Nowadays, anyone who wants to learn to play the traverso has little to go on. If you’re lucky, you may bump into a good teacher; if not, you have to figure everything out on your own, because until now a method for the baroque flute with lots of playing materials was not available.

This method will fill that empty space. Starting point is that those who use this book are not musically illiterate. There is plenty of material on offer to start with.

The book contains a large amount of music arranged in a methodical order. The difficulty of the various pieces can sometimes vary: therefore it is not a problem (and maybe even quite tempting) to ‘cherry-pick’ from the book.

The main thread consists of texts by Johann Mattheson on the affects of the various keys. In addition extensive attention is given to the ins and outs of the baroque articulation, which is substantially different to what we as players in the 21st century are accustomed to.