Wrong note in BWV 1013?

 Dear flute-lovers,

Did anyone else enjoy the online discussion about a possible note error in the Allemande of the Unaccompanied Sonata in A minor by J.S. Bach BWV 1013? I loved that convo! It brought out my Hercule Poirot! 

Follow the crazed path of googling, and then enjoy my True-life story (below) about playing the piece for the first time. Happy reading and spoiler alert, there's no errata; it's an F-natural.

 The email conversation started like this (I'm paraphrasing each emailer):

click on jpgs to enlarge them

Flutist A: My flute student is playing an F-natural in the fourth beat of bar 17 of the Allemande after he has prepared the work while listening to Emmanuel Pahud's youtube recording. I've always played an F# on the fourth beat, second 16th. There are quality editions in print that contain either note. Which is correct?

Flutist B: I've always played the F# as found in the Rampal recording and in his edition. To my ear it has always sounded far more pleasant than the F-natural and I believe it to be the best sounding version of the harmonies in question. Growing up hearing it, my ear just loves it better!

Flutist C: Looking at Bach's original manuscript I see that it does look like an F-sharp, and that might have confused earlier interpreters. In Bach's time every accidental had to be marked separately, so this note must be an F-natural as the previous accidental just doesn't carry through the bar as it does in modern scores.

Flutist D: Wasn't there an interesting story I read somewhere about a two different copyists who changed out right at the half-way point in the Allemande, and one of them wrote some note mistakes that are visible in the score? (NB: red herring as the visibly corrected mistakes happen after measure 17.)

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Flutist E: And of course, in music history at this time there are no "Classical Harmony Rules", as this is the early 1700s and no such rules yet exist. J.S. Bach is inventing what we think of as "rules" as he is writing ground breaking stuff.

Flutist F: In my edition my teacher wrote years ago that the F-natural is correct because it matches a transposition of the identical measure 41 in which the same note is definitely marked correctly as a B-flat in Bach's manuscript:

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Well there you have it. It was sitting on page two this whole time staring at us. 

An exact transposition in measure 41. (or bar 42 if your edition is numbered differently).

Do I ever feel stupid for staring at measure 17 and googling my face off finding all the above links and enlarging hard-to-read copies of the original manuscript when I could have just read the urtext sheetmusic in a quiet room to measure 41 without a computer, and figured it out myself.  Oh deary me.

 But meanwhile I did play through all these versions of measure 17 to figure out why the note F-natural would have been Bach's actual choice (as it does sound less sweet than the F-sharp at first), and here are all the great things that I came up with for your ear's amusement. The top line is the original and the bottom line is the simplification (play on piano or flute):

1. The delicious chromatics in bar 17's first beats (I love them!):

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2. The descending scale in the soprano:

3. The two note chords on each eighth note whose sequence beautifully frame the upcoming cadence in E minor (play on piano to hear the pure beauty):

click on jpgs to enlarge them

And who does not love a minor second rising in an inner voice, right?

Wow! Just look at all the thing Bach is doing in that measure 17, holy smokes it's incredible! Here they are, all at once:

click on jpgs to enlarge them

After playing through all the above my ear did think the F-natural sounded "right" at last. :>)

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True Life Story

I have never performed the Allemande of BWV 1013 as an adult because of a slightly scary memory from when I was fourteen years old. I was a highschool flute player who'd been playing for three years. I'd never had a flute lesson with a actual flute teacher nor did I own any flute sheetmusic (and to tell you the truth, my notation reading was seriously sketchy). 

Our band teacher told us in September that this was the year when each of us would have to perform for the class at the end of the Fall term, a solo written for our instrument. 

I was panic stricken;  where would I find a solo? (And how could I avoid having to play with a pianist who'd cost money and require rehearsals?) 

My friend the Oboe player said "No problem, we'll just go to the Municipal Music Library and borrow some sheetmusic to try out." I was astonished. I didn't know there was a music library. She took me there and I borrowed the only unaccompanied flute solo I could find. It was by J.S. Bach and was the unaccompanied A minor Sonata. But it was the Recorder transcription in C minor. (Little did I realize this was not the original key.)

