This study in triplets is the seventh piece from Italian flutist and composer Giuseppe Gariboldi's Vingt études chantantes pour la flûte (“Twenty melodious studies for flute”), Op. 88.
This melody was supposedly composed by the blind Irish harper Turlough O'Carolan for the wedding of John Cole and Jane Saunderson in the year 1719. Carolan described the bride thus: “Striking Jean is my type of woman: pleasant, agreeable, joyful each day, the flower of happiness.”
American songwriter Stephen C. Foster wrote this parlor song in 1850. Foster probably hoped that the publication of his parlor ballads helped diversify his reputation as a song composer, but the ballads proved financially unsatisfactory as compared to his minstrel songs. In his account ledger, Foster recorded that “Ah! May the Red Rose Live Alway!” had earned a mere $8.12 in royalties over a seven-year period. As a result, Foster redirected his compositional efforts to minstrel songs, which averaged much higher returns at that time. Beginning in 1860, Foster returned once more to the sentimental ballad, the most noteworthy being “Beautiful Dreamer”.
Thanks to Frydryk for suggesting this song!
This rondo is the second and last movement of the sixth of French flutist and composer François Devienne's Six Duos pour Deux Flûtes (“Six Duets for Two Flutes”), published in Paris around 1790.
This chromatic scale study constitutes the thirteenth piece of French flutist and composer Louis Drouet's 72 Studies on Taste and Style for the Boehm Flute, published in 1855.
This popular English march appears in numerous publications during the late 18th century, beginning with Robert Bremner's A Collection of Airs and Marches (1761). It was presumably heard often on the fife, judging from the number of publications for that instrument in which the tune appears.
This rondeau is the fourth movement of the last of six sonatas for flute and continuo that French flutist and composer Michel Blavet published in Paris in 1732.
This is the third movement of French composer Jacques-Christophe Naudot's Suite en trio “Les plaisirs de Champigny”, Op. 18. The term “musette” designates both a traditional style of French popular music and a baroque-era instrument similar to a bagpipe. This particular musette (music style) was written for musette (instrument), flute, and violin, but it can be played as is by two flutes and a violin, or with very little modification by three modern flutes.
Thanks to Joyce Kai for contributing this piece!
Today we present the eighth study from Italian flutist and composer Giuseppe Gariboldi's Vingt études chantantes pour la flûte (“Twenty melodious studies for flute”), Op. 88.
This tune is contained in the 19th-century manuscript of Joseph Kershaw, a fiddle player who lived in the area of Slackcote, Saddleworth, North West England. The tune is nowadays sometimes called “The Oldham Sportsman”, and unusually for a hornpipe, it is customarily played straight, without swing.
This polka was originally written for two pianos by the famous Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninoff around 1906. Its brilliant, easily recognizable theme appears to have been influenced by Eastern European folk music.
Thanks to Istvan for suggesting this tune!
This short prelude is the very last duet from the 55 Easy Pieces collection by French Baroque composer Joseph Bodin de Boismortier, and the only piece in C-sharp minor.
This syncopated study is the fourteenth piece from French flutist and composer Louis Drouet's 72 Studies on Taste and Style for the Boehm Flute, published in 1855.
“Down by the Salley Gardens” is the title of a poem written by William Butler Yeats, first published in 1889. Originally, the poem included no melody. In 1909, Irish composer Herbert Hughes set it to the traditional air “The Moorlough Shore” (also known as “The Maids of Mourne Shore”), and this has since remained the most widely sung setting of the poem.
“Salley” or “sally” is a form of the Standard English word “sallow”, meaning a willow tree.
Thanks to Cath for suggesting this tune!
This Largo in F-sharp minor is the fourth movement of the sixth sonata from the Sonate accademiche collection by Italian Baroque composer Francesco Maria Veracini. Originally published in 1744 for violin and continuo, it is probably one of Veracini's best-known works.
Thanks to Istvan for suggesting this piece!
This pair of minuets constitutes the fourth movement of French composer Jacques-Christophe Naudot's Suite en trio “Les plaisirs de Champigny”, Op. 18. The piece was originally written for musette (a baroque-era instrument similar to a bagpipe), flute and violin, but it can be played as is by two flutes and a violin, or with very little modification by three modern flutes.
Thanks to Joyce Kai for contributing this piece!
Today we present the ninth study from Italian flutist and composer Giuseppe Gariboldi's Vingt études chantantes pour la flûte (“Twenty melodious studies for flute”), Op. 88.
This tune is taken from Twenty Four Country Dances for the Year 1808, published in London by Goulding & Co. The title clearly refers to the Battle of Copenhagen of 1807, when the Danish fleet and the city of Copenhagen were taken by the British in the context of the Napoleonic Wars.
This beautiful piece, originally written as a solo for organ, is taken from French Classical composer Jean-Jacques Beauvarlet-Charpentier's Journal d'orgue No. 6 (Messe Royale de Dumont), first published in 1784.
Thanks to Marcello from Italy for suggesting this piece!
Today we propose duet No. 5 from the second volume of Luigi Hugues's La scuola del flauto (The School of the Flute).
Thanks to Paolo for contributing this piece!
This cantabile study is the fourteenth piece from French flutist and composer Louis Drouet's 72 Studies on Taste and Style for the Boehm Flute, published in 1855. When studying this piece, you should start playing it very slowly to make sure that you respect the written rhythms.
The earliest appearance of this double-tonic (C-major/G-mixolydian) tune in print is in Robert Bremner's 1757 book A Collection of Scots Reels. However, it had earlier appeared in David Young's copybook labelled “A Collection of Country Dances written for use of his Grace the Duke of Perth by Dav. Young, 1734”, which is also known as “the Drummond Castle Manuscript” as it is preserved at Drummond Castle, Crieff, Perthshire, Scotland.
This Adagio is the opening movement of a Sonata in F major for recorder and basso continuo, written by Italian composer Benedetto Marcello around 1712.
The joyful piece we present today is the second movement of the tenth sonata from a collection of 12 “little sonatas” for two flutes by the prolific French Baroque composer Joseph Bodin de Boismortier.
Today we present the tenth study from Italian flutist and composer Giuseppe Gariboldi's Vingt études chantantes pour la flûte (“Twenty melodious studies for flute”), Op. 88.
This reel appears in O'Neill's Dance Music of Ireland: 1001 Gems, published in 1907. Mullingar is a market town in County Westmeath, about 80 kilometers west of Dublin.
Bach was probably only 22 years old when he composed this Sonatina, in which two alto recorders mournfully echo each other over a sonorous background. The piece is the opening movement of the sacred cantata Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit, also known as Actus Tragicus. Composed for a funeral, this cantata ranks among Bach's most important works, and musicologist Alfred Dürr even called it “a work of genius such as even great masters seldom achieve”.
Thanks to Marcello for suggesting this piece!
This is the fifth movement of French composer Jacques-Christophe Naudot's Suite en trio “Les plaisirs de Champigny”, Op. 18. The piece was originally written for musette (a baroque-era instrument similar to a bagpipe), flute and violin, but it can be played as is by two flutes and a violin, or with very little modification (the little notes in the violin part) by three modern flutes.
Thanks to Joyce Kai for contributing this piece!
This quick study in double-tonguing is the sixteenth piece from French flutist and composer Louis Drouet's 72 Studies on Taste and Style for the Boehm Flute, published in 1855.
This hornpipe is earliest found in the mid-19th-century manuscript tunebook of fiddler Lawrence Leadley (1827-1897) of Helperby in Yorkshire. It was later published in Ryan's Mammoth Collection (1883).