Taffanel - Andante pastoral

The piano begins the piece by itself playing a short intro that is then echoed very softly by the piano. The flute solo enters after this in a minor key. The melody throughout the entire piece is extremely ornamented and embellished in one way or another. At first, one of the main ways Taffanel does this is by incorporating scales into the melody. The scales usually lead up or down into the main beat that we hear as part of the melodic line. The piece ties the low and higher octaves together very well. It's all very fluid in the movement from one to the other. A considerable amount of time is spent in the low octave, but because of the way the different registers are connected with arpeggios and such, the higher octaves don't stick out at all. Instead, the low octave flows right into it. The tempo fluctuates a lot at various points during the piece. The flute truly has the lead role in the piece because the piano accompaniment is basic chords and follows the flute's tempo changes well. This is also what probably enhances the overall bittersweet and poignant feeling this movement creates. The intro of solo piano is balanced, yet contrasted by the ending, which is basically performed only by the flute.