Free Flute Sheet Music

Tune of the Day: L'ho perduta, me meschina!

The title of this aria literally means “I have lost it, woe is me!”. It is taken from the very beginning of Act IV of Mozart's opera Le nozze di Figaro, and is sung by Barbarina, Susanna's cousin. Terribly upset, Barbarina is searching the garden for something that she has lost. When Figaro arrives with his mother Marcellina and asks the weeping girl what's wrong, she replies that she has lost the pin that the Count gave her to deliver to Susanna as a token of their tryst. Angry, but pretending that he already knows all about it, he plucks a pin from Marcellina's dress and gives it to Barbarina, who goes off to give it to Susanna. Figaro collapses into his mother's arms, then rage overtakes him as he vows to avenge all deceived husbands.

Tune of the Day: Serenade

Les millions d'Arlequin (or Harlequinade) is a ballet in two acts with libretto and choreography by Marius Petipa and music by Italian composer Riccardo Drigo. It was first presented in St. Petersburg, Russia in 1900.

Drigo's score spawned the popular salon repertory piece known as the “Serenade”, which the composer later rewrote as a song called “Notturno d'amore” for the Italian tenor Beniamino Gigli. The piece has since been arranged for every conceivable instrument, particularly the violin and piano.

Tune of the Day: The Man in the Moon

There are many traditional Irish tunes known under the title “The Man in the Moon”. This particular one is taken from Francis O'Neill's Dance Music of Ireland, published in Chicago in 1907.

Tune of the Day: Pasquinade

This lively study is the sixth piece from French flutist Johannes Donjon's Huit Études de Salon (“Eight Parlour Studies”) for solo flute.

Thanks to Jane for suggesting this piece!

Tune of the Day: Andante by Telemann

Today's piece is the third movement of Georg Philipp Telemann's Sonatas without Bass for Two Transverse Flutes, or Two Violins, or Two Recorders. It is a common-time Andante in E minor.

Tune of the Day: The Easy Winners

Written in 1901, “The Easy Winners” is one of Scott Joplin's most popular works. Quite unusually for Joplin, he chose to publish the piece himself. Why his usual publisher, John Stark, didn't publish the rag is not known for certain.

In any case, many commentators believe “The Easy Winners”, which is something of a celebration of the sporting world, particularly horse racing, to be one of Joplin's greatest rags. Certainly it was one of his most popular right from the beginning; it was one of only four Joplin pieces to be recorded before 1940.

Tune of the Day: The Galloping Young Thing

This jig is taken from Francis O'Neill's collection Dance Music of Ireland, published in Chicago in 1907. It had previously appeared in Petrie's Complete Collection of Irish Music (London, 1905), where it is said to be a Cork jig obtained from Paddy Carew's mid-19th-century manuscript.