Composers & Players

(Biographical Notes)

H. Arand – Recorded piccolo solos for the German branch of HMV in 1908.

Julius Aschke – Born Germany c.1851. Spent his early years in Berlin playing piccolo in the Buchner Orchestra then moved to Philadelphia (1901/1902). He recorded piccolo solos for the Gramophone Company and for Odeon in Berlin between 1904-1909.

Clement Barone – Born Naples, Italy 1876, Died 1934. Went to America in 1901 and by the age of 22 he was piccolo player with the Philadelphia Orchestra. He later played with the same orchestra as solo flute for about four years. (1907-12). In 1911/12 he was engaged by the Victor Recording Co. until at least 1928, with whom he recorded solos and dozens of titles with the Neopolitan Trio and the Florentine Quartet as well as providing obbligati for numerous sopranos. He used an open G sharp flute and his recording of “The Maid and the Nightingale” with Galli Curci is a good example of his playing.

Augustus Battles – Born Massachusetts, USA, 1880. Died 1947. Began his career as piccolo player with the Philadelphia Orchestra, 1906-09, then moved to Boston where he also played flute from 1909-18. He was piccolo player with the Boston Symphony 1918-1935.

Gaston Boisné – Solo flautist with the famous Garde Républicaine band in Paris.

M. Bonnisseau – Composed many piccolo solos during the 1870’s which continued to be used by American bands and others throughout the final years of the nineteenth century. As Bonnisseau was a flageolet player some of his compositions were composed for either piccolo or flageolet. Mr Henry Distin’s Festival at Alexandra Palace, 1876 featured an afternoon performance given by Bonnisseau (flageolet) and J. Harrington Young (piccolo).

N. Bousquet – Composer of the ‘Golden Robin Polka’ and other pieces.

Mark A. Brewer – Born Poona, India 1876. Studied flute and piccolo with J.Harrington Young in England. Played with Covent Garden Orchestra. Appeared before Queen Victoria at Windsor in 1895.Composer of Golden Sparks, The Comet, The Lark’s Festival, The Linnet’s Parade and Deep Blue Sea solos for piccolo.

Frank Brockett – Well known London player in the early years of the twentieth century. Composed many piccolo solos.

John S. Cox - Flautist and composer. Born, Downpatrick, Ireland, 1834. Died New York, 1902. In Philadelphia, USA he was appointed flautist in Gilmore’s and later Sousa’s bands. A good piccolo player who composed a number of solos for the instrument.

Eugène Damaré – Born, Bayonne, SE France, Dec 1840. Died, Paris 1919. Composer and piccolo virtuoso. Conducted at the Hotel de Ville Festivals in Paris, played with Concert Arban and was an Officer of the French Academy. Wrote studies and a flute method with a supplement for piccolo. He recorded a dozen of his own works for Bettini as listed in their June 1901 catalogue.

August Damm – Born Prussia, 1849, Died 1942. German flautist and composer of popular solos. Boston Symphony flautist arriving in the US in the early 1870’s. His most popular and famous composition was ‘Through the Air’ composed in 1899.

Signor Decarlo – Piccolo soloist in Gilmore’s for 16 years or so. J. Occa dedicated his Kinloch o’Kinloch Variations to Decarlo.

Richard Eilenberg – Born, Austria, 1848 and died, 1927. Composer of marches and dances for orchestra, piano and wind instruments. Studied piano and composition. First notable work was a Concert Overture composed at the age of 18. He went write operettas and ten fantasias on melodies of the masters. His total output was well over 300 works.

Léon Fontbonne – Born, Clermont, France, 10 April 1859. Studied with Edouard Tricot and Theodore Radoux in Luttich. Solo flute Garde Républicaine, conductor Casino de St.Germain and the Association Artistique in Paris. Composer of pieces for flute/piccolo and piano.

Albert Fransella – Born Amsterdam, 1865 and died UK 1935. Studied with his father using 8-key flute and then came to England where he adopted Boehm system instruments. A well respected player in London, he held principal orchestral positions and taught at the Guildhall School of Music and Trinity College. Often toured with Melba and Tetrazzini. First recorded in 1898 for Gramophone Company and performed on both flute and piccolo quite happily. Composed a number of pieces for flute and piccolo. Gave the world premiere of his own Variations on a Russian Air for picc. and piano at the Prom Concert, 15^th Oct 1910.

