Sheet Music - 18th C Airs for Unaccompanied Flute

On this page you will find some arrangements I've done of pieces I'm fond of for unaccompanied flute. I spend a lot of time tootling away on my own... and when I *do* get to play with other people, it tends to be other flautists. So, whilst I play, naturally, the stuff really written for my instrument (sonatas for flute and bass, the flute parts from various other works), I also like to play other things, and I've created a whole bunch of music to help me do so, plus a few pieces for two or more flutes, to play with friends. I can't put all the stuff up here right away, since it's been done over the years in a variety of formats, and I have to convert it to suitable graphics for the web... but I'll start with a few representative odds and ends, and if anyone seems interested, I'll add more as we go along.

The music is in the form of GIF graphics, so you don't need any special software for it - just save the images to your hard-disk and print them later with any graphics package (or you can even print the music directly from your browser - just right-click on the music image and select 'View Image' from the pop-up menu so you're looking at just the music itself without the rest of the page, then select 'Print' from your browser's File menu - then hit the 'Back' button in your browser to return to the page).

The pieces I'm putting up initially include ones I did years ago using older software as well as ones I've just done, so the quality of the score presentation varies quite a bit. Any errors or deficiencies in the musical content or the presentation are, of course, my responsibility... and if you have any corrections to recommend, I'd be grateful if you'd email me at xorys@idirect.ca. I'd also be interested in hearing how playable you find them. They're basically arranged with the flutes I play myself in mind - most commonly for the one-keyed 'baroque' flute, although some of the pieces are a little tough with that instrument, and are perhaps better suited to 'classical' flutes with 5-8 keys and more emphasis on the higher register.

By the way - when putting the music up here I wanted to make the downloads fast, and also to make the music easily readable in your browser, so you can play a bit from the screen and see if you want to save it... so I reduced the page images to 90 dots per inch. The music is available in higher resolution versions - even the oldest software I used to use produced output at 200 dpi, and the newer packages are fully scaleable. So... if you'd like any of these pieces in a higher resolution, just drop me a line at xorys@idirect.ca and I can send you them. If there's enough demand, maybe I'll put the higher resolution versions up here in zip files, or something...

One other thing... if you have a favourite 18th century air you'd like arranged for unaccompanied flute and you don't see it here, drop me a line - I may already have done it, and if I haven't I would probably enjoy the suggestion. This only applies to things that weren't written for flute in the first place - flute pieces, after all, we can just buy the music for (and support the music publishing industry ;-} )

The Music

Please note that all these pieces are available here only in arrangements for unaccompanied flute - the original scoring is mentioned only for reference.

Aria from Bach's "Goldberg" Variations (1 page)

This is such a nice piece that it was one of the first things I did when I got my first score-editing package (many years ago) - so unfortunately the presentation quality of the score is rather poor. But it is a very engaging piece to play...

Vivaldi, Chamber Concerto RV103 for Flute, Oboe and Bassoon (7 pages)

A three movement (fast, slow, fast) chamber concerto, with the first movement being the most substantial. Very appealing melodies. This was done in Cubase Score, so the quality is better than the Goldberg Aria (above). The 'flute' in the original scoring was presumably a 'flauto dolce', i.e. a recorder, but it sounds pleasant on the transverse flute (although it does have high f's which are a bit of a challenge on the one-keyed flute).

Fanfarinette (little fanfare) by Jean-Philippe Rameau (1 page)

From a very catchy little harpsichord piece by Rameau. If you're Canadian you will probably be familiar with this as the theme for CBC FM's afternoon drive-time show "Disk Drive". An amiable little air to tootle on the flute. This was done in Finale (in fact it was my first experiment trying to learn the product).

Organ Voluntary by John Stanley, Opus 5, No 1 (5 pages)

Somehow the term "Organ Voluntary" doesn't at all seem to conjure up the feeling of this piece. It's more in the nature of a sonata, and it sounds quite natural on the flute (well, except perhaps for the short, slow first movement, which could either be omitted or embellished...) Done in Cubase.

Handel: Air with Variations "The Harmonious Blacksmith" (2 pages)

This is the air with variations from Handel's fifth suite for harpsichord. No one seems to really know why it is referred to as "The Harmonious Blacksmith", but it's quite a pleasant title, and it has certainly stuck (although probably having no connection with Handel himself...) This was done in Finale, which is the most sophisticated score package I've used.

