Flute Alone - Solos

L'Histoire du Soldat de Jouet

Abigana, B

Le Cirque

Abigana, B

Sonata for Solo Flute

Abigana, B

A Bonnie Tune

Adler, S

A Bonnie Tune - A Scherzo for Solo Flute

Artistic expression always finds a way to be heard, and coping with the 2020 quarantine inspired a great torrent of new outlets for musical performance. For Samuel Adler, this sparked new compositions for solo performers, and for flutist Mimi Stillman it led to streaming solo recitals featuring live composer interviews. Adler and Stillman intersected with a new solo flute work to be premiered online, with the composer remotely in attendance, and the perfectly titled ALONE, TOGETHER.

Flaunting

Adler, S

Flaunting: Study for flute solo. With optional piccolo and/or alto flute.

Kalevi Aho’s Solo III is a highly virtuosic work for flute alone. In the words of the composer:

’The Solo III consists of two contrasting movements. The slow first movement was a commission of the Crusell Week Music Festival in Uusikaupunki, Finland, for the Scandinavian Flute Competition in Uusikaupunki August 1990. The first movement was a compulsory piece at the competition — the movement is like a single, endless melody, and it tests the sound quality of the flutist and his/her ability to create long melodic phrases and a long, continuous musical form. The whole movement is based on a quarter-tone scale.

After finishing the first movement in January 1990 I later decided to write also a second, fast movement for the Solo III. One year later, in January 1991, I composed its technically very demanding and virtuoso second movement, Presto. The Presto flows in a very fast perpetual motion in 1/16-notes. The movement begins mysteriously in the lower register of the flute and gradually the music moves towards the upper register. At the same time its texture becomes more complex, with hidden polyphonics. The second movement ends with a wild prestissimo-culmination.’

For very advanced players.

Icicle

Aitken, R

"Canadian born musician Robert Aitken (b. 1939) has enjoyed an active and versatile career as a flutist, composer, and new music champion. The influence of non-Western music traditions on his compositional aesthetic is reflected in his sensitivity to microtonality, color, and timbre. Aitken belongs to a resurgent class of contemporary flutist-composers— a tradition that began in the Baroque era and proved crucial to the recognition of the flute as a virtuosic solo instrument— and their intimate knowledge of the instrument’s capabilities have laid the foundation for a new body of repertoire specifically tailored to the modern system flute.

Editions Transatlantiques Paris commissioned Aitken to compose a work for young flute players, and the resulting work was Icicle (1977) for solo flute. Though the idea for the piece came on a winter day in New Hampshire and the shimmering effects in the work evoke images of glistening icicles, the title was retrospectively conceived. The composer insisted in a 1981 interview that Icicle 'isn’t terribly, terribly, intellectual' and subsequently revealed that one of the principal techniques used in the work— playing without the thumb key— was meant to be a fun and out-of-the-ordinary trick for the intended young performers. However, regardless of compositional intent, the novel and colorful timbral effects in the work have solidified its place in the contemporary flute repertoire." - Dr. Amanda Cook, 2016

Bulgarian piano prodigy Lora Al-Ahmad traveled to New York City in her teens to further her training, and while at the Mannes School began studying composition with Lowell Liebermann. Among the first fruit of her fascinating talents is Two Skazkas for solo Flute.

Skazka is a Russian word for story, with a particular connotation of fantasy-inspired fairy tales. Al-Ahmad's untitled skazkas enchant, leaving the actual stories to our own imaginations. Two Skazkas quickly captured the imagination of Stefan Hoskuldsson (Principal Flute of the Chicago Symphony) who has performed the work internationally.

Chaco

Publisher: Alry Publications   Composer: Alexander, ES

Liana Alexandra presents the Sonata for solo flute.

This solo sonata in one movement is remarkable for its wide melodic lines in a virtuoso melismatic manner. Essentially consisting of one massively elongated phrase, the Sonata displays the flute at its most melodic and its most virtuosic.

For advanced players.

In writing these 40 studies of jazz, I endeavored to offer fun, easy and progressive tunes to all the musicians who wish to master this style of music as quickly as possible, in particular to the flutist for whom this type of music is so well adapted.

Each etude concentrates on a particular aspect within jazz - rhythmic, melodic or stylistic - enabling you to progress without apparent effort as well as constantly enjoying yourself. You will also notice that the harmonic grid is written in all the scores. This should encourage you to go farther and, if you are tempted, to go beyond the limits of the proposed themes and try improvising to your heart s content.

On the compact disc, you will find the integral versions and the piano playbacks. By using the disc, you will be able to find examples of phrasing and of interpretation, as well as being able to play as much as you wish with the accompaniment.

- Jean-Marc Allerme

The Divertimento for Solo Flute was written for the 1941 Festival of the International Society of Contemporary Music, held in New York. Exploring his intimate knowledge of the instrument, Alwyn composed a contrapuntal work which contains a Prelude and Fugue, Variations on a Ground, a Gavotte, and Jig. The music of this Divertimento has, in places, been written on two staves, in order to show more clearly the intended contrapuntal effect of two independent parts. This effect is obtained by using the characteristic qualities of the different registers of the flute, such as Bach wrote in his unaccompanied suites for solo instruments. The work was given its first performance by French flutist Rene le Roy, but the composer only learned of this and its great success some time later, as Britain was in the depths of war. It still holds its place in the repertoire of virtuoso flutists today.

Overture and Allegro

Amram, D

Taksim
Amzallag, A
Taksim for flute - was composed in 1968 and is based on an oriental maqam. The serial method is employed, although without frequent transitions between registers, so that there is not too much of a break with oriental musical conception. The work is constructed out of two main elements; the first develops while the second crystallizes.

Jethro Tull Flute Solos

Anderson, I

These solos are transcribed from the albums on which the songs may be found and, as such, are difficult to play. There are improvisational passages containing different melodic ideas and vocals, and they may not always include the original melody.