Free Flute Sheet Music

Tune of the Day: Study in A major by Köhler

This 4/8-time étude in A major is taken from the first book of Twenty Easy Melodic Progressive Studies by Italian composer Ernesto Köhler.

Tune of the Day: Wallop the Spot

The earliest known appearance of this jig is in Francis O'Neill's Music or Ireland, published in Chicago in 1903. O'Neill's source for the tune was fiddle player John McFadden, originally from near Westport, County Mayo.

Tune of the Day: Plaisir d'amour

This song was originally written in 1780 by Jean Paul Égide Martini. Sometimes known as Martini Il Tedesco (Italian for “Martini the German”), Martini was born Johann Paul Aegidius Schwarzendorf in Freystadt, Germany. He adopted the family name Martini after moving to France, where he established a successful career as a court musician. He is sometimes referred to as Giovanni Martini, which has resulted in a confusion with Giovanni Battista Martini, particularly with regard to the composition of “Plaisir d'Amour”.

This vocal romance became quite popular, and was later arranged for orchestra by Hector Berlioz. Notable interpretations of the song include those of Joan Baez, Brigitte Bardot, Karen Allyson, and Charlotte Church. Although it has recently been adapted as a piece of pop music, most people don't realize that it was written in a classical style during the classical period.

The melody was reused for the popular 1961 song “Can't Help Falling in Love”, performed by Elvis Presley in the film Blue Hawaii.

Tune of the Day: Third Mode Melody

Thomas Tallis was a prominent English church organist and composer, whose nine psalm chant pieces were included in Archbishop Matthew Parker's Psalter of 1567. The “Third Mode Melody” is perhaps Tallis's best-known composition today, due to its appearance as background music in the 2003 film Master and Commander, which featured Ralph Vaughan Williams's 1910 Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis for string orchestra. For his work, Vaughan Williams took much inspiration from music of the English Renaissance; actually, many of his compositions are associated with or inspired by the music of this period.

Gregorian chants, named after Pope Gregory I, are among the earliest church music used in celebration of mass and other liturgical sacraments of the Church. Within medieval Gregorian chant, there are seven “modes” that correspond to scales; Tallis's tune is based on the third mode, the so-called “Phrygian” mode. Its scale is similar to that of a piece in E minor, with the difference that the second note is F-natural, and not F-sharp. Therefore, even if F-sharps are present, they are to be considered as accidental notes.

This arrangement can also be played as a duet by omitting the middle voice.

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

This is the fifth technical étude from 18 exercices pour la flûte traversière by French Romantic composer Benoit Tranquille Berbiguier. To be played with metronomic regularity.

Tune of the Day: Take It Easy

This jig appears to be unique to Francis O'Neill's collections Music of Ireland and The Dance Music of Ireland, published in Chicago in 1903 and 1907 respectively.

It is a derivative of the Scottish melody “Hey Jenny Come Down to Jock”, published in William McGibbon's Scots Tunes (Edinburgh, 1764).

Tune of the Day: Papageno's Aria

This famous aria is sung near the end of the second and last act of Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute). After Pamina and Tamino fell in love with each other, the funny bird catcher Papageno also desires to have a “little wife”, and sings of this with his magic bells. The original first line is “Ein Mädchen oder Weibchen”, but here's a translation instead, taken directly from the 1984 film Amadeus:

A sweetheart or a pretty little wife
Is Papageno's wish.
A willing, billing, lovey dovey
Would be
My most tasty little dish.
Be my most tasty little dish!
Be my most tasty little dish!
Then that would be eating and drinking
I'd live like a Prince without thinking.
The wisdom of old would be mine —
A woman's much better than wine!

Tune of the Day: The Impresario Overture

The Impresario (actually, Der Schauspieldirektor) is a comic opera written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in 1786. It was commissioned to the famous Austrian composer by Emperor Joseph II, who wanted to pit a German singspiel against the Italian opera Prima la musica, poi le parole (First the Music, then the Words) by Antonio Salieri.

