I fell in love with this very short but incredible Aria by Handel, Piangero la sorte mio., when first working through John Wion's glorious Opera book for flutists working on tone and phrasing which he titled "Sing!". This Aria is sheer beauty in motion, so I had to arrange it for three flutists. When our three performers in Flutzalad (two teachers and a talented 15 yr. old student on the Aria's vocal part, Flute 1) first described the piece to our audience we said: "Cleopatra has been imprisoned in a power-take-over and is crying for her release. She is saying "I shall weep" as the Aria opens as a slow Largo. But then her fury overtakes her and she says with five passions and nine vengeances: "My ghost will return and make you absolutely miserable if you don't free me!" and THAT is the Cleopatra we know and love, right?" They cracked up. :>)
Here is a rough translation of the Italian:
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(Largo):
I shall weep, I shall weep,
My destiny now so cruel and unfortunate
For as long as my heart beats.
(Allegro):
But once I am dead,
From every side my ghost will haunt you!
Both night and day, for ever more!
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This Aria is molto fabulouso played on Flute. I kid you not. The BEST!
So here it is as a free Trio for three flutes for your to enjoy!
Update July 29/26: See the comments below for some super interesting input from Flute experts!
Dear Flutelovers,
I followed an interesting flutey topic online this week about the myriad wooden flutes and penny whistles required for the musical "Come From Away". It seems the required number of instruments are so overwhelming (see below for the list) that some flutists might even considering renting the set of penny whistles and wooden flutes required to play in this musical! (To purchase them would be thousands of dollars.)
Read the comments at Bret Pimental's blog if you're curious. And here's the traditional Irish flutist (who is now offering sets for rent to help out) who wrote the flute's "book" for the show, Ben Powers showing the needed whistle set:
Ben Powers shows his flute and whistle collection for playing the show: (video)
To play "Come From Away" the musical you would require: Irish flute in D, Irish flute in B-flat, Boxwood flute in D, pennywhistle in low A, pennywhistle in low C, pennywhistle in low C-sharp, pennywhistle in low D, pennywhistle in low E, pennywhistle in low F, pennywhistle in F-sharp, pennywhistle in G, pennywhistle in A, pennywhistle in B-flat, pennywhistle in C, pennywhistle in D, pennywhistle in E, pennywhistle in F, Uilleann pipes.
Gadzukes man!
And do go, if you're curious, and hear the show's entire recorded sound track here to get an idea of the flute's parts: (video on youtube)
Sadly, at the blog where this is discussed you see cries for help like this:
"I’m very confused by the whistle part and was wondering how far I could condense it. I’m 17 years old and this is just for a school musical so I don’t have access to basically all of the instruments except for a basic flute, recorder, and tin whistle in D. I can’t figure out if the whistles are transposition or not and the necessity of most of these whistles. I’m very much not an expert and I’m scared that I’m not going to be able to play it in time for the show five months away. Does anyone have any advice about what I can condense and what keys are accurate to the musical since I am also confused as to why the C whistles appear to be in a different key to my C flute? Help very much needed."
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Well guys?
How many flutey readers can guess what I'm thinking right now?
Would it be:
a) the original sound of the Irish whistles and flutes is so important to preserve, I do hope that there will be lots of sets of rentable instruments for all future high school productions of this musical and time enough for each person to learn all those instruments (and stretch their fingers too!)
or
b) sadly, although it would have been nice to utilize the original instruments, for the sake of those who cannot learn them in time for the show, it would probably be smart to transpose the book now. It could perhaps use just one penny whistle, soprano/alto recorder maybe and a C-flute, maybe piccolo? It could be a great educational bonus to also have clear charts of the Irish ornaments and how to execute them.
So please feel free to comment at length on this one. I'd like to poll the flute community as to how to make this work for us all. Afterall, we've lived our lifetimes faced with pages of alternate fingerings required because composers who do not play the flute force us to do the impossible.
Why can't we request parts that don't give us crazy-making extra-added labour while the composers are still ALIVE???
I remember when I first started teaching, three students performed in a flute trio of Gluck's Minuet and Dance of the Blessed Spirits which they had prepared themselves. The pages were in score form, all scotch taped together in a six foot long accordion of sheetmusic, and they spread across three music stands.
When the three flute students arrived at the famous Da Capo of the Minuet, returning to the start of the piece, they all quickly shuffled sideways, three feet to the left and started again from the beginning. I have never seen anything so funny! Such innocence! :>)
I have since undertaken to re-write the Trio myself with both score and parts!! Unusual for me, I felt in this piece is was more appropriate to keep the entire solo in the first flute part, and the difficult, soft, delicate and constantly undulating sixteenth notes (which were without respite in the original version as they were all given to the third flute player) are now divided easily between the two accompanying flutists. Do take a look. It's a free gift. Score and parts:
I shall never love a gentle-souled composer more than Vaughn Williams. And of the many pieces of his which I grew up listening to, the one that transfixes the most is "The Lark Ascending" for violin and orchestra. Sixteen years ago I realized that there was a free copy on IMSLP for violin and piano! (Who knew that the composer wrote this version first, and so it's the first to be free of copywrite?! See "transcriptions" at the above link). So I decided to try and arrange it for my flute, cello and piano trio back then. I would like to offer this arrangement for flute, cello and piano to everyone for free as a gift.
Here is the full piano score and parts with cues for your enjoyment:
I just loved this interview with Lorna McGhee for so many reasons. One of the stunning things she has done, just last year, was to take the audition for the Boston Symphony and she WON it! And she's currently 52 years old! Hear all about that in Part 1 of the interview. Fascinating.
In Part 2 she talks about breath (oceanic and bouncing), the vocal quality, singing while playing, William Bennett's tone colours, some fabulous new pieces she's working on for her next recording in Japan, and other intimate details of her work on expanding the tone colours of the flute. Enjoy!
Once in while a story about a young flute player comes along that is simply amazing!
This young person, Julin Cheung, won his first professional audition last year, before he had even finished high school. Enjoy these videos charting his progress.
Is it time to start up a new trio of flutists with some superb new (free!!) sheet music? As a gift I am giving away two very classic and beautiful trios, suitable for novice players. These are gorgeous.
Firstly, the third flute player becomes the secretly emerging soloist in the opening Allegro from:
Secondly, you may be familiar with the fascinating world of Mozart in London in 1764, when he was only eight years old, and the miniatures he composed at that time, entitled "The London Sketchbooks"?
I played through all the above trios by Mozart's youngest possible self and selected two really spunky ones, and wrote out separate parts for these two faves. Here they are as a gift:
2. Mozart's London Sketchbooks:G minor & F Major in parts for novice trio in pdf (two page parts of two of the sketches). Download the score to explore but you can use the parts immediately!
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Finally, easiest of all and also at IMSLP (free music website) I found:
Highly recommend. Any flute trio of any age or ability level can manage these Kimberling trios. They're great rhythmic studies too. Very good writing. Enjoy!