 Well I practiced the opening two page Allemande more than any other piece of music I had ever practiced before. But when it came to the performance in December that year, although I started out with a bang, the nerves hit just about a third of the way through and I started to tremble and shake, yet boldly played on.

 By the end of the Allemande I was so shaky with adrenalin that I felt I were losing control of my legs. Knee vibrato! The worst way to shake!! I ran from the band room in tears. I felt I had failed completely because of the physical weirdness of my performance. That's what being fourteen is all about. Unfortunately it precluded me ever wanting to play the Allemande again.

 Anyway, that's my story of playing in the wrong key (who knew?) and the reason why I was seldom attracted to that movement when it came around in University. For one thing, I probably subconsciously preferred the key of C-minor as it was slightly easier to make sound brilliant! For another I now knew how difficult the piece truly was to play well!  And let's not even mention the breathing questions. hahahahhaaa..hahhaaaHAHAHAHA oops! *hic!*

Hope you enjoyed this J.S. Bach errata in BWV 1013 question adventure. 

And I hope my blog readers are happy with the substack subscribe which is new.

Blog posts will appear in both places. Comments truly welcome!

I'd love to hear everyone's take on this Allemande BWV 1013 and the first time they played it!

Best, Jen

Dude! I am substackin'! :>D

 Dear Flute-lovers,

 Happy August to everyone. I am back from holidays and have started to update my technological grasp of the flutey universe!  I am substackin' it dude! :>D

I had been using a blog-subscriber service called "follow-it" on the right side-bar here. But it was annoyingly creeping up the re-directing and blatant advertising and in July I asked my subscribers what subscription service would be better, and now I can offer the best substitute.

Substack is just like Blogger and you do not have to subscribe (click on "Not now") to just go through that to all the articles that will appear there. And it is free. I like it because has a  easy format to use, an app for your phone and a straightforward subscription email service for making sure you see all my flutey posts. Check my "blog welcome" out over there to see a sample.

And all my future flute blog posts will appear in both places. 

The blog index will still be updated.

I will never charge subscribers and I do not intend to monetize. So you don't need to donate or do anything like that. Nothing will change really. If you've bookmarked this blog, it will still be current. So for as long as it holds up as Blogger, I'll be posting at both places (about once a month).

If you want to subscribe to the Substack version of this blog, and unsubscribe from follow-it here's all the information:

Go to my substack and subscribe or use the right side bar or above Substack button to get emailed every blog-post as I publish them. (And one bonus is that Substack you can leave comments and questions!)

If you had previously subscribed to Follow-it, and you're reading this in your inbox, their emails have an unsubscribe at the bottom of each one. (This email should have it too). Use that to unsubscribe from the follow-it ad-filled version of this blog, and you're done! Let's leave that service in the dust. As we used to say as kids: " How ruuuude!! "

Hope this works out for everyone!

I have a new flutey post this weekend and it will appear in both places.

All best, Jen

Piccoloist knows when to solo!

 Dear Flutelovers,

I've been on holiday for a few weeks, but am swooping in with a great little movie from the early 1950s. The piccolo player is always the wisest person in the room, don't you agree? (or at least they know when to take a solo!)

Enjoy! And if anyone out there has a flutey question, please ask!!

Best, Jen

I feel stupid (when I face challenges)

Dear Flutelovers,

Terri Sanchez has written a great piece over at The Flute Examiner on creating better practicing mind-cycles:

Quote:

"Vicious to Virtuous: On Creating Better Practice Cycles 

by Dr. Terri Sánchez June 26, 2025 

There’s a little sign that I love, on my office door (snip) that says:

“This is too hard” is often a disguise for “I don’t want to put in the time it requires to accomplish this.” Similarly, “I don’t want to put in the time” is often a cover up for “I feel stupid when I face the challenges instead of ignoring them.”

The incredible irony is that “I feel stupid” comes from “this is too hard” which comes from “I don’t want to put in the time” which comes from “I feel stupid” … It’s a vicious cycle that is NOT EVEN REAL. 

Because no musical passage is ever too fast or too difficult when approached with...."

....continue reading here.

______________

I super enjoyed reading what Terri has to say. She understands the topics she writes about deeply and her writing is so on topic and concise. Love it.

