sarahmcnultyflute.com | Sarah McNulty: baroque and modern flute teacher and performer based in York.

Welcome

Thank you for visiting my website. Sarah has many years of experience as a modern and baroque flute soloist, chamber, and orchestral musician. Teaching music performance at full ability range, communicating enthusiasm for flute playing, and encouraging pupils to pursue music either as a hobby or to university/college level outline a number of Sarah’s passionate aims.

Having studied music performance at both undergraduate and postgraduate level and specialising in eighteenth-century performance practice, Sarah aspires to be a thinking performer: ‘Play from the soul, not like a trained bird!’ (C.P.E. Bach). Sarah’s PhD thesis and recital recording looks at how rhetorical and religious traditions in the eighteenth century influenced compositional practice and the performer’s delivery.

PhD Abstract

‘The use of rhetorical elements, structures, and figures in Baroque music is readily acknowledged in vocal and texted music. In abstract music, however, rhetoric is a more subjective matter. This thesis provides a rhetorical and religious narrative reading of C.P.E. Bach’s flute and continuo sonatas (Wq. 125-9, 134) (1738-40). It will explore the integration of the art of rhetoric and Lutheranism into C.P.E. Bach’s education, musical training, and working environment. The idea that rhetorical devices found in the flute sonatas are employed in the service of a religious narrative based on the Lutheran doctrine of Law and Gospel is suggested. Rhetorical principles appear not only to help shape the expression and form of the music but also to contribute to the music possessing extra-musical meaning that invites understanding. As evidence for this interpretation, I offer a way of thinking present in texted music and semi-abstract music from Germany in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. A rhetorical-musical vocabulary was established as a standard practice throughout the eighteenth century, which sought to convey religious understanding in music. Similar figures of rhetoric applied to convey a religious meaning can be identified in abstract music. Having demonstrated how rhetorical elements influence compositional practice, the same principles can be shown to inform the performer’s delivery of the music with regard to ornamentation, rhythmic alteration, articulation, phrasing, tempo, dynamic, and gesture. These performance outcomes can be clearly understood from the accompanying recording of the six flute and continuo sonatas and are theoretically supported in the thesis. It is hoped that performers of eighteenth-century music will be inspired to make their own rhetorical criticism, enabling them to present a composer’s ideas with understanding, clarity, and persuasion. Moreover, the performer and listener are invited to view the frequent display of conflict in German instrumental music of the Baroque period from a new perspective.’

Biography

Sarah studied modern and baroque flute with Edwina Smith during her undergraduate degree at the University of York. She was awarded AHRC grants to pursue her postgraduate studies in York; after completing her MA (with distinction) in baroque performance practice, she has recently been awarded a PhD on rhetoric and baroque performance practice with Professor Peter Seymour. Throughout her postgraduate study Sarah has participated in classes with Rachel Brown and Pamela Thorby. Sarah enjoys a busy performance schedule with period instrument orchestras such as the Yorkshire Baroque Soloists, Newcastle Baroque, Leeds Baroque Orchestra, and the Eighteenth-Century Sinfonia. She is also a dedicated chamber musician, both on modern and period instruments. Sarah has recently been involved in recordings of J.S. Bach’s St John Passion and Mass in B minor with the Yorkshire Baroque Soloists, director Peter Seymour, released on Signum Classics label. Sarah is employed as a flute teacher at Ampleforth College and has presented baroque articulation, rhetoric, and performance practice seminars and workshops to undergraduates at the University of York.

Qualifications

Awards

Teaching Experience

Performing Experience

Recordings

Research Output

Teaching

Sarah’s Teaching Philosophies:

To help the student develop a relaxed tone and technique
To help develop constructive self criticism and a self-reliant approach
To help the student to explore their own individual interpretations of pieces studied
To encourage the student to explore a range of musical styles in some depth
To help develop a confident and positive approach to performance
To help develop an understanding of music theory

Areas of technique and repertoire to cover depending on student level:

Posture
Breathing
Tone development
Articulation
Correct fingerings and relaxed hand positions
Pitch control
Scales
Studies and exercises for tone, technique, articulation, sonority, flexibility, and freedom of phrasing
Pieces for graded syllabuses, baroque/classical, romantic and modern periods (including contemporary/extended techniques)

Lesson content:

I teach an array of students in individual lessons ranging from total beginner to highly advanced. I like to maintain variety by covering aspects of tone, technique and repertoire in each lesson, varying the emphasis according to the current needs of the student
Exam preparation: I teach the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (or its equivalent) exam syllabus for scales, sight-reading, repertoire, aural training, and theory to suit individual student requirements. I will help them prepare for the junior or senior diplomas of the Royal Schools of Music (DipABRSM or LRSM). I am also familiar with GCSE and A level music and University performance syllabuses
If pupils do not require to be entered for external examinations I suggest pieces that I think the individual student will enjoy, that will help their tonal, technical, and musical development. I am always pleased when students bring pieces to me that they wish to learn and I also enjoy working with students on pieces that are new to me, discovering the piece with them
Genre/styles: Baroque, classical, romantic, modern, baroque and modern flute, specialising in the following areas: baroque flute, eighteenth-century performance practice, C.P.E. Bach, and rhetoric
Workshops and masterclasses offered in performance practice and flute pedagogy
Teaching fee: £19 half an hour or £38 an hour both baroque and modern flute
Cancellation policy: 48 hours notice is required. The lesson fee will be charged unless the student can reschedule the lesson in the same teaching week.

Audio

Audio Files. Please click here below to hear me play

C.P.E. Bach’s Sonata in G major Wq. 127 for flute and continuo

Adagio

Audio Player