November 2023

This vital activity is often a pretense even in major orchestras. First, a few sobering principles: There is no such thing as an in-tune flute. The last fashionable instrument, the X schema, the Z scale, are at best a workable approximation of sharp or flat because our tone’s center has a brighter or darker timbre, which affects our compatibility with other instruments in actual playing. In the course of music making, verify your tuning as often as possible by comparison. The influence of dynamics cannot be ignored. Everyone knows that f will raise the pitch and p will pull it lower, which does not always work the same way with oboes, clarinets, and bassoons, your immediate neighbors. Learn how to keep up your air speed in p and to lower your center of gravity in f. It takes more energy to play soft than loud. So if you must jut your chin, it should not be to play louder, but to keep the pitch from dropping on soft notes and releases. When you play loud, lower your shoulders and your jaw while opening the throat, and let the flute play out.
Vibrato
Authors: Debost Michel
Published: November 2023

There are many theories. Extensive measurements1 show that the diaphragm has no role in vibrato. Since you cannot produce vibrato with your lips or your chin, its mechanism must initiate somewhere in the throat area. This does not mean that it needs to be of the nanny goat variety, very fast and very narrow. In fact, it is safe to say that vibrato is a modulation in the pitch of the flute tone, making it rise and fall in a more or less controlled fashion. String players do the same thing more visibly. But it confirms the fact that vibrato is not spontaneous. String players show us it is a oscillation of the finger tips on the fingerboard. I think that vibrato is wrong when it is the first thing I notice in someone’s playing or singing.
Introduction
Authors: Yoshihara Mari
Published: November 2023

Madame Butterfly has for over a century been one of the classic narratives of East-West relations. It tells the story of Lieutenant Benjamin Franklin Pinkerton, a U.S. naval officer stationed in Nagasaki who adds comfort and excitement to his foreign assignment by having a broker arrange his marriage with a “native” woman, Cho-Cho-San—or, Madame Butterfly. Innocently believing that the relationship is permanent, Cho-Cho-San severs ties with her Japanese family, converts to Christianity, and strives to acculturate to an American lifestyle in order to prepare for a life in America with her husband. After Pinkerton’s departure to the United States, Cho-Cho-San gives birth to his child, and anxiously awaits his return to Japan. Pinkerton does return, but with his elegant American wife—Mrs. Pinkerton—and only to claim his child. Believing that death with honor is better than living a dishonorable life, Cho-Cho-San kills herself.
Visualizing Orientalism : Women Artists’ “Asian” Prints
Authors: Yoshihara Mari
Published: November 2023

White women’s relationships to Asian objects were vividly portrayed in a series of paintings by William McGregor Paxton, a turn-of-the-century American Impressionist. Just as Edith Wharton’s novels recall the morals, protocols, and women’s place in Old New York, Paxton’s paintings depict the physical, social, and mental space in which women lived in turn-of-the-century America. Whether they be kitchen maids or socialites in shimmering gowns, Paxton’s female figures are part of the domestic land- scape, the nature of their existence defined by the visual objects and physical space surrounding them.
Concerning Compositions Put Together Out of Diverse Pieces, Such as the Messanza and the Quodlibet
Authors: Praetorius Michael
Published: November 2023

There are three kinds of quodlibet: Some have a unique and complete text carried through each voice part in its entirety. I particularly like the one I found in which the first voice sings Erhalt uns HERR, the second Ach Gott vom Himmel, the third Vater unser im Him[melreich], the fourth Wir gleuben, the fifth Durch Adams Fall, by an unknown composer.
Concerning Compositions Sung by Laborers and Peasants, Such as Vinettas, Giardinieras, and Villanellas
Authors: Praetorius Michael
Published: November 2023

Vinettas or vinata is a ditty by a wine-grower or vintner who works in the vineyard, for vinetto means vintner or wine-grower. Vinette, however, is an undistinguished table wine. Vinatas are drinking songs or, to use the proper title, boozing songs, which are neither unusual here in Germany nor uncommon. It is my belief that there is no vanity or triviality found in the world that has not been sung or set to music. Giardiniera is a gardener’s song such as they sing while working in the garden; for giardiniero means gardener, gardino a garden or orchard.
Concerning the Small Strokes Necessary for Comprehension in Compositions and Also in Relation to the Meter [Tactus] in Fusas and Tripla Concerning the Use of SmallStrokes and Tactus
Authors: Praetorius Michael
Published: November 2023

In quite a few compositions, particularly textless sinfonias that contain many fusas in succession, many mistakes can easily occur when sightreading because of the meter [tact], especially in proportions. Therefore I think it is important that a small stroke be placed either below or above the staff between each measure [tact] (as is found in my Terpsichore), so that at a faster tempo one can follow the beat much more easily; and should one get lost, one can get back into the measure [Tact] more accurately and quickly. It is particularly important in proportio tripla and sesquialtera that the first and second beats at the very beginning are distinguished by a little stroke so that the meter [tactus] whether a large triple meter notated in semibreves, or a small triple meter notated in minims may be ascertained straightaway (because up until now, and even still, most musicians employed the meter signs for tripla and sesquialtera indistinguishably, as previously mentioned in chapter, so that it was not possible to distinguish between them).
Concerning the Diagram for the Recognition of the Modes A Table Showing How to Recognize Quite Easily the Mode or Tone of a Composition
Authors: Praetorius Michael
Published: November 2023

I have added here a few items concerning modes, which in the books of many authors may not have been made completely obvious to everyone. Indeed, in the fourth volume, God willing, I wish to offer the musical reader the opportunity of learning something concerning these matters and the many famous men [writing] in Italian and the Latin language, among whom is also Seth Calvisius, who have related most cogently the doctrine of the modes and why they should begin from the pitch “C”.
Concerning Meter (Tactus), or the Measurement of Notes (Battuta in Italian) and the Signatures What Sort of Distinctions to Observe in Meter (Tact), Signatures, and Characters; Also, How Sextupla May Be Understood
Authors: Praetorius Michael
Published: November 2023

Since different characters and signatures are found prefixed in the partbooks [libelli] of certain musicians, it seemed fitting to touch on their effect, meaning, and peculiarities in a few words, and to depict their forms. Not that I would bring back the monstrosities of signatures (which in Glarean’s testimony, book III, chapter 12, result in endless effort, but are in fact of no utility),  but so that I would serve those who, when confronted by these signatures, either do not perform them with facility or stumble over them, despite being musically accomplished. For instance, some will still remember that Jakob Handl, that most polished musician, incurred the serious disgust of certain musicians to whom the meaning of the obsolete signatures (now distant from daily use) was no longer known; they were prefixed to the composition Subsannatores, subsannabit Deus, etc.,which he composed withsingular artifice (which I add to the end of this chapter).