Free Flute Sheet Music

Tune of the Day: Trumpet Voluntary in D major

Generally speaking, a “trumpet voluntary” is a kind of English keyboard piece from the Baroque era, most commonly played on the organ using the trumpet stop, hence the name.

John Stanley, an English composer and organist of the late Baroque (18th century), published at least thirty pieces under the name “Voluntary” for Organ. Most of these feature a short, slow introduction followed by either a solo-stop movement (such as the so called “Trumpet Voluntary” we present today, which is by far the most famous) or a fugue.

Thanks to Craig for suggesting this piece!

Tune of the Day: King George V's Army

This pipe march was composed by Pipe Major George S. McLennan of the 1st Gordon Highlanders; the title refers to the British army of World War I, of which McLennan was a member.

There is some confusion of titles between “King George V's Army” and “Kitchener's Army”, two distinct tunes albeit both composed by McLennan.

Tune of the Day: Pourquoi me réveiller

French composer Jules Massenet wrote his opera Werther in 1887, based on the German epistolary novel The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

Werther's aria “Pourquoi me réveiller, ô souffle du printemps?” (“Why awaken me, o breath of spring?”) from Act III has become one of the favorite pieces from the opera, and has been sung in concert by many famous tenors such as Luciano Pavarotti.

Thanks to Jennifer for suggesting this piece!

Tune of the Day: Study in F major by Gariboldi

Here is another relatively easy study from Giuseppe Gariboldi's Twenty Studies, Op. 132. Try to pay careful attention to phrasing and dynamics.

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: Dovecote Park

This popular Scottish march was composed by Pipe Major James Braidwood, and appears in many collections for Highland bagpipes. Braidwood lived in Edinburgh, and was a friend of Pipe Major William Ross. When Willie was, rather suddenly, appointed to the Army Class in 1919, he didn't have accommodation in the city, and Jimmy Braidwood put him up at his house, which was called Dovecote Park. He also composed a tune in his honor, which he titled “Pipe Major William Ross's Welcome to Dovecote Park”. Ross enjoyed the tune and included it in his collection, but modestly deleted references to himself in the title, publishing it only as “Dovecote Park”.

The tune is sometimes called “MacDonald of Sleat” after a dance of that name which uses the tune.

Tune of the Day: Ideale

Although they were on every singer's lips during the first years of the twentieth century, most of Italian-British composer Francesco Paolo Tosti's songs have since fallen by the wayside. Only a handful of greatest hits, like “Ideale”, have had much sustained popularity. In the original version of this song, the singer describes in romantic terms how he followed an ideal, whether a woman or something more abstract, and begs the ideal to return, “and in your image, a new dawn will shine upon me”.

Tune of the Day: Pastoral Symphony

The famous “Pastoral Symphony” that serves as an instrumental interlude before the Christmas section in Handel's oratorio Messiah was originally entitled “Pifa”. The composer alludes to the music of the pifferari, the country bagpipers who descended the Italian mountains during the Christmas season to play in village streets.

James Galway included a solo version of this piece in his album Pachelbel Canon and Other Baroque Favorites.

Tune of the Day: Courante by J.S. Bach

This is the third movement of Johann Sebastian Bach's Cello Suite No. 2 in D minor. It is a light and fast-paced courante (sometimes spelled corrente) in 3/4 time.

Tune of the Day: Nanatsu no Ko

This popular Japanese children's song was composed by Nagayo Motoori to a poem by Ujō Noguchi, and published in Kin no fune (“The golden ship”) magazine on July 1921. The title can be translated as either “seven children” or “seven-year-old child”, and was never clarified by the poet. The song refers to a mountain and a crow crying kawai, the Japanese word for cute. Ujō Noguchi often told the story behind the poem: A crow flies in the direction of a mountain, and two boys stand below watching. One boy says to the other, why does the bird fly and cry at the same time? His friend says, because her babies are waiting on the other side, and she is calling kawai, kawai to them since they are her cute children.

In the manga and anime Detective Conan, the phone number of the boss of the Black Organization is #969#6261, which reproduces the beginning of this tune.

Thanks to Claire for suggesting this piece!

Tune of the Day: Study in B-flat major by Köhler

This is étude No. 8 from the first book of Ernesto Köhler's Progress in Flute Playing. It is in ABA form, and features a stormy central section marked “più vivo”, which is Italian for “more lively”.

