Recently, during some chamber music coaching sessions, I was introduced to an excellent set of Four Pieces for Three Flutes and Piano by Louis Moyse – thank you Tracy at Gisborne Girls High School! These pieces offer a wealth of colourful ideas, beautifully crafted for the ensemble, as well as a range of essential flute playing skills. Most of the time the flutes move in rhythmic unison, providing opportunity for exploring the balance and tuning of chords, but there are instances when parts overlap and intertwine. The pianist also has a substantial role, both as accompanist and protagonist within the group.

Louis Moyse (1912 – 2007), was the son of Marcel Moyse and equally well known in his own right as a player, teacher and composer for flute. As well as these delightful works for flute ensemble, there are a number of other works to explore by Louis Moyse, two sonatas for flute and piano as well as Introduction, Theme and Variations and three unaccompanied pieces.

The Four Pieces for Three Flutes and Piano are programmatic in nature and allow much room for the imagination. The titles of the movements are Bells, Games, The Music Box and Dances. In the first piece, Bells, the influence of Debussy is clearly heard, and one could almost picture a monastery in beautiful misty surroundings. The piano establishes the mood with 7th and 9th chords in three layers in pp dynamic. This lays down a pulse and a texture for the entry of the flutes, which then move in rhythmic unison for their first four bars.

The entry of the flutes is quite tricky to co-ordinate – flutes two and three join onto moving semiquaver sextuplets in the first flute part. This kind of entry occurs 3 or 4 times during the piece and needs slow careful practice to move together well, without bumping the starts of notes and arriving well together on the following chord. Practise carefully with a quaver pulse initially, so that the rhythmic subdivisions are clearly felt.

For the most part, Bells is soft and gentle. But the movement builds to quite a point of climax midway, with an animato poco a poco and crescendo to molto animato, finally dying down to the opening material. This is a chance to exercise strong leading within the ensemble, pushing the music forward and pulling it back. When rehearsing, try giving each player in turn the role of conducting the other three and directing the animato and calando as a conductor might do with an orchestra. Stepping away from playing your instrument into the role of director is a very good way of both hearing the music differently (it certainly would be different anyway without one part!) as well as enacting the rubato in a more physical way. Giving each player the role of conductor means that they might formulate their own interpretation of the composer’s markings.

Moyse was particularly fond of the music of Martinu and the Neo-Classical influence of Martinu’s music comes through in the next movement, Games. As the name suggest, this is a playful movement, marked allegro, with tremendous rhythmic vitality. Against a backdrop of staccato quavers on the piano, the flutes chase each other with a variety of patterns based on two semiquavers and quaver. Precise, crisp articulation is needed in this movement to help create light staccato and a lively mood. The metronome marking is quite fast at 132 per crotchet and less experienced players might struggle with the semiquaver passagework at this tempo. However, I think it is possible to achieve the mood of the music quite successfully at a steadier tempo if the articulation is light and clean. Some ensemble difficulties arise later in the movement when semiquaver passages emerge from tied notes. Keep a strong inner pulse going, so that there is no doubt about moving off the tie smoothly, and good strong leading will help the ensemble at these points.

After the scurrying second movement comes Music Box, a gentle waltz in which the piano features as the main melody instrument at first. The un poco lento marking can be deceptive as the piece actually ends up being quite fast, but with a slow one in a bar feel to it. As the title suggest, the music is delicate, mostly p dynamic although there are swirls up to mf and even f at the end. The flute parts tend to move in pairs with the third flute often holding a more rhythmically independent line. The style of the music is reminiscent of the 19th century salon pieces – those of you who have performed Kohler’s Valse des Fleurs or similar pieces will immediately find an affinity with this movement.

Finally, the fourth movement, Dances, presents a fine opportunity for sparkling, energetic playing from everyone. Lots of accents, staccatos and sforzandos pepper this tarantella like piece, which needs to maintain a lively tempo throughout the first and final sections (they are the same). A central section at a slower,

more lilting tempo allows for a short period of relaxation and a floating melody from the three flutes in various combinations of pairs, solo and threes is supported by an interesting two bar ostinato on the piano.

These pieces present quite a number of challenges which would suit good intermediate or advanced players. They are published by Schirmer, as is everything else I have seen by Louis Moyse, and will make a valuable addition to your ensemble library. Enjoy!

Ingrid Culliford spent many years in London as a free- lance flautist and teacher, and was professor of flute at Trinity College of Music and the Junior Royal Academy of Music. She currently tutors in flute at Waikato University and the NZ School of Music, adjudicates at many festivals and competitions, is an examiner for the NZMEB and a Senior Examiner for the International Baccalaureate Organisation.