Free Flute Sheet Music

Tune of the Day: Intermezzo

Premiered in 1890, Cavalleria rusticana (literally, “Rustic Chivalry”) is undoubtedly the best-known work by Italian composer Pietro Mascagni. This one-act opera is a concise, passionate tale of Sicilian peasants, with lashings of love, jealousy and tragic death.

A powerful orchestral intermezzo, simply known as “Intermezzo sinfonico”, divides the opera into two scenes. This famous Intermezzo recapitulates, in its 48 bars, what has gone before, and foreshadows the tragedy that is impending.

The piece has figured in the soundtrack of several films, most notably in the opening of Raging Bull and in The Godfather Part III, which featured a performance of Mascagni's opera as a key part of the film's climax.

Tune of the Day: Deh vieni, non tardar

This famous aria is taken from Act IV of Mozart's opera Le nozze di Figaro. Susanna sings this love song (“Oh come, don't delay”) to her beloved while Figaro is hiding behind a bush; but he thinks the song is for the Count of Almaviva, and becomes increasingly jealous.

Tune of the Day: Study in C-sharp minor by Andersen

Here is another étude by Danish flutist Joachim Andersen. This Allegro in C# minor is study No. 10 from his Twenty-Four Etudes for Flute, Op. 33.

Tune of the Day: The Full Moon

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

Tune of the Day: Maria, Marì

Composed in 1899 by Eduardo Di Capua with lyrics by poet Vincenzo Russo, this song was originally entitled “Maria, Marì”, but it eventually came to be known as “Oi Marì” from the first words of its refrain.

The lyrics to this waltz, which are actually in Neapolitan dialect and not in Italian, depict a classical serenade: a window, a girl, and a suitor on the street below.

Open, o window!
Let Maria appear,
As I’m in the middle of the street
Hoping to see her!

I don’t have a moment's peace
I turn my night into day
To be always here
Hoping to talk to her!

Oi Marì, Oi Marì
How much sleep I lose over you!
Let me sleep
Just hugging you!

Tune of the Day: Allegretto by Köhler

Here is a nice duet from Volume I of Ernesto Köhler's Forty Progressive Duets. The upper voice is very simple to play, while the lower one features many large intervals in the first half of the piece.

Tune of the Day: Study in F-sharp major by Berbiguier

This is the seventeenth étude from 18 exercices pour la flûte traversière by French Romantic composer Benoit Tranquille Berbiguier. Don't get intimidated by all the sharps!

Tune of the Day: Yesterday Morning

The earliest known appearance of this jig is in Canon James Goodman's mid-19th-century manuscript, under the Irish title “Air maidin a nae bhí camadan sgéil” (“Yesterday morning there was a rigmarole of a tale”). The tune was subsequently included, with very minor modifications, in both Petrie's and O'Neill's early-20th-century collections.

Tune of the Day: March of the Toreadors

Probably one of the most invigorating themes in all opera, the dashing “March of the Toreadors” serves as the very first theme of the prelude to Act I. The flamboyant Spanish tune is almost a literal transcription of the festive music announcing the bull-fight in the last Act.

The opera's prelude also introduces some of the most important themes, including the famous “Toreador Song” and an exotic and sinewy chromatic motive that permeates the opera as a musical symbol for both Carmen's character and the insurmountable power of fate. There is an odd story told of this theme, which is said to be of Eastern origin. The legend is that when Satan, according to Mohammedan tradition, was cast from Paradise, he remembered only one strain of the music he had heard there. This was known as the “Devil's Strain”, and Bizet used it with fine symbolic as well as perfect musical fitness.

Tune of the Day: Andante by Vivaldi

The exact date of composition for the famous Concerto for two Mandolins in G major is unknown, but it is assumed that Vivaldi wrote it for the students at the Ospedale della Pietà, a home for abandoned children where Vivaldi worked from 1703 to 1740.

The middle Andante is arguably the most famous movement of the Concerto. It is in E minor, with the two mandolins performing throughout over just violins and violas played pizzicato and in unison. The graceful melody is built mostly of overlapping, echoing phrases, with the two soloists coming together only to intensify the emotion at certain points.

