Today's piece is the nineteenth study from a collection of 26 Little Caprices for flute (XXVI kleine Capricen für die Flöte) by Danish flutist and composer Joachim Andersen, published in 1890. Play it calmly (tranquillo), and play it accurately!
The “Branle des Chevaux” (“branle of the horses”) is a very old melody, dating back at least to the 16th century. A branle is a popular French dance, danced by couples in either a line or a circle. The term can be used to refer both to the music and to the characteristic step of the dance.
Thanks to Phil for suggesting this tune!
This Allegro is the opening movement of the first of 5 Divertimentos for three basset horns composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart between 1783 and 1785.
This flute duet is taken from Blake's Young Flutist's Magazine, published in 1833. It is an arrangement of a cavatina (a short song of simple character) by Alexander D. Roche.
Fly away, lady bird! fly away —
Away, away, away!
Fly from the wind of a wintry day:
Why do you linger? away, away.
This study is the ninth piece from Danish flutist and composer Niels Peter Jensen's 12 Etudes for Flute, Op. 25, first published around 1829.
“My Boy Tammy” is a 18th century poem and song that appears in numerous anthologies, such as David Herd's Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs (1776), where it appears as “The Lammie”. The lyric, credited to the prolific Scottish poet Hector MacNeill (1746–1818), is the precursor of the more familiar “Billy Boy” (“Where have you gone, Billy Boy, Billy Boy?”).
This is the second movement of the fifth of the Il pastor fido sonatas, first published in 1737 and traditionally attributed to Antonio Vivaldi. The actual composer, Nicolas Chédeville, made a secret agreement with Jean-Noël Marchand to publish a collection of his own compositions as Vivaldi's Op. 13. Chédeville supplied the money and received the profits, all of which was recorded in a notarial act. This may have been an attempt to give his instrument, the musette, the endorsement of a great composer which it lacked.
This “smooth” piece in B minor is the third movement of a Sonata in D major for two flutes or recorders by a German composer named Johann Christoph Schultze. This is not to be confused with the apparently unrelated composer of the same name who was born in 1733, as this sonata was first published in Hamburg in 1729.
This study in staccato triplets is the twenty-first piece from a collection of 26 Little Caprices for flute (XXVI kleine Capricen für die Flöte) by Danish flutist and composer Joachim Andersen, published in 1890.
Both John Glen (1891) and Francis O'Neill (1922) find the earliest appearance of this tune in print in Scottish music publisher Robert Bremner's 1757 Collection of Scots Reels and Country Dances, under the title “The Piper's Maggot”. However, a printing by London publisher John Johnson (A Choice Collection of 200 Favourite Country Dances, vol. 3, 1744) predates Bremner by 13 years, so the tune might actually be of English provenance. What is certain is that this old slip jig has had wide and long currency throughout Great Britain and Ireland.
This Allegro is the fourth and final movement of a sonata in A minor for flute and keyboard that is thought to have been composed by George Frideric Handel. First published in 1730, the sonata is referred to as Halle Sonata No. 1 (“Hallenser Sonate Nr. 1” in German). It was supposed to be an early work composed by Handel before 1703 in his hometown Halle, but its authenticity is now considered doubtful.
This aria (whose original Italian title is “Una volta c'era un re”) is sung by Cinderella in Act I of Gioachino Rossini's 1817 opera “La Cenerentola”. She sings of a king who looked everywhere for a wife and at last found her in a simple girl like herself.
The present arrangement for two flutes is taken from Blake's Young Flutist's Magazine, published in 1833.
Today's piece is the tenth study from Danish flutist and composer Niels Peter Jensen's 12 Etudes for Flute, Op. 25, first published around 1829.
The earliest appearance of this tune is found in Robert Bremner's A Collection of Scots Reels (1757). The melody therefore predates Robert Burns's reworking of “I'm o'er young to marry”, an old song which already existed before the Scots poet's birth.
