Friday 18 September 2020
This flute duet appears in Blake's Young Flutist's Magazine, published in Philadelphia in 1833. The arrangement is, according to sheet music of the time, based on “a much admired Spanish seguidilla”, to which Irish poet Thomas Moore wrote the following lyrics:
Remember the time, in La Mancha's shades,
When our moments so blissfully flew;
When you called me the flower of Castilian maids,
And I blushed to be called so by you;
When I taught you to warble the gay seguadille.
And to dance to the light castanet;
Oh, never, dear youth, let you roam where you will,
The delight of those moments forget.
Thursday 17 September 2020
from Recorder Sonata in G minor
This is the second movement of the fourth sonata from Sonate a flauto solo con cembalo, o violoncello (“Sonatas for solo flute with harpsichord or cello”) by Italian Baroque composer Paolo Benedetto Bellinzani, originally published in Venice in 1720.
This movement has actually no tempo indication in the original manuscript, but it usually appears as an “Allegro” in modern editions.
Wednesday 16 September 2020
This air is taken from Francis O'Neill's collection Waifs and Strays of Gaelic Melody (1922). O'Neill remarks:
The above setting differs not materially from that in Clinton's 200 Irish Melodies for Flute, Dublin 1840. Under the same name a much simpler version appears in Haverty's 300 Irish Airs, New York 1858, having but the exceptional number of 13 bars altogether. To the editor this strain was known in boyhood days as “Tow Row Row”, both names being taken from the first line of the song “Tow Row Row, Paddy, will you now”, which song by the way cannot be found in any Irish collection at present available.
Tuesday 15 September 2020
Today's piece is the fourtieth study from 40 Nuovi Studi, Op. 75, by Italian flutist, composer and arranger Luigi Hugues.
This study has also been published as the twenty-fourth piece in a selection of 24 Studies for Flute from Hugues's Opp. 32 and 75.
Monday 14 September 2020
from “36 Petits Duos Mélodiques Faciles et Chantants”
This piece is the twenty-fourth duet from Trente-six Petits Duos Mélodiques Faciles et Chantants pour deux Flûtes (36 Easy Flute Duets) by French Romantic composer Benoit Tranquille Berbiguier.
Sunday 13 September 2020
from Flute Sonata in D major
This Presto is the fourth and final movement of the second of 12 sonatas for flute and continuo by Italian composer Pietro Antonio Locatelli, originally published in Amsterdam in 1732.
Saturday 12 September 2020
Slievenamon (“Mountain of the Women”) is a 2,365 ft tall mountain in south County Tipperary, Ireland. The mountain is said to have derived its name from the ancient fairy women or Feimhin, who enchanted a warrior named Fionn mac Cumhaill and his followers.
In his 1922 collection Waifs and Strays of Gaelic Melody, Francis O'Neill writes: “This fine air which runs to the unusual number of 14 bars in each part was sent me by a Dublin friend, Mr. M. Flanagan, a distinguished linguist and scholar. In his leisure moments, he enjoys the music of his fiddle, and union pipes, being a skillful performer on both instruments. [...] Whether suitable to the meter of the melody or not, Mr. Flanagan's charming verses will be no less appreciated than his music.”
Alone all alone by the wave washed strand
All alone in a crowded hall
The hall it is gay and the waves they are grand
But my heart is not here at all
It flies far away by night and by day
To the times and the joys that are gone
And I never will forget the sweet maiden I met
In the valley near Slievenamon.
