Customer Reviews

The Flute Book: A Complete Guide for Students and Performers

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is an excellent resource. It has whole chapters on breathing (including exercises and circular breathing), tone, vibrato, articulation, technique, style, and performance (including repertoire catalogue information). The recording section lists catalogues, play along tips, and how to make you own recordings. There are four chapters covering music of the Baroque, Classic, Romantic, and Modern Eras. The book is worth every penny, if only for the appendices, which include listings of flute manufacturers, repair shops, periodicals, music and book source information, and flute clubs and related oganizations, all with addresses, phone numbers, and a few E-mail or web page addresses. The 153 page repertoire catalogue is excellent, and lists publishers, so you can find just about any classical flute work easily. The extensive selected bibliography is also of interest, especially historically, and is divided by topic, such as performance and technique, the instrument, biographies, or eras. The section on the instument and its care includes drawings and photographs. The amount of research that must have gone into this work is amazing. The bibliography runs ten pages. The index is excellent and thorough. With regards to the sections on performance, breathing, etc., it would have been nice if a CD with examples and more drawings were included. Maybe this could be developed later to go along with the book. Hopefully, the author will also write a book about popular flute music, with such a handy repertoire catalogue and web page addresses and flute links, including Amazon.com. This book is so great, I just ordered a second copy as a gift.

Nancy Toff does an exceptional job with this complete and well-rounded reference book for books. Any information that one could hope for about playing the instrument, buying the instrument, or listening to the instrument is included. The author also does well to give many perspectives on many flute issues, reasoning them out for the reader. The second half of the book on the history of many composers is exhaustive and complete. The catalog of repertoire pieces in a table format with available publishers is invaluable for any performer. Really a must own.

Nancy Toff has left nothing out of this grand book -- the history, anatomy, selection, and care of the flute in its popular and more esoteric forms; an extensive discussion on the development of not only classical and modern technique, but also personal style; building a repertoire and creating or finding performance opportunities; the history of flute music, and authoritative suggestions for building a sheet and recorded music library; countless charts and reference materials -- all has been included that a flute player, whether amateur or professional, student or teacher, could and would want to know and reference in the course of their playing career. And if one happens to find anything not included, I feel confident that Ms. Toff would personally see to correcting the matter immediately. An absolute must; look no further, oh wearied flutists (as Ms. Toff insists you are to be called, and not flautists, based on a well-researched etymological conclusion), for your redemption is at hand.

I require this book in my flute pedagogy courses at McNeese State University. It is well-researched, easy to read and comprehend, and has wonderful appendices of literature and resources for further research. Nancy is a fine scholar, and is extremely well-respected in the world of flutists.

This book is a great read and a great reference. I'm not a professional flutist, but as a serious amateaur I really enjoy(ed) this book. Having too many books in my library that go unread already, I borrowed this one from my local library and, after checking it out the allowable amount of times, I simply had to buy it. I'm excited to have my own copy now as I can highlight and dog-ear the edges to my heart's content. I look forward to years worth of repeated referencing and reading from this work and to purchasing the 3d edition, if indeed Nancy decides to update this in a few years.

Nancy Toff took a while to revise and update This Edition (1985, 1996) - would've helped if Amazon provided a forewarning that the 3rd edition is just around the corner "on it's way in 2012"!. I had just purchased this in August/ Sept '11 only to discover this week that the Third Edition is on it's way, scheduled for release early next year and that pre-orders are being offered on amazon.com. Would not have bought otherwise, rather preferring to borrow till new is out.

Nevertheless Toff's book IS THE COMPLETE GUIDE indeed and a really useful all rounder Handbook for Beginners, Students as well as Performers - all in all a comprehensive introduction and detailed education about the instrument, past present and future, with quite detailed references on playing methods & techniques. NOT UNLIKE James Galway's "Flute" (Yehudi Menuhin's series, 1982) - except it is updated and also comes with a comprehensive Flute Music Catalog and useful appendices listed below.

Of 495 pages, 200 pages are dedicated to the entire Flute Classical Repertoire catalogued & categorized into the 4 main eras: Baroque, Classical, Romantic and Modern.
There is also a catalogue on Study Materials covering Methods, Technical Studies & Etudes, Operatic & Orchestral. Useful for teachers and professionals.

Appendices include following Lists: Fingering Charts, Flute Manufacturers, Repair Shops, Music Shops, Useful Periodicals, Flute Clubs & Associations - US & international.

I've been playing the flute since August this year. Each time I read this, I find that a new dimension of understanding and awareness opens up to me, as I progress in practice. Great reference resource to have on hand as one embarks on the journey of flute discovery. A REWARDING READ & REFER.

The text is written in modern English which is easier to read and comprehend than some of those ancient scrolls translated from german or some other archaic language. In addition to the information of technique and method, I especially enjoyed the lengthy resource lists for rated (according to level of difficulty)musical compositions for flute.

The book is dictionary-like in terms of weight and feel. The pages are filled with well-written standard type font. I mention this because I have become weary of those pamphlet-thick 'modern music method books' and their clip-art laden, nearly empty pages that are too often mass produced and marketed as an only source of published information.

The author also addresses, in great detail, some of the well and lesser known flute debates(such as the flutest/flautist conflict), the history of flute (with photos from the Dayton C. Miller flute museum/collection, where the author is also the currator), development and changes, and those other topics and issues some(those only superficially dedicated to the wonders of flute) might consider trivial.

I originally borrowed this book from the library. I have since added this title as a must have for my personal music book collection. If you are looking for a recently written, detailed, modern exploration of the flute, by an accomplished authority, this publication is a smart choice!

I find this book absolutely helpful but I just want to say that what a pity that only paperback is available. It would be nice to have hardback version..

I borrowed this book from the library. I love the pictures of different flutes of different era. You can see how flute evolved through hundreds of years. Truly amazing.