Claude-Paul Taffanel

Claude-Paul Taffanel (b Bordeaux, 16 Sept 1844; d Paris, 21 Nov 1908). French flautist and conductor.

Taffanel was the founder of the modern French school of flute playing which has since been widely adopted throughout the world. He studied at the Paris Conservatoire with Louis Dorus (who imposed the new Boehm flute there), winning a premier prix in 1860. For the next 30 years he pursued a brilliant career as a soloist and as an orchestral player at the Société des Concerts du Conservatoire and the Paris Opéra. He pioneered a new expressiveness of tone and sensitivity of musicianship which proved the flute to be capable of emotional depth. He was a founder member of the Société Nationale de Musique in 1871, and in 1879 created his own influential Société de Musique de Chambre pour Instruments à Vent which he directed for 15 years. This stimulated a whole new chamber music repertory for wind instruments, including Gounod's Petite symphonie (1885) dedicated to him. At the age of 45 Taffanel adopted a new career, becoming principal conductor of the Société des Concerts in 1892, where he expanded the repertory to favour contemporary music, and of the Paris Opéra in 1893, where he conducted the first French productions of operas by Verdi and Wagner. He was also professor of flute at the Conservatoire from 1893 until his death. As a composer Taffanel produced a prize-winning Wind Quintet in 1876 and various transcriptions and original works for flute and piano, notably the Andante pastoral et Scherzettino of 1907 which demonstrated the new lyricism of the French school. That year he also wrote an article on conducting for Lavignac's Encyclopédie de la musique et dictionnaire du Conservatoire (Paris, 1913–31). He began a history of the flute and a Méthode elaborating his principles of the instrument as a ‘singing voice’. These projects were completed after his death by his pupils Louis Fleury and Philippe Gaubert.