Great Flutemakers of France - Tula Giannini

Great Flute Makers of France explores the work and lives of the most prolific french flute makers throughout history. This book is a useful reference tool and a great fuel for information for any flautist. Essential for those with a French flute.

Tula Giannini is an accomplished professional flautist, scholar, and also former curator of the Dayton C. Miller Flute Collection at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.  Her exceptionally fruitful research into primary sources in France and elsewhere has resulted in the first detailed and fully documented account of the lives and accomplishments of the pre eminent flute makers of France. She covers a period of 250 years.

Great Flute Makers of France includes previously unknown source material, keeping scholars busy for years to come. Collectors, dealers, and museum curators can more accurately date their instruments. Giannini provides an extensive lists of production figures, dating of serial numbers, contracts, maker’s marks, and patents. The book includes reproductions of many original documents and their English translations. Using genealogy charts, the author has clarified the intricate genealogical links among many of the most important French wind instrument makers.  She reveals that all the French flute makers with the surname Lot were from the same family.  Also, the book includes many photographs of flutes discussed in the text.

Giannini assumes that the reader has a basic knowledge of the flute and terminology related to it. The book is thus perhaps not for the general reader. It is of great importance to flautists and scholars with an interest in the history of European woodwind instruments in the post-Renaissance age.  A thoroughly stimulating book.