Free Flute Sheet Music

Tune of the Day: Libiamo ne' lieti calici

“Libiamo ne'lieti calici” (literally, “Let's drink from the merry chalices”) is the most famous duet from Verdi's La traviata, one of the most well known fragments of opera around the world, and an obligatory performance for any great tenor. The song is categorised as a brindisi, which is Italian for “toast”. Those who have performed it include Luciano Pavarotti, Plácido Domingo, José Carreras, Enrico Caruso, Andrea Bocelli, Anna Netrebko and many others.

The duet is performed by Alfredo and Violetta in the first act of the opera, at a late-night party at Violetta's house. Alfredo is a young man in love with Violetta, and he is convinced by his friend Gastone to show off his voice, so he sings this drinking song.

Tune of the Day: The Irish Girl

This 9/8-time jig first appears in Francis O'Neill's celebrated collection Music of Ireland, published in Chicago in 1903. O'Neill's source for this tune was fiddler John McFadden, born in the 1850s in the townland of Carrowmore, near Westport, County Mayo in western Ireland.

Tune of the Day: Study in C major by Gariboldi

This is the very first study from Italian composer Giuseppe Gariboldi's Etudes mignonnes (Dainty Studies), Op. 131.

Tune of the Day: Duet in G major by Hugues

This is the fifth duet from La scuola del flauto (The School of the Flute) by Italian composer and arranger Luigi Hugues.

Thanks to Paolo for contributing this piece!

Tune of the Day: Tambourin

A tambourin (literally “small drum” in French) is a piece of music that imitates a drum. French composer Jean-Philippe Rameau wrote many of them as parts of his operas. The most famous one is the Tambourin in E Minor from his second collection of pieces for the harpsichord, titled Pièces de clavessin (1724), which also appears in his 1739 opera Les fêtes d'Hébé. With its driving melody full of trills and accents, this piece is unforgettable. In order to make it playable in its entirety on the flute, the tune was transposed to G minor.

Tune of the Day: A Whack at the Whigs

One of the earliest appearances of this tune is in P.M. Haverty's One Hundred Irish Airs, published in New York in 1858, under the title “Leather the Wig” (meaning to thresh, or thin out, a wig). The hairpiece, however, symbolizes the (now defunct) British party of the Whigs, as is made apparent in the more recent, playful title “A Whack at the Whigs”, first found in O'Neill's The Dance Music of Ireland (Chicago, 1907).

Tune of the Day: Study in G major by Kummer

This is the second study from German flutist and composer Caspar Kummer's 32 Etudes amusantes et instructives, Op. 129, first published in 1858.