Tuesday 11 February 2025
Traditional Prussian March by Frederick the Great
Did you know that King Frederick II of Prussia was a gifted musician who played the transverse flute? He composed 100 sonatas for the flute as well as four symphonies. His court musicians included C.P.E. Bach, Johann Joachim Quantz, and Franz Benda. It was a meeting with Johann Sebastian Bach in 1747 in Potsdam that led to Bach writing The Musical Offering.
And it was the “Old Fritz”, as the king was nicknamed, who wrote the “Hohenfriedberger”, one of the best known German military marches. It is named for the victory of the Prussians over the allied Austrians and Saxons in 1745 during the Second Silesian War in the Battle of Hohenfriedberg, near Striegau.
You may remember this march being used at the beginning of the film Stalingrad, or in Stanley Kubrick's Barry Lyndon depicting the Prussian army during the Seven Years War.
Monday 10 February 2025
Traditional Irish jig
This jig appears to be unique to Chicago Police Captain Francis O'Neill's collections Music of Ireland (1903) and The Dance Music of Ireland (1907).
Coomanore is the name of an actual place in Ireland. It is now split between the townlands of Coomanore North and Coomanore South, both located in County Cork.
Sunday 9 February 2025
from “Eighteen Exercises or Etudes for Flute”
This is the third étude from 18 exercices pour la flûte traversière by French Romantic composer Benoit Tranquille Berbiguier. Try to keep a steady tempo throughout the piece, and don't let the quintuplets scare you!
Saturday 8 February 2025
by Johann Sebastian Bach, arranged for flute trio
Today we present the central movement of J.S. Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 4, a slow 3/4-time Andante in E minor. The original work features a violin and two recorders playing against a string ripieno, but here we have adapted the score so that the piece could be played by three flutes.
Friday 7 February 2025
from Tchaikovsky's “Album for the Young”
Today we propose a transcription for flute and piano of “Morning Prayer”, the very first composition in Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's Album for the Young, Op. 39.
Thursday 6 February 2025
Traditional Irish jig
The earliest known appearance of this jig is in Francis O'Neill's collection Music of Ireland, published in Chicago in 1903. A nearly identical version, presented as an untitled jig collected from a “Mrs. Close”, can be found in George Petrie's The Complete Collection of Irish Music (London, 1905).
The tune is related to “Helvic Head” from O'Farrell's Pocket Companion for the Irish or Union Pipes, 1806.
Wednesday 5 February 2025
from “20 Easy and Melodic Studies”
Here is a new simple étude, this time in B-flat major, from the first book of Twenty Easy Melodic Progressive Studies by Italian flutist and composer Ernesto Köhler.