Philippe Gaubert (4 July 1879 ? 8 July 1941) was a
French musician who was a distinguished performer on
the flute, a respected conductor, and a composer,
primarily for the flute.
Gaubert eventually joined the staff of the Paris
Conservatory and this piece is highly typical of what
Conservatory composers would write through the next
several decades: music flirting with contemporary
trends but remaining essentially conservative in order
to showcase the lyrical as well as technical abilit...(+)
Philippe Gaubert (4 July 1879 ? 8 July 1941) was a
French musician who was a distinguished performer on
the flute, a respected conductor, and a composer,
primarily for the flute.
Gaubert eventually joined the staff of the Paris
Conservatory and this piece is highly typical of what
Conservatory composers would write through the next
several decades: music flirting with contemporary
trends but remaining essentially conservative in order
to showcase the lyrical as well as technical abilities
of the players. The Nocturne settles into the piano
with gauzy impressionistic harmonies. The flute arrives
with a gentle melody that initially seems like
foursquare salon material, but within a few measures it
wanders off chromatically and takes on the sensuous
character associated with flute music by the slightly
older Ravel and Debussy. The Nocturne, monothematic and
rhapsodic, ends with a little flute flourish and is
succeeded by the longer Allegro Scherzando section.
Here the style reverts to nineteenth century
Romanticism, with its playful will-o'-the-wisp opening
melody. Contrasting material arrives in the more
languorous middle section, but this is interrupted
before it can develop by the main scherzo tune. The
broader theme makes one more grand, if again curtailed
appearance before the chirping main theme carries the
piece through its final bars.
Although composed for Flute and Piano, I adapted his
work for Concert (Pedal) Harp to highight the haunting
elegance of the waveform through out both the melody
and accompainment.
SHEET MUSIC