Robert Frisch – Born, Germany 1804. Died, British India, 1865. As a young man he played solo flute in the orchestra of Johann Strauss then came to England in 1838 and two years later appeared as soloist in Newcastle playing Jullien’s Waltz Le Rossignol on Feb 21 1840. He became a great attraction at promenade concerts in London where according to Rockstro, “he had complete mastery over his instrument and executed the greatest difficulties with graceful ease”. Frisch played an old German flute with numerous keys including one for b and an extra C# lever for the little finger of the left hand. He eventually changed to the Boehm system without success and returned to his old instrument. He joined a British Cavalry Regiment as Band Master about the year 1842. Around 1860 he was appointed band master to another army band and travelled with his regiment to India where he died.

Jean Gennin – Born, Belgium, c.1886 and joined the Bournemouth Municipal Orchestra as flautist before the First War where he was joined by his brother Pierre who played second and piccolo. In the 1950’s Jean became second flute in the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. He composed many pieces for two flutes or two piccolos and orchestra and recorded some of them with his brother under the direction of Dan Godfrey in 1927, 1928 & 1930.

Pierre Gennin – Second flute and piccolo player, Bournemouth Municipal Orchestra from about 1913. In 1933 seems to have been replaced by James Waugh. Performed and recorded flute and piccolo duets composed by his brother, Jean.

Frank Goede – May have been the the first person to make a commercial record of piccolo. His name appears on the first page of the first Edison recording ledger, session of May 24^th 1889. (see ‘A Directory to Columbia Recording Artists of the 1890’s’, Tim Brooks)

J. Harrington Young – Flautist and composer who appeared as piccolo soloist alongside M.Bonnisseau at an Alexandra Palace concert in 1876. Numerous compositions for flute and piccolo many of which published by Rudall Carte.

Henry Heidelberg – Born, Hanover 1872. Lived most of his life in America and played in Sousa’s Band from 1904 – 1915. In 1914 he recorded with Eugene C.Rose, ‘Will o’the wisp’ for Edison. In the early twentieth century he resided in New York and played with the New York Symphony and Philharmonic orchestras.

Léon Jacquemont – Solo flautist in the famous Garde Républicaine band in Paris.

He recorded for the French branch of the Gramophone Company in Paris as early as 1899. He recorded works usually performed on the flute eg. Anton Titl’s Serenade.

Henry Jaeger – Flute and piccolo soloist with US Marine Band. He has the distinction of being the first Columbia artist to be identified by name. (see Directory to Columbia Recording Artists of 1890’s, Tim Brooks)

Henri Louis Kling – Born, Paris 14 Feb 1842. Died, Geneva 2 May 1918. He grew up in Carlsruhe, Germany where he studied horn under Jacob Dorn. In 1861 after a period of touring he became solo horn at the Grand Theatre and the Concerts Classiques, Geneva and in 1866 was appointed Professor of Musical Theory and Horn at the Conservatoire there, staying until his death in 1918. He produced ‘The Art of Modern Orchestration and Instrumentation’ in 1905. He composed a number of pieces for piccolo, most notably, Two Little Bullfinches and The Nightingale and Thrush.

Albert B. Kurth – Born, Nietlebenhalle, 15 Dec 1857. Flautist living in Berlin for some years where he composed and recorded flute and piccolo solos for the German branch of HMV in 1908. Studied with Wilhelm Barge in Leipzig and Heinrich Gantenberg in Berlin. Composer of pieces for flute and piccolo.

Marshall P. Lufsky – Born Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1878 and died there in 1948. He studied flute with Carl Woempner and in 1900 was appointed to Sousa’s Band (1900-1912) as flute soloist. He made four European tours and one world tour with the band and played before King George in England twice. Between 1902 and 1909 he made nearly 100 recordings as piccolo soloist. At first he recorded for Victor Records but in 1906 became associated with the Columbia Phonograph Company as flautist in their studio orchestra where he remained for fourteen years. He was the flautist member of Columbia’s nameless trio. Living in New York during the 1920’s he occasionally played at the Metropolitan Opera House and Philharmonic Society concerts. In 1923 he endorsed the Haynes Master flute.

