This study in double tonguing is the very last piece of Italian Romantic composer Giuseppe Gariboldi's collection of 30 Etudes faciles et progressives.
This tune appears to be unique to Francis O'Neill's early-20th-century collections Music of Ireland (1903) and The Dance Music of Ireland (1907), both published in Chicago. O'Neill's source was Chicago police patrolman, piper and flute player John Ennis, originally from County Kildare. Ennis had it from a Chicago session, a “pet tune” of a nameless player who was reluctant to allow it to be collected.
Composed in 1900, the Serenata “Rimpianto” (literally, “Regret”) is the only work Enrico Toselli is remembered for, despite his having written many other songs, as well as tone poems and operettas. It is also one of his earliest works, composed when he was only seventeen. The song was so popular, Toselli himself made an arrangement for violin and piano. Arrangements for almost every other instrument and ensemble have been made over the years as well.
The song is one of those typical turn-of-the-century pieces, very sentimental and light on musical complexity, that would sound emotionally impressive when performed by concert artists, but would also be easily performed at home by amateurs.
Here is another duet in E minor from the 55 Easy Pieces by Baroque composer Joseph Bodin de Boismortier. The title “La Champenoise” refers to the French province of Champagne, now best known for the sparkling white wine that bears its name.
This blazingly fast 4/8-time moto perpetuo is the fourteenth étude from Sigfried Karg-Elert's 30 Caprices: a “Gradus ad Parnassum” of the modern technique for flute solo. It is marked “Il più presto possibile”, which literally means “As fast as possible”!
This jig is taken from Francis O'Neill's collection Music of Ireland, published in 1903. O'Neill's source was Chicago fiddler, dancer and police patrolman Timothy Dillon, originally from County Kerry in western Ireland.
Originally written for violin and piano, this well-known “Cantabile” in D major seems to have been composed not for public use but rather for the private enjoyment of Paganini and his circle. Here we find the composer's virtuoso fireworks tamed, his bag of tricks closed. Far removed from the pyrotechnic “Caprices”, the Cantabile is instead a gorgeous Italian vocalise.
Thanks to Mauro from Italy for suggesting this piece!
Today's piece is the central air from Johann Sebastian Bach's second French Suite for harpsichord, composed around 1722. Originally in C minor, this movement has been transposed to F minor to better fit the range of the flute.
Many thanks to Joyce Kai for contributing this arrangement!
This étude in D minor is taken from the second book of Twenty Easy Melodic Progressive Studies by Italian composer Ernesto Köhler.
This tune is taken from Francis O'Neill's collection Music of Ireland, published in Chicago in 1903. It is a variation on an older tune, “Jackson's Coggie in the Morning”, which had appeared in O'Farrell's Pocket Companion for the Irish or Union Pipes around 1805.
Theobald Boehm, the inventor who perfected the modern Western concert flute and its improved fingering system, was also a virtuoso flutist as well as a celebrated composer for the instrument. This “Souvenir of the Alps”, written in 1852, is the fifth of a set of six such pieces.
This is duet No. 3 from the first volume of Twenty Easy Melodic Progressive Studies by Italian Romantic composer Ernesto Köhler. It is marked con tristezza, which means “with sadness”, and a sense of sadness is indeed conveyed by the use of a minor key.
This étude in articulation is the eleventh piece from Sigfried Karg-Elert's 30 Caprices: a “Gradus ad Parnassum” of the modern technique for flute solo.
This minor-mode jig is taken from Chicago Police captain Francis O'Neill's collection The Dance Music of Ireland, published in 1907.
“Os pintinhos no terreiro" (which translates as “The Chicks in the Yard”) is a famous Brazilian choro composed by Zequinha de Abreu in 1932. Much like his world-famous “Tico-Tico no Fubá”, this piece features a fast, “hopping” melody that mimics the quick movements of little chicks scratching around a farmyard.
Thanks to Bruno for suggesting this tune!
