Free Flute Sheet Music

Tune of the Day: Study in F major by Gariboldi

Today we present the twentieth study from Italian composer Giuseppe Gariboldi's Etudes mignonnes (Dainty Studies), Op. 131.

Tune of the Day: Dorstream March

This march tune is taken from the late 18th-century music manuscript of Henry Livingston, Jr., an important land-owner in the Hudson Valley, who was also an illustrator and map-maker, poet and musician. The present melody does not appear in British or other American manuscripts or publications of the era.

Tune of the Day: Rondeau by Naudot

This rondeau is the fourth and final movement of a flute sonata in G major by Jean-Christophe Naudot, a French composer and flutist of the early 18th century.

Tune of the Day: Attila di Verdi

This arrangement of famous arias from Giuseppe Verdi's opera Attila was written by Raffaele Galli, an Italian flutist and composer of the 19th century. It is part of his 12 Galanterie musicali for two flutes.

Many thanks to Joyce Kai for contributing this piece!

Tune of the Day: Study in C minor by Kummer

This Adagio is the twenty-second study from German flutist and composer Caspar Kummer's 32 Etudes amusantes et instructives, Op. 129, first published in 1858.

Tune of the Day: Y Deryn Pur

The title of this traditional Welsh tune is usually translated as “O Gentle Dove”, even if a more literal translation would probably be “The Pure Bird”.

O gentle dove with wings so blue
Fly quickly to my lady
And take to her a message true
While in her garden shady
Go to her and say I love her

Thanks to Ronald for suggesting this tune!

Tune of the Day: Larghetto by Handel

Composed circa 1720, this E minor sonata (HWV 379) is Handel's own compilation of movements taken from three other solo sonatas. Confusingly, this sonata has sometimes been numbered Op. 1, no. 1a, when in fact it never appeared in Opus 1.

The first movement is a Larghetto with an easy, gentle swing, taken from Handel's Violin Sonata in D minor.

Tune of the Day: Les Fuyards

This canarie (a fast dance tune of the Renaissance and Baroque eras) is the fifth duet in G minor from the 55 Easy Pieces collection by French Baroque composer Joseph Bodin de Boismortier.

Tune of the Day: Study in C major

The study in C major we present today was kindly contributed by flutists Nilson and Cinthia Mascolo from Brazil. It is the sixteenth piece from their 17 Estudos para Flauta Transversal, N. 1.

Tune of the Day: Lorena

During the American Civil War, soldiers on both sides of the conflict thought of their wives and girlfriends back home when they heard the song “Lorena”. One Confederate officer even attributed the South's defeat to the song. He reasoned that upon hearing the mournful ballad the soldiers grew so homesick that they lost their effectiveness as a fighting force.

Oh, the years creep slowly by, Lorena,
The snow is on the ground again.
The sun's low down the sky, Lorena,
The frost gleams where the flow'rs have been.
But the heart beats on as warmly now,
As when the summer days were nigh.
Oh, the sun can never dip so low
A-down affection's cloudless sky.

The lyrics, written by Rev. Henry D. L. Webster, and the music, by composer Joseph Philbrick Webster, were first published in Chicago in 1857.

Thanks to Breck for suggesting this tune!

Tune of the Day: Vivace by Quantz

This Vivace is the closing movement of Johann Joachim Quantz's Sonata No. 2 in B-flat major for flute and continuo. It is one of the many works for flute that Quantz composed for his student and patron Frederick II, King of Prussia.

Thanks to Joyce Kai for contributing this piece!

Tune of the Day: Allemande by Boismortier

This is the opening movement of the fourth sonata from a collection of 12 “little sonatas” for two flutes by the prolific French Baroque composer Joseph Bodin de Boismortier.

Tune of the Day: Study in F minor by Kummer

This is the twenty-third study from German flutist and composer Caspar Kummer's 32 Etudes amusantes et instructives, Op. 129, first published in 1858.

Tune of the Day: The Ephemeral Emperor

This English reel first appeared in W.M. Causac's Annual Collection of Twenty Four Favorite Country Dances for 1809. Given the date of publication of the volume, the tune's title could be a hopeful reference to Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1814.