This week I also became aware of AI songwriting as two local businesses put out fun, informative songs this week, and it stunned me as a musician. It's so easy to write a compelling song now, using software, you just put in the lyrics and choose a template. Anyone can do it.

If musicians are not needed in the job force, what will we do with all the expertise in training musicians that we've accumulated as the human race? Hmmm?

These are interesting times indeed!

__________________

On a second topic: I'd like your input. The subscription-feed I'm using is called "Follow It" and it's supposed to just send you an email whenever I post to my blog. Well oh dear... I'm finding that they've pulled the old bait-and-switch and are now redirecting subscribers to a more advertisement-filled format, and not directly to my blog.

 If you despise this practice (as I do) and can suggest a better company to use to alert subscribers to fresh and new blog posts, do please let me know in the comments. Thanks so much. 

Eek. I hate ads!!

Alternately, if you don't find the adverts annoying and it's okay by you as a subscriber, feel free to comment also. Thanks again for input.

Update: August 21/25 : This blog also appears now on Substack!!  Thanks everyone for commenting and helping out!

Jen

Unforgettable Music Teachers

 Dear Flute lovers,

 I'm still loving this  Jeremy Denk article in the New Yorker about his piano teachers when he was young and the fantastic drawings one of his earliest teacher put into his lesson notebook each week. Read this fun piece here:

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/04/08/every-good-boy-does-fine

To see his actual piano lesson notebook, watch the video here: Video at the NewYorker

Quote: 

" (My piano teacher) Leland’s notebook is surprisingly visual. In place of the paste-on stars used by piano teachers everywhere, Leland drew stars by hand, giving nuance to his praise: sometimes the stars were beaming with pride, sporting halos or crowns; sometimes they had sidelong glances, to reflect mitigated success; some stars were amputees, and limped on crutches; and sometimes things were so generally disappointing that he drew a slug, or a caterpillar, or even, on one terrible occasion, a toilet. There were other artistic annotations, such as a drawing of a large check from the Screwball Bank of West Burlap, dated April 7, 1981, and made out to me for a million dollars: I had at last remembered to play a correct F-sharp in place of an erroneous F-natural.

On a typical page of the notebook (March 12, 1981), Leland writes, “Scale practice is getting sloppy.” He suggests practicing scales in a series of rhythms—eighth notes, triplets, sixteenths—and urgently switches to capitals: “USE METRONOME.” This heartless device is invoked constantly: “Metronome! You need an outside policeman every time the inner policeman breaks down”; “Use Metroyouknowwhat”; and on and on. Anyone who has taken music lessons knows the indignity of emulating a machine until every last human vagary vanishes. The clicking monster was also part of Leland’s cunning scheme to prevent me from playing everything as fast as I possibly could. In response to my performance of William Gillock’s “Forest Murmurs,” Leland writes, “Forest Murmurs, not Forest Fire!” Below a carefully drawn portrait of a sullen Beethoven saying, “Man muss zufrieden sein! (One must be happy!),” he complains that my tempo “sounds like a Hell’s Angels motorcycle race.” At the bottom of another page, there is a “Quote of the Week”—“It’s amazing what you can do when you go slower!”—attributed to me in the act of discovering this brilliant truth."

Enjoy,

Best, Jen

Anchor tongue reversal success story

Dear Flutelovers,

What a success story! Read below to find out the secrets to reversing anchor tonguing from this lovely University fluteplayer! Enjoy our emails going back and forth where an anchor tonguing habit is reversed (with audio proof!)

Gianna writes:

Dear Ms. Cluff,

Hello, I hope you are doing well! My name is Gianna and I am a flute student from the United States. I just finished my sophomore year of university as a double major in Music and English, and I am currently looking at masters programs for either Music Education or Law. I have been playing since October 2014. I took private lessons for 7 full years before starting college, and my current teacher plays in a professional orchestra. I have studied with her for 2 years.

I am emailing asking for your advice or help with a flute question. I know your website says that you are in retirement right now, and to only email you if we have a rare question. I think my question does fall into that "rare" category, however, I do completely understand if you do not wish to answer questions at the time being. I have looked at your website for years, and it is such a wonderful resource, and I've learned so much from reading all of the articles! Your flute blog also happens to be one of the only places online that talks about anchor tonguing. Even with teachers I have worked with in real life, anchor tonguing is not a very well-known topic. 