Tune of the Day: Après un rêve

Trois mélodies is a set of three pieces for solo voice and piano, written by Gabriel Fauré between 1870 and 1878. The first of these songs, titled “Après un rêve” (“After a Dream”), is undoubtedly one of the composer's best-known works for voice. The French text, derived from an anonymous Italian poem, describes a dream in which the narrator and her beloved come together in an almost otherworldly meeting, followed by a longing to return to this dream state after awakening (“Return, O mysterious night!”).

In 2018 the piece was notably played at the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, as the newly married couple retired to sign the register books.

Tune of the Day: Vivace by Telemann

This is the first movement from Georg Philipp Telemann's sixth Canonic Sonata for two flutes. As with all of these sonatas, the two players play the exact same melody, but (in this case) two measures apart. Most of the trills can be played with a turned ending.

Tune of the Day: The Foxhunter's Reel

This five-part reel is quite popular at modern Irish sessions. Fiddlers often play it in the key of A Major, but on the flute G major is usually the key of choice.

Tune of the Day: Les Fifres

This piece is taken from the first book of Pièces de Clavecin (“Harpsichord Pieces”) by French Baroque composer, harpsichordist and organist Jean-François Dandrieu. It is made up of three parts in rondeau form, so its structure can be written as AABACA. Fifre is the French word for ‛fife’, but the piece has also appeared in print with the English title “The Fifers”.

Thanks to Brandon for suggesting this piece!

Tune of the Day: In diesen heil'gen Hallen

This bass aria is taken from Act II of Mozart's opera The Magic Flute. After Pamina pleads with Sarastro to have mercy on her scheming mother (the Queen of the Night, who has just sung the famous aria “Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen”, or “Hell's vengeance boileth in mine heart”), Sarastro forgives her and sings of the ideals of his Brotherhood:

Within these hallowed halls
One knows not revenge.
And should a person have fallen,
Love will guide him to duty.
Then wanders he on the hand of a friend
Cheerful and happy into a better land.

Tune of the Day: Study in G major by Gariboldi

This third étude from Giuseppe Gariboldi's Twenty Studies starts off with a joyous 6/8-time theme marked “con grazia”, which is Italian for “with grace”. Within the piece you will find a very lyrical passage in E minor, and even three “hidden” 3/4-time measures in which quavers are to be thought in three groups of two instead of two groups of three. The theme is then repeated, but at the end the composer decided to speed things up, and inserted a run of sixteenth notes!

Tune of the Day: Green Bushes

This Mixolydian-mode song is a very English-sounding one. It dates from the 1760s, though it remained popular until the early years of the 20th century.

The melody is featured in the second movement of Ralph Vaughan Williams's English Folk Song Suite, in Percy Grainger's Green Bushes (Passacaglia on an English Folksong), and in George Butterworth's The Banks of Green Willow. It is also very similar to the melody of the “Lost Lady Found” movement of Percy Grainger's Lincolnshire Posy, and to “The Cutty Wren”.

Tune of the Day: Sarabande by J.S. Bach

The extremely slow sarabande from Johann Sebastian Bach's Suite No. 2 for Unaccompanied Cello may sound a bit sad, but it's a really beautiful piece of Baroque music. The world-famous cellist Mstislav Rostropovich memorably described this movement as “an essay in white-hot solitude”.

Tune of the Day: Allegro con espressione by Kuhlau

Friedrich Kuhlau, a German-Danish pianist and composer of the late Classic and Romantic eras, wrote several compositions for flute. The piece we propose today, a fast G-major Allegro in triple time, is the first movement of one of the many flute duets he composed.

Thanks to Kate and George for suggesting this work!

Tune of the Day: Octaves

This study in octaves is taken from Ernesto Köhler's 25 Romantic Studies, Op. 66. It may look a bit complex at first, but it's an excellent piece to develop a better embouchure. You can start out by playing only the first note in each slurred group, so that you can better focus on the melody and phrase it musically. Then add in the octaves, always marking the first of the slurred notes (that's the meaning of the direction at the beginning of the piece, “marcando sempre la prima delle note legate”). Try not to vary your embouchure too much when changing octaves, or you won't be able to speed things up later on.

