Free Flute Sheet Music

Tune of the Day: Walls of Enniscorthy

This jig appears in Francis O'Neill's collection Waifs and Strays of Gaelic Melody, published in Chicago in 1922. O'Neill remarks: “An excellent setting of a Double Jig as played by Delaney, Early, and McFadden, and of which the above is a popular variant that was printed for the first time in the O'Neill Collections 1902–09 and named ‘The Merry Old Woman’.”

Enniscorthy is the name of a relatively large town in County Wexford, south-eastern Ireland. Its castle, an imposing Norman stronghold, dates from 1205.

Tune of the Day: Largo by Bellinzani

This is the opening movement of the twelfth sonata from Sonate a flauto solo con cembalo, o violoncello (“Sonatas for solo flute with harpsichord or cello”) by Italian Baroque composer Paolo Benedetto Bellinzani, originally published in Venice in 1720.

Tune of the Day: Duet in F major by Tulou

This Tyrolienne for two flutes is taken from the celebrated Méthode de flûte by French flutist Jean-Louis Tulou, published in Paris in 1835.

Tune of the Day: Study in C major by Boehm

This étude is the opening piece of a collection of Twelve Grand Studies for the flute by Theobald Boehm, the German inventor who perfected the modern Western concert flute and its improved fingering system.

Tune of the Day: The Figure of Three

This jig was composed by the famous 18th-century gentleman musician Walker ‘Piper’ Jackson, of the townland of Lisduan, County Limerick, Ireland. Jackson was one of the first Irish tune composers to have had their music published. “The Figure of Three” was part of the 13 compositions that were published by Samuel Lee in Dublin in the circa-1774 booklet Jackson's Celebrated Irish Tunes. The same tune appears in many later publications under the title “Jackson's Bowl of Punch”.

Tune of the Day: El Capitan

This march has enjoyed exceptional popularity with bands since it first appeared in 1896. It was extracted from the most successful of Sousa's operettas, also titled El Capitan, which premiered the same year.

In The Works of John Philip Sousa, Paul E. Bierley remarks:

This was the march played by the Sousa Band, augmented to over a hundred men and all at Sousa's personal expense, as they led Admiral Dewey's victory parade in New York on September 30, 1899. It was a matter of sentiment with Sousa, because the same march had been played by the band on Dewey's warship Olympia as it sailed out of Mirs Bay on the way to attack Manila during the Spanish-American War.

Thanks to Elan for suggesting this piece!

Tune of the Day: Monkeys Spinning Monkeys

Today we propose an arrangement for three flutes and piano of “Monkeys Spinning Monkeys”, one of the most famous compositions by Kevin MacLeod. Written in 2014, it is a piece that has no ending and could, at least in theory, go on forever; the original score suggests, quite humorously, to “stop at some point”. You may have heard this catchy tune in one of many online videos, as it has been extremely popular on YouTube. MacLeod provides his music royalty-free, making it possible for anybody to use it under the sole condition that appropriate credit is given.

“Monkeys Spinning Monkeys” by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0. Our arrangement changes the instrumentation from two flutes and pizzicato strings to three flutes and piano. A few notes have been adapted in the third flute part, but the piece is otherwise identical to the original.

Thanks to Sophie for suggesting this piece!

Tune of the Day: Study in A-flat minor by Hugues

Today's piece is the twenty-seventh study from 40 Nuovi Studi, Op. 75, by Italian flutist, composer and arranger Luigi Hugues.

Tune of the Day: Fairly Shot of Her

The earliest appearance of this tune is in the Drummond Castle Manuscript, inscribed “A Collection of Country Dances written for the use of his Grace the Duke of Perth by David Young, 1734”. London publications included the melody soon afterward, starting with Walsh's Third Book of the Compleat Country Dancing-Master (1735). Frank Kidson (Musical Times, 1911) traces the melody to the old Scottish song tune “O gin' I were fairly shut of her”. The word “shot” in the title may have several meanings, but the one which appears to fit has the sense of being depleted, exhausted, or “done with”.

Tune of the Day: Lindrindod Lasses

This tune was composed by British writer and musician Ignatius Sancho (1729–1780), and was first printed in his Twelve Country Dances for the Year 1779. The title probably refers to the Welsh spa town of Llandrindod.

Tune of the Day: We Met

This song was composed by English poet, dramatist and songwriter Thomas Haynes Bayly. The present arrangement for two flutes is taken from Blake's Young Flutist's Magazine, published in 1833.

Tune of the Day: Study in C major by Boehm

This étude is the second piece of a collection of Twelve Grand Studies for the flute by Theobald Boehm, the German inventor who perfected the modern Western concert flute and its improved fingering system.

Tune of the Day: The Old Walls of Liscarroll

The earliest known appearance of this tune is in P.D. Reidy's music manuscript collection (London, 1890s). ”Professor” Patrick Reidy of Castleisland (County Kerry, Ireland) was a dancing master engaged by the Gaelic League in London to teach dance classes. Tune collector Francis O'Neill (1922) remarks:

There can be little doubt that Mr. Reidy's title was well deserved, because his fame as a dancer and dancing master in early life in North Kerry was successfully maintained later in life in London, where he was esteemed as an authority on the subject.

Tune of the Day: Sarabanda by Corelli

This Sarabanda is the third movement of Italian Baroque composer Arcangelo Corelli's Violin Sonata No. 8 in E minor, which was originally published in 1700 as part of his 12 Violin Sonatas, Op. 5.

Tune of the Day: Duet in E-flat major by Tulou

This charming Andantino for two flutes is taken from the celebrated Méthode de flûte by French flutist Jean-Louis Tulou, published in Paris in 1835.

