Free Flute Sheet Music

Tune of the Day: The Lads of Dunse

The Scottish town of Duns is located in the historic county of Berwickshire, in the Borders region. Directions for the dance to this tune were written down in 1752 by John McGill, dancing master in Girvan (Ayrshire), for his students. McGill is sometimes credited with the composition, although Scottish and English sources predominate, and it was printed in England long before McGill's dance, in John Walsh's Compleat Country Dancing-Master (1731) as “The Ladds of Dunce”.

Tune of the Day: Siciliana

The siciliana (or “siciliano”, or “sicilienne”) is a dance often included as a movement within larger works of music starting in the Baroque period. It can be in a slow 6/8 or 12/8 time, with lilting rhythms making it somewhat resemble a slow jig, and is usually in a minor key. It was used for arias in Baroque operas, and often appeared as a movement in instrumental works. The siciliana is traditionally associated with pastoral scenes and melancholy emotion.

The siciliana we present today was written by one of the greatest prodigies in musical history: the Italian baroque composer Giovanni Battista Pergolesi. It is a slow and gentle piece which has become somewhat popular among flutists and violinists.

Tune of the Day: Duet in E minor by Hugues

This is duet No. 10 from the first volume of Luigi Hugues's La scuola del flauto (The School of the Flute).

Thanks to Paolo for contributing this piece!

Tune of the Day: Study in F major by Andersen

Here is another étude by Danish flutist Joachim Andersen. This “Andante con moto” in F major is study No. 23 from his Twenty-Four Etudes for Flute, Op. 33.

Tune of the Day: The Lasses of Dunse

This melody appears earliest in Wright's Compleat Collection of Celebrated Country Dances (London, 1742) and David Rutherford's Compleat Collection of 200 of the Most Celebrated Country Dances (London, 1756).

The title references the Scottish burgh of Duns in Berwickshire, in the Borders region of southeast Scotland.

Tune of the Day: Mighty Oregon

“Mighty Oregon” is the song played by the Oregon Marching Band at home football and basketball games. Originally titled “The Mighty Oregon March”, it was written by Director of Bands, Albert Perfect, and was first performed in 1916.

For the song's most popular section, Perfect fashioned a new melody to fit into the harmony from “It's a Long Way to Tipperary”, a hit 1912 World War I march. The catchy popularity of the harmony was not lost on Perfect, a well-educated in music theory, who originally subtitled the song “The Tipperary of the West”. The new march attained rapid popularity: during the next few years, “Mighty Oregon” was published as a solo piano piece, released nationally as a piano roll, and even played by the 162nd Infantry Band in France.

Tune of the Day: L'Enhardie

Today's piece is a lively gavotte in D major, duet No. 3 from Joseph Bodin de Boismortier's 55 Easy Pieces, Op. 22. Its title, “L'Enhardie”, might be translated from French as “the bold, audacious one”.

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

This is étude No. 13 from Italian Romantic composer Giuseppe Gariboldi's collection of 30 Etudes faciles et progressives.

Tune of the Day: Portpatrick

The earliest appearance of this jig is in Robert Bremner's A Collection of Scots Reels or Country Dances, published in London in 1757.

Portpatrick is a coastal village in Dumfries and Galloway, southwest Scotland, with a sheltered harbor. It was a ferry port of passengers, postal mail and freight between Ireland and Scotland. At one time it was a destination for couples from Ireland seeking a quick wedding.

According to musician Alison Kinnaird, however, Port simply means a ‛tune’ in harp repertory—in other words, “Patrick's tune”. Musicologist John Purser disagrees, and is of the opinion that the title does refer to the town, and not to an older harp tune.

Tune of the Day: Salut d'Amour

Elgar finished this piece in July 1888, when he was engaged to be married to Caroline Alice Roberts, and he called it “Liebesgruss” (“Love's Greeting”) because of Miss Roberts' fluency in German. When he returned home to London from a holiday at the house of his friend Dr. Charles Buck, he presented it to her as an engagement present. The dedication was in French: “à Carice”. “Carice” was a combination of his wife-to-be's names Caroline Alice, and was the name to be given to their daughter born two years later.

The work was not published until a year later, and the first editions were for violin and piano, piano solo, cello and piano, and for small orchestra. Few copies were sold until the publisher changed the title to “Salut d’Amour”, and the composer's name as “Ed. Elgar”. The French title, Elgar realized, helped the work to be sold not only in France but in other European countries as well.

Tune of the Day: Duet in F major by Köhler

This is duet No. 4 from the first volume of Twenty Easy Melodic Progressive Studies by Ernesto Köhler. The upper part is very melodic, while the lower part is more of an accompaniment.

Thanks to Bruno for contributing this piece!

Tune of the Day: Study in G minor by Köhler

This étude in G minor is taken from the second book of Twenty Easy Melodic Progressive Studies by Italian composer Ernesto Köhler.

Tune of the Day: May Be I Will

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

Tune of the Day: Wedding Day at Troldhaugen

There are 66 pieces in ten volumes comprising Grieg's Lyric Pieces for solo piano, and “Wedding Day at Troldhaugen” is probably the most popular work in the group. Actually, this music does not quite depict a wedding day; rather, it represents the happy recollection of the composer and his wife Nina's 25th wedding anniversary celebration, which took place in 1892 at their residence at Troldhaugen (“Troll Hill”). Grieg is reputed to have said that children called the nearby small valley “The Valley of Trolls” (the large, fearless creatures from Norse mythology) and thus gave the name for his building as well.