Tune of the Day: Adagio by Albinoni

The Adagio in F-sharp minor we present today is the third movement of the eleventh Sonata from the Trattenimenti armonici collection by Italian Baroque composer Tomaso Albinoni.

Tune of the Day: Overture from Così fan tutte

This arrangement for three flutes of the celebrated Overture to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's 1790 opera Così fan tutte was written by Henry Lea, an English flutist of the 19th century.

Many thanks to Joyce Kai for contributing this piece!

Tune of the Day: Study No. 13

The study we present today was kindly contributed by flutists Nilson and Cinthia Mascolo from Brazil. It is the thirteenth piece from their 17 Estudos para Flauta Transversal, N. 1.

Tune of the Day: The Fair Branch

This air is taken from the 1903 edition of Francis O'Neill's Music of Ireland. The reported source for this melody is one of O'Neill's collaborators, Chicago Police Sergeant James O'Neill.

Tune of the Day: Gravement by Naudot

This slow “Gravement” constitutes the opening movement of a flute sonata in A major by Jean-Christophe Naudot, a French composer and flutist of the early 18th century.

Tune of the Day: Prélude in C major

This prelude opens the seventh section of the 55 Easy Pieces collection by French Baroque composer Joseph Bodin de Boismortier.

Tune of the Day: Study in C major by Kummer

This is the twenty-fourth study from German flutist and composer Caspar Kummer's 32 Etudes amusantes et instructives, Op. 129, first published in 1858.

Tune of the Day: Kinfanns House

This slow air was written by Nathaniel Gow, a famous Scottish fiddler of the 18th century. Kinfanns House, about three miles east of Perth, was the seat of Lord and Lady Gray. The castle once belonged to Thomas Charteris de Longueville, called the Red Reaver (from the color of his flag during his pirate days).

Tune of the Day: Andante by Handel

Composed circa 1720, this E-minor sonata (HWV 379) is Handel's own compilation of movements taken from three other solo sonatas. Confusingly, this sonata has sometimes been numbered Op. 1, no. 1a, when in fact it never appeared in Opus 1.

The second movement is a chirping Andante transposed from Handel's Recorder Sonata in G minor, Op. 1/2.

Tune of the Day: Courante by Boismortier

This courante is the second movement of the fourth sonata from a collection of 12 “little sonatas” for two flutes by the prolific French Baroque composer Joseph Bodin de Boismortier.

Tune of the Day: Innocence

This short piece, originally written as a study for solo piano by German pianist and composer Friedrich Burgmüller, is taken from his 25 Études faciles et progressives, Op. 100.

Tune of the Day: Kempshott Hunt

“Kempshott Hunt” seems to have originally been played as a quickstep march, but it is often rendered nowadays as a polka. The tune appears in the manuscripts of John Clare (1793–1864), an English fiddler, poet, writer and collector of songs and tunes.

Tune of the Day: Grave sostenuto

This is the opening movement of Johann Joachim Quantz's Sonata No. 4 in D major for flute and continuo. It is one of the many works for flute that Quantz composed for his student and patron Frederick II, King of Prussia.

Tune of the Day: Les Vivandiers

This little march is the second duet in C major from the 55 Easy Pieces collection by French Baroque composer Joseph Bodin de Boismortier.

Tune of the Day: Study in G major by Kummer

This is the twenty-fifth study from German flutist and composer Caspar Kummer's 32 Etudes amusantes et instructives, Op. 129, first published in 1858.

Tune of the Day: The Braes o' Killiecrankie

This song, still well known in Scotland, seems to have been written soon after the Battle of Killiecrankie, fought in 1689 as part of the Jacobite rebellion.

Thanks to Hannah for suggesting this tune!

Tune of the Day: Allegro by Albinoni

The Allegro in A major we present today is the fourth and last movement of the eleventh Sonata from the Trattenimenti armonici collection by Italian Baroque composer Tomaso Albinoni.