I have been anchor tonguing since I learned to play the flute and only realized this together with my current teacher and your article on anchor tonguing in August of 2024. With the way my anchor tonguing works, my tongue pushes up against my lower lip. I have come to discover that my embouchure is tongue-assisted, as the tongue has pushed my embouchure into place, especially my lower lip forward. I physically tongue somewhere between the middle of my tongue and the tip of my tongue. It is not exactly the "na" tonguing done with the middle of the tongue, but something similar. I have always struggled with tonguing clearly. Every professional flutist I've seriously worked with has noticed that my tonguing is subpar compared to my tone, finger technique, musicality, etc., but none could easily tell it was because I was anchor tonguing. I can double tongue, but it is not exactly the correct way. 

As soon as I realized, I set out to correct it. Once I un-anchored my tongue, I couldn't play at all for at least a week because my whole embouchure fell apart and I had no idea what to do with my lower lip. Lots of Moyse longtones, lyrical tone exercises (Trevor Wye, Studies in Lyricism, Tone Development Through Interpretation), harmonics, tonguing exercises (T+G, Reichert, Maquarre), etc. later, I can play the "normal" way without anchoring my tongue. However, it felt almost as if I was learning how to play the flute all over again. Two semesters later, my tone, musicality, ability to play with dynamics and taper, etc. is still not up to par with the way it was before I un-anchored my tongue. That would be 8 months. I know on your website it says it might take 5 weeks to correct the anchor tongue, but I feel as though I've completely plateaued. I've been trying really hard to keep as positive as possible, but it is frustrating. 

I have never performed without my anchor tonguing. Usually, that is my default way of playing unless I am intentionally in the practice room working on playing without the anchor tongue, or showing my teacher the progress I made. My teacher says she wants me to sound good, and with the new un-anchoring, I just don't sound as good, so she usually tells me to play with my anchor tongue. My teacher told me if my anchor tongue tone and playing is a 10/10, my un-anchor tongue tone and playing is a 7/10 -- but it's a pretty significant 3 point drop. Not the kind of playing that will win more competitions or get into more summer programs. My teacher says that when playing without the anchor tongue, having a strong inner lip as well as the corners of my lips back will help a lot. In addition, I should focus on air pressure, keeping my throat open, and using more air. I have been working on all of this. She told me she has no problem with me exploring my anchor tonguing with other teachers or reaching out to others for advice.

This all comes down to the questions I have: have you ever worked with a student in university who has had to overcome anchor tonguing? How long did it take to correct the anchor tongue and feel like playing without it was truly natural? Besides what I am doing now, is there anything else I can do to correct the anchor tongue? Are there any specific tips you have for anchor-tonguers in terms of fixing the embouchure and how it relates to the embouchure that one may have created when anchor tonguing with a tongue-assisted embouchure? Is it worth it to keep trying to play without the anchor tongue when I have been playing with it for 10 years? 

I've never actually left a flute question before, so I hope this email isn't too long. 

Thank you so much!!! Many thanks!!!

Sincerely, Gianna

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Jen writes:

Hi Gianna,

Thanks for asking a very interesting question and giving all the details. I did have one student who corrected her anchor tonguing in two months just from reading my article on it, but she did it over Xmas and just presented it as already fixed the following term. I'd actually love to hear a recording of your single and double tonguing on one note. It would help me to hear. (Note: scroll down to hear it)

I think that part of the solution for you might be the placement of the tongue inside the mouth once it is no longer supporting the lower lip.

For me I've found that the tongue is not lying flat at the bottom of the mouth (out of the way and leaving a large air-channel) but is half way up the mouth in a horizontal manner, with the sides of the tongue actually touching the inside of the TOP teeth.

You might have been trying to pull your tongue out of the way when in fact it's useful as an "elevated floor" when the edges of the tongue touch the inside edge of the UPPER molars half way back in the mouth.

