Free Flute Sheet Music

Tune of the Day: Dan Rogers' Jig

The earliest appearance of this jig is found in Francis O'Neill's collection Music of Ireland, published in Chicago in 1903.

Tune of the Day: Sarabande

In the fixed structure of Bach's Cello Suites, the fourth movement of each suite is always a sarabande. This triple meter dance originated during the sixteenth century as a wildly exuberant dance song in Latin America, before becoming one of the most popular dances of the Baroque.

Initially a light, cheerful dance of moderately quick tempo, the sarabande went through many changes during the Baroque period. The late seventeenth-century form, used extensively in France and Germany, was much slower, more deliberate, and serious, with a heavy accent on the second pulse of the measure. Composers often provided heavy written-out embellishments for this slow sarabande.

Tune of the Day: The First Noel

This traditional English carol, also known as “The First Nowell”, is most likely from the 18th century. The now popular com­bin­a­tion of tune and lyr­ics first ap­peared in print in a collection of Christmas carols published in 1833. The melody is unusual among English folk melodies in that it consists of one musical phrase repeated twice, followed by a variation on that phrase. It is thought to be a corruption of an earlier melody sung in a church gallery setting; because of its repetitive nature, it probably began as a descant to another melody, or possibly as parts of other tunes.

Here the word “Noel” (or “Nowell”) comes from the French Noël, meaning “Christmas”, from the Latin natalis, “birth”. It may also be from the Gaulish words noio or neu meaning “new”, and helle, meaning “light”, referring to the winter solstice (December 21), when sunlight begins overtaking darkness.

Tune of the Day: I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day

Despite the mention of bells and Christmas in the title, “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day” is as much an antiwar song as it is a Christmas song. In fact, the poetry of this renowned carol was crafted by the great American literary figure Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in the midst of the American Civil War. On Christmas Day in 1863, Longfellow wrote the familiar lines in response to the horror of the bloody fratricidal conflict in general and to the personal tragedy of his son, who was severely wounded in November 1862.

It was not until sometime after 1872 that the poem, which was originally titled “Christmas Bells”, was converted into a carol. The composer of the tune, organist John Baptiste Calkin, was the most famous of a family of accomplished English musicians. At first Calkin's melody was published with the 1848 American hymn “Fling Out the Banner! Let It Float” by George Washington Doane. Ironically, “Fling Out” was an old-fashioned militant missionary hymn which contrasted greatly in purpose and spirit from the more permanent partner of Calkin's music.

Although Calkin's melody, which is actually titled “Waltham”, is beautiful, at least three alternative tunes have been tried. Among these, the wafting melody by Johnny Marks (who is most noted for “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”) has become particularly popular. Marks' composition is now often used for modern recordings of the song, while Calkin's melody was notably featured in recordings by Elvis Presley, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Jimmie Rodgers.

Tune of the Day: Get Up Early

The earliest appearance of this tune is found in Edward Bunting's collection The Ancient Music of Ireland, published in Dublin in 1840. Bunting obtained the melody (which is described as “Very ancient”) from R. Stanton, Westport, County Mayo, in 1802.

Tune of the Day: Study in G major by Gariboldi

This is étude No. 18 from Italian Romantic composer Giuseppe Gariboldi's collection of 30 Etudes faciles et progressives. It focuses on the alternation of binary and ternary rhythms.

Tune of the Day: Andante by Köhler

Here is a new duet from the first volume of Ernesto Köhler's Forty Progressive Duets, Op. 55. This Andante in D major is made up of a very simple melody, accompanied by a series of arpeggios.