This is the sixth duet in E minor from the 55 Easy Pieces by Baroque composer Joseph Bodin de Boismortier. The French title “Le Petit Maître” might be translated as “The Little Master”.
This étude in F-sharp minor is taken from the second book of Twenty Easy Melodic Progressive Studies by Italian composer Ernesto Köhler.
This lively jig appears to be unique to Francis O'Neill's collection The Dance Music of Ireland, published in Chicago in 1907.
This is the beautiful soprano solo from Fauré's Requiem, Op. 48. The seven movements of the French composer's setting of the Mass for the Dead form an arch whose keystone and crown is this central fourth movement, whose title means “Merciful Jesus”. Camille Saint-Saëns said of it, “just as Mozart's is the only Ave verum corpus, this is the only Pie Jesu.”
Thanks to Dawn for suggesting this piece!
This is duet No. 7 from the first volume of Twenty Easy Melodic Progressive Studies by Ernesto Köhler. It is composed of three parts: a Moderato marziale in C major, a livelier Allegretto in G major, and a final restatement of the opening theme.
Here is another étude by Danish flutist Joachim Andersen. This 3/4-time Pastorale in G-flat major is study No. 13 from his Twenty-Four Etudes for Flute, Op. 21.
Thanks to Elizabeth for suggesting this piece!
This jig is unique to Francis O'Neill's collection The Dance Music of Ireland, published in Chicago in 1907. It is however very similar to another jig, “Palm Sunday”, which had appeared in O'Neill's Music or Ireland in 1903.
“Les Patineurs” is a waltz by French composer Émile Waldteufel. Known in English as “The Skaters' Waltz”, it was composed in 1882 and was inspired by the Cercle des Patineurs (“Ring of Skaters”) at the Bois de Boulogne in Paris. His introduction to the waltz can be likened to the poise of a skater and the glissando notes invoke scenes of a wintry atmosphere. The other themes that follow are graceful and swirling, as if to depict a ring of skaters in their glory.
Extremely simple and catchy, Waldteufel's Waltz once enjoyed a popularity rivaling that of the works of his near contemporary, Johann Strauss, Jr. It has featured in dozens of films, from the earliest talkies to the present, including the Academy Award-winning Chariots of Fire.
This is the last duet in E minor from the 55 Easy Pieces collection by French Baroque composer Joseph Bodin de Boismortier.
This is the fifteenth étude from Sigfried Karg-Elert's 30 Caprices: a “Gradus ad Parnassum” of the modern technique for flute solo. It is marked “mosso e leggerissimo”, which translates as “agitated and very light”.
This jig appears to be unique to Chicago Police captain Francis O'Neill's collection The Dance Music of Ireland, published in 1907.
Castle Oliver (also known as Clonodfoy) is a Victorian castle-style country house in the southern part of County Limerick, Ireland.
The opening movement of Bach's Flute Sonata No. 4 is actually more of a “Presto”, although it begins with a measured “Andante” introduction. The flute plays nonstop throughout, and when it launches into the cadenza-like Presto proper, the accompaniment is reduced to a single, suspenseful, long-held chord. It's immediately clear that the flute part of this movement could easily stand alone.
Here are the following movements: Allegro, Adagio, Menuetto I and II.
This is flute duet No. 14 from the second volume of Ernesto Köhler's Forty Progressive Duets, Op. 55. In this piece the second flute does not merely accompany the first one: they both share the main melody.
This is étude No. 10 from Ernesto Köhler's 25 Romantic Studies, Op. 66. It alternates a 2/4-time Allegro in G major and a light Waltz in D major.
This tune has been widely disseminated across the British Isles, as well as in new England, though its origins appear to be Irish. It is at least as old as uilleann piper and cleric James Goodman's mid-19th-century music manuscripts.
To make things more confusing, there are numerous different tunes called “Lady of the Lake”, as well as a country dance, but this particular jig doesn't seem to be associated with any of them, in spite of its popularity.