Tune of the Day: Finger Exercise by Köhler

This is the fifth étude from Ernesto Köhler's 25 Romantic Studies, Op. 66. Despite its title, it is not very difficult; just start at a moderate tempo and make sure that your fingers move like clockwork, then gradually speed it up.

Tune of the Day: Castletown Conners

This Irish jig, named after a town in County Limerick, is taken from Francis O'Neill's collection The Dance Music of Ireland, published in Chicago in 1907. O'Neill, who obtained the tune from Limerick fiddler John Carey, remarks that it was at the time “unpublished and new to us”.

Tune of the Day: Adagio by Weideman

Today we propose the opening Adagio from Carl Friedrich Weideman's second Sonata for flute and continuo, published around 1737.

Weideman was a German-born flutist and composer, about whom practically nothing is known prior to the year 1724, when he moved to London. Within a couple years, he became one of the city's leading flutists, and by 1750 he was flute instructor to the later king George III.

Many thanks to Federico for suggesting this piece!

Tune of the Day: Dies Bildnis ist bezaubernd schön

“Dies Bildnis ist bezaubernd schön” (“This image is enchantingly lovely”) is an aria from the beginning of Act I of Mozart's famous opera Die Zauberflöte, or The Magic Flute. Prince Tamino has just been presented by the Three Ladies with an image of the princess Pamina, and instantly falls in love with her.

Tune of the Day: Study in B major by Andersen

Here is another étude by Danish flutist Joachim Andersen. This Andantino in B major is study No. 11 from his Twenty-Four Etudes for Flute, Op. 33.

Tune of the Day: Martin's Onehorned Cow

This jig first appeared in Francis O'Neill's celebrated collection The Dance Music of Ireland, published in Chicago in 1907.

The phrase “one-horned cow” is sometimes used as a metaphor for a still, an apparatus for distilling alcoholic drinks.

Tune of the Day: Mournful Birds

Today's piece was kindly contributed to our collection by its composer, Cheryl Cleveland-Kannianen.

“Mournful Birds” is a free form lament for solo flute. The title reflects the emotive nature of the collective tune. This work relies on a creative interplay of octaves, dynamics and rhythms and several repeating motifs. The piece provides a framework for dramatic interpretation and musical expression of the individual flutist.

Dr. Cheryl Cleveland-Kannianen holds degrees in Chemistry, but music has long been her therapeutic hobby; she has been an active member of various Raleigh, NC flute choirs for many years. Recently retired from a long career as a Regulatory Scientist, Cheryl is now pursuing a Music Degree at Meredith College with a focus on composition, and is excited to share one of her first solo compositions with the flute community.

Tune of the Day: Moderato by Köhler

Today's tune is an easy duet in G major, No. 9 from Volume I of Ernesto Köhler's Forty Progressive Duets.

Tune of the Day: In the Moonlight

This is étude No. 7 from Ernesto Köhler's 25 Romantic Studies. The piece is somewhat similar to a siciliana, a 6/8-time genre characterized by lilting rhythms; it is to be played with full focus on musicality.

Tune of the Day: Ollistrum Jig

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

Tune of the Day: Trumpet Tune in D

Like the even more famous “Trumpet Voluntary”, this Trumpet Tune in D has long been attributed to the celebrated baroque composer Henry Purcell, while the real author of the piece was English organist Jeremiah Clarke (1674–1707). The tune was taken from the semi-opera The Island Princess, which was a joint musical production of Clarke and Daniel Purcell (Henry Purcell's younger brother), probably leading to the confusion.

Contrary to what you may think, trumpet tunes like this one were written not for the brass instrument, the trumpet, but for the “trumpet” set of pipes on the organ. These brassy reed pipes were used for joyful, rhythmic tunes. Today, this piece has become a standard at weddings, and it is usually played right before the beginning of the ceremony.

