Hey guys, I'm doing a part from the Orchestra Suite in B Minor by Bach, the Polonaise, and I was wondering if anyone could tell me how to bend a note from B to B flat. See, on the recording on iTunes that the flautist Emmanuel Pahud does, before he goes back to the beginning, he bends the last note( or so it sounds like it.) Could you tell me how to do this or if he is doing something else? Thanks.

I'm no flautist, but I would think it evolves making you embouchure looser and rolling out.

Panda: Actually rolling out makes you sharper. I'd like you want to roll in.

Whoops.

As I said, I'm not flute player. I knew it was either rolling in our out.

I haven't heard it but I bet that he is just adjusting his embouchure to bend the note. Some flutist can bend notes up to a whole step just by adjusting their embouchure. Maybe he is doing a combination of rolling the flute and the embouchure.

Maybe some of the more advanced flute players will have a better answer for you.

bending as in harmonics ??? if thats the case it your air stream and it is very difficult to control i have never done it but i have heard it done

If this is a "traditional version" of the Bach Suite in b min., I can't imagine that Pahud bends any note.
Does this souind like a vibrato effect (back and forth) or is it an actual portamento (Slide)?

There were ornaments that Baroque flutists used that would not have been included in JSB's notation. "Bending" was called "flattement" (which is sometimes translated as "finger vibrato" in English).

There were also ornaments that were single bends (not like vibrato), but I don't recall their name.

Perhaps you are hearing Pahud do something similar, requiring of course open holes on the flute.

it sounds like you heard him do what is called an appogitura, which is a note, half step, before the last note of a phrase or subphrase...

So, if he's using open holes on the flute, how would you use that to change a note?

The holes are open so that you can partially finger a note. By covering the hole partially, you can achieve the desired pitch.

In earlier eras before the keyed flutes were developed, flutes had only open holes. Flutists learned to perform all sorts of ornaments that changed the pitch of notes for desired effects.

For example, you might want to cover a hole so that the note's pitch is altered by a quarter tone (or a bit more or less). Such alteration is still essential in much contemporary music and jazz, and it is not always performed by changing the embouchure or placement of the lip plate. It is done instead by partially covering the flute's holes.

Learn more by reading a good book about flutes. Here's one example:

http://books.google.com/books?id=pCSanDD4CtsC&pg=PA21&lpg=PA21&dq=flutes+open+hole+quarter+tones&source=web&ots=bkFGI1_avX&sig=cJXYUd_U66d1fc82IBqFSrSQlbI&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=10&ct=result#PPA21,M1

In this vid of a Bb flute, the player uses a flattement right off. Essentially he's doing a flattement/softening from the 123 fingering (G sounding an F) down in pitch a bit by dropping his right hand middle finger. The does it very soon after only one whole step above.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxbpNl9p3g8