Fabulous Bach Flute Trio BWV 1020

Dear Flute-lovers,

Here is a free gift for all my flutey readers. (So now is a good time to start forming your Fall Flute Trios with all your flute friends and students. :>)

 Here is my very own sheetmusic for the very fabulous J.S. Bach Sonata in G minor,BWV 1020, with two movements arranged for equal flute trio! Download the free pdf of the trio's score and parts for free as a gift from me to you. :>)

And here is a midi recording of the flute trio: listen here.

Oh wow, is this trio fun to play! It's for intermediate students to professionals. The Adagio is the easier of the two movements. This is the kind of music especially useful for flute chamber groups created by overlapping lessons, with two equal students and one teacher. But. at home alone, it is just as fun to play any of the three parts along with a professional recording of the G minor sonata's second and third movements, (see below for the Galway recordings). I mean, you really get to know a piece of Bach well when you play each of the voices, one by one, effortlessly and silkily diving and weaving through the other two voices. It's so so fun! I love it the most when all the parts are equal like this.

 I was inspired to arrange good quality trios for equal players due to several real-life reasons:

1. There are very few excellent published flute trios when you've already played all the good ones!

This void in the repertoire can affect the choice of pieces for a dedicated trio who've been playing together for more than a year or two. So we flute-lovers all have to write and arrange our own to fill the void in the repertoire, I think. And there's tons of gorgeous music in public domain. I will try and share more of the trios I've arranged from that source in the coming months, all for free! I had so much fun arranging and playing it! I use a multi-track recorder and record all three parts. Tell me if you need to know more in the comments. Excellent fun!

2. When you have two flute students who can overlap their lessons you can really enrich their lives with chamber music of high quality such as trios. I utilized the final 15 minutes of student A's hour long lesson and the first 15 minutes of student B's lesson to give a full 30 minutes of chamber music to both of their weekly visits. It is super fun and inspiring for the students and creates real incentive to practice and prepare!! Trios are the answer for harmonic thrills when you've been playing alone for so long during the week of practice. The addition of vertical harmony makes it sound like an orchestra of flutes and all three are learning to imitate, play articulations identically, and perfect their intonation (much easier if they've prepared using backing tracks, midi, or pro-recordings.)

 I sent along links to these Galway recordings when I was inspiring students to play with style and virtuosity, but do suggest your own fave recordings of this sonata too. Surely there are some wonderful ones I haven't heard yet.

Galway plays the BWV 1020 Adagio (video)

Galway plays the third movement Allegro of BWV 1020 (video)

3. It's always far more interesting for each player when the three parts of a Trio are truly equal so that each player can shine, so I particularly prefer arrangements where the flutists share the lead melody and equally share the bass lines and interior parts. That way each learns to accompany as well as to take the solo with conviction. Everyone can learn, by ear, from hearing everyone else play the material presented by the trio, and the true skills of ensemble playing are explored: how to blend, how to phrase, how to imitate, how to play truly together. And no one is left with a boring part to practice all week (I find that boring 3rd flute parts rarely get practiced by students, but thrilling equal parts played along with backing tracks or pro-recordings make a student massively practice!)

So for these three reasons, I'm sharing my equal trios with you all.

So enjoy this free JS Bach Trio sheetmusic! I love this G minor as a trio so much. It honestly plays itself!

All best,

Jen Cluff

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Other trios Jen recommends: Zempleni, Sandra Howard, McGuire, Casterade, Boismortier's.

Trios Jen has written for sale if you need more for gigs:

Celtic Suites for three equal flutes

Christmas Trios for three equal flutes