The English virtuoso Joseph Tacet performed in Edinburgh in 1771. John Hunter101 wrote to Gilbert Innes expressing his dismay at being stuck in Port Glasgow and being unable to attend the performance:
I much envy you the pleasure you are to enjoy this evening in hearing Tacet on the flute—This is at present one of the dullest places ever I was in—no publick places—no not even a Puppet show nor a set of Tumblers—Do you know I have made a most Sagacious discovery since I heard of Tacet’s being in Edinburgh—You will observe in all the flute parts of Overtures the Andante is
96 It is also not mentioned by Baxter, who presents his activities in Edinburgh musical life as extremely varied, but not related to performance. Baxter, “Italian Music and Musicians in Edinburgh,” 39–55. 97 Minutes of the Edinburgh Musical Society, June 1737–1738. For a concise presentation of Barsanti’s pay records from the Edinburgh Musical Society, see Baxter, “Italian Music and Musicians in Edinburgh,” fn., 51–52.
98 Johnson, “Barsanti, Francesco.”
99 Johnson, “Barsanti, Francesco”; Roger Fiske, Scotland in Music: a European enthusiasm (Cambridge University Press, 1983), 18–19. The tendency to ‘correct’ was a later development in publications of traditional Scottish tunes, so Barsanti presenting the tunes warts and all is really not remarkable. 100 Andrew Fairley noted that Tacet’s birth and death dates were not known. Andrew Fairley, Flutes,
Flautists, and Makers (active or born before 1900) (London: Pan Educational Music, 1982), 121–122. H.
Macaulay Fitzgibbon noted that not much was known of Tacet’s life. H. Macaulay Fitzgibbon, The Story of
the Flute (London: The Walter Scott Publishing Co., Ltd., 1914), 207.
101 Hunter wrote to Gilbert Innes while travelling England, Scotland, France, Spain, and Holland. His letters contain very little aside from complaints and observations on how pretty (or not) the girls are in a given place. His letters from London are the only ones which reveal his interests, especially in science and music. Port Glasgow must have been especially grim for a young man of his interests. National Archives of Scotland, GD113/5/366.
seldom wrote—But at the end of the first movement is marked Tacet
Andante—What is the meaning of this? You answer—There is no flute part for that Movement. Quite mistaken I assure you—It means that the flute part of the Andante is so hard and requires so much taste and all that—That only Tacet ought to play it. There now—Would you ever have thought of this?102 Joseph Tacet was credited with inventing the four-keyed flute by many of his contemporaries, though the evidence is that he made them popular in continental Europe rather than contributing to their design.103 Ardal Powell explains that because Tacet favoured the English-made four-keyed flute over the one-keyed flute, his name became associated with the style and especially with the pewter plugs invented by Richard Potter.104
A number of flute tutors published from around 1765 through the 1770s credit Tacet and Florio with having invented the keyed flute, and advertise their methods for playing it,105 although the books are all copies of the same source, and neither Tacet nor Florio is likely to have had anything to do with the publications in the first place.
Tacet’s concert in Edinburgh was not advertised in Edinburgh newspapers, nor was it reviewed. It was perhaps a private event, not sponsored by the Edinburgh Musical Society.106 Possibly Gilbert Innes arranged the performance; earlier in the year Thomas Cumming, Innes’s cousin, heard Tacet play a “charming” flute solo in London.107 It is somewhat surprising that other mentions of Tacet’s Edinburgh concert have not survived;
102 Letter from John Hunter to Gilbert Innes, 15 October 1771, National Records of Scotland, GD 113/5/366.
103 He may also have experimented with larger tone holes. Fairley, Flutes, Flautists, and Makers, 121. 104 Powell, The Flute, 111–112.
105 Powell argues that Thomas Cahusac was one of the earliest makers of keyed flutes in London, and that the first tutor with Tacet and Florio’s appeared in 1765. Powell, The Flute, 111–112. Reprints, and books which clearly descend from the same source, include publications by Thomson and Muir & Wood. Side by side comparison of the editions held in the Wighton Collection show all are anonymous, and while the instructional content is the same, the musical content differs. A COPAC search shows 12 tutors referencing Tacet and Florio including: New Instructions for the German Flute and the method of Double Tongueing with
proper Examples (London: Preston & Son, 1790?); The Compleat Tutor for the German Flute containing the easiest and most modern Methods for Learners to Play, to which is added A favorite Collection of Scots Airs, Reels, Srathspeys &c. Also the Method of Double Tonguing, and a Concise Scale & description of a new invented German Flute with additional Keys, such as play’d on by the two Celebrated Masters, Tacet and Florio, (Edinburgh: Muir and Wood, 1811?); The Compleat Tutor for the German Flute containing the easiest & most modern Methods for Learners to play. To which is Added a favorite Collection of Song Tunes, Minuets, Marches, Duets, &c. Also The method of double Tongueing, and a Concise Scale & description of a new invented German Flute with additional Keys made by T. Cahusac, such as play’d on by the two celebrated Masters, Tacet and Florio. (London: T. Cahusac, 1766?).
106 Or it may have been cancelled.
his performance, presumably on the keyed flute, would have brought cutting-edge flute technology to Scotland.108 That many tutors with the Tacet and Florio method survive in Scottish collections, especially the Wighton Collection and the A. K. Bell Library, suggests that the system could have been popular in Scotland. Tacet’s influence on flute technique was not, overall, very significant or lasting, but he was very influential during the late eighteenth century. That many tutors referencing the Tacet and Florio system survive suggest that it could have been popular in Scotland.