Free Flute Sheet Music

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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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.