Darius Lyons – Born St-Paul, Minnesota 1870 and died New York c.1926. He played as soloist with the Victor Herbert Orchestra and the Savage Grand Opera Company before joining Sousa’s Band in 1900, remaining four years. He also played in the Arthur Pryor Band for a short time before being appointed flute and piccolo soloist with Victor Talking Machine’s first permanent studio orchestra in 1905.

Frank S. Mazziotta – Born Italy, 1863. Naturalized American, 1884. He married in 1887 and settled in Manhattan, New York. Between 1900 and 1906 he recorded for Edison, Zonophone and Berliner.

Edward (Emil?) Mollenhauer – Born New York, 1861of German father and English mother. His Nightingale Polka was very popular and was first recorded 15 June 1905.

By 1910 he had moved to Suffolk, Massachusetts with his wife who was a professional singer.There he spent time conducting orchestras.

Weyert A. Moor – Born Delft, Holland, 15 Oct 1877 and emigrated to US around 1904/07. Died San Bernandino, California, 21 Aug 1959. Principal flute and orchestral manager of the Cleveland Symphony, 1919-1931. He made a few piccolo solo recordings for Edison.

J. Occa – Born Manhattan, New York, 24 Aug 1877. Composed Variations Kinloch o’Kinloch, used rather widely by early soloists.

George L. Roe – London flautist and teacher active in 1870’s. Reported to have been a fine piccolo player receiving much acclaim. Fitzgibbon maintained that he and other fine piccolo players did not shine very pre-eminently as flute players. Rudall Carte published his compositions including, Warblings at morning and Scherzo, L’Oiseau.

Eugene C. Rose – A member of Sousa’s band 1900-1902. He recorded piccolo pieces for Edison around that time. Also recorded flute and piccolo duets with Henry Heidelberg.

R. Santini (or Sontini) – Composer known for his popular pieces including Valse Miramar published by Hawkes & Son in 1911 and the Stump Piccolo Rag as recorded by Gordon Walker c.1921.

Julius Schulhoff – made recordings in the Berlin studios around 1900.

George C. Schweinfest – Born New Jersey, USA, 1862. Died 1949. Came from a musical family. His father, Caspar(b.1826) was a musician from Bavaria. George began recording on the Edison label in 1889 and was eventually credited with having made about 250 solo piccolo recordings. He was one of the earliest pioneers of recording. He also performed on violin and piano and recorded on several labels including, New Jersey Phonograph Co., Columbia, Berliner and Victor.

Charles le Thière – Fitzgibbon describes Le Thière as one of the outstanding piccolo players of his day although less successful as a flautist. He was composer of numerous piccolo solos. It has been suggested by some that his real name may have been Thompson or Tompkins. Gerald Jackson mentions him in his book, First Flute (1968) as someone who would stand outside a public house touting for work as a musician or composer. Fees paid for a small piece would be spent on drink. Before hard times he had produced many pieces for piccolo including ,L’Oiseau du Bois and Danse de Satyrs.. It is assumed he died in poverty.

Gordon Walker – Born Bradford, 1885. Died 1965. Held all the key positions in London orchestras at one time or another. Successful as a chamber musician and made a number of piccolo solo recordings for Zonophone UK in the early 1920’s.

James Wilcocke – Born Lambeth, Surrey, 12 Nov 1853. Died, Wandsworth, 4 Nov 1927. Studied with his father and George Roe. Flautist at Crystal Palace, Richter, Queens Hall and LSO concerts. In 1890 appointed flute professor at Kneller Hall retaining the post until 1918. He was also professor at the Guildhall School of Music. Rudall Carte published his Serenade for flute and piano and a Trio(1910) for 2 flutes and piano, plus other works.

Meredith Wilson – Born Iowa, USA, 1902. Died 1984. He auditioned for Sousa at the age of 17. He was taken on for a national tour and then remained a further three seasons (1921-23) during which time he travelled to Mexico, Cuba and Canada with the band.

In 1925 he was appointed to the New York Philharmonic and throughout the 1950’s and 1960’s he produced scores for successful Broadway musicals.

Return to the Piccolo Soloists Main page