Free Flute Sheet Music

Tune of the Day: Elite Syncopations

Published in 1902, just three years after “Maple Leaf Rag”, this marvelous display of pianistic prowess shows Scott Joplin's potential for innovation and development. Of course, all ragtime music is rhythmically charged, forward-thrusting and syncopated, but there is a particular bounce to the step of “Elite Syncopations”.

The piece is marked "Not fast", but “fast” in this instance must be seen as a relative term: it is likely that in Joplin's time many pianists were playing his rags at breakneck speeds to show off their skill. It has been widely agreed that the composer's intention was that his pieces were not to be played at outlandish speeds, but in a controlled manner.

“Elite Syncopations” is built, as are all of Joplin's pieces, from several tuneful strands. In the last two sections, we move from the key of F major to the key of B-flat major, never to return.

Tune of the Day: Another Jig Will Do

This is a common slip jig at modern Irish music sessions, after it was popularized by the Boys of the Lough in the 1970s. The earliest appearance of the tune in print is found in Ryan's Mammoth Collection, published in Boston in 1883.

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

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

Tune of the Day: Allegro by Quantz

This is the opening Allegro of a Flute Duet in G major that the famous German flutist and composer Johann Joachim Quantz composed in 1759.

Thanks to Deb for suggesting this piece!

Tune of the Day: Allegro

Published in 1728, Antonio Vivaldi's set of six Concertos for flute was not only the first collection of flute concertos published in Italy, it was nearly the first set of flute concertos ever published. Among these concertos, the most famous is arguably the one nicknamed “Il Gardellino” (or “Il Cardellino”), Op. 10 No. 3, a piece of program music that describes the singing of the goldfinch. The flute imitates the bird's singing, competing with the accompaniment in a series of rapid figurations. The opening Allegro, in particular, is as light and evanescent as the opening of “Spring” from The Four Seasons.

Tune of the Day: Up and Down Again

This tune dates back to at least 1698, when it was published as “Mad Moll” (the title of a 1611 comic play by Thomas Middleton, featuring the heroine Moll Cutpurse) in Playford's Dancing Master. Professor R.D. Cannon, in his article “English Bagpipe Music” (Folk Music Journal, 1972), suggests the progenitor of this large tune family is the Scottish jig “Up with Aley”.

The melody is better known in Scotland under the name “Brose and Butter”, with brose being an uncooked form of porridge obtained by mixing oatmeal with boiling water, milk, or stock. According to Robert Ford (Song Histories, 1900) “Brose and Butter” was a favorite air of Charles II of England during his exile.

Tune of the Day: Study in D minor by Gariboldi

Today we present the sixth study from Italian composer Giuseppe Gariboldi's Etudes mignonnes (Dainty Studies), Op. 131.