Cast in one short act, Mozart's opera has just four numbers. The overture, which we present today arranged for flute duet, is similar to the one from The Marriage of Figaro, which was written at the same time and premiered later the same year.

Thanks to Karen for suggesting this piece!

Tune of the Day: Study in F-sharp minor by Köhler

Here is a new étude from the first book of Twenty Easy Melodic Progressive Studies by Italian flutist and composer Ernesto Köhler.

Tune of the Day: The Man Who Died and Rose Again

This jig is taken from Chicago Police Captain Francis O'Neill's 1903 collection Music of Ireland. His source was the celebrated uilleann piper Patsy Touhey, and about him he later wrote, in Irish Folk Music: A Fascinating Hobby (1910):

No one but an Irishman would thing of naming an air or a tune “The Man Who Died and Rose Again.” Where Patrick Touhey, the famous piper, obtained this rare unpublished jig, we are unable to say.

Tune of the Day: Aquarium

This is one of the musically richest movements from Le Carnaval des Animaux (“The Carnival of the Animals”), a musical suite of fourteen movements by the French Romantic composer Camille Saint-Saëns. The melody is played by the flute, on top of tumultuous, glissando-like runs in the piano. These irregular piano figures are evocative of a peaceful, dimly-lit aquarium.

“Aquarium” has been featured in the trailers for the 2008 film The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, the 1974 film The Godfather Part II, the 1994 film Only You, and the 2006 film Charlotte's Web. It also appears to be one of the influences on the main theme in Walt Disney's Beauty and the Beast, and is especially prominent in the cue titled “The West Wing”.

As Trevor Wye points out in his popular Practice Books, this piece makes an excellent tone exercise.

Tune of the Day: Je me recommande humblement

Along with Guillaume Dufay and John Dunstaple, Gilles Binchois was one of the most famous composers of the early 15th century.

As Binchois avoided large-scale works, his three-part songs are his most important compositions. Typical features include rather short-breathed phrases, triple rhythm, and the apparent repetition of material. These repetitions actually demonstrate Binchois's flexibility, since it is rare for two phrases to have exactly the same rhythmic or melodic contour. The song “Je me recommande” is a fine example of his style, and illustrates many of the features that make Binchois a supreme miniaturist.

Tune of the Day: Study in G minor by Berbiguier

This study in triplets is taken from 18 exercices pour la flûte traversière by French Romantic composer Benoit Tranquille Berbiguier.

Tune of the Day: Strop the Razor

The earliest appearance of this jig is found in Howe’s 500 Irish Melodies Ancient and Modern, published in Boston around 1880, under the (probably corrupted) title “Stop the Razor”. It was then included, as two separate settings, in Francis O'Neill's Music or Ireland (Chicago, 1903). Our version is a concatenation of these two settings, with parts 3 to 6 (the second setting) serving as variations.

Tune of the Day: Largo

The Sei Solo – a violino senza Basso accompagnato (“six violin solos without bass”), as Bach titled them, have a great historical significance, as they firmly established the technical capability of the violin as a solo instrument. The set consists of three sonatas da chiesa, in four movements, and three partitas, in dance-form movements. It was completed by 1720, but was only published in 1802. Even after publication, it was largely ignored until the celebrated violinist Josef Joachim started performing these works. Today, Bach's Sonatas and Partitas are an essential part of the violin repertoire, frequently performed and recorded.

This splendid Largo in F major constitutes the third movement of Sonata No. 3 in C major. Considered by some as the most beautiful of all solo works ever written for violin, it has always been an obvious choice for an encore at any performance.

Tune of the Day: Lamentabile by W.F. Bach

This is the second movement of Wilhelm Friedemann Bach's Flute Duet in F major. It is an extremely slow and meditative piece, marked “Lamentabile”, which in Italian would literally mean “mournful”. The movement is set in binary (AABB) form, and the first part starts out as a canon at the fifth; that is, when the first voice enters it repeats the melody exposed by the second voice, but a fifth higher.

