Monday 1 July 2019
for two flutes
This duet is taken from Blake's Young Flutist's Magazine, published in Philadelphia in 1833. Unfortunately we were unable to track the exact origins of the melody, but the expression “a feather in one's cap” usually refers to an achievement that one takes pride in. Traditionally, Native American warriors added feathers to their headdresses as a sign of bravery in battle. Medieval knights in England also wore feathers in their helmets as a sign of their bravery.
Tuesday 2 July 2019
from “Exercices journaliers”
Today we propose the eighteenth piece from Exercices journaliers pour la flûte (or Tägliche Studien in German, i.e. “Daily Exercises”) by Austro-Hungarian composer Adolf Terschak. It was first published in 1867.
Wednesday 3 July 2019
Traditional Polish folk song
This traditional folk song comes from Poland. Its title could be translated as “The Owl Sits on the Grove”.
Thanks to Sam for suggesting this tune!
Thursday 4 July 2019
from Flute Sonata No. 5 in A major
This gigue is the fourth and last movement of the fifth sonata from Sonates pour la flûte traversière avec la basse, Op. 19 by the prolific French Baroque composer Joseph Bodin de Boismortier. These sonatas were originally published in Paris in 1727.
Friday 5 July 2019
from “Fantasia per Flauto Solo”
This is the fifth and final movement from a Fantasia per Flauto Solo con accompagnamento di secondo Flauto o Violino (“Fantasia for solo flute with accompaniment for a second flute or violin”) by Italian composer Saverio Mercadante, first published around 1818.
Many thanks to Lutz Kutscher for contributing this piece!
Saturday 6 July 2019
from “24 Technical Studies”
This is the seventeenth piece from 24 Technische Studien für Flöte (24 Technical Studies), Op. 11, by German flutist Emil Prill. It was first published in Leipzig in 1911.
Sunday 7 July 2019
Traditional Irish reel
This reel is taken from the 1922 collection Waifs and Strays of Gaelic Melody by Francis O'Neill, who cites as a source for the tune the Rice-Walsh manuscript, a collection of music from the repertoire of Jeremiah Breen, a blind Irish fiddler, notated by his student.
Monday 8 July 2019
for flute and piano
Today's piece is the second movement from the three-part “Sonata per flauto e pianoforte” by our guest composer Paul Merkus from the Netherlands.
This slow central movement is characterized by a Largo tempo and many tied-over appoggiaturas in the flute. The piano part plays towards a climax, with both activity and dynamics increasing. The central section then exposes some simple thematic material, which evolves into a reprise of the atmospheric climax. This second time, however, the conclusion is different, so that the middle part ends up in the original key of E minor.
Tuesday 9 July 2019
for two flutes
This rondeau is the opening movement of the third of six Concerts à deux Flutes Traversières sans Basse by the French Baroque composer Michel Pignolet de Montéclair. Here the French word concert is a synonym of “suite”, and has nothing to do with the Italian concerto.
Wednesday 10 July 2019
from “Exercices journaliers”
Today we propose the nineteenth piece from Exercices journaliers pour la flûte (or Tägliche Studien in German, i.e. “Daily Exercises”) by Austro-Hungarian composer Adolf Terschak. It was first published in 1867.
Thursday 11 July 2019
Traditional Irish reel
One of the earliest appearances of this reel is in the music manuscript collection of County Cork cleric and uilleann piper James Goodman, who obtained the tune from the music manuscripts of 19th-century bookseller John O'Daly. The same melody also appeared, with minor differences, in the Rice-Walsh manuscript.
Friday 12 July 2019
from Flute Sonata No. 6 in A minor
This is the opening movement of the sixth sonata from Sonates pour la flûte traversière avec la basse, Op. 19 by the prolific French Baroque composer Joseph Bodin de Boismortier. These sonatas were originally published in Paris in 1727.
Saturday 13 July 2019
from “La dame blanche”, arranged for two fllutes
This march is part of the 1825 opera La dame blanche (The White Lady) by François-Adrien Boieldieu, an opera composer who has been nicknamed “the French Mozart”.
The present arrangement for two flutes is taken from Blake's Young Flutist's Magazine, published in 1833.
Sunday 14 July 2019
from “24 Technical Studies”
This trill-filled etude is the eighteenth piece from 24 Technische Studien für Flöte (24 Technical Studies), Op. 11, by German flutist Emil Prill. It was first published in Leipzig in 1911.
Monday 15 July 2019
Traditional Irish reel
This popular session tune is at least as old as the mid-19th century, for it was entered into the large music manuscript collection of County Cork uilleann piper Canon James Goodman.
In Waifs and Strays of Gaelic Melody (1922), Francis O'Neill remarks: “Altho' this splendid reel does not appear in the Bunting, Petrie or Joyce Collections, it was pretty generally known to the pipers and fiddlers of Chicago, hailing from the west, and south of Ireland and always by the same name.”
Tuesday 16 July 2019
for flute and piano
Today's piece is the third and final movement from the three-part “Sonata per flauto e pianoforte” by our guest composer Paul Merkus from the Netherlands.
The playful flute melody with many staccato notes is mostly accompanied rhythmically by the piano, whose part contains, towards the end, more and more answers to the flute's motifs. This way, both instruments proceed towards a festive high point, that is closed by a remarkable cadence referring to the one that concluded the first movement of the sonata.
