Laura Netzel's Works for the Flute: New Editions with Historical Context

Abstract

Romantic-era composer Laura Netzel ranked among the most-performed Swedish female composers during her lifetime but is now all but forgotten by scholars and performers. This dissertation examines how Netzel’s social class, gender, choice of instrumentation, and choice of compositional genres situated her life’s work outside of the repertorial and pedagogical musical canons. It also presents newly-edited versions of Netzel’s works for the flute: Suite op. 33 for Flute and Piano, Colibri op. 72 for Flute and Piano, and a new adaptation of Berceuse op. 69 for Violin (or flute) and Piano. The new editions expand the flute repertoire of the Romantic period, which is the era with arguably the least number of solo flute pieces in the standard literature. Current canonical Romantic flute repertoire consists mainly of variations on popular themes, but adding these three pieces from different genres can broaden understanding of Romantic flute repertoire and provide a more complete picture of flute works written during the period.