Today we propose an étude by Benoit Tranquille Berbiguier, taken from his book 18 exercices pour la flûte traversière. Berbiguier was a French flutist and composer of the Romantic Era. He was very prolific as a composer, having written 11 concertos for flute and orchestra and many flute duets, as well as two methods for the instrument.
This jig is taken from Francis O'Neill's collection Dance Music of Ireland, published in Chicago in 1907. Musician Paul de Grae writes that it is likely O'Neill obtained the jig from artist George Petrie's (1790–1866) manuscript collection, where it can be found as an untitled jig obtained from another collector, Patrick Weston Joyce (1827–1914), who in turn had it “from D. Cleary, Kilfinane” (a small town in County Limerick). The settings are close but not identical, perhaps the result of a reworking by Francis O'Neill's transcriber and collaborator, James O'Neill.
“The Sorcerer's Apprentice” (original French title “L'apprenti sorcier”) is a symphonic poem composed by Paul Dukas in 1897. It was inspired by Goethe's 1797 poem of the same name (“Der Zauberlehrling” in German).
Although Dukas's musical piece, first published in 1897, was already quite well known and popular, it was made particularly famous by its inclusion in the 1940 Walt Disney animated film Fantasia, in which Mickey Mouse plays the role of the apprentice. The popularity of the musical piece in Fantasia caused it to be used again in Fantasia 2000.
Perhaps the best-known Mickey Mouse short after Steamboat Willy, The Sorcerer's Apprentice tells the story of Goethe's famous poem, which is a story of wizard's meek assistant who attempts to work some of the magical feats of his master, before he knows how to properly control them. Interestingly, the sorcerer's anger with his apprentice, which appears in Fantasia, does not appear in the Goethe source poem
This Adagio is the second movement of Georg Philipp Telemann's first Canonic Sonata. In this instance, the word canonic means “in the manner of a canon”; that is, the two players play the exact same melody, but one measure apart.
Remember that, since this is a Baroque piece, trills should be played beginning on the note above the one indicated. In this case, it is also nice to end the trills by playing the note below the one indicated, followed by the note itself; for instance, to trill a D, you could play E-D-E-D-E-D-C-D. Just be careful to add the appropriate accidentals!
Here is a new simple étude, this time in B-flat major, from the first book of Twenty Easy Melodic Progressive Studies by Italian flutist and composer Ernesto Köhler.
The earliest known appearance of this jig is in Francis O'Neill's collection Music of Ireland, published in Chicago in 1903. A nearly identical version, presented as an untitled jig collected from a “Mrs. Close”, can be found in George Petrie's The Complete Collection of Irish Music (London, 1905).
The tune is related to “Helvic Head” from O'Farrell's Pocket Companion for the Irish or Union Pipes, 1806.
Today we propose a transcription for flute and piano of “Morning Prayer”, the very first composition in Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's Album for the Young, Op. 39.
Today we present the central movement of J.S. Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 4, a slow 3/4-time Andante in E minor. The original work features a violin and two recorders playing against a string ripieno, but here we have adapted the score so that the piece could be played by three flutes.
This is the third étude from 18 exercices pour la flûte traversière by French Romantic composer Benoit Tranquille Berbiguier. Try to keep a steady tempo throughout the piece, and don't let the quintuplets scare you!
This jig appears to be unique to Chicago Police Captain Francis O'Neill's collections Music of Ireland (1903) and The Dance Music of Ireland (1907).
Coomanore is the name of an actual place in Ireland. It is now split between the townlands of Coomanore North and Coomanore South, both located in County Cork.
Did you know that King Frederick II of Prussia was a gifted musician who played the transverse flute? He composed 100 sonatas for the flute as well as four symphonies. His court musicians included C.P.E. Bach, Johann Joachim Quantz, and Franz Benda. It was a meeting with Johann Sebastian Bach in 1747 in Potsdam that led to Bach writing The Musical Offering.
And it was the “Old Fritz”, as the king was nicknamed, who wrote the “Hohenfriedberger”, one of the best known German military marches. It is named for the victory of the Prussians over the allied Austrians and Saxons in 1745 during the Second Silesian War in the Battle of Hohenfriedberg, near Striegau.
