Where the Renaissance period was one of 'rebirth', the Baroque and Classical periods concentrated on developing previous ideas and conceiving new ways of illustrating them. From the preceding chapters it can be seen that it was the development of the Baroque flute which led to a new awareness of the instrument, and a change in the social environment which enabled the flute to become more prominent. The evolution of genres of music such as the Sonata and the Concerto also aided the flute to become more popular as this type of music demonstrated the capabilities of the instrument to its fullest potential.

Mozart's first flute works - two concertos and three quartets date from the late 1770's but it is not known if they were all composed in the period 1777-1778. According to Keys 'only one in each category survives complete, of undoubted authenticity and originally written for the advertised medium' (Keys, 1980, p.108) - these two being K.285 and K.313 (Appendix II shows a Chronology of the Flute Works). The second concerto (K.314) is said to be a rework (rather than a transposition) of the Salzburg Ferlendis Concerto in C for oboe written in 1777 (Landon and Mitchell (Ed.), 1965, p.203). Of the other quartets, it is doubtful whether the third quartet in C (K.285b) was written at this time - Hyatt King says it was written near the beginning of 1778 (Hyatt King, 1968, p.15) whereas Sadie places it in the early Viennese years (Sadie, 1987, p.64).

There is a fourth quartet (K.298) but there is also uncertainty as to when it was composed - Jahn claims it was composed in Paris in 1778 (Jahn, I, 1970, p.415) but again Sadie differs and says it was between 1786-7 when Mozart was involved in the Jacquin group in Vienna (Sadie, 1987, p.64). A more precise date of December 1787 is given by Hyatt King who states that the style of Mozart's writing was from this period and the autograph was one which once belonged to Baron von Jacquin (Hyatt King, 1968, p.36). Although Mozart was commissioned to write these works he still complains to his father:

His use of the flute in these compositions show a that he appears to have a sound knowledge of the flute and its technique, and was obviously aware of the effects that could be attained. There are some theories which cite the Andante in C (K.315) to have been composed as a substitute for the adagio in the Concerto in G (K.313), as this movement 'might have been too difficult for the amateur performer' such as De Jean (Landon and Michell (Ed), 1965, p.204). Even if this is true, the style and composition of the quartets are not as sophisticated as the concertos, suggesting that the concertos may have been written with Wendling in mind.

During this period Mozart was also composing works for violin and piano which became a set of six violin sonatas (published in Paris in 1778). Apparently the first sonata (K.301) written in February 1778 in Mannheim, was originally meant for the flute because on the original autograph the words Flauto traverso had been deleted, a few passages in the first movement were altered and some octave transpositions added to make the work more suitable for the violin (Reeser, 1964, Preface). Another violin work, the C major Rondo (K.373) for violin and orchestra was transcribed into D major for the flute after Mozart's death (Landon and Mitchell (Ed.), 1965, p.205). Most of the violin works are feasible on the flute and historically it is not unusual for the flute and violin to share music, one such example is J. S. Bach's 6 Sonatas for violin/flute and klavier (BWV 1020-5).

Mozart composed a third concerto for the flute and harp (K.299 written in Paris in 1778) commissioned by another excellent flautist, the Count de Guines, whose daughter played the harp. One of the reasons why Mozart was such a brilliant composer was that he was able to change his compositional style to suit the tastes and fashions of the current patron. This concerto is tailored perfectly to the aristocratic style of the French patrons - the slow movement (Andantino) is particularly expressive and the orchestration provides a warmth beneath the two solo instruments. The French taste is best illustrated in the final Rondo, a courtly gavotte which smoothly dances along to an impressive finish. A flute was involved in one of Mozart's last works, the Adagio and Rondo for armonica, flute, oboe, viola and cello (K. 617) composed in May 1791 (Sadie, 1987, p.211).

