Hi. I'm a composer, not a flautist (or is flutist the preferred term?). I'm working on an orchestral piece, and I need some advice. A flute player once told me that playing anything above E6 (2 octaves and a third above middle C) is very difficult. Considering that any pitches below C5 usually doesn't come through in an orchestra, this doesn't seem like much of a usable range. Is an E6 upper limit correct?
The piece that I'm writing now has both 1st and 2nd flutes play G6, and the 1st flute has a pretty quick run that goes up to G#6. Is this expecting too much of the flutes? Would it be wise to rewrite the 2nd flute part to keep it below E6 and replace the 1st flute with a piccolo?
Thank you for your advice.
Glenn Simonelli
Composer wannabe