The piece is in ABA form. The mood of the music is bright and utterly joyous in the outer sections, but more intimate and nostalgic in the central G-major panel.

Tune of the Day: La Molesse

Here is another duet from Joseph Bodin de Boismortier's 55 Easy Pieces, Op. 22. It is titled “La Molesse”, or “The Softness”.

Thanks to Paolo for contributing this piece!

Tune of the Day: Study in A major by Gariboldi

This is étude No. 14 from Italian Romantic composer Giuseppe Gariboldi's collection of 30 Etudes faciles et progressives.

Tune of the Day: The Market Girl

This jig is first found in Ryan's Mammoth Collection, published in Boston in 1883, in which the composition is attributed to one J. Sullivan.

Tune of the Day: Si un jour

This tune was originally composed by Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi for the overture to his opera La Forza del Destino (“The Force of Destiny”), which premiered in 1862. In 1986, the theme was rearranged by Jean-Claude Petit for use in the French historical drama film Jean de Florette, which brought it to a huge audience.

Although both the original opera version and the film version were purely instrumental, lyrics were later added, giving birth to the song “Si un jour” (“If one day”). One of the best recent recordings of this piece is by the British soprano Natasha Marsh on her 2007 album Amour.

Tune of the Day: Largo by Telemann

This is the first movement from the fourth of Telemann's Sonates sans Basse à deux Flutes traverses, ou à deux Violons, ou à deux Flutes à bec, or “Sonatas without Bass for Two Transverse Flutes, or Two Violins, or Two Recorders”.

Thanks to Raquel for suggesting this piece!

Tune of the Day: Teasing

This étude is taken from Ernesto Köhler's 25 Romantic Studies, Op. 66. Make sure not to insist on the eighth-notes that come after a triplet, and try to keep the grace notes as short as possible.

Thanks to Shaoyi for suggesting this piece!

Tune of the Day: The Drogheda Weavers

This lively jig is taken from Francis O'Neill's collection The Dance Music of Ireland, published in Chicago in 1907. In his 1913 book Irish Minstrels and Musicians, O'Neill remarks that there was a special dance performed to this tune.

Drogheda is a Gaelic word for “bridge by a ford”, and is the name of a port town in County Louth, about 30 miles north of Dublin by the River Boyne.

Tune of the Day: Waves of the Danube

This waltz was composed by Romanian military band leader and composer Iosif Ivanovici, and is one of the most famous Romanian tunes in the world. The piece was first published in Bucharest in 1880; a few years later, composer Emile Waldteufel made an orchestration of the song, which was performed for the first time at the 1889 Paris Exposition, and took the audience by storm.

In the United States, “Waves of the Danube” became known only half a century later, when Al Jolson and Saul Chaplin published it in 1946 under the name of “The Anniversary Song” (“Oh, how we danced on the night we were wed”). Recorded by Al Jolson, the song first reached the Billboard magazine charts in February 1947 and lasted 14 weeks on the chart, peaking at #2.

Tune of the Day: La Mijaurée

This sarabande is the fifth duet in D major from Joseph Bodin de Boismortier's 55 Easy Pieces, Op. 22. “Mijaurée” is a dialectal term from western France, used to indicate a pretentious woman.

Tune of the Day: Study in E-flat major by Gariboldi

This is étude No. 15 from Italian Romantic composer Giuseppe Gariboldi's collection of 30 Etudes faciles et progressives.

Tune of the Day: The Hollyford Jig

This jig appears to be unique to Chicago Police Captain Francis O'Neill's collection The Dance Music of Ireland, published in 1907. Hollyford is a small village in County Tipperary, Ireland.

Tune of the Day: Intermezzo by Paul Merkus

Today's piece was kindly contributed to our collection by its composer, Paul Merkus from the Netherlands. It was originally written for piano solo in 1998.

The piece opens with a tranquil low-register musing that, after 16 bars, blossoms into a higher register and builds to a climax with a somewhat freer accompaniment. After this climax, the opening theme concludes. The interlude of this “Intermezzo” is a simple melody in the major mode that flows peacefully along with a quiet accompaniment of broken chords in the left hand. After a mysterious transition back to the minor key, the tranquility culminates in the exciting chorale in the piano. The whole then lightens somewhat when the flute comes back with a fantasy of scale figures, culminating in the piece's apotheosis: a grand conclusion with a reprise of the opening theme, but now in a maestoso style.

Tune of the Day: Allegro by Telemann

This common-time Allegro is the second movement of Georg Philipp Telemann's Sonata No. 4 in E minor for two flutes or recorders.

Tune of the Day: Study in E minor by Köhler

This étude in E minor is taken from the second book of Twenty Easy Melodic Progressive Studies by Italian composer Ernesto Köhler.

Tune of the Day: Nell Kennedy

This jig is taken from Francis O'Neill's collection The Dance Music of Ireland, published in Chicago in 1907.

Tune of the Day: Sugar Cane

When this rag was first published in 1908, it was evident to many that it was based on the same format of Joplin's first big hit, “Maple Leaf Rag”, which was published nine years earlier. Indeed, in the opening section “Sugar Cane” is stylistically identical to its famous predecessor. But it still rings with originality, in spite of the detractors. One of those was his now-estranged publisher John Stark, who derided Joplin's efforts of the time in personal notes. He postulated that Joplin's “spring of inspiration had run dry”, and seemed to show little compassion for the composer that had helped build his empire. Just the same, Joplin rags sold no matter who published them.