It can be seen that in the 1770's when Mozart was writing for the flute, there was a wealth of flute repertoire which Mozart could have drawn on for inspiration and ideas regarding the stylistic and technical capabilities of the instrument. Instead, he used his instincts when writing, and the selection of instruments and the way in which he orchestrated them illustrates Mozart's talent in choosing instruments which could blend, contrast and support. In order to see how Mozart exploited the flute, individual features and phrases contained within the music have to be examined. Mozart always maintained that he disliked the flute but I believe it was certain technical characteristics which annoyed him rather than the expressive qualities of the instrument.

Sir John Hawkins observed that the flute 'still retains some degree of estimation among gentlemen whose ears are not nice enough to inform them that it is never in tune' (Toff, 1979, p.23) and of course this was one complaint that Mozart had. Yet this did not constrain him in his compositions as he frequently wrote phrases requiring the flautist to observe their tuning and intonation. Mozart regularly wrote leaps of an octave or more, as the examples below illustrate (Fig. 1 and Fig. 2):

The series of octaves seen here in Fig. 1 are repeated sequentially a tone lower two bars later (bars 35-36), this device enhancing the G major descending arpeggio. This would have been difficult for the Baroque player as even though the flute had been equipped with the corps de rechange (to give it the ability to tune to other instruments in the group), it did not alter the differences in tone between the low and high pitches. In this example, the sounds produced in the higher register would have been projected more than at the lower register, where the sound produced was more mellow and softer, easily lost within an accompaniment (Cyr, 1992, p.64). In the present day this phrase is easier to produce with an even timbre and suitable dynamics, but there is still a possibility that the tuning of octaves can still be inaccurate due to the ability of the musician.

The second example (Fig. 2) is taken from the Concerto in D major (K.314):

It is apparent from this short phrase that the kinds of leaps featured throughout the Concertos are more sophisticated and developed than in the Quartets. This figure is made harder by the top note (to be played staccato) which is a leap of more than an octave from the notes in the lower register. As previously mentioned, the Baroque flute had the corps de rechange to enable it to more accurately tune to the orchestra. Again in the present day the modern flautist does not have to worry about changing the middle section of the flute and can concentrate on perfecting the intonation using the same instrument. Another advantage that the contemporary performer has that the Baroque did not - in most orchestras there is a standard to which instrumentalists conform as the concert A is now set at 440Hz (Toff, 1996, p97), although in some parts of Europe this setting does vary slightly.

Mozart used the full compass of notes that could be produced on the Baroque flute in both the quartets and concertos. Although his use of the higher register does not use the full extent of the modern flute's range, the music is still challenging to play. He frequently moves through all registers, sometimes by step and sometimes by leaps as shown below in Fig. 3. Here he uses a series of short jumps to move from e''' to d' over the space of four bars:

This type of movement is also present in the Concertos, but Mozart also uses leaps for different purposes. Similar to the octaves seen in Fig. 1 where he uses a phrase to make a descending figure more exciting, here he states and then develops different leaping figures using the lowest and highest registers to produce characteristic phrases which reoccur. The phrase first played over bars 143-144 and is then developed (by making the quavers into triplets) in the next two bars (Fig. 4). This idea is then repeated later on in bars 204-206, this time e''' is the top note which is developed in a similar way (using semi-quavers) moving up to g'''. Mozart re-uses this idea in the third movement where he lengthens the phrase making it nine bars long (bars 154-162).

The passage above is just as demanding for the contemporary flautist as it was in the 18th century because the momentum of the music does not give much time to prepare for the change in register. In order to move from high pitches to low (or vice versa) a movement which disturbs the embouchure has to be employed, and to modify the pitch once the note has been reached, requires a procedure involving the movement of the jaw, head, flute and direction of the air-stream (Toff, 1996, p.99). The ability of the flute to play these type of passages also illustrates the way in which the sonority of the flute rises out over the accompanying orchestra, producing a distinct sound separate from the other instruments.