Thanks to Jean-Marc for suggesting this piece!

Tune of the Day: The Swing

As indicated by its title, this study should render the impression of a sweeping motion. The “poco a poco ravivando il tempo” marking at the beginning asks for a very gradually increasing tempo.

Tune of the Day: The Gudgeon of Maurice's Car

This jig is taken from Francis O'Neill's collection Music of Ireland, published in Chicago in 1903. O'Neill wrote that his source, piper John Connors from Dublin, was the only one among the traditional music circle to know this jig at the time O'Neill collected it from him in Chicago.

We have no idea what story might be hidden behind this curious title, but a gudgeon is a metal pivot at the end of an axle, around which the wheel turns.

Tune of the Day: National Emblem

The National Emblem march was composed in 1902 by Edwin Eugene Bagley. It is a standard of the American march repertoire, appearing in eleven published editions.

Bagley composed the score during a 1902 train tour with his family band. He became frustrated with the ending, and tossed the composition in a trash can. Members of the band fortunately retrieved it and secretly rehearsed the score in the baggage car. Bagley was surprised when the band informed him minutes before the next concert that they would perform it. It became the most famous of all of Bagley’s marches. Despite this, the composition did not make Bagley wealthy, for he sold the copyright for $25!

Bagley incorporates into the march the first twelve notes of The Star-Spangled Banner ingeniously disguised in duple rather than triple time. The rest of the notes are all Bagley’s, including the four short repeated A-flat major chords that lead to a statement by the low brass that is now reminiscent of the National Anthem.

The best-known theme of this march is popularly sung in the US with the doggerel verse “and the monkey wrapped his tail around the flagpole”. In Britain, the same theme is sometimes sung with the words, “have you ever caught your bollocks in a mangle”.

The march has been featured in movies such as Protocol and Hot Shots!.

Tune of the Day: Adieu, m'amour et ma maistresse

The theme of lovers parting recurs as a trope in fifteenth-century song. Both Guillaume Dufay and Gilles Binchois, two of the most important Franco-Flemish composers of the early Renaissance, composed popular laments that began with the tearful line “Farewell, my love”. Today we present Binchois's “Adieu m'amour et ma maîtresse”, which was originally composed for three high male voices.

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

This is the seventh étude from 18 exercices pour la flûte traversière by French Romantic composer Benoit Tranquille Berbiguier.

Tune of the Day: The Humors of Ballydehob

This jig first appeared, under the title “The Green Forever”, in Ryan's Mammoth Collection, published in Boston in 1883. It was then printed as “The Humors of Ballydehob” in Francis O'Neill's Music of Ireland (Chicago, 1903).

Ballydehob (meaning “mouth of the two river fords”) is a coastal village in the southwest of County Cork, Ireland.

Tune of the Day: Giga

Of the 15 or so sonatas for solo instrument and basso continuo composed by Handel that have at various times been lumped together under the title Opus 1, a full third were originally composed for the recorder. In fact, only the violin is more fully represented in the Opus 1 collection. However, each of the five recorder sonatas from Opus 1 is undoubtedly the product of Handel's pen, whereas a handful of the violin sonatas may well be spurious. They are all splendid examples of Handel's youthful craftsmanship, probably composed before the composer moved to England in 1710.

The fourth and final movement of the recorder sonata in F major, this Gigue is a joyous and infectious reworking of one of Handel's favorite instrumental themes. This kind of piece, also known under the Italian spelling Giga, is to be thought as the music to the lively baroque dance of the same name, which originates from the British jig.

Tune of the Day: Spirituoso by Telemann

This is the first movement from Georg Philipp Telemann's third Canonic Sonata for two flutes. It is marked “Spirituoso”, which could simply be translated as “spirited”, or “lively”. It starts off with a brilliant theme in D major, then modulates to A major and B minor in the central section before the return of the theme. As with all canons, both players can play from the same part.