Tune of the Day: When Irish Eyes Are Smiling

This lighthearted song in tribute to Ireland was composed by Ernest Ball, with lyrics by Chauncey Olcott and George Graff, Jr., for Olcott's production of The Isle O' Dreams. It was first published in 1912, at a time when songs in tribute to a romanticized Ireland were very numerous and popular both in Britain and the United States. The song continued to be a familiar standard for generations, and has been recorded on over 200 singles and albums and by many famous singers, including Bing Crosby and the famous tenor John McCormack.

Tune of the Day: Neapolitan Melody

Being both a flutist and a composer, Jules Demersseman wrote numerous works for his own instrument. Probably the best known of his works today is the Solo de Concert, Op. 82 No. 6. This piece, also known as the “Italian Concerto”, uses a Neapolitan folk melody in the middle movement. The original setting of the tune is in the key of D-flat major (with 5 flats in the key signature), but to make it easier we have transposed it to D major.

Tune of the Day: Voi, che sapete

“Voi, che sapete che cosa è amor” (“You ladies who know what love is, is it what I'm suffering from?”) is one of the most popular arias from Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro. It is performed by Cherubino, Count Almaviva's young page, who is about to be sent off to the army because the Count finds him a nuisance. When Cherubino appears before the Countess and her maid Susanna in Act II to tell them his fate, this aria is sung at the request of Susanna for a love song.

Tune of the Day: Study in E minor by Gariboldi

Here is another étude from Giuseppe Gariboldi's Twenty Studies, this time in E minor. It is marked “mezza voce eguale e delicato”, which can be translated literally as “half voice (i.e. quiet), even and delicate”.

Tune of the Day: Early One Morning

This 16th century ballad is one of the best-known traditional folksongs in Britain, but little is known of its origins. The lyrics are first found in publications as far back as 1787, but it was only with William Chappell's publication in his National English Airs of circa 1855 that the well-known melody was first printed. In his later Popular Music of the Olden Time Chappell mentioned “Early One Morning” as “one of the three most popular songs among the servant-maids of the present generation”. Some scholars believe the melody may be derived from an earlier song, titled “The Forsaken Lover”.

The folk song has been used in a number of well-known arrangements, for example by the English composer Benjamin Britten and the Australian composer Percy Aldridge Grainger. Until 2006, it formed the opening bars of the "Radio 4 UK Theme" by Fritz Spiegl, which was played every morning on BBC Radio 4. The tune has also appeared in a number of television programmes, such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and films, such as Monty Python and the Holy Grail and the 1960 Disney film Pollyanna.

Tune of the Day: Pa, pa, pa

This famous duet is sung in the finale of Act II of Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, when the birdcatcher Papageno uses his magic bells to summon Papagena. Papageno is so thrilled to find his beloved Papagena that at first they can only stutter blissed-out “Pa … pa … pa …” noises at each other!

Tune of the Day: Study in D major by Köhler

This étude is taken from the first book of Ernesto Köhler's Twenty Easy Melodic Progressive Studies, Op. 93.

Thanks to Bruno for contributing this piece!

Tune of the Day: Waltz in A minor

Frédéric Chopin composed this waltz (or valse) for solo piano sometime between 1843 and 1848, but the piece was not published until after the composer's death, and only correctly attributed to him in 1955, some 100 years later.

The mood of the piece is unclear, hinting at both sadness and joy. The first theme uses a simple but effective melody, conveying a sad portrait, with decorative ornaments used throughout. The second theme is more interesting and lively, although it still shows a certain sadness. It's only with a modulation into A major that a happy and joyful melody finally appears. The piece concludes with the main theme, followed by a short coda.

Thanks to Luca for suggesting this piece!

Tune of the Day: The Swallowtail Jig

This is a very popular traditional tune in Ireland, Britain and North America, especially with beginners, although it is often considered too hackneyed for session play. The title “Swallowtail Jig”, in conjunction with the alternate title “The Dancing Master”, may possibly refer to the type of coat typically worn the by early 19th-century dancing master.

This jig is often played in a set with the famous “The Irish Washerwoman”.

Tune of the Day: Scherzino by Andersen

Danish flutist Joachim Andersen was both a virtuoso and a composer of flute music. The piece we present today is taken from his Opus 55, titled Acht Vortragsstücke or Eight Performer Pieces. It is a lively 3/4-time scherzo in D major, with a relaxed central section in G major marked “liberamente”, i.e. ‛freely’. thus contrasting with the “lesto” (‛quick’) found at the beginning.

Thanks to Brandon for suggesting this piece!