Wednesday 17 July 2019
for two flutes
This air is the second movement of the third of six Concerts à deux Flutes Traversières sans Basse by the French Baroque composer Michel Pignolet de Montéclair. Here the French word concert is a synonym of “suite”, and has nothing to do with the Italian concerto.
Thursday 18 July 2019
from “Exercices journaliers”
This is the twentieth piece from Exercices journaliers pour la flûte (or Tägliche Studien in German, i.e. “Daily Exercises”) by Austro-Hungarian composer Adolf Terschak. It was first published in 1867.
Friday 19 July 2019
Traditional Irish reel
This tune was played and recorded by the famous Irish piper Patsy Touhey (1865–1923), who spent most of his life in America. It was published in Francis O'Neill's Waifs and Strays (1922), taken from a manuscript of the piper's.
Saturday 20 July 2019
from Flute Sonata No. 6 in A minor
This Allegro is the second movement of the sixth sonata from Sonates pour la flûte traversière avec la basse, Op. 19 by the prolific French Baroque composer Joseph Bodin de Boismortier. These sonatas were originally published in Paris in 1727.
Sunday 21 July 2019
arranged for two flutes
This song was originally a love serenade in the 1752 one-act opera Le devin du village (“The Village Soothsayer”) by French philosopher, writer and composer Jean-Jacques Rousseau. You may recognize its tune as the ancestor to the popular American lullaby “Go Tell Aunt Rhody”.
Days of absence, sad and dreary,
Cloth'd in sorrow's dark array;
Days of absence, I am weary,
She I love is far away.
The present arrangement for two flutes appeared in Blake's Young Flutist's Magazine, published in Philadelphia in 1833.
Monday 22 July 2019
from “24 Technical Studies”
This is the nineteenth piece from 24 Technische Studien für Flöte (24 Technical Studies), Op. 11, by German flutist Emil Prill. It was first published in Leipzig in 1911.
Tuesday 23 July 2019
Traditional Irish reel
Taken from Francis O'Neill's Waifs and Strays of Gaelic Melody (1922), this is “a special setting” from a manuscript of Patrick J. Tuohey's (1865–1923), a gifted Irish piper living in Chicago whom O'Neill called “the genial wizard of the Irish (uilleann) pipes”.
Wednesday 24 July 2019
from Flute Sonata in A major
This slow piece is the opening movement of Johann Joachim Quantz's Sonata in A major for flute and continuo, QV 1:143. It is one of many works for flute that Quantz composed for his student and patron Frederick II, King of Prussia.
Thursday 25 July 2019
for two flutes
These two musettes constitute the third movement of the third of six Concerts à deux Flutes Traversières sans Basse by the French Baroque composer Michel Pignolet de Montéclair. Here the French word concert is a synonym of “suite”, and has nothing to do with the Italian concerto.
Friday 26 July 2019
from “Exercices journaliers”
Today we propose the twenty-first piece from Exercices journaliers pour la flûte (or Tägliche Studien in German, i.e. “Daily Exercises”) by Austro-Hungarian composer Adolf Terschak. It was first published in 1867.
Saturday 27 July 2019
Traditional Scottish reel
This tune has been credited to the Rev. Alexander Garden (1688–1778), minister of Birse, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. In The Fiddler Music of Scotland (1988), Hunter relates that around 1746 “the minister's 'handy-man' and ex-weaver from Mary well called Jock, hotly refused to clean the parson's boots when requested to do so by Mrs. Garden. The enraged minister's wife gave him such a beating with her 'tattie-beetle' that he soon performed the task”. Another explanation for the title stems from the fact that an engine or a machine was often called a “jenny”; thus a “jenny” that replaced a weaver to produce cloth could be said to 'dang' (beat) him.
The reel was first published in the 2nd edition of William Thompson's Orpheus Caledonius (1733), where it appeared as “Jenny Beguil'd the Webster”. The earliest appearance in print under the title “Jenny Dang the Weaver” is in Robert Bremner's 1757 Collection of Scots Reels or Country Dances.
Sunday 28 July 2019
from Flute Sonata No. 6 in A minor
This Adagio is the third movement of the sixth sonata from Sonates pour la flûte traversière avec la basse, Op. 19 by the prolific French Baroque composer Joseph Bodin de Boismortier. These sonatas were originally published in Paris in 1727.
Monday 29 July 2019
by Giovanni Paisiello, arranged for two flutes
This aria, with music by Italian composer Giovanni Paisiello, was originally part of Stephen Storace's popular opera The Haunted Tower, which premiered in London in 1789.
Whither my love, ah whither art thou gone?
Let not thy absence cloud this happy dawn.
Say, by thy heart, can falsehood e'er be known?
Ah no, I judge it by my own.
The present arrangement for two flutes appeared in Blake's Young Flutist's Magazine, published in Philadelphia in 1833.
Tuesday 30 July 2019
from “24 Technical Studies”
This is the twentieth piece from 24 Technische Studien für Flöte (24 Technical Studies), Op. 11, by German flutist Emil Prill. It was first published in Leipzig in 1911.
Wednesday 31 July 2019
Traditional Irish reel
This Mixolydian-mode Irish reel appears in Francis O'Neill's 1922 collection Waifs and Strays of Gaelic Melody, “printed as remembered from boyhood days at the dances, before ‛patrons’ were proscribed”.