One feature which is very distinctive in these works is the amount of semi-quaver passages that Mozart employs. He exploits the flute's ability to perform running passages composing the music in the 'safer' keys of C, D and G major (the Quartet in A major (K.298) being an exception). The Baroque flute performed at its best when playing scalic phrases in these keys as it sounded more accurately in tune because only a few notes required cross-fingering. With the type of flute used today, the performer is able to play in virtually any key with more ease than in the 18th century because there is no longer the need for cross-fingering due to the addition of keys. Below is a fairly long semi-quaver passage from one of the quartets (K.285) which uses mainly stepwise movement (Fig. 5). There are a couple of g''#'s which would have had to be produced by cross-fingering and there is also a d'# (for which the D# key could be used):

In this example the notes are based around the middle register and it is only towards the end of the passage that the music ventures up to d''' and down to a' in the form of descending scales. The Concertos contain more frequent occurrences of semi-quaver passages and the range of notes used is greater. In K.313 Mozart has developed the ascending and descending phrases by using thirds (Fig. 6). This example is much harder to play than the passage taken from the quartet, because the movement is not stepwise. In order to play the thirds, two or more fingers are needed to move at the same time and it would have been a complicated procedure with the cross-fingering. Even though for the 20th century flautist cross-fingering is not needed, it is difficult to play these thirds evenly.

Chromatic movement and passages involving arpeggios also feature in this music (more so in the Concertos) and the figure below shows a two bar repeating pattern of arpeggio-style movement (Fig. 7). The articulation marked on the music is perhaps more important than the pattern itself (as the notes are not particularly difficult to play) and this kind of articulation of two notes slurred and two tongued is used frequently in Mozart's music.

Slurring has not really changed over the years - it should generally be smooth and flowing from one note to the next, but the method and purpose of tonguing has totally changed. In the 18th century French players used syllables such as tu and ru to tongue notes which produced a rhythm which was slightly uneven, Hotteterre promoted this kind of tonguing 'to render playing more agreeable and to avoid too much uniformity in the tongue strokes' (Cyr, 1992, p.100). In the modern day it is the opposite and performers strive to make their tonguing even and rhythmical and use articulation as a 'method of joining musical tones, determining their beginnings and ends and the relationship between individual notes and those around them' (Toff, 1996, p.116).

Reference should be made to one other feature which Mozart uses to enhance his flute music - ornamentation. As mentioned in Chapter II it was up to the 18th century artist to interpret the composer's work. The ornamentation was very improvisational and each performance of the same piece could be very different (Cyr, 1992, p.123), so to aid performers there were a number of 'tables of ornaments' published illustrating the different signs and their meanings to guide the performer (Cyr, 1992, p.134). Mozart uses more ornamentation in the Quartets (possibly because the Concertos were more technically demanding and needed fewer embellishments) and in the section below - taken from the C major Quartet (K.285b) - a number of trills, turns and grace notes can be found (Fig. 8):

The function of the acciaccatura (apart from simple decoration) is to create a dissonance which resolves to a consonance, usually held for half the value of the note they precede. The trills begin on the upper note while the turn-figure, here written out in full, should (unlike the grace notes) be sounded in front of the note they precede so that this note is played on the beat. Hotteterre, in his essay of 1707 explains how to play these figures in great detail. Below is an extract from the Treatise explaining how to trill from d'' to e'', the word tremblement meaning 'a trill with no turn or other ending':

An example taken from the C major concerto (K.299) illustrating the description above is shown here (Fig 9):

This method of trilling was complicated to play on the Baroque flute due to the fingering (Appendix III) but like everything else, Mozart did not let these difficulties constrain his flute writing. After meeting musicians such as Wendling he knew that from their performing abilities, the flute had the potential to produce his music and it was up to the flautist to achieve it. From the solo and ensemble works that he wrote, it is apparent that Mozart recognized that the flute was different to the other woodwind instruments. As the flautist was required to blow over a mouth-hole rather than using a reed, the flute had more of a tendency to be out of tune within an ensemble (or orchestra). Fortunately this method of producing sound gave the flute a unique advantage over the other instruments as it was able to convey a variety of different moods, and had the ability to create a wide range of instrumental colouring, a feature which Mozart used to its full extent in his flute music.