Thursday 17 October 2024
Traditional Irish jig
This jig is taken from Francis O'Neill's celebrated collection Music of Ireland, published in Chicago in 1903. O'Neill obtained this tune from Father James K. Fielding, a Chicago Catholic priest and flute player from County Kilkenny.
Wednesday 16 October 2024
from “Progress in Flute Playing”
Here is étude No. 14 from the first book of Ernesto Köhler's Progress in Flute Playing. It is a study in intervals, mainly in the key of A major but with a calmer central section that starts off in C major but in the end modulates back to A major.
Thanks to Neri for suggesting this piece!
Tuesday 15 October 2024
from Flute Sonata No. 12
This is the second movement of a sonata in A minor for two flutes by the German Baroque composer and music theorist Johann Mattheson. It was published in Amsterdam in 1708.
Monday 14 October 2024
Traditionally attributed to Johann Sebastian Bach
Anna Magdalena Bach, Johann Sebastian's wife, was presented with the famous Notebook by her husband in 1725. He started her out with a fine gift of two partitas, and left the rest blank for her to collect compositions herself. The Musette in D major, BWV Anh. 126, is one of those collected compositions. Because all the entries are anonymous, it is impossible to know for certain whether or not J.S. Bach actually composed this brief, simple musette. Certain things about it, most notably its somewhat boisterous mood, suggest the work of one of Johann Sebastian's sons. The boisterousness chiefly manifests itself in witty alternations between broken octave bass accompaniment and unison in the statement of the perky theme, and some tricky, less-than-completely sweet harmonies in the contrasting material.
In this transcription for the modern C flute we kept the original key of D major, but we had to raise the last note by an octave.
Sunday 13 October 2024
Traditional Irish jig
The earliest appearance of this jig is found in Francis O'Neill's collection Music of Ireland (Chicago, 1903), but the tune is related to an English/Scottish melody known as “The Major”, dating back to the mid-18th century.
Mooncoin is a town in County Kilkenny in the southeast of Ireland, an area famous in the 19th century and early 20th century for its pipers. The town's curious name derives from an anglicized version of the Irish “Móin Choinn”, which means “Coyne's Bogland”.
Saturday 12 October 2024
from “20 Petites Etudes”
This easy study in triplets is taken from Giuseppe Gariboldi's Vingt petites études, or Twenty Studies. Play this piece evenly, and mind your articulation and phrasing.
Friday 11 October 2024
from Gluck's opera “Orfeo ed Euridice”
According to Greek mythology, Orpheus was “the father of songs”: with his music and singing, he could charm birds, fish and wild beasts, coax the trees and rocks into dance, and even divert the course of rivers.
When his wife Eurydice died of a snake bite, Orpheus played such sad songs and sang so mournfully that all the nymphs and gods wept. On their advice, Orpheus traveled to the underworld and by his music softened the hearts of Hades and Persephone (he was the only person ever to do so), who agreed to allow Eurydice to return with him to earth on one condition: he should walk in front of her and not look back until they both had reached the upper world. He set off with Eurydice following and in his anxiety as soon as he reached the upper world he turned to look at her, forgetting that both needed to be in the upper world, and she vanished for the second time.
It is then that Orpheus intones the lament, “Che farò senza Euridice?” (“What will I do without Eurydice?”), a sublime aria which has truly become immortal.