Abstract:
The author has been playing principal flute for almost twenty years, in the "G. Enescu" Bucharest Philharmonic Orchestra, the Cape Town Symphony Orchestra and the Cape Philharmonic and was fortunate to hear live some of the leading world orchestras, among them the Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, Gewandhaus, London Philharmonic, London Symphony, Orchestre Nationale de France, New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony and the Boston Symphony. All these great orchestras experienced intonation problems, mainly in the woodwind section, and I have started to study this phenomenon, which has followed me through my entire life. Over the centuries, woodwind instrument makers have tried to facilitate the playing and to improve the intonation of each instrument. To understand better the intonation of the woodwind instruments it was necessary to write a short history of each instrument's evolution, from a keyless instrument to the complicated "toomany-keys" modern instrument. On preparing this thesis the author has also visited some museums where rare old instruments can be seen, among them the Paris Conservatoire Museum, the Brussels Conservatoire Museum, Mus�e des Arts et M�tier, Paris, the Vienna Conservatoire Museum, the Prague Conservatoire Museum, the Dresden Conservatoire Museum, the British Museum and the Royal Academy of Music Museum, London. After describing each instrument's pitch anomalies and methods to improve it, the author explains the principal factors which influence the intonation. This thesis, hopefully, will help the student, the teacher, the chamber musician, the orchestral player, the band director, the conductor, the sound engineer, the producer, and all musicians to understand better all peculiarities of the intonation of woodwind instruments.