Thanks to Béa for suggesting this piece!

Tune of the Day: At the Fountain

This is étude No. 6 from Ernesto Köhler's 25 Romantic Studies. Bring out the contrast between slurred and staccato notes; the latter must give the impression of water falling drop by drop.

Tune of the Day: The Luck Penny

This lively jig was first printed in Chicago Police sergeant Francis O'Neill's celebrated collection Music of Ireland, published in 1903.

The “lucky penny” was the extra penny paid for good-will on the price of animals at rural livestock fairs in Ireland.

Tune of the Day: Romanze

This famous romance is the second movement of Serenade No. 13 for strings in G major, K. 525, more commonly known as Eine kleine Nachtmusik (“a small serenade”). Mozart wrote it in 1787, while working on the second act of his Don Giovanni. It is not known why it was composed.

This second movement is marked “Andante”, thus contrasting with the lively “Allegro” of the first movement. It is in a “section rondo form”, and is similar to the sonata rondo form (A–B–A–C–A). The first theme is graceful and lyrical, and is followed by a more rhythmical second theme. Then the first theme returns, followed by the third theme, which is darker than the first two and includes a touch of C minor. A restatement of the first theme returns to finish the movement.

Tune of the Day: Che soave zeffiretto

This duettino (short duet) is taken from act 3 of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's opera The Marriage of Figaro. In the opera, Countess Almaviva dictates to Susanna a love letter to Almaviva's husband, Count Almaviva, in a plot to expose his infidelity.

This arrangement for flute duet is from a German edition which was published in Bonn in 1799, only 13 years after 1784, when Le nozze di Figaro was composed.

Tune of the Day: Study in C minor by Berbiguier

This is the eight étude from 18 exercices pour la flûte traversière by French Romantic composer Benoit Tranquille Berbiguier.

Tune of the Day: The Blarney Pilgrim

This jig is found in the Stanford/Petrie manuscript The Complete Collection of Irish Music (London, 1902), under the title “The Parish Girl”. Francis O'Neill also included the same melody as “The Blarney Pilgrim” in his collection Music of Ireland (Chicago, 1903).

“The Blarney Pilgrim” was one of the tunes played by the band in the scene of the Irish dancers in steerage in the 1997 blockbuster film Titanic.

The title is a reference to the Blarney Stone, a block of limestone built into the battlements of Blarney Castle, located near Cork City, Ireland. According to legend, kissing the stone endows the kisser with the gift of the gab (great eloquence or skill at flattery). Interestingly, since the stone is embedded in the wall of the castle, it can only be reached by being dangled out of a window.

Tune of the Day: Ach! so fromm, ach! so traut

Martha, oder Der Markt zu Richmond (Martha, or The Market at Richmond) is a “romantic comic” opera in four acts by German composer Friedrich von Flotow. It was first performed in Vienna in 1847.

The opera is set in 18th-century England, during the reign of Queen Anne, and the story is that of a beauty of high rank, Lady Harriet, who disguises herself as a peasant, calls herself Martha, and, with her maid Nancy, similarly disguised, joins a crowd of girls going to the hiring fair at Richmond. Two young farmers, Plunkett and Lyonel, engage Martha and her companion for twelve months. The two ladies however do not like their situation, and escape the same night. The two farmers, on the other hand, had fallen desperately in love with the girls.

The aria “Ach! so fromm” is taken from Act three, where Lyonel sees “Martha” again with the ladies-in-waiting for Queen Anne. He is struck again by her beauty, and grieves that he will probably never be with her again.

Despite being the most famous original aria from the opera, this aria was not originally written for Martha, but for Flotow's L'âme en peine. It was first interpolated into Martha in 1865, at the first Paris production. It is also often sung in its Italian translation “M'appari tutt'amor” (“She appeared to me full of love”).