Carl Joachim Andersen (April 29, 1847 – May 7, 1909) was a Danish flutist, conductor, composer and co-founder of the Berlin Philharmonic (Joachim Andersen , wikipedia.com). In his later years he became a renowned teacher, and his etudes or studies for flute are still used today. The Etude Number 2 is taken from his “18 Studies for the Flute”, which is his most popular set of flute exercises. The Etude Number 2 is my favorite, and is suitable for the clarinet, saxophone, and oboe as well as the flute.
The image at the top of this article contains this short etude, click on it to enlarge and play from the screen or print it out. All of Anderson’s works are available as free downloads from Joachim Anderson at www.kb.dk (Det Kongelige Bibliotek) which is a Danish online music library.
The range of this etude goes up to a high A on the flute. I consider this the top of the practical range, although students should practice playing the notes to the C above that. I also consider this A the top of the practical range for the clarinet. However, most clarinet literature only goes to the G, and many teachers only instruct their students to that note. The G# and A do play quite nicely, and I advise clarinet students to practice all scales and arpeggios to the A. The A is above the normal range of the saxophone, which would stop at F. For the saxophone, and for clarinetists who do not go to the high A, I have inserted alternate notes in blue in the third measure of line 1, first measure of line 4, and third measure of line five.
One attraction of this piece is that it is all staccato. That makes it easier to play for us amateur flautists who do not easily play high notes. However, the amateur flautist needs to pay attention to the quality of those tones and not just in playing fast. The same will be true of the clarinet and saxophone. Although the staccato allows us to force the notes out a bit, it is easy to get lazy with the fingers. I suggest practicing it in a moderate four (1 beat per quarter note) for good tone and smoothness. But I also suggest working it up and playing it in cut time, four eighth notes to the beat! This may require almost memorizing it.
When practicing this piece, always observe the repeat of the middle two lines, but ignore the repeat for the first two lines. The first two lines are the same as the last two, with the middle two lines repeated. So by only repeating the middle two lines, you will play all of the difficult measures the same amount of times.
If you like this piece, try the Caprice No. 5 form Opus 37 by Anderson (available at AssociatedContent.com). While the Etude Number 2 consists entirely of staccato eighth notes, the Caprice contrasts eighth and sixteenth notes with both staccato and legato sections.