The tongue position know-how is something Keith Underwood teaches. It's not covered in the Roger Mather e-book (which I sell) but Betty Mather and I discussed this several times. It's also mentioned briefly by James Galway (but I don't have a link) where he says that when he's double tonguing he can feel the sides of the tongue against the inside of his upper molars. The tongue's position as a platform, a bit like an elevator inside the mouth is one of the fundamentals of channeling the airstream. The tongue is best utilized slightly risen in the mouth to guide the airstream into the embouchure hole of the flute. If you can touch the lower edges or insides of the upper molars using the tongue as a platform for that channeling, you narrow the space in the mouth vertically and that speeds up the air all by itself by geometry and gives you fast air. That alone makes everything easier.

(click on jpg to enlarge it)

Note: I'm still working on diagramming a tongue from the front and sides and it's challenging for my computer art-work ha ha. Jen

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Gianna writes:

Thank you so much! I just wanted to wait a few days before I responded to you so I could practice this and make sure nothing was a fluke. 

The change in tongue position actually helped me a lot! This description is extremely helpful. Yes, you are right in that I was originally trying to get my tongue out of the way and put it flat at the bottom of my mouth. Using the tongue as an "elevated floor" instead and touching the upper molars helps a lot. I always had a sort of "breathless" feeling when playing without the anchor tongue before that I thought was me needing to work on breath support more after un-anchoring the tongue, but after changing my tongue position like you said, the air seemed to have a clear channel in the mouth and playing felt easier and more natural. 

I attached a video (nb: now audio) recording of me playing as you requested. I did single and double tonguing on one note in two octaves, both with the anchor tongue and without. I also included excerpts from a lyrical etude and a technical etude with some tonguing to give some context for how my tone sounds with and without the anchor tongue if you would like to listen. I do understand that I am still a student and that I also have other things to work on in my playing besides tonguing.

(Jen says: HERE IS THE AUDIO FOR THAT VIDEO )

Gianna continues:

I feel that my sound is less present and full without the anchor tongue still, but this description and change of using the tongue as an elevated floor made a difference to how everything feels, and makes me feel like I can improve past this instead of plateau.   

It's also really helpful to know that you had a student correct her anchor tonguing in two months. That has me thinking that I probably need to correct something as opposed to just keep doing what I've been doing -- I had something incorrect.

I appreciate your help very much!

Gianna

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Jen writes:

Regarding your recording holy smokes!! :>D

I find your tone very nice and full without the anchor tonguing. Your "without anchor tonguing" samples sound AMAZING!!!!!!!! I cannot be happier to hear what you just sent me. You have accomplished it already! You've already made HUGE gigantic tonal improvements by removing the anchor tonguing. The final piece of information was the one I just gave you I guess. And I will try and find out more from reviewing all my Keith Underwood masterclass notes.

Yes leaping into the high register with ease will be the last 10% of your tone journey, now that you know that the tongue CAN touch the inside edges of the upper molars from the half-way-back point (along the sides) to give you an elevated platform with which to direct the air into the mouthpiece. Exactly. All that you needed. This is incredible, actually. You've already accomplished it and only one more thought was needed. CONGRATS!! I'm so pleased I could be of help.

Gosh I loved hearing your tone quality change! And the clarity of the tonguing is FABULOUSO!! :>D

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Gianna writes:

Hello, hope all is well! I am so sorry it's been a week and I forgot to respond to you because of all the stress of final papers and exams (but it's over now and I'm glad!). Finals week was crazy!

I just wanted to say, a million thanks!!! Thank you so much!! This was the one final thought I needed, and it changed everything. Tone-wise it's so much better, and it feels so much easier to play! Really, I appreciate this so much, thank you for clearing up months of roadblocks! 

My teacher and jury were very happy with my playing during finals week after the correction, and my exam went so well!

Thank you so much again! Wishing you the best! (and yes you can publish this exchange on your blog). Gianna

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Jen says:

Congratulations. You did all the work! :>D

I'll work more on diagrams for the future!

Chant de Linos played as jazz

 A fabulous new version of Jolivet's Chant de Linos played as a jazz duo with flute and guitar by Hiro Honshuku  (video)

Enjoyed this more than the original! Comments welcome!

Jen