You may remember this march being used at the beginning of the film Stalingrad, or in Stanley Kubrick's Barry Lyndon depicting the Prussian army during the Seven Years War.
The “Dance of the Hours” is a ballet from the opera La Gioconda by Italian composer Amilcare Ponchielli. First performed in 1876, La Gioconda was a major success for Ponchielli, as well as the most successful new Italian opera between Verdi's Aida (1871) and Otello (1887).
The “Dance of the Hours” is considered one of the most popular ballet pieces in history. The ballet was parodied in Walt Disney's 1940 classic Fantasia. The segment consists of the whole ballet, but performed comically by animals rather than humans. The dancers of the morning are represented by Madame Upanova and her ostriches. The dancers of the daytime are represented by Hyacinth Hippo and her servants. The dancers of the evening are represented by Elephanchine and her bubble-blowing elephant troupe. The dancers of the night are represented by Ben Ali Gator and his troop of alligators.
Another famous parody of the “Dance of the Hours” is Allan Sherman's 1963 song “Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh”, describing a miserable time at summer camp. It uses the main theme of the ballet as its melody.
This étude in B minor is taken from the first book of Twenty Easy Melodic Progressive Studies by Italian flutist and composer Ernesto Köhler. It mainly focuses on articulation, and at the beginning you will find the indication molto staccato, demanding for a very sharp staccato.
The earliest known appearance of this jig is in Francis O'Neill's collection Music of Ireland, published in Chicago in 1903. O'Neill's source for this tune was his colleague, Police Sergeant James Kerwin.
No words of mine could do justice to Sergeant Kerwin—the genial, hospitable “Jim” Kerwin, not as a fluter and a lover of the music of his ancestors, but as a host at his magnificent private residence on Wabash Avenue. On his invitation and that of his equally hospitable and charming wife, a select company, attracted and united by a common hobby, met monthly on Sunday afternoons at his house for years.
This is probably the best known of Mendelssohn's 100 or so songs. Mendelssohn wrote the piece a couple of months after moving to Leipzig to become director of the Gewandhaus Orchestra and Singakademie. He had just spent a frustrating two years in Düsseldorf trying to conduct somewhat amateur musicians and performing for unappreciative audiences. He found that everything in cosmopolitan, cultured Leipzig was to his liking; his contentment is reflected in this song.
With this song Mendelssohn set to music a German romantic poem by Heinrich Heine. The text tells of melody's power to transport lovers to the most beautiful night garden, with bright and fragrant flowers, gazelles, a murmuring stream, and a palm tree, under which they can dream.
Here is the third and last movement of Georg Philipp Telemann's Canonic Sonata No. 1. It's a lively 2/4-time Allegro in G major, and like all the movements in the “Canonic” collection it is written as a canon, so both players can play the same part, just one measure apart.
Here is the second étude from 18 exercices pour la flûte traversière by French Romantic composer Benoit Tranquille Berbiguier.
This jig first appears in Francis O'Neill's celebrated collection Music of Ireland, published in Chicago in 1903.
The phrase “one-horned cow” is sometimes used as a metaphor for a still, an apparatus for distilling alcoholic drinks.
The Inventions, also known as the Two-Part Inventions, are a collection of fifteen short keyboard compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach, who originally wrote them as exercises for the musical education of his students in the German city of Köthen.
Bach's Inventions were thus designed as teaching pieces rather than for performance. As stated on the title page of the work, the collection wants to be “A faithful Guide, whereby admirers of the harpsichord are shown a plain Method of learning not only to play cleanly in two Parts […] and at the same time not merely how to get good Inventions, but also how to develop the same well; but above all, to obtain a cantabile Style of playing, [i.e. a style which imitates the human voice] and together with this to get a strong Foretaste of Composition”.
Jeremiah Clarke, a British baroque composer, was organist and chorus master for the Chapel Royal. Although now chiefly remembered for the “Trumpet Voluntary”, Clarke was one of the leading English composers of the generation following Purcell. He contributed to many genres, from church music and harpsichord music to incidental music for the theatre.
Originally composed for harpsichord, the majestic “King William's March” comes from the third book of Clarke's Harpsichord Master, which dates from 1702.