This piece is the fourth movement and third “aria” of Georg Philipp Telemann's Partita No. 5 in E minor, TWV 41:e1, originally published in 1716 as part of the Kleine Kammermusik (“little chamber music”) collection. The original edition indicates that the melody is intended to be played by an oboe, a violin, or a flute.
This Allegro is the closing movement of a Sonata in D major for two flutes or recorders by a German composer named Johann Christoph Schultze. This is not to be confused with the apparently unrelated composer of the same name who was born in 1733, as this sonata was first published in Hamburg in 1729.
This short syncopated study in F minor is the twenty-second piece from a collection of 26 Little Caprices for flute (XXVI kleine Capricen für die Flöte) by Danish flutist and composer Joachim Andersen, published in 1890.
This tune is taken from Power's Musical Cabinet, published in 1810. It was notably reprinted in O'Neill's famous 1922 collection Waifs and Strays of Gaelic Melody.
This minuet constitutes the second movement of the first of 5 Divertimentos for three basset horns composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart between 1783 and 1785.
This flute duet appears in Blake's Young Flutist's Magazine, published in 1833. It is an arrangement of a chorus from the beginning of Act III of Cinderella, the 1831 English-language adaptation of Rossini's La Cenerentola by Irish violinist and composer Michael Rophino Lacy. Like most of the music from this last act, “In Light Tripping Measure” is not taken from La Cenerentola: it is an adaptation of “Dell'araba tromba”, an aria from Rossini's 1820 opera Maometto II (also known as Le siège de Corinthe).
This study is the eleventh piece from Danish flutist and composer Niels Peter Jensen's 12 Etudes for Flute, Op. 25, first published around 1829.
This reel, probably of Irish origin, is taken from Harding's All-Round Collection of Jigs, Reels and Country Dances, published in New York in 1905. It is in the key of G Dorian, which is like G minor but with E-naturals instead of E-flats.
This is the third movement of the fifth of the Il pastor fido sonatas, first published in 1737 and traditionally attributed to Antonio Vivaldi. The actual composer, Nicolas Chédeville, made a secret agreement with Jean-Noël Marchand to publish a collection of his own compositions as Vivaldi's Op. 13. Chédeville supplied the money and received the profits, all of which was recorded in a notarial act. This may have been an attempt to give his instrument, the musette, the endorsement of a great composer which it lacked.
This Adagio is the opening movement of a Sonata in E major for two flutes or recorders by a German composer named Johann Christoph Schultze. This is not to be confused with the apparently unrelated composer of the same name who was born in 1733, as this sonata was first published in Hamburg in 1729.
This jumpy Andante is the eighteenth piece from a collection of 26 Little Caprices for flute (XXVI kleine Capricen für die Flöte) by Danish flutist and composer Joachim Andersen, published in 1890.
This 9/8-time jig is taken from Francis O'Neill's Waifs and Strays of Gaelic Melody (1922); O'Neill copied it from O'Farrell's Pocket Companion for the Irish or Union Pipes, published circa 1808.
This Siciliana is the fifth movement and fourth “aria” of Georg Philipp Telemann's Partita No. 5 in E minor, TWV 41:e1, originally published in 1716 as part of the Kleine Kammermusik (“little chamber music”) collection. The original edition indicates that the melody is intended to be played by an oboe, a violin, or a flute.
This flute trio appears in Blake's Young Flutist's Magazine, published in 1833. It is an arrangement of a piece from Maid of Judah, or Knights Templars, the 1829 English-language adaptation of Rossini's 1826 pastiche opera Ivanhoé by Irish violinist and composer Michael Rophino Lacy. The music of Ivahoé had in turn been selected from four of Rossini's former operas: Semiramide, Mosè, Tancredi, and La gazza ladra.
This study is the last piece from Danish flutist and composer Niels Peter Jensen's 12 Etudes for Flute, Op. 25, first published around 1829.
This country dance tune is taken from Harding's All-Round Collection of Jigs, Reels and Country Dances, published in New York in 1905. The melody is also known under the titles “Cats in the Village” and “Nine Pins”.
This Adagio is the third movement of the first of 5 Divertimentos for three basset horns composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart between 1783 and 1785.