Tune of the Day: Cinque, dieci

Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro has one of the most remarkable starts in opera history. At the very beginning of Act I, Figaro is happily measuring the space where his wedding bed will fit, counting out loud: “Five, ten, twenty, thirty, thirty-six... forty-three!”, Susanna, the bride-to-be, enters the room asking him to look at a hat which she has made for herself, and they engage in this wonderful duettino (‛small duet’).

Tune of the Day: Study in G-sharp minor by Andersen

Here is another étude by Danish flutist Joachim Andersen. This Moderato in G# minor is study No. 12 from his Twenty-Four Etudes for Flute, Op. 33.

Tune of the Day: Stay Where You Are

This traditional Irish air, usually set as a jig, can be found under a few different titles. Its earliest appearance is probably as “Shun the Corner” in Smollet Holden's A Collection of Favourite Irish Airs, published in London around 1841. The present setting, more elaborated, is taken from O'Neill's The Dance Music of Ireland (1907).

Tune of the Day: Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme

No. 140 is one of the best-known and most theatrical of Bach's sacred cantatas. It was written in 1731 as part of Bach's series of five cantatas for every Sunday and special feast day in the Lutheran calendar. This particular cantata was written for a rarely occurring date, the 27th Sunday after Trinity, which only exists in years when Easter comes unusually early.

The chorale used in the cantata comes from a 1599 hymn tune by Philipp Nicolai. Literally, the title translates as “Wake up, the voices are calling us”. To fit the three syllables of the German, the more commonly found translation “Sleepers Wake” is used, and it is by this name that it is best known in English. Please note that this should be read as an imperative, as in “Sleepers, Awake!”, and not as in “Finnegan's Wake”.

The fourth movement, based on the second verse of the chorale, is one of Bach's most famous pieces. It is written in a trio sonata-like texture for the tenors of the chorus, oboe da caccia, and continuo. Bach later transcribed this movement for organ (BWV 645), and it was subsequently published along with five other transcriptions Bach made of his cantata movements as the Schübler Chorales.

Tune of the Day: Pastoral Symphony

The famous “Pastoral Symphony” that serves as an instrumental interlude before the Christmas section in Handel's oratorio Messiah was originally entitled “Pifa”. The composer alludes to the music of the pifferari, the country bagpipers who descended the Italian mountains during the Christmas season to play in village streets.

James Galway included a solo version of this piece in his album Pachelbel Canon and Other Baroque Favorites.

Tune of the Day: Study in C major by Gariboldi

This is the very first étude from Giuseppe Gariboldi's collection of 30 Etudes faciles et progressives. It is extremely simple and offers no technical difficulty whatsoever; for this reason, you should strive to play it perfectly, respecting all of the provided indications. Remember to play it at a slow but steady tempo.

Tune of the Day: Miss Walsh's Fancy

This tune is first found, under the name “An Irish Lilt”, in the first volume of New York publisher Edward Riley's Flute Melodies, published in 1814. The title “Miss Walsh's Fancy” first appears in Francis O'Neill's Dance Music of Ireland (Chicago, 1907).

Tune of the Day: Mädchens Wunsch

Chopin's Polish Melodies, Op. 74 were not published during the composer's lifetime, and despite their high quality they have remained among his least popular works. All the songs in this collection were originally scored for soprano or tenor voice with piano accompaniment; some of them were later transcribed for piano solo by Franz Liszt.

The first of these pieces is titled “Mädchens Wünsch”, which is usually translated as “The Maiden's Wish”. Written in 1829, it features a mazurka rhythm and an easily singable melody. The subject matter of the original song text deals with love, beauty and flirtation, and the music is lively and full of high spirits.

Tune of the Day: Vivace by Telemann

This is the first movement from Georg Philipp Telemann's sixth Canonic Sonata for two flutes. As with all of these sonatas, the two players play the exact same melody, but (in this case) two measures apart. Most of the trills can be played with a turned ending.

Tune of the Day: Study in F-sharp major by Andersen

Here is another étude by Danish flutist Joachim Andersen. This Allegretto in F# major is study No. 13 from his Twenty-Four Etudes for Flute, Op. 33. It can easily be considered a study in accidentals... don't let all those sharps scare you!