Free Flute Sheet Music

Tune of the Day: Andantino by Quantz

This is the central movement of a Flute Duet in A minor that the famous German flutist and composer Johann Joachim Quantz composed in 1759.

Tune of the Day: Scherzo from the New World Symphony

The third movement of Dvořák's Symphony No. 9 “From the New World” clearly pays homage to Ludwig van Beethoven. Appropriately entitled after the “Molto vivace” (“very lively”) in Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, the first notes will make the listener feel they are suddenly listening to Beethoven all over again. Being so fast and lively, this dancing movement is a direct contrast to the Largo before it. The following “Poco sostenuto” trio in E major, on the other hand, recalls Dvorak's very strong Czech-Bohemian folk influences. Of course, Native American music had also been an influence on this symphony. In particular, Dvořák wrote that the third movement scherzo was “suggested by the scene at the feast in Hiawatha where the Indians dance“, referring to Longfellow's 1855 epic poem The Song of Hiawatha.

Tune of the Day: Cahiramee

This syncopated jig appears to be unique to Chicago Police Captain Francis O'Neill's 1907 collection The Dance Music of Ireland.

Cahiramee (or Cahirmee) is a place name in north County Cork (some two miles east of the town of Buttevant), the location of a famous horse fair. The exact start date of the Cahirmee Horse Fair is lost to history, but local legend dates it back to the time of Brian Boru in the 11th century, and written records mention it as early as the 15th century. According to local tradition, this is where Napoleon bought his famous white charger, Marengo.

Tune of the Day: Study in E major by Kummer

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

Tune of the Day: Largo by Loeillet

This Largo in E minor opens the second of Belgian Baroque composer Jean-Baptiste Loeillet's second book of Six sonatas of two parts, made on purpose for two German flutes, first published in London in 1720.

Tune of the Day: Allegro by Telemann

Here is the second movement of Telemann's Sonata in F minor for bassoon and basso continuo. It is an Allegro in ternary (A-B-A) form which shows a particular rhythmic interest, in that key moments in phrases often occupy unexpected beats of the bar. As a fast movement, it is somewhat virtuosic, especially when the semiquavers come in. Be prepared for them!

Tune of the Day: Gusty's Frolics

Collector George Petrie found this “very old Munster tune” in a manuscript music book, and included it in his 1905 Complete Collection of Irish Music under the misspelled title “Gurty's Frolics”. The same melody had previously appeared in the 19th-century manuscript of musician Stephen Grier (1824–1894) from County Leitrim, but the title there was “Gusty's Frolics”.

Francis O'Neill (1913) identifies the composer of this piece as Gustavis Augustus “Gusty” Nicolls, a landlord and uilleann piper of the late 18th and early 19th century who lived near Carrigallen, in the southern part of County Leitrim. “Blessed with manly beauty, musical talents, and worldly wealth, Augustus earned the reputation of being an irresistible heartbreaker also”, says O'Neill. Nicolls was what would be considered a “gentleman piper” and owned an estate at Rossan in the parish of Aughavas. In addition to his other successes, he was remembered as a noted teacher of the pipes, and especially for his ability to teach disabled people, who often when young were trained as professional musicians to be able to make their way in the world.