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.