"Wann Kommst Du Mein Heil" from Bach's Cantata 140 (2 pages)

This is the duet from the very well known Cantata Wachet Auf, Ruft Uns Die Stimme. It's extremely engaging, but quite honestly I'd have to admit that, at least in this arrangement, it's rather a pig to play on the flute (especially the one-keyed flute, given it's rapid, extremely chromatic passage work, including high f's and f#'s - it's a little more manageable on a 6 or 8 keyed flute). Also done in Finale. (Actually I originally did this in Cubase, but I transferred it to Finale, via MIDI, because I could never get the Cubase version properly readable.)

"Wir Eilen Mit Schwachen" from Bach's Cantata 78 (2 pages)

This is another duet, this time from Cantata 78, Jesu, Der Du Meine Seele. It's a lot easier to play than "Wann Kommst Du Mein Heil" and quite suitable for the one-keyed flute. Again done in Finale.

J. S. Bach, first Suite for Unaccompanied Cello (6 pages)

Bach's suites for unaccompanied cello lend themselves to playing on the unaccompanied flute perhaps more readily than anything else he wrote (except, obviously, the Partita in A for unaccompanied flute, and perhaps the Flute Sonata in C, which may have originally been written to be played unaccompanied...) And this first suite is probably the most readily adapted to the flute of all of them. You can actually play them from the original bass clef cello music quite easily, just by assuming a treble clef and mentally applying a key change... but I did eventually get around to making my own music, which makes things a little easier. Again done in Finale.

J. S. Bach, Gamba Sonata in G major, arranged for two flutes (11 pages)

Well, I said I might put up some things for two flutes - so here's one. This is the G major sonata for viola da gamba and obbligato harpsichord. Basically I've just taken the gamba part and moved it up and given it to the first flute, and given the obbligato harpsichord right hand to the second flute. I think it works quite well and is fun to play. You can hear an MP3 of this on my MP3.COM page - well sort of... there I've used flute and oboe, rather than two flutes, and I've left the bass in and treated it as a continuo. But though, of course, it's nice to have the bass, this does work quite well just for two flutes. This was again done in Finale.

J. S. Bach, Clavier Concerto 5 (8 pages)

This is another old one, so the score quality isn't as good as the later stuff done in Finale... but it is such fun to play! You really have to give it a try... all that delicious shifting back and forth between triple and duple time, and such pungent harmonics - it almost feels like a guilty pleasure. And it isn't even that hard to play, for the most part. The first two movements of this were done in The Copyist, the old DOS-based program I started doing score-editing with, and the last movement was done in Cubase (when I was just learning Cubase... because I had trouble getting it done in The Copyist). My apologies for any visual shortcomings - but I don't think it's particularly difficult to play from. This can perfectly well be played on the one-keyed flute - although be prepared for a work out of your fork-fingerings, given the constant mixture of shifting sharps and flats. A multi-keyed flute will make the intonation more certain, of course... but actually I think I prefer this on a one-keyed flute - the colourings of the notes can be enjoyed rather than fought against... and it's much harder on the fingers, in fact, on a multi-keyed instrument. Strangely this seems to be one of those pieces that just wants to be played, and despite all the timing changes and accidentals it really doesn't seem to require any wrestling.

C. P. E. Bach, Clavier Sonata in A Minor W.49/1 1st movement (3 pages)
*** Added March 22nd, 2005

Well, I finally got around to updating this page again. This is the first of a couple of flute solos I did based on clavier sontatas by C. P. E. Bach. They really seem to lend themselves very naturally to the flute - at least it seems so to me. It can be played on a one-keyed flute, but you might enjoy playing it on a multi-keyed flute also. The score is done using The Copyist, which is a bit crude, but I think it's fairly clear. Watch out for the accidentals, however.

C. P. E. Bach, Clavier Sonata in G Minor W.65/27 (4 pages)
*** Added March 22nd, 2005

This is the second of the flute solos based on clavier sontatas by C. P. E. Bach. This time it's a complete, 3 movement sonata, rather than just a single movement. This one is also considerably more straightforward than the previous example, but still, I think, very beautiful to play. The score is done in Cubase - the results are not quite a nice as with Finale, but it's also a lot less work (I find) than Finale. Watch out for the appoggiaturas, which are to be played long, in the old manner, not as quick "grace notes".