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Female Flautists

© Karen Stafford

In the "old" days, music was considered man's domain for the most part. Rare was the woman who earned a living either composing or performing. Fortunately for us, standards have changed. There were and are women who could (and do!) give the best male flautists a run for their money.

If you notice pictures depicting life before the mid-19th century, men were usually shown playing the flute. If women were depicted as playing an instrument at all, it was usually at the harpsichord or piano. According to Glen Ross, around 1700 public music was provided to a large extent by musicians who travelled around. Instruments had to be easily portable. The flute probably best fit that bill. However, the perceived role of a young lady was to stay at home. Since the main indoor entertainment of the time was the harpsichord, this is what the ladies of the house played.

As the years progressed closer to the 1800s, travelling musicians were still common. Now, it was considered that any gentleman who wanted to consider himself to be classy had to be able to play an instrument. Because these men were involved in travelling from one social event to another, portability was again important, and flutes were again easier to handle.

Not everyone thought this was really appropriate. Charles Burney (prominent musicologist during the time of Frederick the Great) said that "the flute is played by gentlemen whose ears are not kind enough to inform them that the flute is always out of tune." Mozart had made similar comments, starting the still-common rumor that he did not like flute. Actually, it probably meant that he was looking for an excuse to delay writing a comissioned work.

This trend of male flutists and stay-at-home women on keyboard continued into the early 1900s. With the emancipation of women, many inroads were made into typical "male" territory, including music performance. But there were still stereotypical instruments: playing a trombone or tuba just didn't seem "lady-like."

When World War I came around, there was, of course, a shortage of men in orchestras because of army enlistments. To keep going, orchestras had to hire females. After the war was over, the women weren't about to give up these positions!

Because of these new attitudes, there is a large number of female professionals and teachers. In next week's article, I will be covering the web sites featuring the more prominent contemporary female flautists.

Thanks to Glen Ross and the folks on the Flutenet list for their help in this article! For more information on the Flutenet list, please check my links section.

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