Classical music "must-haves" for repertoire

[MissyHPhoenix]

I am currently reading up on music history, which is something that I never had the opportunity to learn about when I was in school many, many years ago. Enjoying it very much, finally learning what the different "stages" of classical music mean; i.e., Baroque, Classical, Romantic, etc. However, since I am studying in basic classical music books which describe the various eras as pertains to the Masters in each era, I am not getting the info that I REALLY wanted overall, which is what pieces of music written by the greatest composers are the ones which best pertain to flute! I have found that my favorite compositions are from mostly the Baroque & Classical periods, JS Bach, Handel, Mozart, & Telemann mainly. I have tried some Contemporary pieces but did not like them. I do want to have a handle on music from all eras, though, so I turn to the rest of you in this forum who have more knowledge in this area than I do!!

Can any of you please give me your opinions of the best, most important pieces of music per era that you think are vital for a flutist to be considered a well-rounded musician? Thanks in advance for your help!

[cflutist]

"The Flute Book" by Nancy Toff has a very comprehensive discussion of flute music in the Baroque, Classic, Romantic, and Modern Eras. There is also a repertoire catalog by composer which lists the works, intrumentation, and the different publishers of said work.

[pied_piper]

If you Google for "Flute Repertoire" you can find a few repertoire lists from various colleges, universities, and conservatories. I found this one that way and think it's pretty comprehensive, crossing all the major periods and styles:
http://www.webpages.uidaho.edu/~leonard ... edrep.html

[Tarandros]

If you prefer the Baroque and Classical repertoire, then obviously the Bach Sonatas are the thing, along with the Handel Sonatas, the Telemann Fantaisas for solo flute and the CPE Bach Sonata for solo flute, as well as any number of other flute concertos etc by CPE Bach and Joseph Joachim Quantz (both were Kapellmeisters for Frederick The Great of Prussia, who was a flautist). If you like the Bach solo violin Partitas and Sonatas, there is an arrangement by Peter Lukas Graf of various movements of these six into three Sonatas. Also, the French Baroque contains many gems such as the flute Sonatas by Hotteterre, Blavet, Boismortier and Leclair. From the Classical era, obviously one's talking mainly about the two Mozart concertos, the flute and harp concerto and the flute quartets (i.e. for flute and string quartet).

As for 19th century repertoire, I'm not up on it at all, really, but athough there is lots of 19th century flute music, hardly any of it is in the first division, though most of it's pleasing enough.

From the 20th century, my favourites are Debussy Syrinx, Debussy Prelude a l'Apres Midi d'un Faune (there is an arrangment of this for flute and piano), the Poulenc Sonata and the Prokofiev Sonata but there's a lot of 20th century flute music besides, and for my taste, it's a lot more worthwhile than the 19th century repertoire. Other excellent pieces are the Joueurs de Flute by Roussel and the Three Pieces (sometimes called Three Oriental Pieces) by P.O. Ferroud (clearly influenced by Debussy and Roussel). The Ibert Piece and the Ibert Concerto are superb and there's also an excellent concerto by Nielsen (both concertos are available in piano arrangements - though finding a pianist prepared to accompany the Ibert concerto isn't easy, as the piano part is if anything even more difficult than the flute part!). I'd also mention the wonderful Debussy Sonata for flute, viola and harp, as well as the Bax Elegiac Trio for flute, viola and harp and the Bax Sonata for flute and harp. Another superb 20th century piece is the William Alwyn Divertimento for solo flute (Alwyn was an English virtuoso flautist as well as a composer). This is only a very partial, rough guide, based of course on personal taste (or prejudice!) Kind regards, T.

[fluteguy18]

The Ibert Piece and the Ibert Concerto are superb and there's also an excellent concerto by Nielsen (both concertos are available in piano arrangements - though finding a pianist prepared to accompany the Ibert concerto isn't easy, as the piano part is if anything even more difficult than the flute part!).

Absolutely. These are both very challenging works, and finding a pianist that will play them with you is not easy. It's the same this with Jolivet's "Chant de Linos." I have finally tracked down a pianist good enough (and willing) to play it with me in my recital in April. He' so busy that I had to book him a year in advance.

As for the topic of this thread. I would definitely look at Pergolesi's G major flute concerto, both Mozart Concerti, and Kuhlau. He wrote a lot of really great flute pieces. For 19th century pieces, I would look into all of the Paris Conservatoire Contest Pieces (Chaminade, Faure, Enesco, Hue, etc.)

[MissyHPhoenix]

Thank you all so much! This is exactly what I was hoping to get! Now I can get some new music and a new book, always favorite things for me to do! The link to the list is fantastic, too -- the levels indicated are wonderful guides to the music. Again, thanks!!!!!!!!!

[stewyflute13]

Don't forget the Reinecke Sonata "Undine" for 19th century repertoire, as well as the Widor Suite If someone could help me out on the period for this piece, the Mercadante concerto in e minor, that would be great, cuz I'm on vacation and can't look up the dates on my score of this work. I think it is classical or very early Romantic.

Here is what my list would be

Baroque: Bach sonatas, Bach Partita in a minor, Telemann Fantasias, Pergolesi Concerto G Major, Vivaldi Concerto "Il Gardellino"

Classical: Mozart Concertos, Stamitz Concerto in G Major, Devienne Concerto in e minor, Mercadante?

Romantic: Reinecke Sonata "Undine," Chaminade, Faure, Enesco, Carmen Fantasy, Hue, Widor, hmm can't think of anything else but know there's more

20th Century: Debussy Syrinx, Dutilleux Sonatine, Nielsen, Ibert, Bozza Image, Claude Bolling Suite for flute and jazz piano, Griffes Poem, Hindemith, Poulenc, Prokofiev, Martin Ballade (Muczinsky?, Liebermann Sonata)

i only question musczinsky because i am trying to give you the most essential, and i have not studied that piece, so i am not one hundred percent sure.. obviously this is a lot like the other lists, but i just wanted to give my .02

[Tarandros]

You can download a lot of the scores free here (this is a respectable Canadian site):

http://imslp.org/wiki/List_of_Compositi ... d_Recorder

All of the material is out of copyright in Canada, but if worried about US copyright law, do read the disclaimer on the site. I've downloaded a lot of material here in the UK from the site.

Also, the Royal Library in Copenhagen has an important collection of flute music available for free download, mainly from the mid to late 18th century called Gjeddes Samling (Gjedde's Collection). This contains a wealth of flute music, much of it unusual and here is a link to it:

http://www.kb.dk/en/nb/tema/fokus/giedde.html

Kind regards, T.

[Zuzana2010]

The first step in getting free classical music to first identify which genre of classical music and which composer's music you wish to download. It is better to prepare list of your favorite music pieces instead of making random selections, which you may not like later on and which may have be deleted.


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