Free Flute Sheet Music

Tune of the Day: Gliding Dance of the Maidens

The Polovtsian Dances constitute the best known selections from Alexander Borodin's 1890 opera Prince Igor. They were originally part of Act II, but they are now often played as a stand-alone concert piece.

Dance No. 17, titled “Polovtsian Dance with Chorus”, has become particularly famous. Most of its themes were incorporated into the 1953 musical Kismet, best known of which is the “Gliding Dance of the Maidens”, adapted for the song ”Stranger in Paradise”. The most popular version of this song was sung by Tony Bennett, and it reached number one in the UK Singles Chart in May 1955. Artie Shaw's “My Fantasy”, recorded in 1940, also has a tune virtually identical to this dance.

Tune of the Day: Miss Grant's Jig

This minor-mode jig is unique to Chicago Police Captain Francis O'Neill's celebrated collection The Dance Music of Ireland, published in 1907.

Tune of the Day: Study in B-flat major by Andersen

Here is another étude in double-tonguing by Danish flutist Joachim Andersen. This Moderato in B-flat major is study No. 21 from his Twenty-Four Etudes for Flute, Op. 33.

Tune of the Day: Non più andrai

This famous aria appears at the end of Act I of Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro. The Count Almaviva has ordered the young Cherubino to join his regiment in Seville, and leaves Figaro to cheer up the unhappy adolescent. Figaro sings to Cherubino about his new, harsh military life, from which women will be totally excluded.

You won't go any more, amorous butterfly,
Fluttering around inside night and day
Disturbing the sleep of beauties,
A little Narcissus and Adonis of love.

Tune of the Day: Piece en forme de Habanera

The “Vocalise-Étude en forme de Habanera” was originally written for low voice and piano in March 1907, and was commissioned by A.-L. Hettich as one of a series of studies by contemporary composers for use in his voice classes at the Paris Conservatoire. It was subsequently arranged in various instrumental versions, under the title “Pièce en forme de habanera”.

As you can see, Ravel was particularly fond of the characteristically Spanish habanera rhythm, which occurs not only in this piece, but also in his famous Rapsodie espagnole

Tune of the Day: The Flowers of Dungarvan

This jig appears to be unique to Francis O'Neill's collection The Dance Music of Ireland, published in Chicago in 1907.

Dungarvan is a coastal town and harbor in County Waterford, on the south-east coast of Ireland. It would appear that to this day the town is still renowned for its flowers: in 2018, it achieved a much-coveted silver medal in the Entente Florale Europe competition, organized by the European Association for Flowers and Landscape.

Tune of the Day: Study in C major by Gariboldi

This is étude No. 10 from Italian Romantic composer Giuseppe Gariboldi's collection of 30 Etudes faciles et progressives.