From the beginning of the century the flute was chief among the instruments preferred by enthusiasts, as well as the highly educated non-professional connoisseurs. The flute, in its late 17th century form, being a relatively ‘modern’ instrument – and a fashionable one - joined with the keyboards in a pivotalrole. The previously dominant violin drifted more and more into the domain of professional musicians and virtuosos. And perhaps the sound of a flute, idiomatic of the human voice, was a more natural partner for the expression of bourgeois sensitivity than that of a violin.