Joseph Rampal - Books

Books

Bel Canto Flute: The Rampal School (2003; Winzer Press) by Sheryl Cohen is a study of Jean-Pierre Rampal’s teaching and playing method by an American flautist and teacher who studied with both Rampal and his fellow Marseille flautist Alain Marion. In essence, however, Cohen tries to define a flute tradition that springs from the teaching of Joseph Rampal in Marseille, linked through him to the earlier grand tradition of Taffanel, Hennebains and Gaubert. Although it is controversial to refer to the Marseilles group of flute players as a 'school' distinct from the more widely acknowledged 'French Flute School' in which Marcel Moyse and his predecessors are central figures, Cohen's study is an attempt to give Joseph Rampal, together with his son Jean-Pierre and others, some formal credit for an identifiable style of playing that became appreciated right around the musical world. As signature characteristics of this style, Cohen points in particular to a "poetic approach to expressive phrasing as a foundation to develop musical artistry, creative practice methods, breath control tone, articulation, and technique, all while searching to free the artist from within." Sheryl Cohen, Professor Emerita of Music at the University of Alabama, USA, has since extended her study by also running a Fellowship at the Camargo Foundation in Cassis in Provence entitled The Flute School of Marseille: The Rampal Lineage. The course chronicles “the development and influence of the school of Joseph Rampal on flute playing in the twentieth century” in order to “preserve the vast philosophical and pedagogical project mounted by the school, and establish Joseph Rampal’s proper place in the history of the flute.”