Tune of the Day: Study in A minor by Hugues

Today's piece is the thirtieth study from 40 Nuovi Studi, Op. 75, by Italian flutist, composer and arranger Luigi Hugues.

Tune of the Day: Shandon Bells

The earliest known appearance of this tune in print is in Francis O'Neill's collection Music of Ireland: 1850 Melodies, published in Chicago in 1903.

The tune is named after a bell tower in the city of Cork, Ireland. According to O'Neill, “No double jig ever introduced in Chicago met with such immediate popularity among musicians and dancers as Shandon Bells.” It seems that his source for the tune, fiddler Edward Cronin, had no title for it, so O'Neill came up with an original one.

Tune of the Day: Allegro by Bellinzani

This is the second movement of the twelfth sonata from Sonate a flauto solo con cembalo, o violoncello (“Sonatas for solo flute with harpsichord or cello”) by Italian Baroque composer Paolo Benedetto Bellinzani, originally published in Venice in 1720.

This movement has actually no tempo indication in the original manuscript, but it usually appears as an “Allegro” in modern editions.

Tune of the Day: Alice Gray

This popular ballad was likely composed around 1830 by Virtue Millard, about whom very little is known aside from the fact that she was the wife of a Mr. Philip Millard.

She's all my fancy painted her,
She's lovely, she's divine,
But her heart it is another's,
She never can be mine;
Yet lov'd I as man never lov'd,
A love without decay,
Oh! my heart, my heart is breaking
For the love of Alice Gray!

The present arrangement for two flutes appeared in Blake's Young Flutist's Magazine, published in 1833.

Tune of the Day: Study in C major by Boehm

This étude is the fourth piece of a collection of Twelve Grand Studies for the flute by Theobald Boehm, the German inventor who perfected the modern Western concert flute and its improved fingering system.

Tune of the Day: The Pipers' Picnic

The earliest known appearance of this tune in print is in Francis O'Neill's collection Music of Ireland: 1850 Melodies, published in Chicago in 1903.

Since 1965, there has actually been an event called the “Pipers Picnic” held every year in Earltown, Nova Scotia on the first Saturday in August.

Tune of the Day: Trip to Dilington

This tune was composed by British writer and musician Ignatius Sancho (1729–1780), and was first printed in his Twelve Country Dances for the Year 1779. The title probably refers to Dillington House, a 16th-century college near Ilminster in the parish of Whitelackington, Somerset.

Tune of the Day: Duet in E-flat major by Tulou

This “Andantino grazioso” for two flutes is taken from the celebrated Méthode de flûte by French flutist Jean-Louis Tulou, published in Paris in 1835.

Tune of the Day: Study in D minor by Hugues

Today's piece is the thirty-first study from 40 Nuovi Studi, Op. 75, by Italian flutist, composer and arranger Luigi Hugues.

Tune of the Day: Hartigan's Fancy

The earliest known appearance of this tune in print is in Francis O'Neill's collection Music of Ireland: 1850 Melodies, published in Chicago in 1903. O'Neill says this jig was unpublished and “new to us”, at least in the “Hartigan” form, prior to obtaining it from his source John Carey, a native of Limerick.

Tune of the Day: Giga by Corelli

This Giga is the fourth and final movement of Italian Baroque composer Arcangelo Corelli's Violin Sonata No. 8 in E minor, which was originally published in 1700 as part of his 12 Violin Sonatas, Op. 5.

Tune of the Day: The Pilgrim of Love

This was originally a song by English composer, conductor and arranger Sir Henry Bishop.

A hermit who dwells in these solitudes cross'd me,
As wayworn and faint up the mountain I press'd;
The aged man paus'd on his staff to accost me,
And proffer'd his cell as the mansion of rest.
Ah! nay, courteous father, right onward I rove,
No rest but the grave, for the Pilgrim of Love!

The present arrangement for two flutes is taken from Blake's Young Flutist's Magazine, published in Philadelphia in 1833.

Tune of the Day: Study in C major by Boehm

This étude is the sixth piece of a collection of Twelve Grand Studies for the flute by Theobald Boehm, the German inventor who perfected the modern Western concert flute and its improved fingering system.

Tune of the Day: The Yellow Flail

Irish historian Patrick Weston Joyce printed two versions of this tune in his Ancient Irish Music (1873), of which the present air is the second of the two referred to in his remarks:

This air I have known from my childhood, and always by the name of the “Súiste buidhe”, or “The yellow flail”. But the air immediately following, which I noted down from the singing of Joseph Martin, a native of county Limerick, was, according to him, known by the same name. They are both similar in character and expression — airy and graceful in movement; and as they are precisely alike in measure and rhythm, it is probably that an Irish song called “Súiste Buide” was sung to both indifferently, and gave them the same name. Observe that both are song airs, and are to be played somewhat slower than double jig time.

Tune of the Day: The Pathfinder of Panama

One of twelve marches Sousa composed for various expositions or fairs, “The Pathfinder of Panama” was dedicated to the Panama Canal and the Panama-Pacific Exposition held in San Francisco in 1915. The march was composed at the request of Walter Anthony, a reporter for the San Francisco Call. The newly-constructed Panama Canal was the pathfinder of the title; it shortened the ocean voyage between San Francisco and New York by 8,000 miles.

Thanks to Elan for suggesting this piece!

Tune of the Day: Duet in G major by Tulou

This Allegretto for two flutes is taken from the celebrated Méthode de flûte by French flutist Jean-Louis Tulou, published in Paris in 1835.