This étude is No. 21 of Ernesto Köhler's 25 Romantic Studies, Op. 66. It is also known under its French title “Au bord de la mer”, and as the indication at the beginning of the piece says, it should be played imitating the sound of the waves crashing on the shore.
This jig first appears in the large mid-19th-century music manuscript collection of County Cork cleric and uilleann piper James Goodman.
Famed County Sligo fiddler Michael Coleman recorded a two part version of the tune in the 78 RPM era (the first half of the 20th century), as did Paddy Killoran. There are many alternate titles and close relatives: Goodman gives a version as “The Humors of Limerick”, Dickman as “The Piper's Frolic”, Hudson as “Jackson's Coola”, and Holden as “Twice Tricked”.
The delightful Flute Concerto in G, Op. 29, was composed by Czech-German composer Karl Philipp Stamitz, now better known as Carl. It is similar in style to other better-known works by Mozart or Haydn, but with some more unexpected turns of form.
This second movement, marked “Andante non troppo moderato”, features a beautiful singing melody in the flute, accompanied by beautifully light pizzicato figures from the orchestra.
Thanks to Micron for requesting this piece!
Although Telemann's Tafelmusik (Musique de table in French, literally “Table Music”, that is, music played at feasts and banquets) was issued in 1733, the Quartet in D minor is one of the pieces clearly written well before publication; in fact, it is found among the works Telemann had composed while employed in Frankfurt between 1712 and 1721. The piece was originally intended for recorder (or bassoon), two flutes and basso continuo, but it may be performed by three flutes (with an optional bass instrument) as well.
The first movement, marked Andante, finds the three melody instruments entering in imitation of each other, with the bass keeping pace with a moaning figure. Before long the flutes are playing together a third apart, with the principal instrument providing a distinct but related voice. Each of the several times the main subject enters it is in imitation, followed by a free elaboration on the material with the flutes then generally performing as a unit.
Thanks to Gaby for suggesting this piece!
Here is the fourth étude from 18 exercices pour la flûte traversière by French Romantic composer Benoit Tranquille Berbiguier. You will probably find it a little more challenging than the other ones we have posted.
This jig is taken from Francis O'Neill's 1903 collection Music of Ireland, but the melody appears as “Off to Donnybrook” in Ryan's Mammoth Collection (1883), and, even earlier, in the Gunn Family manuscripts of County Fermanagh, c. 1865, as “Humors of Donnybrook”. The tune has been recorded a number of times by Cape Breton fiddlers.
Donnybrook is a district of the city of Dublin, which from 1204 to 1855 hosted an annual fair.
The overture to the opera William Tell, especially its high-energy finale, is a very familiar piece. There has been repeated use (and sometimes parody) of this overture in the popular media, most notably in the US as the theme music for the Lone Ranger radio and television shows. It was also featured in Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange, recorded on a Moog synthesizer by Wendy Carlos.
The overture is actually written in four parts. The last part, the “Finale”, is arguably the most famous, consisting of an ultra-dynamic “cavalry charge” galop which, in the original score, is heralded by trumpets and played by full orchestra.
The Mikado; or, The Town of Titipu is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W.S. Gilbert. It opened in 1885 in London, where it ran at the Savoy Theatre for 672 performances, one of the longest runs of any theater piece up to that time.
The story of The Mikado revolves around a wandering musician named Nanki-Poo, who has fallen in love with a beautiful young lady called Yum-Yum. Unfortunately, Yum-Yum is engaged to be married to the tailor Ko-Ko. When Nanki-Poo hears that Ko-Ko has been condemned to death for the capital crime of flirting, he hastily returns to his town, Titipu, only to learn that Ko-Ko has not only been granted a reprieve, but has been promoted to the post of Lord High Executioner. Apparently, those in power, wishing to slow down the rash of executions, reason that since Ko-Ko was next in line for execution, he can't cut off anyone else's head until he cuts off his own! The Mikado (i.e., the Emperor), however, soon takes notice of the lack of executions in Titipu and decrees that if no executions take place within the time of one month, the city shall be reduced to the status of a village. It's here, near the end of Act I, that we find the famous trio “I am so proud”.
Thanks to Zaq for suggesting this piece!