Teachers and flutists at all levels have praised Nancy Toff's The Flute Book, a unique one-stop guide to the flute and its music. Organized into four main parts--The Instrument, Performance, The Music, and Repertoire Catalog--the book begins with a description of the instrument and its making, offers information on choosing and caring for a flute, sketches a history of the flute, and discusses differences between members of the flute family. In the Performance section, readers learn about breathing, tone, vibrato, articulation, technique, style, performing, and recording. In the extensive analysis of flute literature that follows, Toff places individual pieces in historical context. The book ends with a comprehensive catalog of solo and chamber repertoire, and includes appendices with fingering charts as well as lists of current flute manufacturers, repair shops, sources for flute music and books, and flute clubs and related organizations worldwide. In this Third Edition, Toff has updated the book to reflect technology's advancements--like new digital recording technology and recordings' more prevalent online availability--over the last decade. She has also accounted for new scholarship on baroque literature; recent developments such as the contrabass flute, quarter-tone flute, and various manufacturing refinements and experiments; consumers' purchase prices for flutes; and a thoroughly updated repertoire catalog and appendices. "I would recommend this book to every serious flute student, and it should be required reading by every teacher." -- The Flutist Quarterly "Accessible to every audience...[A] truly encyclopedic treatment. Libraries owning earlier editions will want to add this one for its new information and the author's insights into the current state of flutes and flute playing...Essential." -- Choice Praise for the previous editions: "An indispensable source book for flutists on every level."-- The Radcliffe Quarterly "Toff's scholarship was impressive in The Development of the Modern Flute , and her latest effort reflects the same meticulous approach....a wealth of information about a fascinating instrument." Choice "Nancy Toff's Flute Book is an excellent work of reference that should be on every flute player's shelf...I cannot recommend it too highly."-- Pan "A flute player's and teacher's bible."--Katherine Borst Jones, Ohio State University "The veritable vade mecum for that instrument."-- Ovation "Simply the best one-volume book on the flute available....This book is a joy to read. A flute aficianado will devour it like a novel and come back to read it regularly for inspiration as well as reference."-- The Flute Network "Absolutely indispensable to everyone connected with the flute and flute playing, from the professional to every public school teacher."-- The School Musician "A landmark in the literature of the flute and a must for both professional and amateur flutist alike."-- Pan "The last section, which includes the orchestration and publishing information of flute literature from the Baroque to the present, is worth its weight in gold--not only for the flutist, but for the music librarian as well."-- Library Journal The widely praised one-stop guide to the flute and its music, updated to reflect recent developments and scholarship Nancy Toff is the author of The Development of the Modern Flute, Georges Barrère and the Flute in America, and Monarch of the Flute: The Life of Georges Barrère . Highly respected as a writer, researcher, and lecturer, she has been a consultant to the Dayton C. Miller Flute Collection in the Library of Congress and the Department of Musical Instruments of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and was curator of an exhibition on Georges Barrère at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center. She is a past president of the New York Flute Club. Toff is the 2012 winner of the National Flute Association's National Service Award.